Since this album was originally released during the hey-day of the Florida Death metal scene, ok towards the end in 1993, Resurrection were one of those bands that nearly made it, it surprising why not because they were doing all the same things as other natives like Obituary, Malevolent Creation, Deicide etc…The album was even originally recorded at the legendary Morrisound Studios by non other than Scott Burns. Now the re-release comes with much anger or favour of eBay users depending on what side of the fence you sit, since it has long been deleted, I have seen this sell for over £40 on CD, and don’t get me started on the vinyl prices! Last years ‘Mistaken for Dead’ comeback album (having split up in 1996 and reformed in 2005) was a blasting piece of death metal that today I still find a tremendous joy every time I listen to it. So, enough of the history lesson, onto the music…
Well what did you expect? Pure Florida Death metal! Each track (not quite all!) has spoken sound samples as an intro to each track (just like Mortician), this has sometimes been a bone of contention for some listeners over the years, but then everyone nowadays has intro music or spoken word pieces, I think it sets up the tracks quite well. The album opens with ‘Disembodied’ and for people not familiar with this bands sound, very old school Obituary right down to Paul Degoyler’s vocal interpretation. ‘Smell the Blood’ and ‘Torture Chamber’ are still my favourite tracks of this one, not only do the drums (originally by then session drummer Alex Marquez – who at the time was in Solstice and Malevolent Creation) pummel you into submission, the classic guitar tone and vocals make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, you just want to throw “the claw” and grimace at the power and mite coming from the speakers. The bass was always considered “muddy”, but then most bands that recorded during this period had this trait. There are crunchy, bouncy Cannibal Corpse/Deicide-isms in the slower riffs, especially on ‘Pure Be Damned’, but the neck snapping/wind milling rhythms are great with lots of loose harmonics and dropped notes. It’s still funny, their cover of the Kiss classic ‘War Machine’ just takes the edge off their album somewhat, but then good old Chris Barnes did exactly the same some 7 years later with his ‘Graveyard Classics’.
Now this re-release is not content with just the brutalising album, re-mastered non other than by Jim Morris at the albums home in the Morrisound studios, there are 9 bonus tracks in all. ‘Ritual Slaughter’ and ‘Contortion’ (both from their 1991 Demo) has all the associated Florida Death Metal Influences, but the latter track has a much more of a British Death metal feel, like that displayed by Benediction. ‘I Die’ also appears from their 1992 Demo. These were previously unreleased on the album, I don’t know why they pretty down and dirty in death metal terms and on a similar path to that of the other album tracks. The album artwork has been updated and restored by the famous artist Dan Seagrave. Ah yes, and there is the original ‘Storyteller’ parts as bonus tracks hmm…if the intros annoy you on most of the album, then this will kill you! They are all expanded for your listening pleasure, oh only so many times can you hear “In the beginning of time…”.
Musically you cannot go wrong, and original members Paul Degoyler and John Astl on guitars knew then, and know now, how to make a bloody racket (in a good way!). With the sudden interest with all things Resurrection again, I certainly hope they will make it to these shores for some live shows (their new t shirts that have not been released yet on their website say UK on the back!). An underrated classic album back in 1993 and one that I certainly hope will be enjoyed by a whole new generation of listeners and the remaining old guard of this genre. Go and buy it (cheaper no doubt than the original recordings), the original Florida death metal sound is “resurrected” from the dead and is spouting its bile and gore all over the world again.
http://resurrectionmetal.com/
http://www.myspace.com/resurrectionfl
http://www.massacre-records.com/
