Rigor Mortis - Slaves to the Grave (2014)

I'm not ashamed to say that Rigor Mortis has always been a bit of a one hit wonder for me...their eponymous debut has remained in my regular rotation for well over a quarter century now. Even if it was never one of my favorites of that early extreme death-thrash wave, placed behind Reign in Blood, Hell Awaits, Darkness Descends, Violent Restitution, Seven Churches, it's still one of those immortal 80s efforts which loses absolutely no luster decades later, I can pop it in and still feel the same shivers and reverence that I did when tossing newspapers into doorways with "Bodily Dismemberment" in my headphones, mullet flapping in the wind, disgruntled as all youth are won to be when they haven't gotten their genitals wet yet or been beaten down by the monotony of the 'real world'. After that, the Texans provided little more than diminishing returns...the Freaks EP striving towards but not living up to the debut, and the Rigor Mortis vs. The Earth another of those innumerable turds clenched out in the 90s by a band attempting to remain relevant against the shitstorms of alternative, hip hop and grunge that were arriving.

Slaves to the Grave was inevitable; when the band returned to active status around 2005 and started touring, you knew they were going to take another shot in the studio just like so many of them do (Coroner, I'm waiting on you), and when that day arrived it was either going to be a disappointment or a triumph. Well, the reality has been bittersweet; with great guitarist Mike Scaccia passing away in 2012, we've got here a self-released, postmortem comeback that marks what I assume will be the permanent dissolution of the band, since his playing was just so natural and crucial to their identity against a whole host of other groups in the late 80s. So Slaves to the Grave becomes more than a reunion album, but one final chainsaw raised aloft to the heavens, revved up and ready to soak in the blood of angels, or at least the horror-buff thrashers who so treasure this band in their collections. One might say there was a little bit of pressure on this to perform, but I could predict in advance that what we'd have here would be another of those countless 'catch up' albums, a band trying to keep pace with its original magnum opus, challenge its own youth, rather than progress forward in any noteworthy fashion...and that is pretty much what results. Which, depending on whom you ask, will prove either money in the bank, or imminent frustration...

I'm leaning towards the former, not that Slaves is in any danger of dethroning the '88 album, but because while so many of the riffing passages feel dead loyal to their classics, they at least try to restructure them enough that the choruses feel fresh. The signature of Rigor Mortis has always been the marriage of Bruce Corbitt's harsh, distempered grunts to Scaccia's fluid, insanely fast tremolo picking style, and that is 100% intact here, leads shredding out with abandon over the dextrous stream of rhythm guitar notes like entrails being introduced to the air during a summer killing. The original rhythm section of Casey Orr and Harden Harrison is likewise intact, with some great, fat, energetic baselines and drumming that caters more towards the thrash/speed metal roots of the band rather than attempting to keep extreme with the times...this isn't going to be something where you could expect ceaseless blasting, but Harrison definitely contributes to the momentum here with some desperate, straight rock beats that fit the riffing components while never skimping on the fills. Corbitt does sound mildly different here, his timbre doesn't really have that creepy graveyard echo so much as on the debut, but rather you can make out more of its visceral quality, like an even more constipated Phil Rind of Sacred Reich, and lots of gang shouts used as punctuation through both verses and choruses. But the real star of this show is Scaccia's lightning stroke...

There are a few beefier thrashing moments which do seem to pay some acknowledgement of their sophomore effort, but end up coming across more like Gwar during their prime (Scumdogs of the Universe style), which makes sense since Corbitt and Brockie had some similarities in their vocal technique, the latter just a lot more theatrical. But I'd also like to point out the one area in which Slaves to the Grave is distinct from its predecessors...the inclusion of horror soundtrack-inspired, bluesy bayou moments in tunes like "Poltergeist" and "Bloodbath" which are extremely well rendered and aesthetically resonant for a band whose inspirations include all manner of Southern Gothic grotesque and slashers...hell, this is the kind of thing that wouldn't have seemed out of place if the band Agony Column had a more prolific career, and what I found so amazing was how well it reflected the cover artwork, and immersed me once more into the imagery I always associated with the Texans as a teenager. Production-wise, it clings to the older aesthetics of pronounced, airy and evil guitars, but the drums and bass feel a little bit more balanced, and the few spaces between the shredding notes seem cleaner...it's the 21st century upgrade to what they could do in the 80s, sans a lot of the frills their core audience might have feared.

