THE ACCÜSED — The Return of... Martha Splatterhead (review)

THE ACCÜSED — The Return of... Martha Splatterhead album cover Album · 1986 · Crossover Thrash Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"The Return of... Martha Splatterhead" is the debut full-length studio album by US, Seattle based crossover thrash metal act The Accüsed. The album was released through Subcore Records in January 1986. The title of the album refers to the band´s 1985 EP "Martha Splatterhead". The Accüsed was formed in 1980 and released a couple of demos before releasing the "Martha Splatterhead" EP in 1985. "The Return of... Martha Splatterhead" features all the material from the EP plus some freshly recorded tracks exclusive to this release. So the material featured on the album was recorded during two different recording sessions a couple of years apart.

Stylistically the material on the 13 track, 32:38 minutes long album is raw horror/gore themed hardcore punk with the occasional nod towards crossover thrash metal (some tracks are full on hardcore punk while others are much more thrash metal oriented). Lead vocalist Blaine has a distinct sounding snarling and aggressive vocal style, which is quite a treat, and one of the great assets of The Accüsed´s sound, but the raw, authentic and organic instrumental delivery of the material is also greatly charming. It´s loud, distorted, ugly and filthy. So it basically sounds like it was recorded live in an amateur garage studio. There´s nothing wrong with the execution of the material though, and The Accüsed are a fairly well playing band. Everything is delivered with decent skill and great passion and conviction.

The material is well written too and relatively varied for the style. It doesn´t take more than a couple of spins to tell the tracks apart and scream along to tracks like "Wrong Side of the Grave" and "Fuckin' 4 Bucks" and it´s another great strength of The Accüsed. They are pretty skilled composers who know how to write an effectful hardcore punk/crossover thrash metal track. So upon conclusion "The Return of... Martha Splatterhead" is a good quality debut album by The Accüsed. While I´m told it was on the stage they really slayed back then, they can certainly hold their own on album too. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.
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