Review by Felix on December 30, 2019.

Here we have the entire discography of Massacre, not in terms of quantity, but in terms of quality. Take a look at the average evaluation of their further full-lengths and you know what I mean. Furthermore, I have to mention that the Earache release from 2016 additionally contains the Inhuman Condidtions EP. From this it follows that I enjoy almost an hour of generic death metal.

The Ed Repka artwork is very pink, but the music paints a picture without light colors. Darkness starts to reign as soon as the animalistic growling of Kam Lee comes together with low tuned guitars. Only some noisy, slightly dissonant solos add a few screaming tones that contrast with the shady base of Massacre's approach. This approach does not allow much flexibility, but the band varies the tempo quite successfully in order to achieve a certain degree of diversity. "Cryptic Remains" and "Defeat Remains" see no reason to hurry, while the title track and "Corpsegrinder" pummel the listener with aggressive velocity. "Corpsegrinder" once appeared on demos of Death, but here the credits go to Rick Rozz. He is the only composer of the band and therefore it is no wonder that the songs create a more or less uniform overall picture. (The stale Venom cover - it features Cronos himself on bass and vocals, is this the sense of a cover version? - can be ignored in this context and the same applies for the slightly dramatic, theatre-like intro of "Chamber of Ages".)

Honestly speaking, more than 25 years after its release, From Beyond has lost a bit of its momentum. Its highlights like the title track with the hymnal beginning, the buzzing leads and the vehement, double bass driven chorus with its slicing guitars still hits the bull's eye, while some other tracks just pass by. What was the idea behind "Defeat Remains"? It lacks energy and dynamic, even though it offers a speedy section at the end. The song reveals a frequently occurring problem of From Beyond; some riffs are too flat. They create an omnipresent acoustic carpet, but they do not score with that kind of accurate precision which separates outstanding from good riffs. Strictly attacking pieces like the swift "Biohazard" still shine in full glory, but this kind of songs remains the minority. Don't get me wrong, this is not to say that the pretty well produced From Beyond falls by the wayside. But when I listened to the vinyl’s back in 1991, the album and the added extra single "Provoked Accurser", I thought that another gold bar had enriched my collection. But from my present point of view, I am speaking of a good album, no more, no less.

The songs from Inhuman Condition underline the approach of the full-length. "Provoked Accurser" represents its tracks very well in view of its solid riffing, its screeching solo guitars and its proper amount of tempo changes. Nevertheless, I cannot say that these songs still take me under their spell. Only Massacre's greatest tracks - I recommend listening closely to "Dawn of Eternity" - have withstood the test of time.

Rating: 7.3 out of 10