FRIGHTMARE
‘Bringing Back the Bloodshed’
Razorback Records
By Shane of Last Judgement Zine
Alright, I’ve been into extreme Metal for a long time now. I’ve reviewed hundreds of albums and own thousands, mostly Metal. I realize I’m quite the pathetic nerd and I’m not bragging, I just love Metal. In the 1980’s it was all fresh and very unchartered territory. By the time the 90’s rolled around Thrash, Death, and Black Metal had peaked in my opinion, and the late 90’s became very formula/blueprint driven. There was a load of good bands, but the dizzying barrage of releases burned me out on the scene and I dropped out, to an extent (from writing), around the year 2000. Of course I never stopped loving Metal but my daily dose consisted mostly of shit from the 80’s/early 90’s. Due to a combination of THIS ALBUM, Wil at horroryearbook.com, and myspace.com I got the urge to jump into Heavy Metal journalism again.
Getting on to the review of this mindblowing disc now, I purchased this album on a whim while reading about it on the Razorback Records website. The combination of horror movie driven lyrics/imagery and deathrashgrind made me curious, so I ordered it. I have never heard an album capture the spirit of classic thrash and classic horror so well. It’s jawdropping. What’s even more amazing about that statement is that musically and vocally the majority of this album is death/grind…but the putrid spirit of the afformentioned (old thrash/classic horror films) billows from the speakers while playing this album. The lyrics are exhaustive and narrative. Many vocal styles scream descriptive words of said film the song in question is about. I’m telling you what, If you like horror movies you will get a kick out of just reading the lyrics! I won’t list any of the movies the songs are about (some are obvious by title), that’s part of the fun. The title track is an ode to what mainstream horror movies have become…here’s part of the lyrics…
“what happened to the films of yesterday/ the 70’s and the 80’s were the golden age/horror films now are a fucking joke!/they make me choke!/gone is the blood/gone are the tits/gone is everything that we fucking miss/mtv shit is shoved down our goddamned throats!/the filmmakers of today give us no fucking hope!/remakes are the fad/desecrating horror classics/cgi what a drag/save that shit for the pixar flicks/these dumbass kids love this shit/they have no idea who cropsy is/wes craven you bastard/look what you’ve done/’last house on the left’ to ’scream/there’s no excuse/you should be hung”.
And that is just a small part of that song. Musically again, these guys rule. Varied tempos of grinding/thrashing death metal with awesome riffing, complimented by melodic, fucking CLASSIC solos. The drumming is tasteful and masterful. The songs are filled with hooks both musically and lyrically, a fucking rarity in this style of music. How can you go wrong? There are plenty of clips of trailers/film samples used perfectly throughout the album. As if there isn’t enough to already highly dig about this album I haven’t touched upon the art/layout of this disc. First off, the cover is a treat, it was not made on a PC, it is real artwork, remember that? No subliminal imagery or distortion. Brilliant. Throughout the 16 page booklet is more killer artwork as well as the complete lyrics. When I ordered I also joined the FRIGHTMARE fan club as an option and got a larger print of the cover art as well as a membership card and a cool sticker. You must own this album now…especially fans of classic horror/thrash/death METAL.
Frightmare My Space
Slasher Metal
Read all of Shane’s Music Reviews in our Music section.
