MASSACRE - Back From Beyond LP (Tansparent Red/Green Merge Vinyl)

I can hear the detractors already dismissing this one before it’s even out. So, death metal vocal legend Kam Lee is absent from this record and that comes as a great disappointment when one considers just how great he made the band’s 1991 debut From Beyond, but hey, we can’t dwell on what’s been and gone. It’s just good to have Massacre back because after the let-down that was Morbid Angel’s Illud Divinum Insanus (2011), we really began to crave another waft of old school death metal.

Whether the effectively titled Back From Beyond was going to be that thirst quencher was anyone’s guess, but with so many people hung up on the exclusion of Lee it seemed that these Floridian stalwarts were doomed to fail. However, with Rick Rozz (guitar) and Terry Butler (bass) in the fold there was always going to be a high chance that Massacre’s return would be one of note, and with Mike Mazzonetto on the drum stool I was eager for a listen.