Review by Daniel for Slaughter Lord - Thrash 'Til Death (1998)

Back in the very late 1980’s & early 1990’s when I first became a part of the underground metal scene there were several local bands that sat beyond reproach as the very pillars with which the Australian metal scene was built on. Given how isolated our country is to the rest of the world (far more so back then), the vast majority of these artists were completely unknown in other parts of the world outside of a select few who were lucky enough to have well-informed contacts down under but the legends of these early metal acts have lived on still to this day. Mid-80’s Sydney extreme metal band Slaughter Lord sit at the very pinnacle of this ideology given that they tick pretty much every box required to ensure maximum notoriety: Only released a demo & some crudely recorded rehearsal tapes? Tick! Provided members to various other important bands? Tick! Had a sound that was ahead of its time? Tick! Were highly influential on some major players in the global metal scene? Tick! That’s right. What we’re talking about here is just as much an enigma as it is an artist selling their wares so it’s worth putting thing into perspective before we move ahead & get all analytical but at the end of the day I believe in reward on merit so there won’t be any free stars being awarded for influence alone from this ol’ metalhead.

Slaughter Lord formed 1985 in the Blue Mountains just outside of the Sydney metropolitan area & their reputation is built on a single poorly-produced three-song demo tape called “Taste of Blood” that was released some time in 1987. I encountered this release very early on in my tape trading days & it certainly got my attention. In fact, I’d suggest that it made a bigger impression on me than Mortal Sin’s legendary 1987 debut album “Mayhemic Destruction” which is saying something for any Sydney-sider. I wouldn’t say that I regard "Taste of Blood"as a classic though as Slaughter Lord still sounded like a work in progress more than a finished product with their sound jumping around a bit & the recording quality & performances still needing a fair bit of work. That didn’t stop “Taste of Blood” from changing to face of metal in ways that very few people are actually aware of though.

In 2000, band leader & drummer Steve Hughes (who is now a world-renowned stand-up comedian) contributed to a project that would see the majority of the Slaughter Lord recordings being re-released on a compilation CD called “Thrash Til Death 86-87” which includes a couple of additional studio tracks & four crude rehearsal recordings of non-demo songs. I hadn’t heard any of that additional material until this week as Slaughter Lord split up a couple of years prior to me first venturing out to my first local metal gig but my interest was certainly high given my familiarity with the demo & the aura of mystery & adoration around the band. I certainly became pretty closely affiliated with the bands that the various band members would go on to play with though & they all command a similar level of respect from myself & my peers. Hughes would do time in Mortal Sin, Sadistik Exekution & Nazxul, founding guitarist Mick Burke would play for Mortal Sin & his accompanying axemen Sandy Vahdanni & Anton Vasquez would both do stints in Sadistik Exekution too so you couldn't wish for a stronger resume than that when it comes to the Sydney extreme metal scene.

"Thrash 'til Death" opens with the two additional studio cuts in “Destructor” & “Slaughter Lord”, both quality tunes in their own right & sounding like they might have been recorded after the demo due to the greater level of sophistication in the composition, performances & production. “Destructor” is a very fast & aggressive thrash metal number that sounds like classic Dark Angel with Mille Petrozza from Kreator behind the mike. I really dig it & it’s one of the highlights of the release. “Slaughter Lord” sounds more like the demo tape with the brutal thrash metal sound being diluted with something more sinister. You see, what made Slaughter Lord so notorious in the global underground was the nastier blast beat-driven death/black metal component. In fact, it baffles me as to why the band aren’t spoken of as one of the founders of the war metal movement because a lot of this stuff is undeniably worthy of that tag with the death & black metal influences being thrown at the listener in a heinous mess of barbaric violence. “Slaughter Lord” isn’t quite as strong as “Destructor” but it’s still a really decent inclusion nonetheless.

“Slaughter Lord” flows nicely into the “Taste of Blood” demo even though the production jobs are vastly different because that war metal component is evident on all three of the demo tracks, particularly the first two. One of the reasons I feel that Slaughter Lord’s sound was still a work in progress though is because the demo tracks all include some pretty standard Slayer/Kreator-worshipping thrash parts & you get the feeling that they hadn’t yet decided on which way they wanted to go, almost like they were still in transition & the next release might be the one that defined them. All three demo tracks are worth listening to though, particularly the title track “Taste of Blood” which is the one that maintains the war metal savagery for the greater majority of its run time. I’ve always wondered how an extreme metal band could manage to release a demo where the guitar tone is lacking in distortion like it is here though, particularly the frantic solos which definitely suffer for it. The vocals are nothing short of savage & sit somewhere between Kreator & Bathory. Hughes’ blast beats are particularly brutal for the time & take their queues from the South Americans as much as they do from grindcore. It’s easy to see the influence that Hughes had on a young Morbid Angel when you look back now & I’d go so far as to suggest that “Altars of Madness” would have sounded a bit different if not for the influence of “Taste of Blood”. The same can be said of Bathory’s classic “Blood Fire Death” album actually as some of the relentless thrash included sounds so similar to the faster thrashers on that particular record & I know that Quorthon was a big fan along with other major players like Sepultura & At The Gates.

The rehearsal recordings are unfortunately where “Thrash Til Death” runs out of steam though. All four are fairly standard thrash tunes that have been recorded poorly & offer nothing additional to the legend the band has created. I do like closer “Cryptic Terror” quite a bit but I struggle to sit through the three that precede it which is ultimately what makes releases like this one more of a novelty than an essential testimonial to an unheralded champion of the global scene. This doesn’t diminish the impact of the “Taste of Blood” demo but it does highlight the fact that Slaughter Lord really built their reputation on a very small body of work & mostly through their own tape trading network (which is kinda cool, isn’t it?). While the band was no doubt a critical player in the Aussie metal scene, I’d suggest that they’re more influential than they are essential but would recommend "Taste of Blood" to anyone that likes the idea of the brutal thrash metal of Necrodeath & Morbid Saint being crossed with the death metal insanity of Sadistik Exekution.