The first demo was recorded at a studio in Tampa. We were clueless 18 year olds. Bill, myself, Alan and Kam. The geeky engineer looked at us like we were nuts when he realized we were so down tuned. Then Kam did his vocals and the engineer really looked confused. There was limited production, limited cash. The songs were already written and for the week or so prior to recording we practiced the same 3 songs over and over again, we knew we could only afford like three hours tops in the studio. That first tape I probably sent out between 300 –400 copies. We made them on a dual cassette boom box, and I made covers on my fathers copy machine.
- Michael Borders / Massacre interview, Voices from the Darkside
MASSACRE released their first demo on this day in 1986. Only found one specific reference to the 6th, but it was definitely recorded during April!
Here is a great review by Chilean zine Blowing Thrash from 1986:
They claim to be influenced by MEGADETH, MOTORHEAD, CELTIC FROST, and SLAYER, but they've got their own style, which of course is very close to DEATH.
There's a 3-track studio demo of MASSACRE out, with an excellent sound quality. The first track, "Agressive Tyrant", is thrashing speed with many rhythm changes, Kam's vocals being deeper than ever before. On his command ("thrash!!!") the ultra heavy bassdrum crossfire starts to annihilate my brain cells to get faster for a raging solo. "Death In Hell" starts appropriately with the funeral march, switching into the heaviest mid-tempo death metal. This track is really different from the old DEATH material. The last track is "Mutilated", a very fast one with some corpse grinding screams in the chorus. After hearing this tape, I (or what's left of me) can only tell you these guys kill!
- Blowing Thrash #3, 1986