There's something utterly pathetic about four more than seasoned men, at least one of them a grandad, wallowing in a style of music which was big 25 years ago, trying to feed on their youth, hanging desperately on to something that was, releasing an album that sounds like a slightly updated version of what they have always done.
The worst part comes now: I love it and wouldn't want to have it any other way!
Yes, this is shamelessly straight-forward Florida death metal and it's made by at least two of the people who were right there when it was spawned during the mid-eighties. Rick Rozz (g.) and Terry Butler (b.) may be famed in death metal circles for Massacre's genre milestone debut 'From Beyond' (1991) and the imminent EP 'Inhuman Condition' (1992), but no one should forget that they both contributed to the rise of the band Death with the now sadly departed and greatly missed Chuck Schuldiner.
The current line-up is completed by drummer Mikey Mazzonetto (ex Pain Principle) who replaces Bill Andrews who expatriated to Japan, and growler/screamer Ed Webb (ex Diabolic/Eulogy) who is a fine substitute for the original voice of Massacre, Kam Lee.
If the last thing you heard from Massacre was the 'Promise' album, which was released in 1996 (without Terry Butler's involvement), you might be concerned if this is the style that's been picked up. Fear not! As the title of the album suggests, this goes right back to the debut album and not the very odd and frankly extremely boring effort from 1996 (I pulled it out from the archive a few days ago just to see how bad it was and trust me; it is bad - actually worse than I remembered).
For fans of old school death metal from Florida, I must define this album as a must-buy. True, no-bullshit, straight-forward death metal, played the way it should be. Heads down, horns up!