The question, then: was it worth it? The 26 year wait after the self-titled cult classic? Slaves to the Grave is no masterpiece, perhaps, and about half of the album can be chalked up to pure nostalgia, obeisance to the template they laid out back then...but there is actually just enough here to feel like it something more than a carbon copy, and that those decades did happen and that these guys did mature and bring in a little of their wealth of experience to the sound of their alma mater reborn.The atmospheric breaks really balance out the faster surges of material (of which there are many), whether they're the bluesier sort or the classical guitar representation of "Sacramentum Gladiatorium". A few of the tunes like "Fragrance of Corpse" are nearly as memorable as a "Wizard of Gore" or "Bodily Dismemberment", and there isn't really a 'bad' song on the album, even if it can't compare on a riff by riff basis, and a few like "Curse of the Draugr" just seems to be hanging in there stylistically, without offering much to the sum value. Ultimately, if not a 'run out and buy this right now' level record, it's the best material they've done since 1988, and oozes self-respect not only for what they had accomplished so many years ago, but what they might have transformed that foundation into had they continued to define this serial slasher subject matter in metallic form. Rest in peace, Mike Scaccia. And rest in pieces, Rigor Mortis, because you know they wouldn't have it any other way.

Verdict: Win [8/10] (all of your nightmares rolled into one)

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Rigor Mortis - Freaks EP (1989)

The 'deformed' and the 'defective' have always had a safe harbor in the horror genre, playing to the superficiality and commonality of the viewer. So, naturally, this was fertile terrain for Rigor Mortis to continue their tour of transforming classic/cult horror concepts into intense onslaughts of hyper thrashing proto-death metal. I admit to having some trepidation that the band might abandon Mike Scaccia's noteworthy tremolo picking style and prowess for a chunker, more accessible brand of mosh-thrash of the Anthrax variety, but thankfully this was a pretty direct descendant of the eponymous 1988 effort in terms of style and songwriting. I felt next to no disappointment at this fact, but I have to say I'm not of the general consensus on the Freaks EP: its loyalty to the patented Rigor Mortis sound is noted, but for whatever reason the songs here simply do not phase me like most of their predecessors.

Hell, Rigor Mortis was arguably one of the better 'second tier' US thrash records to hail from anywhere other than the East and West coasts, due largely to the guitars and vocals, and I'd even go so far as to say it had a profound if subtle influence on future decades of extreme metal. Many death and black metallers I've encountered have never even heard the thing, but there were not a lot of speed or thrash acts at the time playing with the acrobatic picking technique quite like Scaccia. In fact, I'd say he was so far ahead of his time that most extreme metal groups today don't even compose their tremolo lines with such fervor...he can twist them into a groove, bolster them into a lead sequence and could truly explore the concept of 'speed' itself. I guess without the blasting and constant double bass patterns so critical in the evolution of death and black mediums, Rigor Mortis might be taken slightly for granted while Gene Hoglan and Dave Lombardo are forever lauded, but surely Harden Harrison is a wild bastard playing on the more aggressive end of the thrash spectrum with loads of near-blast beats, constant fills and even having some fun with a cowbell, appropriate to the track "Cattle Mutilation".

The vocal position here had shifted from Bruce Corbitt to a guy named Doyle Bright, and while he doesn't have that same darkness to his bark, he does a pretty vicious impressive mix of Corbitt and other thrash frenzies like Ron Rinehart of Dark Angel. Casey Orr's bass lines here are perhaps the only department in which I actually consider Freaks a step-up from the debut. Sure, the guy's not going to receive the same level of attention as Scaccia, but he is literally fucking flying along those notes, and the relative thinness of the rhythm guitar in the mix ensures his constant presence and mildly muddled tone. Rigor Mortis is at its core about velocity; endless momentum, and this EP is no exception. It's produced cleanly and efficiently, with the vocals barking the loudest, and leads also blaring, but the rhythm instruments each playing off one another seamlessly. This is drag-strip horror metal, with exponentially more tremolo patterns than chords, and even at its slower points like "The Haunted" its still bustling along with great confidence and exploding squeals of guitar notes that dazzled just about every guitarist in the 80s that heard them, yours truly included.

