Various Artists – Metal Massacre XV (Album Review)

A grand metal traditional continues on.

Though it may seem like a relic from a bygone era, the practice of putting out various artist compilations to shed light on the up-and-comers of the metal world has yet to abate itself. Of the many releases of this type to come raging out of the 80s heavy metal underground, few could hold a candle to the mighty torchlight that Metal Blade Records shone upon the scene in the western hemisphere via the Metal Massacre series. Originally hitting the market in 1982, the highly prolific output under this moniker would introduce the world to such noted early figures as Trouble, Overkill, Metallica, Slayer, Voivod, Possessed, Metal Church, Lizzy Borden, The Obsessed, Hellhammer and countless others. While the rate of output would slow significantly since the dawn of the 1990s, this tradition would endure and continue to serve the metal underground in the continental United States up until the present, with the current year seeing the fifteenth installment bringing a new crop of bands to the fore.

If nothing else, the roster of acts that bring their talents to the table here showcases that while times may indeed change, a solid metal compilation tends to follow the same basic formula. Leading off the pack is a fuzz-driven, low-fidelity ride through the blackened speedways courtesy of one-man project Midnight in “Masked And Deadly”. Though not really a newcomer to the scene given that project mastermind Jameson “Athenar” Walters has been active going back to the late 80s, and the song itself is stylistically comparable to a vintage Hellhammer song with an early 2010s Darkthrone mode of grittiness, it provides a good current counterpart to the pioneering extreme metal that Metal Massacre was known to shine light upon back in the early 80s. Alongside the old school 80s, obsessed with leather brand of epic heavy metal thunder provided by Midnight Dice via “Starblind”, while heavy/doom traditionalists Smoulder offer something akin to a female-fronted Cirith Ungol with their entry “Warrior Witch Of Hel” and a rather curious blend of post-punk and dungeon synth styled atmospherics out of Poison Ruïn in “Demon Wind” that could almost be mistaken for a hybrid of Motorhead and Manowar, this is the bulk of the more old school oriented offerings to occur out of the bunch.

For the most part, the lion’s share of this album exhibits more of a recent past-centered take on the American metal scene, which has been more readily defined by more aggressive blends of extreme metal viciousness. The crust-infused brutality of “Master Of Extremity” by the Massachusetts-based death metal act Fuming Mouth bridges the gap between old school Cannibal Corpse and the early works of Six Feet Under and Entombed’s mid-90s material quite effectively, while the vintage Florida death metal vibes of Rude’s “Omega” could almost be a lost track from Morbid Angel’s “Covenant” and showcases some brilliant sludge-drenched riffing. The blast happy mayhem of California death metal maniacs Ripped To Shreds’ offering “Bone Ritual” has a bit more of a technically charged New York mode of corpse-mangling reminiscent of early Suffocation and Revenant. But the outings that seem to typify the character of this compilation the greatest are the extreme doom hybrid offerings out of the black-hearted token U.K. project Many Suffer, and the somber death/doom ponderings of Detroit-based Temple Of Void and Indianan outfit Mother Of Graves, each breathing their own sense of beauty into the woeful laments of each chord and scream.

If there is any flaw in this highly diverse lineup of newer and otherwise underground artists, it’s that it’s a highly diverse lineup. In spite of the general free for all of stylistic evolution that dominated the early to mid 80s, which is fairly well reflected in this current crop of bands, the wide stylistic reach of it all may find a lot of would be listeners skipping around for their preferred mixture. This isn’t to say that there aren’t a solid number of younger metal heads out there who can’t enjoy the dank and depressing world of “The Trees Die Standing” and the sword-wielding Amazonian anthem “Warrior Witch Of Hel” in the same listening session, but for some the 80s Judas Priest and a side-order of Warlock featured on “Starblind” might be a bit too melodic and old school for those going for a more brutal metallic pedigree, and vice versa. There is a shared sense of low-fidelity production practices and general bite to each song that makes the whole album sound like a unified project, and each offering is a solid representation of its respective stylistic niche, but the sonic distance between each is a good deal further than that of the 80s rosters that culminated in the golden age of the Metal Massacre brand.

Released Date: May 21st, 2021
Released By: Metal Blade Records
Genre: Metal

“Metal Massacre XV” tracklisting:

1. Midnight “Masked and Deadly” (Metal Massacre XV exclusive!)
2. Poison Ruïn “Demon Wind”
3. Fuming Mouth “Master of Extremity”
4. Many Suffer “The Trees Die Standing” (Metal Massacre XV exclusive!)
5. Temple of Void “Leave the Light Behind”
6. Ripped to Shreds “撿骨 (Bone Ritual)” (Metal Massacre XV exclusive!)
7. Rude “Omega”
8. Midnight Dice “Starblind”
9. Smoulder “Warrior Witch of Hel”
10. Mother of Graves “In Somber Dreams”