lista zespołów Death Metal Massacre (USA) From Beyond

Well this is technically an old release, and I'm supposed to be concentrating on new ones at the moment, but since I only just managed to get myself a copy of this, it's technically new for me. Massacre are best known for being made up of a number of ex-Death members, most notably guitarist Rick Rozz and vocalist Kam Lee. After working with Chuck Schuldiner on genre classics 'Leprosy' and 'Spiritual Healing', they decided to form their own separate band from Death, and thus rose Massacre. Their debut album 'From Beyond' was released in 1991 (but many of the tracks were written in the 80s, hence the slightly dated sound by this point), and ignoring the garish cover for a second, is a pretty apt descriptor of the early death metal sound. Opening track 'Dawn of Eternity' has, for me, a classic intro of a howling wind and tolling bell, and it instantly captures that early 90s atmosphere; trying to make everything sound evil. The songs have the similar thrashy death metal sound that characterised early Death, but Kam Lee possesses what was once the original growling vocal style (although now we know its been totally done to death, it must have been startlingly original at the time). His vocal style, while being low and vicious sounding, loses very little coherency and you can still make out a number of the lyrics. The album is full of great riffing sections, mixing it up with faster, thrashier riffs and a chunkier set of chugging riffs, adding a much needed variety. Coupled this with squalls of guitar solos, hurtling in your direction with little respect for tonality or talent but more in the creation of a foreboding sense of madness. It was all about creating atmosphere with early death metal, and Massacre achieved that. With regards to song writing, it is pretty much standard fare for the time, although the album possesses a couple of gems in 'Chamber of Ages', the title track and 'Cryptic Realms', but being having such an illustrious personnel, the album suffers from too many Death-isms. Unique enough to stand out but too similar to create a legacy of its own, 'From Beyond' is a lost classic, revered when remembered but largely forgotten about. While never reaching the heights of Death, Obituary or Morbid Angel, 'From Beyond' should still be regarded as a landmark of early Floridian death metal; its personnel and style should grant it that at least. But the band have managed to create some excellent songs in amongst the brutality, and even though it sounds pretty dated now, I 'll bet it melted some minds back in the day.