UMUR
Horrified is the debut full-length studio album by American grindcore act Repulsion. The album was originally recorded in June 1986 and released in 1986 as a demo tape called Slaughter of the Innocent. The tracks were remixed and produced in March 1989 and saw an official release as Horrified through the Necrosis label in May 1989. Relapse Records has since re-released the album several times with different bonus material. The band started out using the Genocide name in 1984 but changed their name to Repulsion in 1986. They recorded three demos while they were called Genocide. Much of the bonus material on the re-issues comes from this period of the band´s career.
The music on Horrified is filthy, fast-paced, simple and aggressive grindcore with gore lyrics. They are othen said to be one of the most influential bands in the genre, and listening to Horrified it becomes perfectly clear why. There are 18 short tracks on the 29:18 minute long original album. All filthy blood´n´gore soaked crusty grindcore assaults. There are not much variation on the album, but on the other hand there are no sub par tracks on the album either. Listening to Horrified is like a fast kick in the face. The album is over before you hit the ground. Just like a good grindcore album should be. No fillers and no wasted time on nonsense. The pedal is down most of the time but there are mid-paced sections too, which gives the music a bit of time to breathe between the relentless blasting sections. The musicianship is of a surprisingly good standard. Especially the tight drumming by Dave "Grave" Hollingshead impress a lot. But those killer aggressive vocals by Scott Carlson are also greatly enjoyable. Now there´s a man who sounds pissed. The riffs are generally very simple but also very effective.
The sound quality is very good. It´s filthy, earthy and powerful. I don´t now how the album sounded before it was re-mixed and produced properly in 1989, but they did a great job with the re-mix.
Horrified is a seminal album in the grindcore genre and the fact that it was already recorded in 1986 makes it incredible that the band could achive such a high standard. Horrified is a must have for fans of the genre not only because of the "classic" status that the album has, but also because it´s a really good and powerful grindcore album. Among the best I´ve heard. A 4 star rating is fully deserved.