'Horrified'
(First released on
Necrosis records in 1989, then reissued on double CD on Relapse records in 2003 )
MARK:
83/100
Prologue
Pioneers often don't get their due appreciation and so I have to do myself these guys some justice by letting you know their story and the importance of this one-off cult album to the Grindcore movement that was in its infancy back then.
Repulsion were founded in Flint, Michigan, in 1984 under a different monicker and recorded this full-length with the current name in 1986 (one year before Napalm Death's debut album "Scum" and two years earlier than Carcass's first release "Reek of Putrefaction", yet it was only dropped in 1989 by Necrosis records (Carcass's Bill Steer and Jeff Walker own label), a short-lived Earache records' spin-off. The first CD release occurred only in 1992.
"Horrified" came out as a demo in 1986 with the title "Slaughter of the Innocent" and profoundly influenced early Napalm Death by mixing D.R.I., Lärm, Slayer, Cryptic Slaughter, G.B.H., Discharge, Heresy, Siege, early Voivod, Crucifix, Assück, The Accüsed, Atavistic, Deep Wound, S.O.B., Koro, NYC Mayhem, Kuolema, Insanity (from San Francisco), Germany's Inferno, Crude SS, etc. with vocals in the vein of Venom's Cronos. They rendered all this music and vocals heavier and more extreme, and attached it with splatter and gore lyrics, so that in 1986 no label was interested or had the balls to release such a new product, impossible to catalogue at that time. That was the birth of Grindcore and Goregrind and for the majority of Metal fans and record companies Metallica, Slayer, Venom and Hellhammer were already state-of-the art as to sellable heavy music.
All that Repulsion desired was to be as heavy and evil as Possessed, Slayer, as fast as Thrashcore acts like D.R.I., more distorted than Venom and to use gorier lyrics than all the other bands.
When the group was brought into being in 1984 it was called Tempter and the line-up consisted of Scott Carlson at the vocals, Matt Olivo at the guitar, Matt Diffin at the second guitar, Sean Macdonald at the bass and James Auten at the drums. They used to play cover versions of Iron Maiden and G.B.H., then they became Ultraviolence (which is the monicker that I repute most suitable to them), and later on they switched to Genocide even opening for Slayer on a tour date in Flint.
The musicians tried to merge with Florida's Death, and recorded some tapes with their leader Chuck Schuldiner covering Celtic Frost and Black Sabbath, but quickly received a no from Chuck Schuldiner who considered their arrangements too simple, fast and unskillful, so they went back to Flint and recorded a six-track in Matt Olivo's bedroom after recruiting Dave 'Grave' Hollingshead and asking him to play faster and harder than all the previous Punk bands he played in.
After a few gigs with C.O.C. and D.R.I. and a 12-track demo ("The Stench of Burning Death"), Genocide decided to change name again to avoid being confused with the many acts active back then that were going under the same name. Repulsion was chosen and so an 18-track was self-produced with a $300 investment: "Slaughter of the Innocent" was born, but unfortunately the combo split up before long since again no label was going to publish it.
Reformed 2 years after, Repulsion finally became popular enough to convince Necrosis records to remix their debut demo, drop it as an album, still with a new title ("Horrified") in 1989.
In 1991 a 4-track demo came out along with another demo, and yet Repulsion disbanded one more time in 1992 because of Carlson's lack of interest, who briefly joined Cathedral in 1994 and now plays in the Hard Rock band Superbees from Los Angeles, where he relocated several years ago.
Package version and other versions available
The item object of this review is a 2003 reissue on a double CD accompanied by a 16-page booklet.
The first CD features the album "Horrified", while the second contains a boatload of rarities: demos from the Genocide era, one live from the Genocide period, the "Excruciation" demo and the '91 final demos.
A must for collectors who want to have everything Repulsion recorded, even the songs that they are not satisfied with. So much more than the original version, but hey, you can't beat the charme of a first press vinyl or tape!
Visual aspect
The artwork of this booklet is fantastic and collects all that was possible to recover from the band's early days in an eye-pleasant, smart and consistent way.
The front cover artwork is a drawing similar to Japanese Speed Metal masters Gastunk's 1987 album "Under the Sun" front cover artwork, but actually the idea for the decomposed head of a zombie (originally a burned-up kid's face drawn by Scott Carlson himself) on the cover comes from a comic book, Twisted Tales, that was rearranged. The original burned-up kid came from the dead on Halloween and went trick-or-treating.
On Repulsion's album cover is a zombie boy's rotten human head with one missing eye, half of the teeth gone, very few hairs left and 11 boils. The top part of this semi-animated body lies on a green, red and yellow background made with oil and tempera (it is a real painting in the end), with the red exploding towards an irregular white frame. This drawing by Jonathan Canady shows the band's logo on top and the album's title down in yellow.
The second and third pages portray 4 vintage photos of the four members on this album playing their instruments separately along with an intriguing biography written by Laurent Ramadier, main editor of Snakepit magazine.
Pages 4 and 5, 6 and 7, as well as 10 and 11 show more live pics from the golden years, the "Slaughter of the Innocent" demo cover, lyrics and fascinating comments from band members, all placed on huge original posters colored in army green and black (the main colors of this booklet) and acting as a background.
Pages 8 and 9 display color photos of the musicians playing together, a Genocide's demo cover artwork, and also 3 gig posters in black and white. Somewhat hidden is a newspaper article clipping regarding the drummer's grave theft and his resultant run-in with the law.
Pages 12 and 13 exhibit band's photographs, lyrics, a thankslist and recording data, while pages 14 and 15 offer rare pictures (even of Chuck Schuldiner's), and info about the demos.
The last page of the brochure depicts another drawing in military green and black by Jonathan Canady featuring a room with a screen where a man is partially visible, and a mic is seeable, too. A man is hanging from above and another from the left.
At the center of the scene appears a man sitting and copulating in a rear-entry position a skinny woman wearing an ape's mask, a pair of black gloves while holding a stick whose top is made of a mask for the eyes.
Quite disturbing and cruel as well, since we can see her mouth has just been smashed by this man thru a heavy golf club. That's why some teeth are flying off. To increase inhumanity there is the fact that her mask is connected to electrodes for probable electrocuting.
That is the front cover artwork of the "Excruciation/Helga (Lost Her Head)" single, except that the original main color was violet and not green like on this release in the first 3,000 copy version (while it was white in the second 100 copy version).
The tray under the 2 disks presents another digital drawing on a red/green background. The subject is a round blob formed by a mess of body parts and putrid incomplete faces.
The 2 discs repeat the same image magnified.
The back cover artwork illustrates bones and skeletons as background, plus the tracklist, the combo's red logo and the full-length title in white characters. Moreover info about the label (Relapse records) were added. Really an impressive artwork!
Please note that the album re-released by Relapse records in 1992 contained a slightly different front cover artwork (watch below).
(alternate album cover for "Horrified" on 2 nd release)
("Horrified" vinyl back cover)
(1991 single back cover)
("Slaughter of the Innocent" demo)
(1991 demo)
(Twisted Tales comic book issue # 1)
Trivia
1) After reading a newspaper article of a Punk drummer involved in grave robbing with 2 high school friends (Dave Hollingshead), Genocide thought he would be perfect for the band and contacted him. He has been given the 'Grave' nickname since then.
Dave and his friends robbed a skull from the grave of a woman named Helga. Things seemed to go from bad to worse when Dave learned that one of the county prosecutors's mother or grandmother had that name, but in the end Dave got off with a slap on the wrist.
2) Scott Carlson received praise letters from Morbid Angel's Trey Azagthoth and a 13-year-old Shane Embury, long before he would join Napalm Death!
3) The guy recording the album "Horrified" was smoking insane amounts of marijuana, so he accidentally erased some amped bass tracks. The band consequently had to utilize the scratch track because it was the only one left there throughout the entire recording.
4) Repulsion have always refused to make a second album since they wouldn't be able to catch the early magic another time. Yet, in the last years Scott Carlson admitted he has been writing good songs again, so there is now actually a high possibility for new releases shorter than a full-length.
5) Dave Hollingshead performs all his blastbeats with a single bass drum kit on this album and later called them cheat blasts. It is based on the same principle followed in the 50s and 60s by some Jazz drummers even if they had no name for those drumworks, or by Swedish Hardcore Punk band Asocial in their demo "How Could Hardcore Be Any Worse?". Mind you, at the time of the recording Dave owned 2 kick drums but the other guys from Repulsion didn't want double bass stuff to appear in their songs. Actually, they did not want to sound Metal, they did wish to sound Punk, so they used the second kick drum as a coffee table to sit drinks on it.
6) Repulsion opened up for Slayer one time on the name of Ultraviolence at the Ukrainian Hall in Flint, MI on 11/20/84.
7) Repulsion should have played with Slaughter in Toronto on July 6th 1986 but one of the roadies had drugs on him so Repulsion spent the entire day in the custody at the Canadian customs department and then had to turn the car around. They went to Detroit to see Celtic Frost and Voivod.
8) Repulsion abandoned the Genocide monicker for the reason that Genocide from New Jersey had just been signed by New Renaissance records and a Japanese label had another band called Genocide and both labels sent the Flint band a cease and desist document to order they must stop using that name.
9) The band's name Repulsion comes from a horror movie titled the same way. It was chosen by Scott Carlson after drawing the logo. With the word 'repulsive' the logo did not come out well but the final N of Repulsion balanced the R at the beginning.
10) Repulsion recorded many rehearsals on blank tapes sent by fans, so they have few rehearsals in their hands, whereas some fans have real collection pieces!
11) Larry Hennessee recorded the demo/album "Slaughter of the Innocent" at his Silver Tortoise Soundlab in Ann Arbor in June 1986 without taking the band seriously. He used tape that had been previously utilized for the radio commercial of a car dealer. Hennesse thought the band was a joke as his fave band was Steely Dan, but in the end the morbid raw sound that resulted was so different from the typical clean Megaforce records' products that it became a standard in the years even if at the beginning Repulsion thought it was a subpar recording.
12) When the zine Phoenix Militia reviewed "Slaughter of the Innocent" the term Grindcore hadn't been coined yet, so it just defined it 'Violence Oriented Death Metal'.
13) Repulsion played a reunion show on January 1st, 1988 and made Guns 'n' Roses' covers with Matt stoned and Dave on acid because Guns 'n' Roses' album "Appetite for Destruction" had been released a few months earlier and gathered big success at the time. Also, no Death metaller was interested in Repulsion back then.
14) Before Scott Carlson drew a burned-up kid's face for the album cover artwork with a ballpoint pen on a sticker, Repulsion sent a psychedelic blur of a photo of a guy getting his head blown off made by Michael Grossklaus. Yet, Earache records wanted a zombie face, so the ultimate cover was drawn by Carcass's Jeff Walker and Repulsion never liked it until recent years when they thought it was the right choice. Walker has never taken credit for it. It looks like he took a Xerox, blew it up and painted over it.
15) In May 1990 ex-Carnivore bassist/singer Peter Steele started a short-lived band called Repulsion and Monte Connor, former senior vicepresident of A&R for Roadrunner Records wanted to buy the name, but Flint's Repulsion refused because they were getting to re-release the album on Relapse Records.
16) When Relapse Records re-released the album "Horrified", it included a photo of the band with drummer Dave Hollingshead wearing Hitler-like moustache. It was not politically motivated, it was a G.G. Allin thing to get a rise out of people.
17) Matt Olivo and Scott Carlson currently live in Los Angeles working on sound for TV shows.
18) Napalm Death still use the intro of "Stench of Burning Death" by Repulsion during their live shows.
19) Entombed covered "Black Breath" by Repulsion on 1997's "Entombed" album, Napalm Death covered "Maggots in Your Coffin" by Repulsion on 1999's "Leaders Not Followers" album. Mortician did two covers of Repulsion songs: "Horrified" and "Bodily Dismemberment", while Nihilist did a cover of "Radiation Sickness" on a 1989 bootleg EP. Afgrund made a cover of "Splattered Cadavers", Belching Beet one of "House of Freaks", both Massacre and Impaled made one of "Helga (Lost Her Head)".
20) Voivod's Away made a caricature of Genocide's members that appears on the booklet of this re-release.
21) The number "Armies of the Dead" is the first song Matt and Scott wrote together and it dates back to when the band was called Tempter. The other songs of the repertoire of those times were just cover songs.
22) When Repulsion were contacted by Earache Records they thought the album would be published by them, so they were kind of surprised when they saw it published by Necrosis Records, a label that they did not even know.
23) The last time Repulsion played in Flint was in 2003.
24) Milwaukee Metal Fest was the first show where Repulsion had their flights and hotel rooms paid.
25) During Repulsion's first shows easy listening records and chocolate donuts were thrown at the audience.
26) The name for Tempter (Repulsion's first incarnation) came from Trouble's homonymous song released on a 1983 bootleg for the first time and also from the 1974 Italian supernatural horror movie by Alberto De Martino "The Antichrist" which came out as "The Tempter" for the US market.
27) Repulsion do not play "The Lurking Fear" live because Scott Carlson cannot sing it anymore properly as he miraculously did on the album. It is full of syllables and was created as a Slayer song, then it was sped up as you can hear it on the album.
28) In the weeks when Matt Olivo and Scott Carlson were in Orlando with Chuck Schuldiner before Chuck decided to recruit skilled musicians and before Scott decided to keep going to the primitive side, the musicians auditioned different drummers for the band that should have emerged from the fusion between Repulsion and Death after Kam Lee left Death to form his own band. They tried out every possible drummer in the area, from teenage girls to 40-year-old men listening to Judas Priest or Aerosmith and then Matt and Scott went back to Michigan frustrated, unaware that 6 or 7 months later the Death Metal scene would have become so important and flourishing in the near city of Tampa.
29) One of the cease and desist letters Flint's Genocide received was from New Jersey's Genocide. NJ's Genocide's ex bassist Robert Sexton is now friends with Scott Carlson because he had Carlson's Hard Rock band The Superbees from L.A. signed.
30) When Repulsion had split up for the first time, Scott Carlson worked in a record store and received an imported vinyl, Napalm Death's "Scum". It was not sealed so they listened to it and when they switched to side two they heard the song "Deceiver" had a riff identical to Repulsion's "The Stench of Burning Death". Carlson read that Repulsion were mentioned in the tahnkslist multiple times and so he started corresponding with those guys from that moment on.
31) When a Detroit friend of Scott Carlson told him that Cathedral were looking for a bass player thru an advertising on Foundations magazine, Carlson thought they had found it right after the publication. Instead, they hadn't found the right person and so when he called the slot was still available, and he obtained it.
Lyrical content
The lyrics were influenced by movies like "Dawn of the Dead", "Re-animator", "Evil Dead", comic books such as "Tales from the Crypt" and "Twisted Tales".
The lyrics for "Crack of Doom" and "Black Breath" drew inspiration from J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings".
The topics treated in the album are the following:
* cannibals and the earth's chemical death.
* zombies coming out of a graveyard.
* a corrosive bath.
* tyrants ordering mass murders.
* a little girl walking in a park devoured by living dead who becomes one of them.
* symptoms of a radiation overdose.
* mangled bodies in a morgue.
* suppurating skin inflammations.
* our planet filled with rotting corpses.
* victims picked to die in a crematorium.
* a resucitated body killed again.
* the rebirth of a decomposing stiff.
* body mutilations.
* disfigured putrid corpses.
* zombies eating children in a playground.
* demons killing with their breath.
* a coffin full of maggots.
* a mutant beast appeared from a black haze killing you.
Engineering and sound quality
Recorded in June '86 in 3 days at Larry Hennessee's Silver Tortoise Soundlab studio, in Ann Arbor, Michigan by Doug Earp, produced by Doug Earp and Repulsion, mixed by Aaron, Scott and Jonas, the album was remixed in March 1989 by Jonas Berzankis and Aaron Freeman. This re-release sees the mastering by Scott Hull at Visceral Sound studio.
The muddy, gritty, low-fi production remains even tho it is a bit better than on the demo.
It is likable pointing out that The TV-static-like bass was influenced by Discharge but was more downtuned. Scott used a giant PA cabinet instead of a bass cabinet and his bass went thru a distortion pedal directly into a mixing console instead of going thru an amplifier.
Finally, Aaron Freeman, second guitarist, is luckily hearable along the whole album despite what somebody might expect.
It is an album that sounds like no other. It doesn't possess an '80s or 90s sound, it doesn't sound like a record produced by Scott Burns or a Swedish Death Metal record, and that is why it is not dated and stands the test of time so well.
Today you can make more brutal productions, especially as to the drums, but the level of energy they were able to put in the performance and during the recording with the means Extreme Metal musicians had at that time is still unsurpassed.
Gear used by REPULSION at the time:
Drums (Dave "Grave" Hollingshead): Tama Rockstar
Guitar (Matt Olivo): Vantage Flying V with DiMarzio Power Plus pickup, Marshall Mark II 100-watt head, 4x12 cabinet, original Ibanez Tube Screamer
Guitar (Aaron Freeman): Sunn Beta Lead 100-watt head, homemade 4x12 cabinet, Gibson Flying V, Boss Super OverDrive
Bass (Scott Carlson): Squier P Bass, Acoustic bass head
The bonus tracks on the second CD still retain the tape drop outs, hisses and clicks, as well as dogs barking in the background and arguments!
As to the '86 demo it has to be said that it was sound engineer Kenny Roberts at the radio station where the demo was recorded, who decided to have the drums upfront and his choice was right.
Track-by-track musical analysis
Repulsion have been defined Slayer on steroids, Autopsy sped up twice and many more names. Their music is full of blastbeats, jerky bursts of caustic vocals, abrasive relentless guitars, uptempo powerchord stomps, loud guitar solos, a fat fuzzy bass tone, at least in the album, while the previous and later demos contain some different elements.
The first CD contains the album "Horrified" and starts with "The Stench of Burning Death", which begins with an iconic groovy riff and then ends up with a blastbeat matched with grating vocals bordering Hardcore as well as Venom's, Possessed's and early Death's. A guitar solo ensues, one that influenced the Napalm Death of the "Mentally Murdered" period. The verse is reprised after an abrupt stop and a smashed cymbal sequence.
"Eaten Alive" begins at maximum speed in a style that was recovered by Terrorizer. Next, another guitar solo that Napalm Death re-elaborated and the initial verse again.
Excellent Grindcore with the addition of a dynamic riff in the vein of Master and a guitar solo similar to early Carcass's is what you find at the beginning of "Acid Bath". After that, a verse and the chorus are repeated, until it is time for stpped riffs and drums accompanied by a fuzzy riff.
The layout for "Slaughter of the Innocent" pays homage to D.R.I. and Discharge, but there is also space for a riff that Celtic Frost would have loved in their songbook. The guitar solo is really brief and hallucinated just like Napalm Death did not long later. Then, the verse comes back with a final blastbeat and shard end.
The fun goes on with "Decomposed", a tight track with a twisted final riff written after the departure from Chuck Schuldiner. The guitar solo, as usual, starts from the lessons of Slayer and Kreator, unphrased and mostly tremolo-picking.
"Radiation Sickness" is one of the most popular and complex compositions by Repulsion. It contains a riff fit for stagediving stuck between the Hardcore ones and the ones alà more primitive Slayer. It is a masterrpiece of stops and restarts with the usual scorching guitar solo, but this time a tad longer and more shipshape than the others.
It is hard to imagine something more extreme than the Grindcore in "Splattered Cadavers": abrasive vocals in jerks, a musical framework that inspired Terrorizer (once again); here, too, a guitar solo appears, irreisistibly mad and unstoppable before the verse returns and the song terminates all of a sudden.
There is less speed in "Festering Boils", and the short guitar solo is also shorter than the average. Great drum and cymbal work until the closing blastbeat. More ascendancy for "Scum" by Napalm Death.
Just 63 seconds for "Pestilent Decay", a memorable track with a standing out main riff when there are no faster parts borrowed from D.R.I. or Sacrifice. Another clanging supershort guitar solo precedes the conclusive blastbeat.
Without any pause "Crematorium" initiates, a piece possessing the seminal elements that composed the bases of Grindcore: a circular mid-tempo riff, insanely fast drumming and an urticant succinct axe solo.
"Driven to Insanity" includes a riff and mid-tempo drum work that Napalm Death stole to compose "Siege of Power". The distorted bass characterizes the song, as does the blastbeat that Mick Harris ripped off. If we add the guitar solo influenced a solo utilized on Napalm Death's "From Enslavement to Obliteration" we grasp how fundamental the Michigan act was for the development of the genre.
The greatly-titled "Six Feet Under" has a not too fast opening riff, but soon afterwards we get to a furious and pretty rapid assault completed by a 14-second electrocuting guitar solo. Definitely the most extreme song on this full-length, whose solutions were later used in Napalm Death's repertoire as well.
The first seconds of "Bodily Dismemberment" are bound to give you an adrenaline rush followed by brutal riffery and blastbeating galore.
"Repulsion" has an arrangement that not only influenced the early Napalm Death's unbraked guitar solos, but there are strcutures like the start, the formidable breakdown or the closing passage that gave the British band a couple of hints that they later developed even on "Fear, Emptiness and Despair".
"The Lurking Fear" is another chip begun by a few whipping, later enriched by an unforgettable time change after the nth concise axe solo.
Clearly the longest and most variegated of the 18 numbers, "Black Breath" is another track that Napalm Death listened to carefully before they wrote "Siege of Power". Quite curiously, it is also the only song devoid of blastbeats.
One more classic in Repulsion's career is "Maggots in Your Coffin". The riff and the refrain have become history, whereas the guitar solo is longer and more multiform, sophisticated than what is common for this 4-piece. There is another riff that separates announcing the final part of the song and at the end we only find blastbeats.
The title track recurs to Hardcore and bends it to extreme levels beyond imagination. In this song a further riff and a guitar solo were also pillaged by Napalm Death. The 'fuck' sung at the end of the track also works great live, as Repulsion always conclude their shows with this song.
The second CD titled "Rarities" begins with "Genocide 11/84 Rehearsal Demo".
The guitar is upfront and so is the bass but it was not distorted. It was recorded on a portable tape in a basement specifically for Sledgehammer Press, a Michigan's fanzine.
The most notable connections are with Slayer, Discharge, Voivod and Celtic Frost.
It is very delightful to listen to these 3 unreleased tracks where "Crack of Doom" rules owing to its slowdowns and two of the best guitar solos ever recorded.
It is then time for "Genocide - Violent Death demo" of Autumn '85.
Here the increased speed is evident thanks to the entrance of drummer Dave Hollingshead. The guitar solos are very close to Slayer's. Fantastic are the takes of "Crack of Doom" and "Horrified".
Next is "Genocide - WFBE Demo 1/26/86".
here we see the addition to the line-up of second guitar player Aaron Freeman. The sounds are marvellous thanks to the recording in Ken Roberts' studio. Only a few guitar solos were mixed too low, but the quality is up to an official album as to the rest.
In this set of songs we find the stunning unreleased tracks "Crypt of Terror" and "Black Nightmare", the latter unknowingly combining Mantas and Nasum.
Two more tracks come from "Genocide Live 5/14/86".
Scarce is the quality of this live because all the levels at the mixing console were at red clipping levels. The sound technician must not have been accustomed to a hardcore band of the like.
To follow is material released after the album release.
We have "Repulsion - Excruciation EP/Demo" containing songs that are more Death Metal than Grindcore. Longer than usual, Repulsion are satisfied with "Excruciation" and "Helga (Lost Her Head)" but not much with the last two songs.
I actually like the other 2 songs, too even if "Rebirth" recycles one riff from "Satan's Whores" and one from "Armies of the Dead".
To close this second disc we hear the 3 songs that composed the unearthed "Repulsion - 1991 Final Demos".
The sound is rotten here, the blastbeats are back, and the vocals sound like a tribute to Autopsy's and not anymore Venom-clinging. In these 3 tracks we meet a perfect balance between Death Metal and Grindcore, occasionally close to early Nuclear Death, and on other occasions to Autopsy when they brake down.
It was recorded in Matt's bedroom on a portable 4-track recorder. In my opinion it is a noteworthy phase in Repulsion's existence.
Value
The value this release has in the
history of Grindcore is beyond imagination if we think that the
Internet did not exist in those years and very few bands were so fast,
heavy and rotten. Moreover, they did not talk to each other if not by
post. It was like living and creating on distant islands and what
Repulsion did with their limited means as contribution to extreme music
has been understood only in the ensuing years. Just think it was
recorded one year before Napalm Death's debut album, and in 1986 Napalm
Death were still gravitating around Hardcore Punk.
Repulsion in 1986 were the most rotten and violent thing on earth. They
have influenced so many acts musically and lyrically. Let's also not
forget the countless band monickers that derived from their song titles
and lyrics.
Conclusion
Many folks don't like Grindcore but love this album. How come? "Horrified" technically should not be considered a masterpiece: the guitar solos could have been more diverse one from another, the sound engineer should have taken Repulsion seriously and the songwriting should have been more various. Still, it is a masterwork, an often forgotten one. In the end it is an unadulterated, filthy, chaotic, nasty classic, a record that entertains us Grindcore, Goregrind and Deathgrind fans and how. A seething cesspit of grimy toxic Hardcore and carnivorous, morbid, sick, belligerent Grind from one of the Big Four of the genre.
This might sound just noise to certain people but it is a key record to all sorts of extreme subgenres because it contains some of the most memorable riffs in the Grindcore realm. A minimalistic Punk-rooted manner of assembling songs tighter than a virgin's magic crack.
(Tempter era)
Tracklist:
DISC 1 HORRIFIED:
1. The Stench of Burning Death
2. Eaten Alive
3. Acid Bath
4. Slaughter of the Innocent
5. Decomposed
6. Radiation Sickness
7. Splattered Cadavers
8. Festering Boils
9. Pestilent Decay
10. Crematorium
11. Driven to Insanity
12. Six Feet Under
13. Bodily Dismemberment
14. Repulsion
15. The Lurking Fear
16. Black Breath
17. Maggots in Your Coffin
18. Horrified
DISC 2 RARITIES:
GENOCIDE 11/84 Rehearsal Demo
1. Armies of the Dead
2. Satan's Whores
3. Crack of Doom
GENOCIDE Violent Death demo Autumn '85
4. Armies of the Dead
5. Six Feet Under
6. Violent Death
7. The Lurking Fear
8. Crack of Doom
9. Horrified
GENOCIDE WFBE Demo 1/26/86
10. The Stench of Burning Death
11. Decomposed
12. Slaughter of the Innocent
13. Eaten Alive
14. Six Feet Under
15. Crypt of Terror
16. The Lurking Fear
17. Festering Boils
18. Pestilent Decay
19. Black Nightmare
20. Bodily Dismemberment
21. Horrified
GENOCIDE Live 5/14/86
22. Radiation Sickness
23. Black Breath
REPULSION Excruciation EP/Demo
24. Excruciation
25. Helga (Lost Her Head)
26. Rebirth
27. House of Freaks
REPULSION 1991 Final Demos
28. Depraved
29. Face of Decay
30. Something Dead
Discography:
-Slaughter of the Innocent (demo - 1986)
-Horrified (full-length - 1989)
-1991 Demo (demo - 1991)
-Final Demo (demo - 1991)
-Excruciation / Helga (Lost Her Head) (single - 1991)
-Necrothology: Vomitus Visions from the Vault (video - 2004)
-Relapse Singles Series Vol. 3 (split - 2004)
Line-up on this album:
Matt
Olivo - g. (also in Expulsion, ex-Alyze, ex-Dejecta, ex-Cryptic
Slaughter, ex-Genocide, ex-Mirror, ex-Death, ex-Dissoance, ex-Lowlife,
ex-Terrorizer LA)
Scott Carlson (v., b., also in Septic
Tank, Death Breath (live), ex-Cathedral, ex-Genocide, ex-Church Of
Misery, ex-Death, ex-From Beyond, ex-The Superbees)
Dave 'Grave' Hollingshead - d. (ex-Genocide, ex-Broomsauce, ex-Pub Life, ex-The Guilty Bystanders)
Aaron Freeman - g. (ex-Genocide, ex-Dejecta, ex-Pain)
(Genocide era)
(Repulsion with drummer Dave sporting his Hitler moustache)
Contacts:
Flint (MI) earlier, now L.A., CA and Washington, D.C. - USA
E-mail:
Official website homepage:
(Repulsion today - 2024)
Official main links:
Facebook
Spotify
Bandcamp
Instagram
Myspace
Reverbnation
Twitter
DON'T MISS THIS ALBUM'S VIDEO REVIEWS IN ENGLISH AND
ITALIAN:
English video review:
https://youtu.be/-Fi-ew8QYL4
Italian video review:
https://youtu.be/JZGELLwxjcA
(back
to homepage)