Unfortunately, at least for me, the songs here simply do not have the resonance that gems like "Wizard of Gore", "Bodily Dismemberment" and "Condemned to Hell" from the debut had. I bought this when it was released and quickly forgot about it, perhaps because there was just so much better coming out at the time. In the intervening years I've gone back to it several times, but to the same underwhelming reaction. I find it nearly impossible to remember any of the riffs and notes, because honestly they're a little dull by comparison to their forebears. It's 'high speed boredom', to be sure, but pretty much victim to the same reasons a lot of death and black metal records won't gel with me decades later: lack of inspired, original, and evil patterns of notation that glue themselves to the memory and never un-stick. Tunes like "Freaks" and "Cattle Mutilation" might be perfect for fans of premature ejaculation, who just want something fast and mean and to get the whole experience over with, but there are never any interesting twists or licks waiting in the depths, apart from surface recognition of the members' dexterity. I never feel like the 'knife is in my hand' as I did with "Bodily Dismemberment". I don't feel like a psycho anymore when I hear this. It all comes down to that.

Hell, there's actually nothing 'freaky' about any of this if you've already heard the debut album. The songs here just seem like outtakes that weren't catchy enough to include among their betters. Rhythmically there aren't many interesting progressions, and hell even the "Six Feet Under" instrumental seems like a warm up exercise for the musicians with a little too much repetition. The lyrics are alright, and Bright's presence can hardly be held responsible for the lack of compelling songs (at least on this release), but I felt like Mike's note choices here felt a little dry; and thus I didn't hold out much hope for the inevitable sophomore Rigor Mortis vs. The Earth, which in addition to the lamentable songwriting, likely suffered from the 'thrash fatigue' of the early 90s and the fact that the band had been kicked to their third label home in three releases. Freaks is certainly superior to that, but it's just not that exciting beyond its visceral construction. Yeah, it's faster and arguably 'sicker' than Haunting the Chapel or The Eyes of Horror short-players, but there are single songs on those ("Chemical Warfare", "Confessions", etc) that stand out more than all 5.5 of these cuts combine. So, back on the shelf it goes, not nearly the curiosity that Mark Ryden's cover image suggests.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10] (hide your disgust as they greet you)

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Rigor Mortis - Rigor Mortis (1988)

Another casualty of the early 90s, Rigor Mortis were very far up the ladder of bands that had the potential and underground popularity to explode into the next Slayer or Metallica. Their self-titled debut in 1988 is a well-loved slab of sadistic, high speed thrash metal, and the only release of the band that I really liked.

Rigor Mortis is pretty damned heavy. As a starting point, take the rapid picking of Slayer and add a layer of musical proficiency to the evil rhythms this creates. "Welcome to Your Funeral" is a 3:30 track which showcases the band's instrumental abilities, in particular the guitars with their infernal desire to shred. After a flowing, fast acoustic segment, "Demons" will introduce you to the brutal vocals of Bruce Corbitt, reminiscent of Sacred Reich and Nasty Savage but a little darker. "Bodily Dismemberment" follows, an amazing song, probably the best on the album, for its opening tapping rhythm, and the grim, celebratory gait at which it marches forward, with walls of crashing rhythms and lyrics that libate the perverse, serial killer.

There's no need to worry bitch, just lay there and relax
And as you reach your climax I'll be reaching for my axe!
With five easy slices, you're in six lovely pieces
Bodily dismemberment as passion increases

Pretty intense lyrics for 1988! Remember, this is before the full-blown death metal scene produced a thousand, dime a dozen gore bands with lyrics about Ed Gein and Jeffrey Dahmer in the following decade. Most of the lyrics here are based on horror films. "Condemend to Hell" is another of the record's sickest tracks, with a fantastic, glorious thrusting rhythm guitar. "Wizard of Gore" has a great acoustic intro, and then more of the band's frenetically paced, tappy guitar lines. Two of other highlights are "Shroud of Gloom" and the final track, "Slow Death", which races past at blinding speed.

Rigor Mortis may not have transcended their underground status, but at the least they gave us this one fine release. The following Freaks EP and their later Rigor Mortis vs. The Earth album did little for me, and the band soon parted, with members going to GWAR and Ministry, among others. A few years ago, the band got back together for some small tours and shows, and I assume they still exist for that purpose, but whether or not we'll get a true successor to this album remains in doubt.

Highlights: Bodily Dismemberment, Condemned to Hell, Wizard of Gore, Shroud of Gloom

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (cathedrals are now cemeteries)

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