Horrified as an album opens with tracks “The Stench of Burning Flesh” and “Eaten Alive” and right from the onset you’re blasted in the face with some drumming that basically demolishes all the death metal scene at the time (with the exception of Pete Sandoval who was drumming for Terrorizer and Morbid Angel around that time). I’d heard repulsion before, and always thought they were pretty good, but that was years ago and listening to them again now I’m thinking these guys were better than I gave them credit for. I’m not sure why Repulsion never lasted long enough to see their debut album released but I honestly think if the band had given it a few more years and another album or two they really could have dominated the death metal and later grind-core scene. I think they may have started too early on in the piece and people weren’t ready for what they were doing.
As the album continues on the songs kind of fade into each other. There’s not a lot that makes each song stand out from each other in terms of variation (especially if you’re new to grind-core) but they’re all brilliant and intense. I will retract that a little and say there’s some variation in the guitar work but Dave Grave’s rather intense drumming, whilst brilliant can cover up the guitar work a bit. This is a production issue and not a slight on the bands performance. This album has a brutality that doesn’t let up from start to finish. If you like death metal this is brilliant and one of the most unrelenting albums ever put out. Sure there are now more technical and faster bands but this has a virtually nothing (except punk / early thrash ) to be influenced from and I really think the band were pioneers. It has a raw brutality that not many bands can match these days.
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