UMUR "Martha Splatterhead" is an EP release by US, Seattle based crossover thrash metal act The Accüsed. The EP was released through Condar Records in 1985 (recorded in August 1984). The original vinyl pressing was limited to 500 copies. All 5 tracks from the EP would be included on the band´s January 1986 debut full-length studio album "The Return of... Martha Splatterhead". The Accüsed formed in 1980 and released a couple of demos before releasing "Martha Splatterhead".

Stylistically the material on the 13 track, 32:38 minutes long album is raw horror/gore themed hardcore punk with the occasional nod towards crossover thrash metal (some tracks are full on hardcore punk while others are much more thrash metal oriented). Lead vocalist Blaine has a distinct sounding snarling and aggressive vocal style, which suits the equally mean sounding instrumental part of the music well. It´s filthy, raw, gloomy, and angry sounding music, which is relatively simple in structure. While The Accüsed deliver their music with a fair level of skills, the sound production is pretty low-fi and sounds like it was recorded live in a garage.

Considering that this is The Accüsed´s first label release, it´s a decent quality release. Their campy horror/gore lyrics and the rawness and aggression of their music are some of the assets of the release, but it´s still early days and there are still things to improve on. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

UMUR "The Return of... Martha Splatterhead" is the debut full-length studio album by US, Seattle based crossover thrash metal act The Accüsed. The album was released through Subcore Records in January 1986. The title of the album refers to the band´s 1985 EP "Martha Splatterhead". The Accüsed was formed in 1980 and released a couple of demos before releasing the "Martha Splatterhead" EP in 1985. "The Return of... Martha Splatterhead" features all the material from the EP plus some freshly recorded tracks exclusive to this release. So the material featured on the album was recorded during two different recording sessions a couple of years apart.

Stylistically the material on the 13 track, 32:38 minutes long album is raw horror/gore themed hardcore punk with the occasional nod towards crossover thrash metal (some tracks are full on hardcore punk while others are much more thrash metal oriented). Lead vocalist Blaine has a distinct sounding snarling and aggressive vocal style, which is quite a treat, and one of the great assets of The Accüsed´s sound, but the raw, authentic and organic instrumental delivery of the material is also greatly charming. It´s loud, distorted, ugly and filthy. So it basically sounds like it was recorded live in an amateur garage studio. There´s nothing wrong with the execution of the material though, and The Accüsed are a fairly well playing band. Everything is delivered with decent skill and great passion and conviction.

The material is well written too and relatively varied for the style. It doesn´t take more than a couple of spins to tell the tracks apart and scream along to tracks like "Wrong Side of the Grave" and "Fuckin' 4 Bucks" and it´s another great strength of The Accüsed. They are pretty skilled composers who know how to write an effectful hardcore punk/crossover thrash metal track. So upon conclusion "The Return of... Martha Splatterhead" is a good quality debut album by The Accüsed. While I´m told it was on the stage they really slayed back then, they can certainly hold their own on album too. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Grinning Like an Undertaker" is the 4th full-length studio album by US crossover/thrash metal act The Accüsed. The album was released through Nastymix in 1990. The band are quite legendary for being one of the first crossover acts to embrace the splatter/horror movie lyrical style and imagery. They have been cited for dubbing their style of music "Splatter Rock".

...that´s quite obvious when you see songtitles like "Pounding Nails (Into the Lid of Your Coffin)", "Bullet-Ridden Bodies", "The Corpse Walks" and "Boris the Spider" on the back of the album. "Grinning Like an Undertaker" is a bit different from the albums that came before it though and that unfortunately results in a quite inconsistent album. While the music on the album can still overall be called crossover thrash, The Accüsed now embrace alternative rock and metal too. "Down & Out (feat. the Mad Poet)" is the best (read: worst) example of this new direction. It´s a pretty bland alternative metal track featuring rap style vocals. On the other hand a track like "Pounding Nails (Into the Lid of Your Coffin)", which opens the albums, is quite a solid crossover thrash metal track. Blaine Cook´s caustic sneer really suits the most aggressive and raw tracks well, but when he tries to put some melody into his delivery on the more alternative tracks, it sure doesn´t sound pretty.

The album is packed in a sound production that´s decent, but not really powerful or well sounding. "Grinning Like an Undertaker" is one of those albums that can´t make up it´s mind on what musical direction it should pursue and therefore it´s caught between two chairs. The album simply sounds uninspired, confused and quite frankly full of half-baked ideas. There are a few decent tracks on the album, but even those can´t quite live up to past glories and the new alternative direction falls flat on it´s face if you ask me. A 2 star (40%) rating is warranted.