Massacre – Resurgence (Review)

Lovecraft and nostalgia are two of the main ingredients on Massacre‘s latest work Resurgence. The original rock of Florida Death Metal returns in 2021 with a breaker that knows how to fulfill expectations, but not how to exceed them. However, at least you can rely on the fact that if it promises Massacre, then Massacre is aso delivered. This is not a matter of course, if we think back to the hard-failed Promise from 1996. You just don’t have to have followed every trend of the nineties.

But how did Resurgence turn out? The opener “Eldritch Prophecy” already gives the inclined listeners what they expect: A decent chin-stroking consisting of heavy, heavy guitar riffs and monstrous vocals, paired with a foundation of bass and drums that couldn’t have gotten any thicker. True, the album as a whole doesn’t exactly bristle with originality and variation, but no one asked for that here, after all. The Lovecraft theme then runs through a large part of the album, which, following the classic narrative style, is divided into three large acts, or chapters here. The titles “The Innsmouth Strain” and “Book of the Dead (Necronomicon Ex Mortis)” alone speak for themselves.

Additionally, if Lovecraft is not referenced, then you also operate just once self-referential, nostalgic fanservice. It’s almost a bit like watching the new Star Wars movies, only less inconsistent and overall just better. For example, “Servants of Discord” is really not just coincidentally very, very reminiscent of “Defeat Remains” from the legendary debut. And I don’t have to say much about “Spawn of the Succubus” and “Return of the Corpsegrinder“. You can like it, you don’t have to, I for one love it.

Resurgence has continued where 1991’s From Beyond left off. It is neither a milestone nor an innovation grenade, but it is fun from the first to the last second. Absolute must-have for all oldschool death metal fans.