There were no signs of decline of any sort on the band’s third instalment… save for the title that is. The guys produced another steady death/thrash opus along the lines of the preceding ones, probably mirroring the radical change of musical scenery in the early-90’s with the title again, but music-wise theirs was going to be a defiant stance… apparently. And thumbs up for that.
If we consider the album reviewed here in the context of the output of the other three renowned death/thrash hybriders from France (Agressor, Loudblast, No Return), then we have few reasons to praise it sky-high. Agressor unleashed the epic melo-death metal delight “Symposium of Rebirth” the same year, and Loudblast had acquitted themselves a year earlier with the near-sublime prog-death odyssey “Sublime Dementia”. This effort came third in order of the Sun, thus instigating the adaptation campaign in its homeland, the latter enriched later with No Return’s “Season of Soul” and Mercyless’ “C.O.L.D.”. In other words, Massacra betrayed the old guard first over there; shame on them, right?
Not really; simply because the guys have done a fairly cool job on this compromising tune collection. Yes, it would be a hefty surprise to hear the band dancing the groove dance, largely for their core fanbase, but this is one of those rare recordings that may as well compel you to start jumping along with the musicians… and not out of pity mind you. The metamorphosis becomes evident instantly from the very first hooks of “Twisted Mind”, a nervy groovy waltzer with only Pascal Jorgensen’s venomous shouty deathy vocals providing the binding link with the early exploits. Doesn’t sound like an unpardonable sin, this twisted lullaby, and although the cheesier, more radio-friendly material (“Madness Remains”) borders on the off-putting, there’s little wrong with vigorous roller-coasters like the outrageously restless “Can't Stand” and the idiosyncratic headbanger “Harmless Numbers”. Such groove-disruptive escapades aside, the album flows in a pleasantly expected manner, the heavy but welcoming stomps on “Broken Youth” and the catchy hit potential of “My Reality” wrapping the album in a warm hospitable cloak, readily accepting lyrical acoustic all-instrumentals like “Piece of Real” into the modernized foray.
No massacres of any kind; this is a civilized, well-measured recording which saw its rightful place next to other adaptational works like Entombed’s ‘Wolverine Blues” and Sentenced’s “Amok” released the same year, this one way more insistently rubbing shoulders with the post-thrashy groovy currents, without blindly falling into the Pantera or Machine Head-clone factory. Nope, the Frenchies had their own factory, one that always contained contaminants (remember the two above-stated examples from No Return and Mercyless), as if the step back to old school metal normalcy was always a lurking possibility… one that both No Return and Mercyless took after a short period of numetal vacillation…
but one that was shied away by the team here, largely due to their more or less timely dissolution. They did try to humanize humanity, though, with “Humanize Human” a year later, but having in mind the very short gap between the two outings, it came as no surprise this very faithful sequel, another groove-ridden remedy, this time containing no nostalgic looks back at the early days. Not bad at all once again, it was a somewhat underwhelming finale to a short but interesting career, which is still waiting for a follow-up… yep, from the French veterans it’s only Massacra who continue to lie dormant, playing the now obsolete indefinite-hibernation game. I’m not sure if it’s worth of note some of the band members’ attempt at staying alive and relevant on the 90’s scene with the Zero Tolerance stint, a tedious industrial groovy post-thrashy mish-mash (one full-length, “Zero for All”, 1996) that did very little to keep them afloat. This sickness the band contracted in the distant 1994 finished them off, eventually… they never found the remedy to this benign gesture of conformity. A pity…
After two masterpieces and one boring album nobody knew what to expect next from MASSACRA. Their last Death Metal album was utterly boring and lacked the enthusiasm and joy you could experience on their first two albums.
And then they released "Sick" and everything changed.
First their style: "Sick" has some Death Metal vocals but that is about everything Death Metal alike on this album. Even their raw Thrash Metal power was gone. But the listening excitment was back.
Second: On their first three albums they tried to be as brutal as possible. Now they are as relaxed as possible.
With "Sick" MASSACRA became a Neo Thrash Metal pioneer on some songs and played some Thrash Metal influenced Groove Metal on the rest of this album.
There are some really good bangers on this one, but you should expect a lot of "easy listening" Thrash Metal.
Their is only one album "Sick" can be compared with and this is KREATOR's "Renewal" but KREATOR were still KREATOR on "Renewal". MASSACRE were no longer the band they once were. Yes it was a sad day for the Death Metal fans, but for the rest it could have been all fun if the had listened to this "Death Metal" band.
So if you are open minded you should test this album somewhere between "Post Groove Thrash" and Heavy Metal.