
Meatcleaver
(Hammerheart Records)
35:04min
Elsewhere in the interview section of Voices From The Darkside one of the members complains about another releasing all SLAUGHTER material to the masses, but I think it’s good they did and I am glad that Hammerheart Records has released this demo of this legendary band. They also state that the "Meatcleaver" demos were them just experimenting with ideas off the top of their head. Well, I like these ideas! I wonder if they couldn’t keep up with the Thrash Speed, cause some songs are fast, the rest are slow, but like punky slow and yeah, you hear a song like the title track which is a riff that ended up being on ‘Incinerator’. I do wish some of the songs would have been re-recorded, cause I like the riffs and ideas displayed here. There’s only one guitar and they had not yet developed their heavy guitar sound that would influence among others NAPALM DEATH (especially on their "From Enslavement To Obliteration" LP). And they sometimes remind me of the "Death Fiend" and "Triumph Of Death" demos and of course CELTIC FROST and HELLHAMMER were a major influence on SLAUGHTER. But I can also hear some MASTER sound in here. Not that they were influenced by Speckmann (although he thinks he influenced and invented everything – I don’t know if singing about "society" is "Death" Metal, but oh well). Also you get some funny banter and the shy beginnings of their "One, two, FUCK YOU!" trademark. You get the beginnings of the song ‘Strappado’ (here pronounced ‘Strapeedo’ hehe) and some songs I had never heard before, like ‘Children Of The Fire’, ‘Hell Hath Returned’, ‘Annihilation’ and ‘Total Retribution’. And here I was a few years ago thinking "Strappado" and those 2nd rate Thrash songs they recorded after were the only SLAUGHTER songs to be had. Duh! This does not compare to "Strappado", but "Meatcleaver" is nice to purchase and have. More info at www.facebook.com/pages/slaughter-canada/12169425739, www.hammerheart.com
Luis M. L. Sallard
• SLAUGHTER - Nocturnal Hell, Surrender Or Die (Thomas Reitmayer)
• SLAUGHTER - One Foot In The Grave (Luxi Lahtinen)
• SLAUGHTER - Tortured Souls (Frank Stöver)
• SLAUGHTER - Strappado (Stefan Franke)
• SLAUGHTER - Strappado (Darragh O'Leary)
• SLAUGHTER - Not Dead Yet (Thomas Ehrmann)
• SLAUGHTER - Not Dead Yet / Paranormal (Frank Stöver)
• SLAUGHTER - Strappado (Thomas Ehrmann)
• SLAUGHTER - Surrender Or Die (Frank Stöver)
• SLAUGHTER - Interview (Frank Stöver / Laurent Ramadier)