SLAUGHTER – Strappado LP (Black Vinyl)

Like a tank that annihilates everything in its way, Slaughter were masters of destruction. This quartet of musical assassins played a combination of death, thrash, and crossover. Picture DRI or Cryptic Slaughter covering Death's demos before Scream Bloody Gore, and some Hellhammer, with a meaner vocalist. Tune your guitar down about a half-step, and adjust your tone until you get a crunchy sound that makes the amp feel like it's regurgitating. Then, throw in about ten thousand riffs that you can headbang to, some of them fast and some mid-paced. Write some of the greatest lyrics to go along with those riffs. Get someone who knows how to properly smack the living maggots out of a drumset, and make sure it's loud and clear in the mix, without drowning out any of the other instruments. Last but definitely not least, ensure that the bass player isn't there just to physically fill the shoes of the bass player (see: 99% of bands). Now condense all that into 9 tracks, and slap your standard oldschool death metal style cover art on it. Then call it something awesome like "Strappado" (a form of hanging by the hands which are tied behind the back of the victim) and go get wasted.