Slaughter - Strappado review
| Band: | Slaughter |
| Album: | Strappado |
| Style: | Death metal, Thrash metal |
| Release date: | 1987 |
| Guest review by: | vezzy |
01. Disintegrator/Incinerator
02. Nocturnal Hell
03. F.O.D. (Fuck Of Death)
04. Tortured Souls
05. Parasites
06. The Curse
07. Strappado
08. Maim To Please
09. One Foot In The Grave
10. Tyrant Of Hell
11. Death Dealer
12. Tales Of The Macabre
Strappado. The act of suspending a person in the air with a rope attached to his hands which are tied behind his back. He is then dropped from a height almost to the ground before being stopped by an abrupt jerk, hence the length of the rope. Not only did it cause limb dislocation, but it was also psychologically intense. At the same time, Slaughter's first and only full-length album provides an intense, unpolished and passionate death-thrash experience.
Primarily rooted in thrash metal, Canadian metal band Slaughter were, nevertheless, credited for influencing the death metal genre (righteously so too, there are quite a few elements of it in their music). The riffs are primitive and simplistic but are arranged in such structures coupled with distorted/screeching solos that it all works quite well and is at times distinctive. The production quality is by no means stellar having an unvarnished garage band feeling which is fitting as it helps with the fuzzy, raw tone of the music, plus, this is death metal/thrash, so what do you expect? If you enjoy technically dazzling music, then you better stay away from this as it is generally basic but ambitiously played and simply merciless. The vocals are generally shouts and grunting but growling is also displayed in "Tortured Souls", in a rather demonic undertone too. Drumming is multifaceted from basic beats to relentless rolls, a beastly kick drum and general variety. Bass is rather murky and not very easily decipherable but it does keep up.
I can't really speak as to which tracks are the best of the bunch as the whole thing clocks in at just under 24 minutes, so it's best to listen to it in its entirety. "Incinerator" is probably the best though (from the introduction of "Make way for the incinerator!" to the distorted opening riff and good solo). In some versions, it is fused with the preceding track "Disintegrator", creating a pretty nice effect.
Personally, I'd say this manages to rank up there with the likes of Possessed and Death. If you happen to come across a copy, buy it, but don't expect anything fancy or refined. Just crunchy and relentless old school death-thrash.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 7 |
Written by vezzy | 10.08.2010
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Comments
Comments: 13
Visited by: 96 users
| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Of course Chuck Schuldiner also worked with the band in its formative stages. This is a classic. Go out and try to get hold of it.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| vezzy Stallmanite Posts: 3493  |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 10.08.2010 at 23:17 Yeah, but for like... a few months.
---- Licensed under the GPLv3. Relinquish proprietary software for a greater GNU/America.
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by vezzy on 10.08.2010 at 23:25 True. I think that Slaughter influenced Chuck and not chuck influencing them, btw.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| vezzy Stallmanite Posts: 3493 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 10.08.2010 at 23:29 Maybe there's a mild chunk of Slaughter to be found in Scream Bloody Gore. Don't really know. One thing though, whenever I see the cover art of Strappado, I'm immediately reminded of Scream Bloody Gore. Probably the style and color palette.
---- Licensed under the GPLv3. Relinquish proprietary software for a greater GNU/America.
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| vezzy Stallmanite Posts: 3493 |
Goddammit, I overused the word "generally"... again. Ah well, I'll bear with it. I think I'll start writing reviews when it isn't late at night.
---- Licensed under the GPLv3. Relinquish proprietary software for a greater GNU/America.
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by vezzy on 10.08.2010 at 23:36 Mm, strange I never had that. What I did find btw was that at the time in 1986 I actually found this to be total noise, same for Scream Bloody Gore a year later. But now both are just nice good old school death metal albums with loads of melody to my ears, same for Seven Churches 
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| vezzy Stallmanite Posts: 3493 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 10.08.2010 at 23:45 Lol, I've never seen anyone put Strappado in 1986 lists. Just the usual stuff. Yeah, it is a bit weird at first, but it grows on you.
---- Licensed under the GPLv3. Relinquish proprietary software for a greater GNU/America.
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by vezzy on 10.08.2010 at 23:47 Imagine how it sounded back in 1986 
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| vezzy Stallmanite Posts: 3493 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 10.08.2010 at 23:55 Oh man. I wonder why this got buried in time with Necrovore, yet Hellhammer survived (Celtic Frost association, maybe?) Regardless of the cause, it's a great album. We'll just leave it at that.
---- Licensed under the GPLv3. Relinquish proprietary software for a greater GNU/America.
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by vezzy on 10.08.2010 at 23:57 Well Necrovore only released one demo tape. So that isn't surprsing. That was also Dr. Shrinker's problem, only released a couple of demos. Rottrevore is another band I don't understand never having been noticed. As for Hellhammer yes, the |Celtic Frost association. But of course Celtic Frost's first recoding line-up was just Hellhammer with a different name and slightly different music.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| Boxcar Willy yr a kook Posts: 9155  |
This ounds ;like my kind of album... ill have to checl it out.
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| Aristarchos Posts: 817 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 10.08.2010 at 23:45 Did you really hear this in 1986? Everywhere it says it was released in 1987.
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| Daggon Underpaid M.D. Posts: 1689  |
One of the greatest Thrash/Death metal albums of the 80's, and that's a lot considering the huge amount of musice made on that decade. I can't understand why this album is very underrated 
---- "Les vers savent qu'ils n'ont pas d'ailes, c'est pour cela qu'ils se cachent sous terre"
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