Sunday, 15 November 2015

Masacre - Total Death (Hateworks, 2004)






Just what exactly is Death Metal? The whole meaning of the term requires revisiting under the shade of this long standing Colombian quartet’s sophomore release. Death Metal tries to convey through its inharmonious and dissonant but always innovative compositions the nihilistic deterioration of values which seem to plunder our world today. It is the musical essence of a dying corpse which could well symbolize our current image of humanity. This is how it started; as a reaction to the modern world of prescribed nonsense, as a wake up call to our numbed minds, desensitized by the ongoing brutality and sordid reality that we seem to live in. This is Death Metal, a feeling rising straight from the gut; a voice, a reaction. A feeling which seems to be smothered by the lackluster, polished releases of late. 

And then suddenly comes Masacre thrashing from the turbulent country of Colombia to nail down to us what exactly IS death metal. A laudable continuation of such legends as Death, Massacre (US), Suffocation, Monstrosity, Malevolent Creation and ofcourse Obituary, our fellow Colombians pummel our ears with their fiery brimstone of their nine anger-ridden compositions. Far from commercial modernisms, taking the simple and fundamental approach of feeling precedes technicality the album seethes with rage and anger against the hard set reality of today. Churning the archetypical riffs that made the genre so distinct with tight drumming and ofcourse the deep growls of throatsman Alex Traquento the album is transformed into a force to be reckoned with. It’s hard to miss the whole point here; the band does know what they’re playing and they’re doing a good job at that. The album also makes use of an ample amount of carefully placed good ol’ school solo licks which musically hint towards the early death metal movement. So if you’re craving for some good and brutal death metal then look no further, this should keep your CD player occupied for some time. “Death Metal Forever”? Hell yeah amigos.

(originally written for Tartarean Desire - 2005?) 

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