### Terrorizer: Hordes of zombies

#### 23/03/12 || Smalley

It takes a very rare band to release one album, and then become influential icons of an entire genre just based on the strength of that, but Terrorizer did just such a thing with 1989’s “World downfall”. However, the question of whether to reunite and start recording again is always a thorny one, especially when you had an already-unblemished track record; you can get lucky like Cynic, and go back to kicking ass from where you left off, or… you can release something like fucken “Darker days ahead”. Ouch.

Anyway, here we are 6 years later; former member and grindcore pioneer Jesse Pintado is dead of liver failure, having passed away just 5 days after “Darker” was released, Pete Sandoval had to sit out from recording on his signature band’s latest album due to back surgery, David Vincent is back in the band after a, let’s say “interesting” fan reaction to certain sections of the new Morbid Angel, and they had to bring a new guy in on guitar duty to replace Jesse. Seems like a bit of a shaky prospect to say the least, eh? Sadly, while I hoped I could report that “Hordes of zombies” is a Rocky-like triumph of an underdog (yeah he lost the fight, but got the girl), but instead, the cold, hard reality of the matter is that “Hordes” is a decent-ish-but-disappointing release from a band that I think is (er, was…?) capable of better.

You see, the main prob with “Hordes” is the loss of identity that Terrorizer has suffered by straying from the principles of “downfall”; instead of sticking with the dirty-but-crisp sounding, intelligent (relatively-speaking), and to-the-point grindcore of their debut, “Darker days ahead” took a blander deathgrind approach, with less energy, clunky, ungroovy riffs, and a dirty ‘n murky production. Not good. “Hordes” is a mild step up from that in both aspects; the production, while still flawed, is at least more listenable than “Darker”‘s, and songwriting-wise, there’s more energy and some catchier material, and a few really intense and involving sections with some killer blasturbation by Pete The Feet, so I’m glad to hear he hasn’t lost his touch.

Overall, it holds my attention okay while it’s on, but “Hordes” is still disappointing in how much of it feels homogeneous and on autopilot, which becomes tiresome, and is a real disappointment considering how “downfall” is one of the few grindcore records I can listen to without getting worn out halfway thru (and listen to multiple times in a relatively short span, too). Yeah, go ahead and call me pussy, but WD was just a special album for me, highly aggressive without ever becoming annoying, and with a lil’ bit of intelligence put into it to boot, so I can’t help but be let down to hear how Terrorizer has lost that knack. Too much of the material here just has energy put into it without much thought given to making things have a deeper sense of purpose. It’s like the system of those gnomes from South Park: “Phase 1? Collect energy. Phase 2? …. Phase 3? Profit!”.

It’s like the metal equivalent of dangling some shiny keys in front of the listener and hoping that keeps them occupied and makes for an interesting listen, without caring all that much about song catchiness or diversity. They’ve exchanged the clunkiness of “Darker” for more speed, but no more groove. By the halfway point of the album, you start to wish that they had just cut out half of the tracks here and maybe worked on extending the good songs some, which probably would’ve resulted in a tighter listen. Besides the songwriting, the sound here is also a let-down, with this relatively sterile, sanitized, shiny production, the kind that Dew-Scented likes to use (the kind I rather dislike). Yuck. And last on my checklist of disappointments for “Hordes” are the rather predictable and generic demon-growling of Anthony Rezhawk; they are serviceable, but to bring up “downfall” yet again, I really do miss Oscar Garcia’s much wilder, “woolier” harsh vocals. Meh.

I guess I’d put this in the same general category as something like Atheist’s 2010 release “Jupiter”; an alright effort from some iconic, reformed old-timers, but hardly a threat to beat their glory days, and I guess you could say it’s a step in the right direction from the last album, but not a very big one. And compared to what they’ve accomplished in the past (for the millionth fucken time), I just have to demand something much better. Better luck next time, fellas.

- Information
- Released: 2012
- Label: Season Of Mist
- Website: www.terrorizergrindcore.net
- Band
- Anthony Rezhawk: vocals
- Katina Culture: guitars
- David Vincent: bass
- Pete Sandoval: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Intro
- 02. Hordes Of Zombies
- 03. Ignorance And Apathy
- 04. Subterfuge
- 05. Evolving Era
- 06. Radiation Syndrome
- 07. Flesh To Dust
- 08. Generation Chaos
- 09. Broken Mirrors
- 10. Prospect Of Oblivion
- 11. Malevolent Ghosts
- 12. Forward To Annihilation
- 13. State Of Mind
- 14. A Dying Breed