SLAUGHTER — Strappado (review)

Album · 1987 · Thrash Metal

3.5/5 · 2018-01-31
voila_la_scorie

To think that a Canadian band had a hand in shaping death metal. Canadian bands rarely prove to be influential in much. It's not because the music isn't good. It's just that Canadian bands tend to get noticed by a few people who really appreciate what they hear and ignored by most other people. But my compatriots have made a mark here and there with Rush and Anvil probably being the most influential in shaping metal. Voivod are just Voivod: unique and inimitable.

Slaughter, originally called Slaughterhouse, are not to be confused with the glam metal band Slaughter. These Canucks were on a mission which was to play really noisy, aggressive music that combined influences from Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, Slayer, Venom, and Wendy Williams and the Plasmatics. They admit to not starting out as very good musicians and didn't entertain any lofty goals of becoming famous. Music was for enjoyment and sharing, meant to be heard. They often handed out cassettes at their shows and were all for the free trading of music. They also threw baby doll heads at their shows and blew their noses on the audience. In two interviews I read last night, I learned that they were also close friends with fellow Torontonian thrashers Sacrifice and got on well with the guys in Razor. One claim to fame they have is that Chuck Schuldiner (yes, THE Chuck Schuldiner!) played guitar in the band for a short time in 1986.

"Strappado" was recorded in 1986 and finally released in 1987. The CD reissue I picked up includes the entire album plus additional bonus tracks of unedited album material and outtakes. The sound quality of the album proper is as you might expect for an extreme metal band without big money backing their recording: it is pretty brutish and unclean, but that also suits the music very well. Really very well! The intent behind the music is exactly what the members admit to: that they were making extreme aggressive noise. The guitars are as dirty and ungraceful as a dung-smeared troll armory being tested as Gargantua's chainsaw teeth; the bass is in the mix somewhere; and the drums conjure up every image of a Goblin metal foundry whose machine press is in dire need of re-calibration. At one point, the drum mixing is so over-the-top that instead of sounding like solid snare hits with spaces in between, the spaces seem to be filled with the sound of compressed air swelling up like the rebound wave that comes up after you punch a waterbed.

The bonus tracks are even muddier but honestly don't sound any worse than some early death metal eps, and I'm of the impression that the bonus tracks are on par with early material by Dismember or Entombed. The vocals are suitably gruff and motorcycle gang member growly. Forget the blowing noses as you'd have been as likely to be showered in phlegm and spittle at one of Slaughter's shows.

A lot of Canadian bands have a certain unique charm about them. The members of Rush are nice and funny guys writing intelligent music; Helix has that night-of-the-hockey-game party rock sound; Anvil, the hardworking under-rated metal flag bearers. Slaughter was just about brashness, brutishness, and unclassy violent noise. And having fun doing it! Why did they quit so soon? The music industry tried to take all the fun out. And according to the interviews I read, they are not likely to come back either. Then again, those were old interviews.

Is this good "music"? I don't think so. The riffs are simple and almost cliche, the drumming way in the lack of interesting fills, the songs with every shred of melody hacksawed off. Does it achieve its goal? Oh, yeah! As an old high school friend of mine once said about some of my musical preferences, "This makes as much noise as an explosion with a back beat".