Slaughter
Fuck of Death
Nun
Slaughter Records 2004
Slaughter is one of my all time favorite bands. This is a message I can't
emphasize enough. They had such a powerful brand of evil that fell somewhere
between death and thrash metal and had a similar power in their riffs to Celtic
Frost. What we have with Fuck of Death is a rehearsal from 1986 with Chuck
Shuldiner of Death fame joining in. For those of you not in the know Evil Chuck
had briefly joined Slaughter before the recording of the Strappado album and
here we have the musical document to prove it. Heh heh. Chuck left/was kicked
out of Slaughter before the recording of the album though. On this rehearsal
recording we are treated to the band playing a bunch of their classics and even
a couple of Death classics such as my favorite Death song Evil Dead. The sound
quality leaves a little to be desired but this is a rehearsal demo so that is to
be expected. The vocals and the drums are a little buried at times. The
guitars are kind of thin and tinny sounding. Also there is a lot of feedback
fuzz circulating in the mix. But it is still very listenable and sounds better
than a lot of other rehearsals floating around out there. The packaging is
pretty cool with lots of pics and flyers as well as some informative linear
notes form none other than Dave Hewson himself. As a disk I probably won't
listen to this often but it is a crucial document for an interesting period in
the formative history of death and thrash metal. And for a Slaughter completist
like me it is essential. I am so glad they had something left in their vaults
that I didn't already have.