Massacre – Aggressive Tyrant [Demo / Re-Release]

What we’ve got here is the third EP in the “10 Inches Of Deathcult” series, in which Xtreem Music presents a slap of legendary early recordings from groundbreaking Death Metal bands. The first EP’s were filled with ancient recordings from Sinister and Mortician. This third one is for American Death Metal heavyweights Massacre.

On the A-side we find the original “Aggressive Tyrant”-demo from 1986, which Massacre recorded in a very early line-up. The liner notes on the inlay give you some insight in how this line-up and recording got together, but the music itself does the talking best. We all know the classic “From Beyond”-album, an early Death Metal classic. Opposed to the roaring sound of that album, this sounds less thick and brutal (because of the lack of any production) and more thrashy as well. But it is remarkable how these earliest recordings already have that distinctive Massacre-sound and these typical songwriting hooks. Though none of the tracks later appeared on the album, it wouldn’t have been a far-off thought that reworked versions of these songs would be reused as album-contributions.

On the flipside there’s a three-song rehearsal from late ’86, even more raw sounding than the “Aggressive Tyrant”-demo. To me these songs are interesting as they were all new to me, but they are not quite an easy-listening because of the rehearsal-quality. In the end these six tracks are the most interesting because of its curiosity, as it gives a peek into the formative years of this influential Death Metal legend in the making.

As is with the other EP’s in this particular series, this one is limited to 300 copies as well (available in three different colour versions) and comes with an interesting inlay telling the story behind these early years of the band.