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Massacre – Resurgence

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Last Updated on 11:10 AM by Giorgos Tsekas

Genre: Death Metal
Country: U.S.A.
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Year: 2021

Even though longtime members Rick Rozz and Terry Butler have departed, the band’s classic era vocalist Kam Lee (Mantas, Bone Gnawer) and bassist Michael Borders have returned, plus the new fresh blood: the guitarists Scott Fairfax (Memoriam, As the World Dies), Rogga Johansson (Paganizer, Ribspreader, Megascavenger and over 50 bands that he has been associated with), Brynjar Helgetun (Crypticus, Gods Forsaken, Johansson & Speckmann, ex-Just Before Dawn, ex-The Grotesquery) on drums and multi-instrumentalist Jonny Pettersson (Wombbath, Gods Forsaken, Heads for the Dead, ex-Just Before Dawn) as a guitarist, are here to create a cement lineup for Massacre’s  fourth album, entitled “Resurgence”. Some would easily speak about a super group, and probably they would be right.

 “I feel it’s the best it’s been in years,” says Kam Lee. “Finally working with members and a team that are all on the same page, and no one with their own personal agendas. No ego or issues getting in the way, and I think we are all proud of the results. Now we’re just impatient and eager to get everything released. We’ve been tormenting our fans with teasers for a few months now, and now we are ready to see the reactions.” And truth be told, their fans got crazy.

To make a long story short “Resurgence” I believe that it is a great album. 2014’s “Back from Beyond” was strong and decent (a modern approaching sequel in “From Beyond” with a different vocalist and drummer), but this time the band can actually look in the eyes their 1991’s Magnus Opus “From Beyond”. There’s such a quality in music terms as also in the lyrics in which beyond the sci-fi/horror themes there’s also a plethora of Lovecraftian aesthetic (“Ruins Of R’yleh”, speaks about the realm of Cthulhu, “Into The Far-Off Void,” and “Fate Of The Elder Gods,”) when the band brought on the master of the macabre Wes Benscoter (Slayer, Deceased, Autopsy, Sinister, Vader, Incantation, Hypocrisy and  Kreator among others) to create the H. P. Lovecraft-inspired cover art to complement Lee’s lyrical overtures.

The album reek old-school death metal without question with the late 80s death/thrash tricks like the Hanneman meets Schuldiner-like soloing from Fairfax or the “analog”/natural yet  pummeling drumming by Helgetun. As if the band dig so deep and found the 1986 grave and inside it their first 3 demos “Aggressive Tyrant”, “Official Livetape” and “Chamber of Ages” that inspired the instant classic hymns like “Eldritch Prophecy,” “Innsmouth Strain,” “Book of the Dead(Necronomicon)” that has some creepy ambient samples that pay tribute to the Evil Dead series, “Into The Far-Off Void” ()probably my favorite) and “Return of the Corpse Grinder”. No modern patterns here, no pig squeals, no down-tuning, no “plastic” blasting drum beats, no over-produced and polished sound.

Dan Swanö (ex-Edge of Sanity, ex-Bloodbath) and Pettersson co-helmed ‘Resurgence’’s production with Pettersson employed as engineer/mix-master rearguard. Lee asked the help of many of his friends around the world in order to enrich furthermore the arsenal of the new album: Marc Grewe (Insidious Disease), Dave Ingram (Benediction), Anders Odden (Cadaver), and Pete Slate (Druid Lord) left their footprint on “Resurgence”’s brutally crafted songs.

“Resurgence” is a violent lesson of OSDM, an album of extreme quality that (we would be surprised if not) seeing in most of the 2021 year polls.

Nikos Nakos
Nikos Nakos
“When the Last Tree Is Cut Down, the Last Fish Eaten, and the Last Stream Poisoned, You Will Realize That You Cannot Eat Money.”

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