Slaughter
Strappado
[Diabolic Force]
Slaughter are a band that somehow got lost in the shuffle during the
death metal explosion of the mid-eighties. Their "Surrender or Die"
demo gained them a sizeable following in the tape trading underground,
and rightly so : Slaughter were pioneers in the proto-death field.
While others from that era have gone on to become well known (such as
DEATH, who's own "Evil Chuck" was once a member of Slaughter for a
very brief stint), this 3 piece and their achievements have been almost
completely forgotten by all but the old school crowd. Perhaps it was
the fact that this LP was only released in Canada, or the long delays
before it was finally released, but regardless, it's now available on
CD format, remixed and remastered (which it sorely needed, as the
original vinyl release had a production which robbed the songs of all
their energy), for all the world to enjoy and wonder "why the fuck
haven't I heard about this before ?!?!?!"
Musically, Slaughter could best be described as Hellhammer meets Discharge meets Black Sabbath. The slow parts are ominously oppressive in the way that only good death metal can be, while the quicker passages rip along with a frenzy that sounds as if it might collapse in on itself at any moment. 8 of the 13 tracks presented here are re-recording of songs from the demo, and these are the highlight of the CD. While the other 5 (newer) songs are much heavier in overall feel (and hence probably easier for your average death metal fan to digest), it's the original 8 that really showcase the Slaughter "freight-train" approach...songs such as "Disintegrator", "Death Dealer", and the classic "One foot in the Grave". This was very very basic proto death metal - you won't find millions of riffs crammed into each song (you'll be lucky to find 3 in each actually), and Slaughter only had 2 ways of playing things : slow and sloppy, or fast and sloppy...but this helped set them apart from other bands at the time - while everyone else was trying to emulate Metallica or Slayer, Slaughter were putting Venom through a blender, and doing a fucking brilliant job of it I might add.
Highly recommended, but only for those who like it done with the old school "basic as fuck" approach...others will find this far too rudimentary to be enjoyable...but it's THEIR loss >:]
© 1998 chorazaim
Musically, Slaughter could best be described as Hellhammer meets Discharge meets Black Sabbath. The slow parts are ominously oppressive in the way that only good death metal can be, while the quicker passages rip along with a frenzy that sounds as if it might collapse in on itself at any moment. 8 of the 13 tracks presented here are re-recording of songs from the demo, and these are the highlight of the CD. While the other 5 (newer) songs are much heavier in overall feel (and hence probably easier for your average death metal fan to digest), it's the original 8 that really showcase the Slaughter "freight-train" approach...songs such as "Disintegrator", "Death Dealer", and the classic "One foot in the Grave". This was very very basic proto death metal - you won't find millions of riffs crammed into each song (you'll be lucky to find 3 in each actually), and Slaughter only had 2 ways of playing things : slow and sloppy, or fast and sloppy...but this helped set them apart from other bands at the time - while everyone else was trying to emulate Metallica or Slayer, Slaughter were putting Venom through a blender, and doing a fucking brilliant job of it I might add.
Highly recommended, but only for those who like it done with the old school "basic as fuck" approach...others will find this far too rudimentary to be enjoyable...but it's THEIR loss >:]
© 1998 chorazaim