The Formative Years

The Accüsed

Founded in 1981, The Accüsed instanenously became a pioneering underground band in that they merged the best bits of thrash metal, hardcore punk and grindcore to create their very own mélange, i.e. what they referred to as splattercore, and thereby helped to give birth to what ultimately became known as crossover trash.

With the first three years being spent on refining their sound and experimenting with different line-ups, 1984 saw the vocalist of The Fartz (Duff McKagan’s first band) join the band and added his idiosyncratic choking-sound vocal delivery to their hybrid equation, which musically had evolved to constitute the musical equivalent to a splatter movie courtesy of a tight unit with metallic buzz-saw guitars and rapid-fire drumming. 

Add a mascot with striking features and recurring b-movie themed lyrical content revolving around Martha Splatterhead and you got a band that was bound to create their own lane.

Having fallen in love with their debut The Return of Martha Splatterhead, I could not wait to see them incarnate in a live environment and what I experienced in the early 1990s blew my mind as the maniacal music was matched by the band’s infectious on-stage demeanour with Blaine leaping around the stage like a man possessed. They were exactly as frantic, chaotic and furious as I hoped for, set the bar high and established themselves as one of my favourite live bands.

A band that defined crossover by merging thrash a la early Slayer, mixed it with crust and early hardcore punk and thereby created fertile ground for a myriad of bands to blossom and bloom, including the more prominent ones still riding the recent wave of the resurgence of thrash.

If you like bands like Municipal Waste, do yourself a favour and treat yourself to the masterpiece that is The Accüsed’s debut full-length: