Review METAL MASSACRE ‘XV’

In a time when everybody can create an own list of songs in streaming portals, when YouTube became an important source for promotion of bands and Bandcamp providing a platform for new and established bands, a compilation like Metal Massacre Vol XV feels a bit antiquated. But it is exactly this old-school spirit that makes this album to more than solely a summary of songs, penned by various bands.

The story of Metal Massacre goes back to the very early ’80s when the internet was not even a small dot on the futuristic radar. A handful of fanzines, record stores and demo tapes were the sources one could us. This was the context in which Metal Blade Records mainman Brian Slagel started to work on a sampler called Metal Massacre, a springboard for many bands that later on reached tremendous success. Metallica, Ratt, Overkill and Slayer are just a few names of bands that started with songs on the iconic sampler.

The rise of internet and all connected possibilities slowed down the importance of samplers, which led to a big gap between Vol. XII (1996) and Vol. XIII (2006). A decade later the 14th edition followed and the year 2021 is a kind of jubilee one with Metal Massacre XV being ready to get out of the box.

The newest addition to the series focusses on the roots and the spirit of the early days. Ryan Williams (Metal Blade Records A&R), together with Albert Mudrian (Decibel Magazine) put together a sampler that includes songs, selected with a mindset of “I want my friends to hear these tunes”.

Midnight leads-off the sampler with the furious ‘Masked and Deadly’ while epic doom enthusiasts Smoulder spread their fascination for slower riffs and heavily down-tuned guitars. Temple Of Void are into melancholic and melodic death metal while it’s Ripped To Shreds, hailing from the Bay Area, representing brutal death metal without compromises. Pure anarchy.

Metal Massacre XV is done with the mindset of the earlier samplers and shifts the spotlight to bands, reflecting the underground, bands with potential and limited spotlight attention today. This compilation is a trip into the past and is, at the same time, fully anchored in the present.

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