MASTER, DEATHSTRIKE, FUNERAL BITCH and ABOMINATION: these are the four equally important parts of the Paul Speckmann legend, world revered pioneer of the whole thrash/death movement. Having forged a longtime relationship with DOOMENTIA that has already resulted in over a dozen lavish vinyl reissues, it felt logical to choose that very same label to at long last re-release the last two missing parts of that puzzle, namely the two ABOMINATION full-lengths originally released in 1990 and 1991 respectively.
As he confessed it himself later on, Speckmann “hijacked” ABOMINATION, a band that initially bore a different line-up yet already featuring Aaron Nickeas on drums. At that time, Speckmann was still in FUNERAL BITCH but he couldn’t help but notice Nickeas powerful drumming style and the two of them started rehearsing in secret with former IMPULSE MANSLAUGHTER six-stringer Mike Schaefer. Yet after one demo (nicknamed ‘The Red Demo’) in ‘88, they both decided to focus on their partnership while keeping the name ABOMINATION, leading to the recording of another demo (nicknamed this time around ‘The Black Demo’) and intense local activities. Right after Schaefer was let go, only to be replaced by Dean Chioles from the future band BODY BAG who would go on to play with Nickeas, the band signed to NUCLEAR BLAST and recorded their debut in DKP studio in Illinois with eight freshly written tracks.
Starting off the hostilities with a nearly eight minutes long song about drug addiction (“The Choice”) wasn’t maybe the smartest move but the band didn’t care. ‘Abomination’ is a bona fide classic, back when the frontiers in between thrash and death were still quite blurry, all for the better. Yet, this is also where his creator decided to get the most verbal, spitting forth his wrath towards the corrupted system that enslaves us every day a little more. A must have for all you MASTER fans out there, available for the first time in over a quarter of a century (!) in glorious vinyl format, with the original eight songs sequencing and with an insert containing all the album’s lyrics, courtesy of DOOMENTIA.
Recorded once again at home in Chicago at Seagrape, Studios a year only after their debut, ‘Tragedy Strikes’ saw ABOMINATION in an even more pissed off mode. Inspired by the recent Gulf War or ‘Operation Desert Storm’, opening track “Blood for Oil” makes it pretty clear that Paul Speckmann’s general distrust with society in general, and with the United States in particular has only increased with time. A solid fifteen years before he would choose these topics again with MASTER, ‘Tragedy Strikes’ is probably one of the angriest and most political albums of his career. Disgusted by those politicians sending out their young soldiers to die for nothing (“Soldier”), drunk drivers guilty of hit-and-run (“Pull the Plug”) or the damages caused by our industry (“Industrial Sickness”), ABOMINATION came up with an even more aggressive follow-up to its debut, yet one with almost a hardcore attitude and punch, without knowing there’ll be another eight long years before we’d see the light of ABOMINATION again with the ‘Final War’ EP. But that’s another story…
Like its predecessor, ‘Tragedy Strikes’ is being made available for the first time in twenty five years in glorious vinyl format, retaining the original eight songs tracklisting and with an insert containing all the album’s lyrics, courtesy of DOOMENTIA.
Released by Doomentia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob7WKOBIEgU
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