Review by Felix on December 12, 2021.

Terrordome convinced me with their recent output Straight Outta Smogtown and so I decided to add Machete Justice to my collection as well. Of course, going backwards in the discography of a group is always a double-edged thing. On the one hand, you want to listen to an even better album than the one that made you curious, on the other hand no one likes a downward trend from the older to the newer album. Terrordome solve this situation in a pretty Solomon-like way. Straight Outta Smogtown is the better release, but its predecessor holds some fine outbursts as well.

Generally speaking, Terrordome do all the things a young thrash band likes to do – and nothing else. Experiments, detours or delays are unknown in their universe. They set their energy free by shooting off their riffs into the audience, they beat a lot of drum kits into perdition and the lead vocalist screams his lyrics without falling victim to hysteria. Sometimes a few hardcore vibes appear (especially in view of the shouted background vocals), but most of the time the Polish wrecking crew brews pure thrash metal. Freaks who follow Municipal Waste or Gama Bomb will enjoy the sonic and the quite humorous note of the lyrics. At least if we forget the ridiculous band pics in the booklet.

Due to obviously good song-writing skills, the material can be described as pretty mature, coherent and fairly catchy. It goes without saying that tracks like 'Crocodile' with a playtime of 96 seconds do not challenge Watchtower songs in terms of complexity, but pieces like 'Nocturnal Emission' with delicate lyrics (“The phallus is rising… she’s begging for action, some hard f**k-reaction”) weren’t created in order to deliver a musical math exam. They unleash a proper celebration of acoustic violence, no more, no less. Maybe there are a few parts on the album which are going nowhere, but they remain an exception. Instead, the band is able to deliver three extremely convincing tracks in a row. 'Favourite Sport: Mosh' takes no prisoners and the funnily titled 'Italian Stallion' hits the same note. Nobody can deny the band's will to entertain themselves and others in the best possible way and their approach reaches its peak in 'Back To The ‘80s'. It’s another incredibly fast-paced song, but its chorus shines with 10% more catchiness than the other tunes. Every single tone enriches this jewel and at the latest here doom fans realize that they bet on the wrong horse. But it’s never too late to convert!

What’s left to say? The sound is brilliant. It conveys the power and energy of the music excellently. Due to the fact that my copy has been released by Pest Productions, I can also listen to a short Exodus medley. 'Low Rider', 'Braindead' and 'Blacklist' appear with different lyrics. Maybe one day I travel to Poland and ask the band why they did not like the original lyrics. Either way, the album clocks in at 32:56 minutes and everybody with a weakness for carefree thrash at the speed of light should give it a chance.

Rating: 7.8 out of 10

Review by Carl on February 3, 2024.

A double dose of Oscar Garcia, in this case brought to you by those mysterious people from Headache Records, who pressed the Terrorizer/Nausea split demo on vinyl in the early 90's. Unofficially, of course.

On the A side, it's the legendary Terrorizer, baby! Taking us on a tour through their rehearsal space while jamming out rough versions of some of their indestructible classics such as "Ripped to Shreds", "Corporation Pull In" and a shortened "After World Obliteration", as well as an obscure one. I suspect that these are rehearsal takes, because the sound is unpolished and kinda muffled, but it has to be said, for such a primitive take it all sounds pretty OK, but that could also be because I'm so familiar with the versions on "World Downfall". Still, the overall sound is no disaster, to be honest, at least not for the underground ear. The guitars are pretty audible, be it in the background a bit, while the drums (the snare foremost) come through well enough. Through this come the gruff growls of Garcia, struggling his way through the raging wall of sound during rehearsal. Some little slip ups and small mistakes are heard here and there, but despite this, you can clearly hear the well-oiled machine the band was, even back then. Even on these pretty crude and primitive recordings, one can hear the quality at play, with blast beats propelling forth the fluid and uncomplicated punkish guitar riffing, alternating the tempo with more hardcore/thrash type polka beats, all delivered with hardcore punk energy and crazy amounts of fervour. They were the perfect mix of primitive death/thrash and hardcore/grind, which can even be heard on these rough recordings. How do people say it again? Often imitated, never bettered, something like that?

After turning the record over, it's time for that other Oscar Garcia fronted formation, Nausea. Dealing with pretty much the same ingredients as Terrorizer, being raucous hardcore fueled riffing propelled forward by blasting ferocity, with of course again Garcia's gruff growl on top of the cake. From the sound of it, we are again treated to rehearsal recordings, and as with the Terrorizer side, the sound is unpolished and raw, yet it's not that hard to make out what's happening. Although being a bit sharper in sound, all the instruments can be heard well enough, only the vocals don't get through as good as on the Terrorizer side, but it's not difficult to get a good picture of Nausea's sound. The rapid fire guitar riffs and distorted bass get rushed forward by the blasting percussion, and furious velocity gets alternated by slower, mosh-ready parts, providing the perfect platform for the vocals. In its totality, Nausea has a more hardcore punk vibe to their music than Terrorizer does, giving the music a more basic feel throughout, adding an extra gnarly edge. True old school grindcore for the fanatic, alright.

Although this is a pretty interesting split because of the history behind it, I would not say that it is an essential release. The only reason that I have it in my collection is because it's a Headache release, a label I'm a bit of a collector nerd for. Besides, both bands have full lengths that showcase them in far better conditions than this release does, but if you are, like me, a completist, then this is still a pretty interesting release for sure.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10