Massacre - Killing Time (Album Review)

 

Massacre - Killing Time

(1981)

My copy: 2016 remastered reissue by ReR Megacorp and Spittle Records.

Are they killing time or is it killing time? When you hear the futuristic guitar hellscape that is Massacre’s sole 1981 LP, it’s hard to imagine it as anything but the latter. There is, however, such a thing as being too off-kilter, and their ragged abuse of all things guitar and guitar-related can throw a wrench in your mood if you’re hoping for more digestible melodies. Killing Time, regardless of it's harsh edges, still remains versatile in its range of tones and writing ideas across 42-minutes of mostly dissonant work. 

High-speed, choppy guitar pops and bends over waves of punching bass on “Legs,” drums bouncing in unison with the bass as the so-called melody sputters and blurs across percussive techniques. “Ageing With Dignity” is borderline playful with confused, cartoonish outbursts clashing against strange vocal chants and avalanching drums. The Beefheart influence becomes more apparent in the glowing, atonal chugging of “Subway Hearts” where they do occasionally depart into tantrums that resemble conventional melody. The title track hurdles forth in an uneven time, threatening to spiral out of control at any second at the behest of the watery, churning guitar. Massacre are, of course, vaguely nihilistic and crude, but they are also fiercely talented deconstructionists. 

“Corridor” whinnies like a possessed horse, its endless galloping represented in percussion that slows and clatters into the chilly, graveyard grooves of “Lost Causes,” now introducing quiet saxophone hints. Closing this sequentially ordered trio is “Not The Person We K” which strips the drums down to primal hand drums and fluttering, muted accompaniments. “Bones” plays like a zombified ‘70s pop band, melting and drooping before erecting facetious guitar hooks that tremble with whammy prying. Dolphin-like cries adorn the free-jazz “Tourism” before the wholly unique vibrato plunge of “Surfing.”

The 8-minute “As Is” serves more as grounds for which they can torture their guitars as openly and violently as they please before fragments of rhythm whisk the track away to repetition. “After” patiently works into a lopsided jam session with eerie twinkling melodies that ring out like the tune from a tainted crib mobile. Capping off the original LP is “Gate,” which uses cymbals to imagine the sounds of an uncomfortable alien amidst squealing guitars.

While the sound of Killing Time is largely dissonant and foreign, they are continuously working out interesting writing concepts throughout each song. At times the chaos does overwhelm, and their palette falls short of say, Chrome, but their sheer ability in coordination with some of the most aggressively awkward guitar sounds makes for an entirely underrated work of excellence.