UMUR
From Beyond is the debut full-length studio album by American death metal act Massacre. Massacre had been around since the mid-eighties but it was not until july 1991 that they finally released From Beyond through Earache Records. The album is graced by one of the most colourful Edward J. Repka ( Death, Megadeth...) cover artworks I´ve yet encountered. The dominant colour is pink which must be one of the least used colours on death metal covers ( Leprosy (1988) is another pink exception but there the artist is also Edward J. Repka).
The music is anything but pink though. This is old school death metal deeply rooted in simple eighties thrash metal. The songs have simple vers/ chorus structures, there are no blast beats or technical playing, the vocals are deep growls all the way through the album and From Beyond widely considered a classic old school US death metal album. While I do enjoy From Beyond when I´m in the right mood, I can´t help feeling that the album was released at least 2 years to late and it´s aged rather badly. Especially the rythm section, which consists of the former Death rythm section of Bill Andrews on drums and Terry Butler on bass, sound a bit too old school for my taste. It´s of course an aquired taste but I prefer a bit more challenging rythmic playing. The songs are more or less classics each and every one of them but the heavy opener Dawn of Eternity and the faster paced Corpsegrinder are probably the most known tracks from the album.
The production is very distinct with a very distinct sounding guitar sound. I´m not sure if I would call it good, but again it´s an aquired taste.
From Beyond was a favorite of mine back in 1991, but some albums just don´t age very well or maybe my tastes have changed too much in the years between then and now because today I find From Beyond to be a pretty standard old school death metal release and a 3 star rating is warranted. ( my son loves when I take out my old LP though. That cover artwork works like magic on him)