VARIOUS ARTISTS
Metal Massacre XIII
Metal Blade
· Unlucky number 13.
The compilation that kick-started countless imitators, not to mention the careers of Slayer, Metallica and a host of others returns in the most unholy of instalments – unlucky number 13. Too bad this collection isn’t as grandiose as its predecessors.
As is the case with any label CD collection mashing together all of the various wares, bad often outweighs good – the player’s skip button becomes more popular than the volume control. Suffice it to say this is the borderline case on Massacre XIII thanks to its predictability and awkward genre-hopping.
The plethora of metallic subcategories here collide and contrast (but occasionally compliment) one another. Witness how the furious pace set by brutal gorecore fiends Six Feet Under and Torture Killer is brought to a standstill due to prog-ish Eurodudes Amon Amarth, or how the pummelling straight-forwardness of aging death metal brigade Bolt Thrower feels almost unappreciated by shit-hot newbies The Black Dahlia Murder and so on. Overall, because of the general predictability and lack of new songs by bands of merit, Metal Massacre succumbs to its numeric superstition by being incredibly mediocre.
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