Massacre (metal band)

Massacre were formed in 1984 by Allen West (guitar), Bill Andrews (drums), Mike Borders (bass) and soon joined by Kam Lee. They disbanded and re-united again several times. In 1987, Rozz, Andrews and Butler joined Death, but by 1991 the three later rejoined with Rick Rozz (guitar) and Massacre released their debut album From Beyond on Earache Records, followed by an EP a year later (featuring Cronos of Venom). After the release of the EP the band split up again. Rozz reformed the band in 1993 and released a new album Promise in 1996. That same year, Kam Lee left the band during post-production of Promise due to being dissatisfied with the songs and his performance. Kam Lee, Terry Butler and Steve Swanson along with Sam Williams and Curtis Beeson temporarily reunited as Massacre in 2006. Butler, Lee, Beeson & Williams then founded Denial Fiend with Blaine Cook replacing Lee and Rob Rampy replacing Beeson in 2008. In 2011, Butler and Rozz reunited for an anniversary tour of From Beyond beginning January 14 in Tampa, Florida.[2]

Butler and Rozz reformed Massacre in late 2011, with Mike Mazzonetto on drums and Ed Webb on vocals, and subsequently played the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise from Miami, Florida to Grand Cayman in January 2012. In March 2012, under the wing of lawyer Eric Greif - coincidentally Butler and Rozz's manager in Death - the band signed an international recording deal with Century Media Records, announcing a 7" release prior to their August 2012 appearance at the Wacken Festival in Germany and the release of their full-length album in early 2014.

On December 11, 2014 it was announced that bassist Terry Butler and vocalist Ed Webb left the band. As the result, Massacre disbanded.[3]

Massacre reformed once more in December 2016[4] under the name Massacre X, in reference to it being the band's tenth lineup.[5] However, original drummer Bill Andrews threatened to sue the band over the use of the name, leading to them rebranding themselves as Gods of Death, in reference to their significance in the development of death metal.[1] Michael Grim went on to form the secretive death metal band known as Primordial Jizzum. The band eventually returned to using the original Massacre moniker in July 2019, with former bassist Michael Borders returning to the band.[6]

On September 9, 2019, it was announced that Rick Rozz and Mike Mazzonetto have both quit the band according to founding member Kam Lee. The band announced a new lineup three months later and plans to release a new studio album in 2020.[7] However, less than a year later, it was announced new members Taylor Nordberg and Jeramie Kling had left the band.[8] A week later, the band announced its latest lineup with new guitarists Rogga Johansson, Jonny Pettersson, and Scott Fairfax, as well as new drummer Brynjar Helgeton.[9]

Members and ex-members of Massacre have played in many notable bands, most notably Death, Obituary, Six Feet Under, Metalucifer, Hate Plow, Kreator, Nasty Savage, Primordial Jizzum, Zero Hour and Whiplash.