Massakre (band)

Massakre
Massakre
Origin	Santiago, Chile
Genres	Thrash metal, death metal
Years active	1982–1990; 1999–present
Labels	Negative Productions
Associated acts	Pentagram, Necrosis, Warpath, Vulcano
Website	http://www.massakre.scd.cl/ official website
Members	Yanko Tólic; Eduardo Vidal; Héctor Melo; Gabriel Heard

Last updated May 11, 2019

Massakre is a Chilean thrash metal band,^[1] and a pioneer for the genre both in Chile and throughout Latin America.

Thrash metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo. The songs usually use fast percussive beats and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work. The lyrics often deal with social issues and criticism of The Establishment, using direct and denunciatory language, an approach borrowed from hardcore punk.

Latin America is a group of countries and dependencies in the Western Hemisphere where Romance languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, and French are predominantly spoken; it is broader than the terms Ibero-America or Hispanic America. The term "Latin America" was first used in an 1856 conference with the title "Initiative of the America. Idea for a Federal Congress of the Republics", by the Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao. The term was used also by Napoleon III's French government in the 1860s as Amérique latine to consider French-speaking territories in the Americas, along with the larger group of countries where Spanish and Portuguese languages prevailed, including the Spanish-speaking portions of the United States Today, areas of Canada and the United States where Spanish, Portuguese and French are predominant are typically not included in definitions of Latin America.

The band started as a garage band from 1982 to 1984 and moved into thrash metal in 1985. It has released three studio albums, Massacre (1989), Psychotic Redemption (2001) and Crematorium (2005) with various other releases like demos, EPs, and compilations. They are also known for using corpse paint in a thrash metal band, later imitated by others.

Corpse paint or corpsepaint is a style of black and white makeup used by black metal bands for concerts and band photos. The makeup is used to make the musicians appear inhuman, corpse-like, or demonic, and is perhaps "the most identifiable aspect of the black metal aesthetic."

History

Beginnings

Massakre logo.

Yanko Tólic started his musical career forming a garage band in 1982 named Sepulcro. The band didn't find much success and Tólic changed it to Embrión. He also developed his skills by studying guitar playing, with the Chilean scene dominated by rock bands like Tumulto, Sol y Medianoche and Congreso. Influenced by acts like Celtic Frost, Slayer and Hellhammer, he changed his genre to thrash metal and established the band Massakre in 1985, by recruiting Andrés Cabrío Marchant from Necrosis. The band appeared in major events in Santiago and Valparaiso, where there was great support for this type of music, alongside groups like Pentagram, Belial, Tormentor and Vulcano.

Celtic Frost were a Swiss extreme metal band from Zürich. They are known for their strong influence on the development of extreme metal. Formed in 1981 as Hellhammer, the band became Celtic Frost in 1984 and was active until 1993. It re-formed in 2001 and disbanded following frontman Tom Gabriel Fischer's departure in 2008. The band was inspired by metal bands such as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Venom as well as gothic rock groups like Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Christian Death and by the hardcore punk of Discharge.

Slayer is an American thrash metal band from Huntington Park, California. The band was formed in 1981 by vocalist and bassist Tom Araya and guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman. Slayer's fast and aggressive musical style made them one of the founding "big four" bands of thrash metal, alongside Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax. Slayer's current lineup comprises King, Araya, drummer Paul Bostaph and guitarist Gary Holt. Hanneman and drummers Dave Lombardo and Jon Dette are former members of the band.

Hellhammer was a Swiss extreme metal band from Nurensdorf, active during 1981–1984. They are regarded as a key influence on black metal, and one of the founders of death metal. In June 1984, Hellhammer disbanded and founded another highly influential band, Celtic Frost.

Career

After completing a successful festival tour, the band released some demo tapes that became popular, the first being Pissing into the Mass Grave in 1986, followed the same year by Altazor and Beyond the Psychotic Redemption in 1988. The latter contains the song "Morbid Death" that became a metal anthem for followers. But with success came the inevitable charges against the whole movement with some bands abandoning their route. This also affected Massakre, but they continued undeterred. A great point of opposition to the band was it using corpse paint which brought in charges of Satanic rituals and animal sacrifice and being possessed by evil spirits. The band tried to stop these rumours, but the accusations continued.

