Review Summary: The debut of a monster, in all its glory...
Remember those crazy guys that brought us bands like Lord Gore, Engorged and Blood Freak? Well, they now have another extraordinary project by the name of Frightmare. From the unlikely place that is Portland, Oregon, comes the debut release from Frightmare. Led by Maniac Neil, who's a legend in the death/grind scene, is the f--ked up mastermind behind Frightmare. Being heavily inspired by slasher films from the 70's and 80's, they inspire most, if not all, of his lyrics. Every bit of the monster that the previous bands were and twice the horror movie freaks, Frightmare have based an entire album on the great era of horror, the 70's and 80's. With an amazing mix of styles and genres including death, grind, thrash and punk, Frightmare have created an album which has so much diversity, literally anyone can enjoy it.
The music here is something that deserves to be appreciated. It has a thrashy sound, which may remind you of Cannibal Corpse's
Eaten Back To Life era. All the tracks flow really well, and it is exactly what you'd expect of a Razorback Records band. Frightmare are not clean in terms of technique, they aren't all that polished.
Thorn In Their Side could be tightened up, but that's part of the charm. Frightmare have the same old school feel as other bands like Mortician, Repulsion and Pungent Stench. Some of the leads may be weak, but Maniac Neil knows how to write a riff. My only complaint in terms of the music on
Midnight Murder Mania is the lack of imagination on some tracks. Some mirror the band's influences too closely, and the listener can easily identify the Carcass-influenced parts, for example. It's a minor thing, but it's allowed.
I can only find 3 flaws with this album. As mentioned before, lack of imagination. It all seems to 'it's been done before' if you know what I mean. And then, the production isn't great, if I'm honest, but it adds to the atmosphere of the album, giving it a scary aura that fits perfectly to an outfit inspired by 80's death/grind bands. And finally, the songwriting, as ever, is pretty poor. Not as bad as the next album,
Bringing Back The Bloodshed, but still pretty bad.
The album art on both the albums, I'm sure nobody cares, is done by two artists who work on the 'Tales From Uranus' comics.
It seems that Razorback Records are at the top in the metal world, and are constantly releasing surprise after surprise after surprise. In short, this album contains 10 tracks of slasher-splatter-gore flick inspired beauty, as well as a brutal cover of The Misfits'
Devilock. This is nearly 38 minutes of pure gore/grind/thrash/death-whatever, at its best. I recommend this as a starting point for Frightmare, as their next album surpasses this in every way. This is what every death/grind/gore/punk/thrash/crossover-whatever band wants to be...
