With one of the greatest old-school death metal albums under
their belt, Massacre has returned a good many years later to once again provide
a similar mind-blowing experience. As the name “Back From Beyond” implies, this record is
meant to be nothing more than a continuation of the brutality the band first
unleashed in 1991. Though Kam Lee is no longer on vocals, the core of Terry
Butler and Rick Rozz still remains, and ultimately, the band manages to deliver
exactly what fans of the band crave. The major new element here is vocalist Ed
Webb. From what I recall of seeing the band live at Wacken 2012, he is very
much a Corpsegrinder-type vocalist: crazy stage presence, fantastic enunciation,
and painfully heavy in his vocal delivery, and all of this carries through on
the album. For this reason, “Back From Beyond” actually is quite similar to a
less technical version of modern Cannibal Corpse. The songs are all pretty
short, but deliver incredible blasts of energy. The riffs and vocal lines are
well crafted and end up being pretty memorable. In fact, the only thing on the
album that doesn’t seem well planned and deliberate is the legendary lead
guitar of Rick Rozz. As you might expect, this man’s abuse of his tremolo bar
knows no bounds on “Back From Beyond”, and it really helps the band retain that
classic Massacre sound. Although these solos sound like pure madness, it really
shouldn’t be any other way.
Production wise, this album is pretty standard. It is a good balance between the cavernous sounds of old, and the over-produced modern sounds. In other words, this record doesn't sound like it was recorded in a shed, but it also avoids sounding fake. The one flaw with
this album is that there are just too many songs. The band never really runs
out of steam, but by the second half of the album, this sound gets particularly
taxing on the listener. With the exception of the title track, none of the
songs on the latter half of the record are impactful as the early songs. While
many of the songs provide memorable moments, the sheer number of songs makes it
hard to remember some of the earlier efforts by the end of the record. Nonetheless,
a lot of people don’t listen to death metal for songwriting, but instead for violence
and aggression, and that’s precisely what Massacre put forth on “Back From
Beyond”.
Highlights
"As We Wait To Die"
"Ascension Of The Deceased"
"Succumb To Rapture"
Final Rating
3.9/5 or 78%.