Chaos Horde - Demo 1986
March 23 2008 at 06:52:42 PM
Twenty years after their short-lived exposure on the
Metal Massacre IX compilation, Baton Rouge's unsung Thrash heroes finally have their day on LP. Just how and why these seven songs came to be released twenty years later is a strange matter of circumstance. Not carrying with it the typical "crossover" sound, the original tape unusually became the cult object of some later Louisiana punkers, one of whom now owns the Psycho Wolf label. Readers should take care not to fall into the wild hype surrounding the release, but also know that the untitled demo remains, even today, a solid effort tuned into the best of the then dominant Bay Area sound.
While nothing is kept hidden in this respect—the opening riff of "Needle Damage" is an obvious nod to the one used in Metallica's "Metal Militia"—Chaos Horde maintain a unique charisma brought forth in weltering vocals, mashed up rhythm and convulsive melody punching through the drywall and swamp heat until you nearly have the underside pattern of a high-top tattooed on your face. Some small vindication then, as we're reminded that even while some of their peers were able to at least cut a record before fading to black, none of them ever wrote anything as skillfully savage as "Razor's Edge," "Total Death," and "Mad Monk."
[Todd DePalma]
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