Gammacide “Victims of Science” CD

Somewhat lesser known Texas thrashers Gammacide formed in late-1986 and by the summer of 1987 had already recorded their first demo at Pantego Sound (owned by the father of Pantera's Vinnie and Darrell Abbott). A few years later their sole official release, "Victims of Science", hit the streets in early-1990 on Wild Rags Records, but after a 1991 demo the band had called it a day by 1992—when the thrash scene was really starting to dwindle. I always wanted to pick up the album based on the coolness of the band name alone, but I hate vinyl, and never really felt like paying $20—$25 for an LP-only release on eBay. So, I listened to a few crappy quality streaming audio samples of the record years and years ago and left it at that, keeping my eyes out for the long talked about CD re-release after the band did a reunion show in 1998.

Well, all those rumors of a CD reissue finally delivered in recent months, as the band has self-released "Victims of Science" as a 15-track CD that includes their 1991 demo as well as two brand new tracks recorded in 2005 that are actually shockingly true to form considering how rare it is to hear accurate representations of old school thrash metal these days. But the new material consists of longer songs with plenty of solos and a feel that really does stay wholly true to the classic age of thrash metal. The band's late-80's/early-90's heyday was of course a similar brand of generally fast thrash that's somewhat reminiscent of Exodus in terms of song structure and catchiness, though from a riffing standpoint Gammacide could have been compared to some of their fellow Texas peers such as Devastation.

Here are a couple of tracks from the remastered reissue to check out, one from the LP and one from the '91 demo:

Gammacide "Fossilized"
Gammacide "Ballistic"

Apparently the reissue is selling well, which is a good sign that people still give a shit about thrash metal, so old school fans should keep buying this shit and hopefully encourage other bands to repress their material. The End Records will probably have copies back in stock soon, but you can also buy the CD and slick t-shirts straight from the band. Check out the rest of their site as well, because there are shitloads of badass old show flyers and such from the golden days. Good stuff.

@ Gammacide

In other news, November logged the site's third highest month of traffic ever at just barely under 50,000 unique visitors, so I guess people don't really mind about the format change, eh? And if anyone has the song titles for Jasta 14's demo (or a copy of the first track without any dropouts in the tape), or can scan me that god damn Social Decay 7" insert, please help me out!