Massakre released its first studio album in 1989. Entitled Massacre, although being thrash metal, it contained symphonic touches, and a conceptual story that links all the songs. But it was with the release of the better-produced Psychotic Redemption in 2001. After the release of their third studio album Crematorium in 2005, with additional influence of speed metal rather than just thrash metal, things cooled down. But the band continued to release EPs and compilation albums and has witnessed a comeback with the band also appearing in metal festivals like The Metal Fest in 2012.^[2]

Speed metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that originated in the late 1970s from new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM) roots. It is described by AllMusic as "extremely fast, abrasive, and technically demanding" music.

Members

Band members

Yanko Tólic – vocals, rhythm guitar (1982–present)
Eduardo Vidal – bass guitar (1986–2003, 2005–present)
Gabriel Head – lead guitar (2004–present)
Héctor Melo – drums, percussion (2010–present)

In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section ; and to provide all or part of the harmony, i.e. the chords from a song's chord progression, where a chord is a group of notes played together. Therefore, the basic technique of rhythm guitar is to hold down a series of chords with the fretting hand while strumming or fingerpicking rhythmically with the other hand. More developed rhythm techniques include arpeggios, damping, riffs, chord solos, and complex strums.

The bass guitar is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, except with a longer neck and scale length, and four to six strings or courses.

Lead guitar is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure. The lead is the featured guitar, which usually plays single-note-based lines or double-stops. In rock, heavy metal, blues, jazz, punk, fusion, some pop, and other music styles, lead guitar lines are usually supported by a second guitarist who plays rhythm guitar, which consists of accompaniment chords and riffs.

Past members

Andres Nacrur – drums (1985–1986, 1998)
Jose Miguel Nacrur – guitar (1985–1986)
Mauricio Yañez – drums (1985)
Alfredo Torres – guitar (1985)
Christian Miccolo – bass (1985)
Claudio Muñoz – drums (1986)
Marco Carreño – drums (1987 to 1990)
Manuel Castro – keyboards (1989–1990)
Alain Saintard – vocals (1990)
Patricio Albornoz – drums (1999)

Discography

Demos

Pissing into the Mass Grave (1986)
Altazor (1986)
Beyond the Psychotic Redemption (1988)

Albums

Massacre (1989)
Psychotic Redemption (2001)
Crematorium (2005)

EPs

In Aeternum (2011)

Compilations

Back from the Mass Grave (2006)
Pissing into the Mass Grave + Fantasmas (2007)

Singles

Mortuary (2011)

Not officially released

Demo I (1986)
Demo II (1986)

Related Research Articles

A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.

Possessed is an American death metal band, originally formed in 1983. Noted for their fast style of playing and Jeff Becerra's growled vocals, they are often called the first band in the death metal genre. The band is also notable for featuring Larry LaLonde, who was the guitarist of Possessed during the mid-1980s, and went on to join Primus.

Sacred Reich is an American thrash metal band based in Phoenix, Arizona, that was formed in 1985. Singer/songwriter Phil Rind's interest was in socially conscious and political speed metal. After several albums on Metal Blade Records, they signed to Hollywood Records for a short stint, but later returned to Metal Blade to continue their musical career. The band split in 2000, but reunited in 2006. Sacred Reich has been credited, along with Testament, Destruction, Death Angel and Dark Angel, for leading the second wave of thrash metal movement in the late 1980s.

Tankard is a thrash metal band from Frankfurt am Main, Germany, founded in 1982. Along with Kreator, Destruction and Sodom, Tankard is often considered one of the "Big Teutonic Four" of Teutonic thrash metal. They released their first record in 1986 and continue to write and record in the same vein: fast metal songs in honour of alcohol.

Dead Head is a Dutch thrash metal band from the Dutch city Kampen. The band was formed in 1989 by the four original members Tom van Dijk, Robbie Woning (guitar), Ronnie van der Wey (guitar), and Hans Spijker (drums). Their mission was to become the most intensive and brutal thrash-metal band Europe ever had seen. They were influenced by classic thrash metal bands like Dark Angel, Kreator and Sadus.

Hirax is an American thrash metal band from Cypress, California. Starting in 1984 under the leadership of vocalist Katon W. De Pena, the band played in Los Angeles and San Francisco with the other new thrash metal bands of the area such as Metallica, Exodus, and Slayer. The band was an early example of thrash metal, speed metal and crossover thrash.

Repulsion is an American grindcore band from Flint, Michigan, founded in 1984.

Viper is a Brazilian heavy metal band formed in 1985 initially influenced by Iron Maiden and the new wave of British heavy metal, later developing a very particular sound.

Loudblast is a Death/Thrash band that pioneered the genres in France, and one of the most important French metal bands of the 1990s.

Leeway is an American crossover thrash band formed in Astoria, New York, USA in 1984 by guitarist A.J. Novello and vocalist Eddie Sutton under the name The Unruled. They played alongside groups such as Crumbsuckers, Prong, Ludichrist, Bad Brains, and Sick of It All at the predominantly hardcore punk-oriented CBGB venue, and had metal influences from the start.

Post Mortem was an American death metal band, formed in 1982 in suburban Boston. They formed when the members of the band were still in high school. The band rehearsed every day, often rushing home to write music after classes. John McCarthy penned the personal songs while drummer Rick McIver wrote the gore lyrics. John Alexander helped write most of the songs. “Our whole concept was that we honestly didn’t give a fuck. That’s why we’re lumped in with punk rock as well as metal,” McCarthy said, adding: “It’s much better to piss off people who think they’re pissed off than to piss off your grandma or your mother or your father.”

Defiance was an American thrash metal band from Oakland, California. They played a decidedly technical style of thrash originally evoking bands like Testament, though they would later move on to playing in their own unique, more progressive thrash style. After dissolving in 1995, they reformed in 2005 and released their fourth studio album The Prophecy in late 2009. However, they broke up again in 2012.

Toxic Holocaust is an American thrash metal band from Portland, Oregon.

Sacrifice is a Canadian thrash metal band from Toronto, Ontario. The band was formed by guitarists Rob Urbinati and Joe Rico in 1983. Sacrifice played a prominent role in the 1980s underground metal scene in Toronto, and along with Voivod, Razor and Annihilator, they are considered one of the "Big 4" of Canadian thrash metal. The band released four studio albums before parting ways in 1993. After coming back together to play a reunion concert in 2006, they released their fifth studio album The Ones I Condemn on Brazilian label Marquee Records in 2009. Although the band faced numerous lineup changes, especially in their early days, founding guitarists Urbinati, Rico and bassist Scott Watts recorded every studio album and demo and drummer Gus Pynn on everything but the Apocalypse Inside demo and CD.

Dorso is a heavy metal band from Chile.

Pentagram Chile is an extreme metal band from Chile, formed in 1985. They were part of the first wave of extreme metal in the mid 80's, along with bands like Possessed, Celtic Frost, Sepultura and others. Considered as a very influential band in the Black metal and Death metal genres, they have influenced bands like At The Gates, Dismember, Napalm Death and Avulsed among others.

Vastator is a Chilean thrash metal formed in 1986. Prominent nationalist; labeled as a “white nationalist” on political message boards.

Stress is a Brazil heavy metal band. They were among the earliest Brazilian metal bands, and recorded what is considered to be the first Brazilian heavy metal album, the self-titled Stress.

Ukrainian metal is the heavy metal music scene of Ukraine. The most common Ukrainian heavy metal subgenres are black, pagan, folk and death metal. The most popular and well-known bands are black metal bands Drudkh, Nokturnal Mortum, Khors, death metal bands Fleshgore, Firelake, folk metal bands Tin Sontsia, Veremiy and Jinjer, a metalcore band. Among the biggest festivals are Metal Heads Mission, Carpathian Alliance, Global East (Kyiv), ProRock (Kyiv).

References

↑ Patrimonio Chileno: Massakre en "Súper Rock" (1987) (in Spanish)
↑ Orgullo Nacional (Chile): Conoce a las bandas nacionales presentes en THE METAL FEST ^{[ permanent dead link ]} (in Spanish)

External links

Enciclopedia del Rock Chileno: Massakre

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Patrimonio Chileno: Massakre en "Súper Rock" (1987) (in Spanish)

[2] Orgullo Nacional (Chile): Conoce a las bandas nacionales presentes en THE METAL FEST ^{[ permanent dead link ]} (in Spanish)