It has been 23 years since Rick Rozz and Terry Butler last released anything of note under the banner of Massacre, and that two decades plus hiatus has allowed their debut From Beyond to achieve the legendary status its Bay Area-meets-Death quality deserves, a great collection of straight down the line death metal songs that set the tone for literally millions of bands to follow.

With such an iconic release in their catalogue, but with years of less than stellar activity individually, expectations for Back From Beyond (Century Media) are mixed. The first thing that strikes is the powerful production as guitars barrel out of the traps (once the pointless intro has meandered on by) into ‘As We Wait To Die’. New vocalist Ed Webb does a decent enough job, sounding like (the heavier of) Burton C. Bell (‘s voices), but lacking the distinctive and charismatic tones of non-returnee Kam Lee.

While Massacre always leant to the thrashy, (pre-Chaos AD) Sepultura end of American Death Metal, it’s interesting to see how much groove and chug metal is in their newer sound; ‘Hunters Blood’ wouldn’t be out of place on a Lamb of God album. That isn’t to say the trademark Massacre DM has been abandoned, as ‘Ascension of the Deceased’ throwback like a Thursday, ‘Shield Of The Son’ thrash-snaps the neck, while ‘Evil Within’ and ‘Beast With Vengeance’ pay homage to Chuck.

Sticking resolutely in the mid-tempo and to a simple but effective riffing style with only the odd venture out of their stomping ground, Back From Beyond settles into a pattern of mixing late 90’s groove with old school Death Metal riffing. In the main, with each track in isolation, it works to good effect, but as a whole due to a lack of dynamics and colour, no track to rival a ‘Cryptic Realms’ and an overly long running order (14 tracks!? You have to be amazing to stay interesting for 14 tracks!) Back From Beyond is an enjoyable, solid yet unspectacular return. Nothing to rival From Beyond but serves as a better follow-up than (the-Massacre-album-that-shall-not-be-named).

7/10

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Steve Tovey