Horrific – Your Worst Nightmare (2009) [Razorback] // Grade: B+

I wasn’t listening to death metal in the 1980′s. Hell, come 1990, I was only 9 years old. With all the death metal bands that came out of the 1980′s it’s been hailed as the golden age for the genre. The sound is iconic and the bands that came out of that era influence artists to this very day. One record label that has picked up where the ’80s death scene left off is Razerback. Horrific’s Your Worst Nightmare is easily the best album to come from the label. Horrific seems to have one goal in mind; make a soundtrack for a long-lost slasher film.

Your Worst Nightmare is everything you’d think it is based on the album art alone. Death metal from the 80′s wasn’t just about the music. It had a lot to do with creating the atmosphere using sound clips from horror and slasher films. Cheesy special effects, blood and guts, drugs, booze, naked chicks and zombies ripping apart people’s entrails add to the sound. All this is the brain child of one man, Slasher Dave. Dave delivers accelerated riffs and slow, doomish breaks without ruining the momentum. It’s no secret that Acid Witch’s sound has influenced Horrific; the riffage is almost identical. To top off the pristine metal, his vocals add to the fake blood and pork guts with typical, yet appropriate growls.

This is another one of those albums that is best reviewed as a whole, not per track. Track after track Your Worst Nightmare delivers iconic death metal for fans of all metal. It doesn’t matter if you grew up in the 1980′s or the 1970′s, you’ll appreciate the sound that Slasher Dave has somehow butchered to fit into a garbage bag. It’s such a great listen that it seems like it ends moments after you hit play. Fast forward to the hidden track and play it again.

- Prolly