Massacra

This article is about death metal band from France. For death metal band from USA, see Massacre (metal band).

Massacra
Origin	France
Genres	Thrash Metal Death Metal Groove Metal (later)
Years active	1986–1997
Labels	Shark Records Phonogram

Massacra was one of France's leading death/thrash metal bands in the early nineties.

After recording three demos in the 1980s, they finally landed a deal with Shark Records from Germany, and released their famous debut, 'Final Holocaust' in 1990. Unfortunately, they found themselves at odds with the label's trend-following attitude and after two successful albums, Enjoy the Violence and Signs of the Decline, they terminated their contract in 1993.

They signed a new deal with the major label Phonogram. The band decided not to rehash the same songs over and over on later releases—by the time of their fourth album (1994's Sick) the band had transformed rather remarkably to a groove-laden mid-paced thrash album, sounding at times almost like recent Metallica musically, with the vocals more along the lines of a more aggressive Ron Broder of Coroner. An interesting listen, but doubtless a disappointment to early fans of the group expecting more death/thrash metal.

The band broke up after guitarist Fred Duval died of skin cancer on 6 June 1997 at the age of 29. Some members of the band went on to form an industrial side project called Zero Tolerance in 1996, and released one album through Active Records.

Discography

• Legion of Torture (Demo, 1987)
• Final Holocaust (Demo, 1988)
• Nearer from Death (Demo, 1989)
• Final Holocaust (CD, 1990)
• Enjoy the Violence (CD,1991)
• Signs of the Decline (CD, 1992)
• Sick (CD, 1994)
• Humanize Human (CD,1995)
• Apocalyptic Warriors Pt. 1 (compilation CD, 2000)

Members

• Vocals, guitars: Fred "Death" Duval 1986–1997
• Guitars: Jean-Marc Tristani 1986–1997
• Bass: Pascal Jorgensen 1986–1997
• Drums: Chris Palengat 1986–1991
• Drums: Matthias Limmer 1992–1994
• Drums: Björn Crugger 1995–1997