Frightmare: Midnight Murder Mania Album Review!
Music Review:
I can’t believe that it’s been over a year since I last threw a music review up onto the pages of Severed Cinema. It’s maybe time to change genres as well since I usually break down and blast out ‘60s and ‘70s obscurities etcetera, I thought to myself “Why not go over to my other musical love? Metal.” Well, Death, Black, and Gore Metal to be precise.
This goes back to my young teenhood hearing Black Sabbath and Hawkwind in my home, courtesy of mum and dad in-between standard other genres you’d expect from an ex-hippy and a biker. That was the start, then came Motorhead and Iron Maiden. However, it was the end of the ‘90s when I discovered Mortician and Gorerotted in an old second-hand record store top of my street that I found my niche and adoration for loud growling brutality.
What I don’t like are some bands who just play fast, growl, and spurt vomit all over the place whilst naming themselves something ridiculous like Dead Tortoise Membranes titling their tracks with over-the-top graphic words and the tracks deliver nothing. Attention seeking shock value. If you growl with a huge gory dripping heart and a mission (such as Carcass and Disgorge), you’re alright with me.
Frightmare was an incarnation of Maniac Neil, the unsung hero of horror in metal. Yeah, Mortician and Impetigo have sampled movies, but Neil has done it with so much finesse, the class of a fanboy, it makes you all warm and glowing crimson inside. His other bands, Bloodfreak and Lord Gore, to name two, have all followed the same formula. Deathgrind or Gore Metal is in a class of its own. Impaled, Cannibal Corpse, Aborted… frantic rabid rage, but anything that uses and abuses horror movies among the ear punching madness ups the ante with me totally screwing my head and violating me. I love it!
Midnight Murder Mania was the début album, raw and rugged, proving that Neil has always been a passionate man with aims to punish and torture those innocent people who accidentally wander into this territory. You kind of envision that scene in August Underground when the guy shouts into the mic to Korn’s Blind whilst everyone slams around, but after a lengthy sound clip from The Burning, the first slice of the autopsy, Cropsy, erupts from your speakers. Fast, loud and as the vocals rip chunks from your cranium, it’s game on, you’re off down a rabbit hole filled to capacity with rotted cadavers.
The title tune kicks in next and is pure adrenalin. The voice changes constantly, from scream, to grumbling FX, to a high-pitched choking thing. The lead guitar sweeps the soundscape as the drum skins take a hell of a battering. Transitions abound, the music changes here and there to really keep your attention.
The album continues as absolute chaos, head nod inducing walls of pulsing grinding metal. Like Napalm Death on speed, but still capturing a sense of inventiveness and melody.
Friday the 13th has its introduction by using the obligatory movie sample, “Kill her mommy…” before more violence inspiring grind blasts out. Again, the transformations in rhythms and the guitars really stand out and make Frightmare far more of an adventure. The music on this one reminded me of The Murder Junkies Feed my Sleaze album. Unfortunately, its follow up, Slasher Holocaust suffers as it befalls the “Oh, it’s that same kind of stuff again” category. The Prowler really steps up, mid-way screams of a victim, and a brief spoken piece, it’s the pace that reels in all the loose ends created by the prior tune.
Number seven, Be My Bloody Valentine, has a fuzzy old school bass and guitar which is a throwback to tapes discovered in dusty old record shops back in the day. Off tune, hard on the ears but wonderful. Black Christmas almost mellows down the whole experience, military like drums and a shrieking hair metal guitar before the chugging sonic blast you expect kicks in after a minute or so.
Neil and Grizzly Adams share vocal duties across the album and really gel it all together. As members moved on, Maniac Neil stuck to it (the daily grind, hahaha) thus other bands were created from his imagination. Lord Gore and Bloodfreak just two of his spawns. Pulverizer leapt from group to group, channelling his skills into Engorged (along with other past members) Weregoat and many more. He returned to the gathering under the Lord Gore name for a while also. Grizzly Adams stuck around with Neil for his upcoming exploitation movie gorged mutations.
The CD courtesy of Razorback Records has bright eye-catching art throughout – a load of yellow. The disc is so cool, showing posters to some of the films that are ravaged and dragged into the open for our entertainment. Great cover art by Jake Karns who provided meaty masterpieces for Gorerotted, Bloodfreak and many more.
I have no idea what is going on lyrically most of the time. On YouTube someone has posted the lyrics to Frightmare’s second album, but not this one shamefully. It all sounds grim and bloody but rather tongue in cheek at the same time courtesy of some words I could hear.
Both CDs are hard to get hold of nowadays for a decent price. I was lucky, the before mentioned record store, whom owner used to keep weapons under his counter, and a bottle of pills (“In case things get a bit too much.” he used to say) had a huge array of dirty second-hand CDs and he specialized in metal. However, they pop up sometimes reasonably marked on Discogs.
Frightmare is everything you expect and want from a gang of horror addicted blokes who have learnt their craft and decided to put together an album dedicated to their enthusiastic feelings for ‘70s and ‘80s flicks. Fun and sheer musical nasties.
By Knife, By Axe… Bye Bye…
Album Info:
Band: Frightmare
Album: Midnight Murder Mania
Members: Neil Smith aka Maniac Neil (Vocals, Lead Guitars, bass) Ryan B Sorensen aka Saw Boss (guitars) Dave Graham aka Grisly Adams (vocals, guitar, bass) Kevin Schreutelkamp aka Pulverizer (drums) Noah Campbell aka Dean Stalkwell (guitars)
Year: 2003
Country: USA
Recorded: Mammoth Studios
Produced by: Noah Campbell, Frightmare
Artwork: Dennis Dread, Jake Karns
Runtime: 35.56
Label: Razorback Records
Track Listing:
- Cropsy
- Midnight Murder Mania
- Thorn in Their Side (The Slumber Party Massacre)
- Friday the 13th
- Slasher Holocaust
- The Prowler
- Be My Bloody Valentine
- Black Christmas
- The Ripper
- Frank Zito, the Maniac
