REPULSION
HORRIFIED (OXBLOOD VINYL)

UPC: 781676490912
Label: RELAPSE
Format: LP
Release Date: February 24, 2023
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When you think of grindcore—and if you're lurking around this sectionof the magazine you probably consider it often enough—thoughts immediatelyturn to the British institution Napalm Death. Almost tragically, listeners oftenforget about the other two pieces of grindcore's unholy trinity—Boston'sunheralded Siege and perhaps even more importantly, Flint, Michigan's foulestexports, Repulsion. In fact, any member of Napalm Death will tell you just howmuch both of these acts influenced the band.

While Siege may have provided the earliest grindcore blueprints back in 1984,by 1986 Repulsion were the only band on the planet that could challenge Napalmin terms of sheer velocity, plainly evidenced on Repulsion's sole full-lengthrecording Horrified. Yet while Napalm and Siege concerned themselveswith issues both personal and political, Repulsion sung of festering boils andtransvestite zombies, aligning themselves with the soon-to-develop death metalinsurgence.

Nonetheless, only devout underground tape-traders got to hear the band before1989 when Earache Records imprint Necrosis (the label conceived by Carcass'Jeff Walker and Bill Steer) finally released Horrified amid that era'sdeath metal deluge. Reissued in 1992 by Relapse only to be deleted again a fewyears later, this 18-track 29-minute classic still endures against grindingcontemporaries like Pig Destroyer and Nasum despite offering such a gaunt guitarclatter. Instead, Repulsion relied on frontman Scott Carlson's dirty bassbuzz, which Napalm liberally borrowed before even paying tribute to the soundon their 1990 European tour shirts (start your eBay search engines), and thelight-speed drumming of Dave Grave to conduct their primitive minute-and-a-halflong eruptions.

More than a mere historical document, however, Horrified still dismantles eardrumsnearly 20 years after its recording.