Ruthless attack of old school death and thrash
When the members of a band have the names Maniac Neil (guitars/vocals), Sawboss (bass, vocals), Grisly Adams (vocals/guitar) and Pulverizeher (drums, vocals), could the resultant musical cacophony be anything other than ugly? Well, if ugly is a combination of old school death metal, thrash metal, grindcore and punk then you'd be right on the money. Originally coming together in mid 2002 as the brain child of Maniac Neil Smith, Frightmare fuses the elements of the aforementioned genres with Smith's love of 70s and 80s slasher horror films (such as Friday The 13th, The Burning and Slumber Party Massacre). Their first effort was 2003's Midnight Murder Mania which received positive reviews from fans and press alike. After a two year break to pursue other projects, Smith has recalled his minions and the result is the crushing Bringing Back The Bloodshed.
The perfectly titled and very brief Intro sounds like the cheesy music played when the film company's logo is displayed at the start of a movie. It sets the seen for the heavily thrash influenced Angela and the first onslaught of guttural, gore laced vocals. The thrash/death fused blast of Friday The 13th Part 2 is introduced by the audio of the movie's original trailer before the retro horror movie journey continues with the brutal Barbecutioner (Donny Don't Dance) and it's lyrics based on the 1980 horror flick Don't Go In The House (aka The Burning). The vocal trade off, savage riffs and excellent structure of They Were Warned show off a strong Carcass vibe throughout before the initial slower pace of By Sword, By Pick, By Axe, Bye Bye soon turns to more of a classic thrash feel via its riffs and song structure.
Based on the 1977 film Last House On Dead End Street, Terry Hawkins Arise shifts the album's brutal trend towards the Carcass styled death metal end of business whilst Slayride features a classic death metal intro along the lines of early Dismember. Although there's no shortage of the skull crushingly heavy riffs throughout either, keep an ear out for the Die By The Sword (Slayer) like feel during the verses. The thrash/punk/crossover sounding The Island Of Humongous switches to a crushingly slow pace towards the end before in true Carcass style before the more melodic death metal flow of The Blood Runs In Rivers tells the tale of the 1979 horror flick The Driller Killer. The title track, Bringing Back The Bloodshed, is a relentless speed blast of everything that epitomises death metal before the album is rounded out with a Laaz Rockit cover, Leatherface (which was originally featured on the Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III soundtrack) that fits the album's M.O. like a glove. Watch out for the brief intro to Metallica's Motorbreath towards the songs dying stages!
For such a brutal and extreme album, the production quality is outstanding. The guitars, bass, drums and quad vocal attack - yes... QUAD vocal attack - can all be heard perfectly. Top that off with a perfect mix of great riffs, song writing and consistently themed lyrics, and Frightmare have crafted an outstanding slab of horror fuelled death metal.
(Razorback Records)
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