Nearly four decades after their unholy conception, masters of Floridian death metal MASSACRE have found a diabolical union with Nuclear Blast Records, with plans to release their fourth studio album, and first in seven years, later this year.
Nuclear Blast‘s U.S.A. general manager Gerardo Martinez, who signed MASSACRE, says: “For many of us at Nuclear Blast, MASSACRE is one of our favorite bands, and instrumental in the formative years of death metal and with their debut album alone. It paved the way to many artists to follow. It’s an honor to be working a brand new record with Kam Lee on vocals after nearly 30 years!”
Commenting on the signing, vocalist Kam Lee states: “I would first like to give my appreciation to Nuclear Blast for signing MASSACRE. It’s a long time dream of mine to be a part of the metal family under the NB flag and I am even more so grateful that it’s with my signature band. We have a lot of plans for the future of MASSACRE, and what a great place to be making such a proper return other than one of the best independent metal labels in the world.”
Bassist Michael Borders adds: “It’s a privilege at this point in our careers to be associated with the big name in metal labels, we did our best to make this a proper MASSACRE release, an authentic sounding representation of a band we started over thirty years ago.”
Joining Lee and Borders for the new album are guitarists Rogga Johansson (PAGANIZER), Jonny Pettersson (GODS FORSAKEN, WOMBBATH, HENRY KANE) and Scott Fairfax (MEMORIAM, AS THE WORLD DIES), along with drummer Brynjar Helgeton (CRYPTICUS, THE GROTESQUERY).
MASSACRE‘s forthcoming album will be the first to feature Borders, as well as the band’s first recording in 25 years to feature Lee (ex-DEATH, ex-MANTAS).
Last September, drummer Jeramie Kling (VENOM INC., THE ABSENCE, GOREGÄNG) and guitarist Taylor Nordberg (THE ABSENCE, GOREGÄNG) announced their departure from MASSACRE. The duo had joined the group less than a year earlier and were said to be working on MASSACRE‘s fourth studio album at Kling/Nordberg‘s own Smoke & Mirrors Productions in Spring Hill, Florida.
Kling and Nordberg said in a statement that “what was presented as a democracy turned out to be a dictatorship with an excruciating lack of communication.”
MASSACRE parted ways with guitarist Rick Rozz and drummer Mike Mazzonetto in September 2019. At the time, Lee and Borders blamed the split on “contract infringement violations,” “poor performance, incompetence, and lack of professionalism.”
MASSACRE‘s latest album, 2014’s “Back From Beyond”, featured Rozz and Mazzonetto alongside bassist Terry Butler and vocalist Ed Webb.
In early 2017, Butler — who is now playing bass for OBITUARY — told Metal Wani that Rozz and Mazzonetto “destroyed” MASSACRE with their “behind-the-scenes backtalking and backstabbing.” He went on to make it clear that Rozz and Lee‘s then-collaboration could not be called MASSACRE. He said: “They can do all they want and write all the songs in the world they want, but it’s not gonna be called MASSACRE.”
