The Dead Shall Rise

There's a new Terrorizer album, featuring the return of World Downfall alum (and dance club enthusiast) David Vincent. Pete Sandoval is also present, making this the first time Vincent and Sandoval have appeared on an album together since Morbid Angel's 1996 live album Entangled in Chaos, as well as the only time that Vincent has been involved with Terrorizer since their 1989 debut.



If I was being honest, I'd say that Hordes of Zombies is fucking brilliant, despite my cynicism about anything David Vincent-related. It even briefly threatened to usurp the new Napalm Death as my favourite album of 2012 (before I revisited the new Napalm for the 4th time in 2 days and remembered who I am). As good as it is, though, my interest in Terrorizer began and ended with late founder and guitarist Jesse Pintado, and I have mixed feelings about his bandmates continuing the Terrorizer name without him.

Pintado reformed the long-dead Terrorizer in 2005 after being asked to leave Napalm Death. The resulting album, Darker Days Ahead, was the last album Pintado recorded before he passed away. It was a little rough around the edges and perhaps didn't live up to people's expectations of what a new Terrorizer album should be, but it did have flashes of brilliance. As such, it was a fitting epitaph for Pintado, himself a brilliant if somewhat troubled and inconsistent musician.

Taking Pintado's place on the new album is Katina of LA grindcore band Resistant Culture, who also feature new Terrorizer vocalist Anthony Rezhawk (original vocalist Oscar Garcia is MIA since appearing on Nausea LA's 1991 debut). Rezhawk and Pintado apparently went way back, having been in the pre-Terrorizer grind outfit Resistant Militia (which one assumes evolved into the similarly named Resistant Culture).

So what on the surface looks like half of Morbid Angel and two scabs cashing in on the Terrorizer name may well be four lifers continuing the work of a friend who helped shape modern death and grind before being taken before his time. That's how I'm reading it, anyways: Rather than pilfering Pintado's legacy, Hordes of Zombies pays tribute to it. RIP, Jesse.

Metal Injection's MSRcast did a pretty good tribute to Jesse Pintado back in 2006, featuring songs he wrote throughout the years with Terrorizer, Napalm Death, and Lock Up. It may be from a while back, but Jesse's songs never get old.