Artist: Goreaphobia
Country: USA
Label: Hells Headbangers Records
Formats: LP
Year: 2025
Along with bands like Incantation, Rottrevore, Deceased and Immolation, Goreaphobia is a band that is frequently credited for being one of the most influential bands in USA’s underground Death Metal scene of the late 80’s and early 90’s. Although the “cult status” of Goreaphobia is mainly reserved for their native American Death Metal scene, today, musically, it is easy to understand where this appreciation for the band comes from. Yet, while the majority of their peers went on to record full-length albums not too long after the classic run-up of a first demo tape and a 7” EP, Goreaphobia never got beyond that first stage – despite their first recordings were released by the then up and coming Relapse Records as well as the revered Seraphic Decay Records.
It is probably mainly due to Relapse Records’ decent distribution in Europe at the time, that the band’s first 7” EP, ‘Omen Of Masochism’ reached by far the most people, but the true underground fanatics already heard about the band through the wild tape trading circles. However, if you ask the people who were there from the beginning what Goreaphobia’s finest hour was, they will exclaim in unison that it was ‘Morbidious Pathology’, the 1990 demo tape reprinted on vinyl later that year by Seraphic Decay in a variety of about 666 colours.
Although this particular demo has been repressed before on the ‘Vile Beast Of Abomination’ compilation CD by Necroharmonic Records and on LP by Dark Descent Records in 2015, Hells Headbangers wanted to pay homage to this little piece of American Death Metal history by re-releasing it one more time. This time it is presented in a great looking picture disc that, besides the three tracks of the original demo it also has five tracks recorded live in Buffalo, New York in 1991.
Admittedly, I am not playing Goreaphobia on a weekly basis, so listening back to this 3-track demo now for the first time in a couple of years, it is still amazing to hear how good it actually is. Unlike a lot of other bands that were emerging from the American underground scene around 1990, Goreaphobia did not have much of that Thrashy-drive to them. Instead, they actually sounded very heavy and utterly brutal, not sounding all too far removed from what Cannibal Corpse and Suffocation were up to at the time. To today’s ears the music might just seem “solid”, but if you are placing this in the right historical perspective, these guys were definitely offering some mesmerizing and savage stuff. But it is definitely not just the cosmetically, it is not just the crushing sound, but definitely also the band’s sense for song writing stands out. Basically they were just somewhere between the brutality of old Cannibal Corpse with the same sort of technicality that Suffocation also pursued. In other words, maybe the American counterpart of what Sinister was for the European Death Metal scene.
The live set, too, is interesting listen. It is not much of a surprise that, considering these songs were recorded early in the band’s career, all three of the ‘Morbidious Pathology’-tracks are also in this short setlist. The other two ‘Chronic Blood Larva’ and ‘Cremate In Hate’ were never officially released on any recording, but already surfaced on the aforementioned ‘Vile Of Beast Of Abomination’ compilation CD by Necroharmonic Records, yet these were recorded on the infamous Day Of Death festival in New York in 1990. The more than reasonable recording quality makes this a valuable addition to the already great A-side of this picture disc. And know you are listening some old school stuff if you hear some of the songs are dedicated to bands like Deceased, Nokturnel, Suffocation and Apparition who were apparently part of the crowd. In short, a dignified homage to a band that failed to come to a full-length album in their prime, although they still released two albums some 20 years later, their quality and especially their impact and relevance around 2010 was severely diminished. Fortunately, we still have these old recordings to enjoy.
