MASSACRE — The Second Coming (review)

MASSACRE — The Second Coming album cover Demo · 1990 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2/5 ·
UMUR
"The Second Coming" is the third studio demo release by US, Florida based death metal act Massacre. The demo was independently released in November 1990. Massacre were originally active from 1985-1987, but folded when three out of four members left to join Death, leaving lead vocalist Kam Lee on his own. Lee was however contacted by Earache Records boss Digby Pearson after he had listened to the early Massacre demos and as guitarist Rick Rozz had been recently fired from Death, the two of them opted to ressurect Massacre and hired bassist Butch Gonzalez and drummer Joe Cangelosi. The latter fresh out of a stint with Whiplash. Pearson almost immediately offered Massacre a recording contract and the band soon began to compose new material and send it to Pearson (six tracks and a total playing time of 33:03 minutes). However Pearson showed no interest in releasing the material featured on "The Second Coming", and after Lee and Rozz reunited with bassist Terry Butler and drummer Bill Andrews (both had recently departed from Death), the quartet recorded material which was primarly written in 1985-1987 and included it on their debut full-length studio album "From Beyond" (July 1991, Earache Records).

So the material featured on "The Second Coming" is a bit interesting, as it was Massacre´s attempt to write new original material, but as they were turned down by Earache Records, they had to shelve the material and work on recording old material instead. So why wasn´t the material on "The Second Coming" worth releasing? Well...for starters it´s pretty thrash metal oriented and only partially death metal oriented. Kam Lee doesn´t sound as brutal as he once did and would again only a year down the line, and the music is simply too advanced. What the people (and Earache Records) wanted at that time was something simple, brutal, and effective. "The Second Coming" features relatively complex drum work, pretty technical bass playing (I hear some pretty intrusive and unfitting slap bass a couple of times), shouting thrashy vocals, and some pretty unremarkable riffs. So while this is packed in a relatively well sounding production considering that it´s a demo, it´s overall not that interesting as a death metal demo, which was what Earache Records was expecting from Massacre. So how history went down is actually perfectly understandable in retrospect, but it must have been a real blow for Massacre when they were confronted with reality (your new music sucks, we only want to release the material you wrote several years ago). A 2 - 2.5 star (45%) rating is warranted.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Untoward Perpetuity Deathcore
AND HELL FOLLOWED WITH
Buy this album from MMA partners
Stereo Grief Metalcore
GREYHAVEN (KY)
Buy this album from MMA partners
Unearthly Litanies of Despair Death Metal
ENGULFED
Buy this album from MMA partners
It Beckons Us All....... Black Metal
DARKTHRONE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Death Is Not The End Doom Metal
GLOSSA
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 2 days ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 2 days ago
Agremorta - Vertex Membrana (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 2 days ago
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR - The Temple Of Curved Space (Official Track Stream)
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
adg211288· 2 days ago
In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 3 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed