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Rating: Tepes, more or less like Sister Germana, will do you a big favor today; he'll teach you how to draw blood from a stone!
Imagine owning a record company (preferably one focused on Extreme Metal) and wanting to make some extra money without necessarily having to sign a band whose live shows resemble a set from a Dario Argento film; well, what would you do? It's incredibly simple, just ask all the bands on your roster who they listened to when they were sixteen, make sure at least one of the bands mentioned is dead and buried, pay the surviving members a pittance for the rights, and reissue the album that was considered the best at the time.
This is what the masterminds at Relapse Records must have thought when they decided to remaster "Horrified" exactly eighteen years after its release and thirteen years after the band's demise; however, when I saw this little disc on "Contaminated 5.0" (the Relapse compilation), I thought it might be worth spending that money. Yes, folks, for those who haven't read properly, the album in question is from 1986, a time when Death Metal wasn't born yet, and the band dissolved in 1991, just as Death Metal was in excellent health; a case for Tepes!
Obviously, because when you're talking about CDs so disastrous that even the band members deny having recorded them, my interest is piqued; especially since, in light of the facts and the listening, I can safely declare that Death Metal also started here. No one will ever mention Repulsion, no one knows of their existence, but the fact remains that while Metallica was breaking through with "Master Of Puppets," Megadeth with "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?," Slayer with "Reign In Blood," Anthrax with "Amongst The Living" (and I'm deliberately leaving out many others), there was a band in Michigan that was already a step ahead, actually, three or four steps. With this, I'm not denying the importance of Napalm Death (who started recording "Scum" the same year) or Possessed (whose "Seven Churches" came out the year before), but to these great bands more or less everyone recognizes a significant contribution to the birth of Death Metal, to Repulsion "just a muuu® of no one".
That said, we can begin to talk about the album, the first and last LP of the American band, preceded and followed by Demos and EPs; nineteen tracks of fierce Death Grind that aims straight at the jugular. As you might imagine, refinement is not the quartet's main characteristic, which, on the contrary, makes its raw and stinky proposal its trademark: no frills, no atmosphere, just dirt and distortion, the only elements with which to stand out in a landscape like the metal of the eighties. Just one listen is enough to understand that Repulsion is not serious but does it anyway, that they enjoy describing the most ignorant violence in their lyrics, that they enjoy playing to ruin someone's ears. From this, it can be understood that their attitude is still influenced, indeed, belongs to Thrash Metal, although musically far different. A sound that was unprecedentedly violent for its time marries with a voice that few or no one (see the aforementioned Possessed) had used and which critics hurried to call growling; even if different from today's Death growl, one must imagine that it was 1986 and that even a raw and relatively clean growl like this represented a great innovation. Not to mention the drums, not technical at all but effective from the point of view of acoustic devastation: the first examples of Blast Beat are alternated with passages more blatantly Thrashy and Hardcore Punk, definitely spartan but undeniably compelling.
A similar discourse could be made for the riffing, to say the least, sparse and "essential": also heavily influenced by the nastiest Thrash, it is distinguished by greater power and aggression. A wall of sound constructed with a few, simple chords and assisted by a bass so distorted it sounds like a buzz and, above all, some solos really stretched to the limit. You say the riffing is repetitive? Of course, it is, the songs are too, and on the other hand, it could not be otherwise; some element of civil music (for example, the division into verses and chorus) remains, but being Raw Death makes the thing particularly inedible. Considering that the recording must have cost twenty or thirty dollars (a polite way of saying it's more than lousy), "Horrified" becomes even more challenging for those unfamiliar with the genre and even more appealing for those who love things done badly.
Repulsion does everything wrong, especially in writing the songs: the tracks have no head or tail, they are very short, fast, and disordered, and that is exactly what makes them irresistible. If you don't feel like indulging in a demanding listen (forgive the alliteration) or if you want to understand what the Cradle of Obscenity is (forgive the pun), listen to "Festering Boils" or the title track "Horrified" and you'll understand where Autopsy, Entombed, and various epigones came from.
This album is filth erected to a system, but not with the putrid spirit of the aforementioned Autopsy or the bloodthirsty morbosity of Cannibal Corpse, but with those fat Thrash shenanigans and, what is better, without any enthusiasm. A virtue for stuff written in 1986, enough to earn it a good score like this; a work and a band that time has erased and that I and Relapse have resurrected to let the world know about one of the many fathers of that bastard creature called Death Metal. Recommended to anyone who loves metal (old and new), to anyone curious to know who are those few who contributed to the birth of the favorite genre of this other few who is writing, and to anyone who has ten euros and half an hour to spare.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 The Stench of Burning Death (01:33)
Desecration of the earth - Massive death
End of all that breathes new life - Nothing left
A few survivors nearing death - Mutated
Slow decaying of the flesh - Soon they're dead
Eating flesh to stay alive - Cannibals
Decaying bodies everywhere - Smell the stench
Burning bodies lay in mess - Foul gore
Radiation burns your lungs - Rabid death
Bodies burn in massive piles - Bloodbath
Toxic fumes destroy your health and sanity
Death for you is coming soon - Slowly rot
Chemicals destroy the earth - Holocaust
02 Eaten Alive (01:37)
Horror in the graveyard - An evil hellish sight
Worm eaten corpses rising in the night
They're seeking human flesh, they live for nothing else
Once they come to you - You can't defend yourself
Out of the grave - Death is stalking you
You can't escape - Your eaten alive
They bite into your flesh
But you're still alive
You scream out a cry of agony and death
Your guts are devoured
Your bones are stripped of flesh
Your mangled fucking carcass
Lies in pools of blood
03 Acid Bath (01:30)
Burning flesh - Putrid stench
Rotting guts - Smell of death
Bloody fuck of bones and flesh
Decomposed - Vomit breath
Acid bath burns your flesh
Driving you insane
Blood and guts all that's left
Soon you die in pain
Burning bones make you puke
Now your next in line
Lowered into the pit
Screaming as you die...
05 Decomposed (01:21)
Rotten unearthed corpse - Soldier of the dead
Zombie life from hell - Eyes see only red
Damned to walk the earth - No more room in hell
Come out of your grave - Search for human prey
Find a lonely girl - Walking in the park
Bite her fucking throat - Tear the flesh apart
Rip out all her guts - Eat the putrid shit
Feast of fucking gore - blood drips from your lips
The feast is almost done - Bones are all that's left
This lonely little girl has met her tragic death
Maggots start to spawn - Rise afain to kill
Nocturnal living corpse - Rised by Satan's will
06 Radiation Sickness (02:03)
Radiation overdose - Melting flesh
Life is draining from you - Toxic death
Rotting from the inside out - Flesh turns grey
Inhaling radiation fumes - Lungs decay
Sickness from the radiation makes you lose your mind
Hair falls out, internal bleeding
Virus makes you blind
Radiation burns your flesh - Soon you'll die
Poisoned clouds of toxic rain in the sky
Start to fucking decompose, still alive
Rigor Mortis freezes you, now you die
08 Festering Boils (01:51)
Scorching through your tortured mind
Burning in your eyes
Hideous infection - painful death
Slowly you demise
Now you see your friends all die
Your trying to withstand
But you can't fight this evil foe
Inner organs start to rot
Smell the curdling skin
When it eats into your brain
Is when the pain begins
Lonesome death by festering boils
You're dying all alone
But as you see from beyond the grave
They feed upon your bones
Agony, torture, eternal pain
Festering boils drive you insane
Rabid disease destroys mankind
Festering boils eat your mind
09 Pestilent Decay (01:03)
Decadence of your mind
Sanity you can't find
Rotting flesh diseased your brain
Painful death the final reign
Stained with blood the dead now weep
Struck by plague and black disease
Stenching piles of mangled dead
Agony in their heads
Plague has struck the innocent
Virus of contagious death
Death infliction set on course
The earth is piled with rotted corpses
Omen of deadly fate
Sent into a world of hate
No more war only death
The earth becomes a fiery crypt
10 Crematorium (01:28)
Lined up on the road to death
Victims sure to die
Trapped in lives of living hell
Horror in their minds
Tyrants chose their destiny
Picked to die at birth
Bunred behind the concrete walls
Their screams are never heard
Flesh it burns and peels away
The blood boils in your veins
Inhale the smoke from burning flesh
Hear the screams of pain
Vomit as you start to die
Choking on the bile
Corpses hooked and dragged away
Thrown into the pile
Roasting in the crematorium, death is slow
Flames burn your fucking flesh to the bone
11 Driven to Insanity (01:39)
Sickening thoughts, your sould's in chains
Your rotted corpse brought to life again
Brain is dead but your instincts alive
Visions of death still haunt your mind
Insanity breeds in your varicose veins
Poisoned blood flows through your veins
Your breath reeks of a rotted form
And the menstrual flow of a thousand whores
Your blood it boils and rots your brain
Tortured life makes you insane
Your self control has nothing left
The only escape is through your death
Once again your at death's door
Your wasted life exists no more
Now your doomed to rot in hell
Your fucking corpse begins to smell
12 Six Feet Under (01:10)
Epitaph above your head For many years you've been dead Maggot brain - Pus filled eyes In a moldy casker <i>[casket?]</i> you reside Your the dead, your heart is black Lived your life in blasphemy Now you rot day by day Eternal torture, slow decay Your body's filled with rotten worms Skin falls off your bones The moon ignites your dried up corpse How decrepit you have grown Your reek of shit and rotten guts Embalming fluids - Rancid crud Released from hell you walk the earth Your rotten corpse give new birth
13 Bodily Dismemberment (01:45)
Victims all lay bound and tied Horrifying screams and cried Headmaster shines his blade On the block your head is laid Cut in half, you scream and writhe Guts pour out from inside Gouge your eyes out of your head Torture you until your dead Break your bones, tear your flesh Mutilate your fucking face Body parts lay around in my human slaughter house Lick the blood off my knife - smile and take another life Burst your chest and eat your heart Defiling bodies is my art Limbless torsos piled up One of them I slowly fuck Tear your limbs off one by one Killing to me is such fun My hacksaw yearns for you Now there's nothing you can do
15 The Lurking Fear (01:08)
For many peaceful years their bodies laid in rest
Nuclear disaster from a nill fated test
Bodies start to rise, the holocaust is near
Can't escape the horror
Smell the lurking fear
Zombie eating children - Ripping out their guts
Headless bodies in the playground satisfy their lust
Cities are destroyed as corpses come to life
You can't escape the horror, feel the lurking fear
You know the end is coming, feel the grip of death
Zombies get you cornered and tear apart your flesh
Stick their fingers in your neck
Rip off your fucking head
They need to eat the living
It's the hunger of the dead
Now you're a fucking zombie
Your skin is turning blue
You feed to eat the living
It's hunger of the dead
Now you're a fucking zombie
Your skin is turning blue
You feed upon the living
Hell's awaiting you
Find a helpless vicitm, bite into his flesh
Drained of his life's blood, he feels the lurking fear
16 Black Breath (02:16)
Nine slaves of death - Trapped in eternal hell
Kill you with their breath - If you catch a smell
You've all will to live - Losing death
You are doomed to die - Smell the reapers of death
Fevered and delirious - Despairing dreams
Black shadow haunting you - It never leaves
Now you begin to feel unrelenting pain
Before your life is through your gone insane
Stiffening of the joints, death creeps in
Flesh is turning blue, the end begins
Screaming endlessly, until your death
Certain death comes at last
From the black breath
17 Maggots in Your Coffin (01:45)
The coffin is sealed on your rotten corpse
You lie in darkness, death corrodes your face
You are rotting, maggots in your coffin
Worms in your head - Soon they'll be dead
Nothing to feed on in your empty skull
Hell is where you are, your tortured sould is scarred
For years you'll rot in pain, lonely and decayed
You are rotting, maggots in your coffin
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By andre86
Repulsion is one of those bands... widely recognized only after they disbanded, and their true value was seen in the myriad of bands they influenced.
For those who love grind, this is a CD/collection to have with your eyes closed; however, for those accustomed to other sounds, I strongly advise staying away.
