The last time death metal legends Massacre released an album, France was testing its last atomic bomb. Pretty amazing, to think of it. Fast forward a few years, and Rick Rozz (ex-Death), Terry Butler (ex-Death), Mike Mazzonetto (Pain Principle) and Edwin Webb (ex-Diabolic) emerge from the limestone graves of central Florida to release Back from Beyond. Now, there’s a lot of old-school death metal flying around these days, but Rozz and Butler are originals, some of the first to play the metal of death when most of us were dancing in our PJs to Hall & Oates. Respect is given to the intrepid, the first wave of many wave since the early ’80s.
What is Back from Beyond about? Pure fucking death metal. Actually, pure Florida death metal, the way it was meant to be played from the Sunshine State. The record spans 13 soul-crushing songs, of which Decibel has the honor of premiering one, namely “As We Wait To Die,” a classic title if there ever was one. As for what the song’s about Rozz gave us this nugget: “I feel we are all waiting to die. Death comes like a thief in the night. You never know when.” Like Massacre’s music, truer words haven’t been spoken.
Like everything in life things die. They decay. They go away. Before we croak, meet our maker, and find solace in eternity, let’s crank up Massacre’s “As We Wait To Die”. The death metal gods demand it!
** Massacre’s new album, Back From Beyond, is out April 1st, 2014 on Century Media Records. Pre-orders are still TBD, but you can get your old-school death metal ragin’ full-on by going to CMDistro.
