By Mark Steele
Massacre are a death metal band that I believe never got the full appreciation they deserved. Forever trailing in the shadow of the likes of Obituary and Death (and even having their ex and future band members), they released their debut From Beyond, which I believe is up there with the best of them. However, that was tarnished in the mid 1990s when they created the awful mess that was Promise; an album at a cross purposes that tried to be death flavoured groove metal that sounded musically awkward. Then, they disappeared into the history books while what I refer to as the ‘late 90s doldrums’ occurred - the emergence of nu metal; where many bands were either forgotten, or tried to change to ‘get with the program’.
A lot has happened since then - notably a pleasing neo-thrash renaissance which has brought along new bands, resurrected old ones. and even brought about a resurgence of death metal to a point. This said, I believe that it never really died - it just went more underground.
Brilliantly, Massacre have decided to join ‘The Mighty Resurrection’ that is doing the rounds, notably with the Condemned to Shadows EP, which partially made up for previous errors in the mid 1990s as highlighted earlier. However, since the departure of Kam Lee - this has set of alarm bells with many of the purists out there; after all - Cannibal Corpse are doing perfectly well with Corpsegrinder in their ranks nowadays and actually (dare I say it) sounds better than Barnes and more dynamic, so why can’t Massacre?
So, what is to be expected of the highly anticipated ‘Massacre (rebooted)’ [sic]? Well, it appears to be a pretty enjoyable, but not entirely remarkable death metal release. Not that we’re expecting a reinvention of the wheel as such. The intro ‘The Ancient Ones’ leads the way to the rabble rousing opener of ‘As We Wait To Die’, with a feral scream and machine gun drumming setting the pace for a decent album opener. Those that were alarmed about Kam Lee not being a part of them have conveniently forgot the strange vocals on ‘Promise’ - as Edwin Webb does a very decent job. In many places the vocals reminds me of Dave Vincent circa Domination album - a feral growl that is certainly up for the task that works very well indeed, especially prevalent in many tracks such as ‘Ascension Of The Deceased’ - a crunchy number punctuated with great guitar work and solos.
There are quite a few decent tracks on this release, such as the chuggorama of ‘Succumb To Rapture’ that is almost as close to retaining the magic heard from their debut. A notable thing about this album is the presence of slower paced jams that reminds me of hardcore acts in many of the tracks, that quickly speeds up and adds interest and pace to the music that adds to the brutality nicely, as heard in ‘Remnants of Hatred’ and ‘Shield Of The Son’.
One criticism about this album is that I find it has too many tracks, and that it has been spread a bit too thinly which is a particular weakness - at a grand total of 14 tracks with a total playback of 45 minutes. Some bands can get away with this normally, but not in the case of Massacre. If there had been 9 or 10 tracks, making the album about 35 minutes long then it would have been a far better album. This said, Massacre have been away for some considerable time and were probably bursting with ideas and new tunes to record - so in that way I guess you could forgive them for doing so.
Has the album been worth the wait, and has their return been worthwhile?
For the most part, I shall say a resounding yes. It is certainly good to see that Massacre have returned, even though they’re one of the more ‘Marmite’ bands of the death metal scene. To me, they have made an album that despite being overly long and could do with some tracks shaving off works pretty well. The best way to describe this album is to use a car based metaphor, in this case a Ford Mondeo (or Contour to our American cousins). Granted, the Ford Mondeo isn’t entirely a car that sets the imagination on fire - but it’s a dependable car that does the job very well for many. Which is what Massacre have achieved with this returning album - dependable, workman like death metal that while not causing some to froth at the mouthpiece will sound excellent in the live setting. This new album will no doubt go down a storm at upcoming festivals that they will no doubt be attending, and future gigs. I will even go so far to say that if you were disappointed with Morbid Angel’s latest offering, it may very well be worth checking out.
Welcome back, guys. Not a bad job at all.
