Review: “Escape From the Catacombs” by Electrocutioner (2nd Anniversary)

After announcing themselves to an unsuspecting world with six cuts and fifteen minutes of ripping Speed Thrash in “48 Hours ’til Termination“, the return of Long Island New York natives Electrocutioner with a second six track affair offers up something a little different. Inspired by a nightmarish vision of being trapped in an impossible dungeon crawl for all of eternity, “Escape From the Catacombs” actually only features two tracks with vocals as the band expand upon a plethora of horror and dungeon synth layers to make you feel buried in the ruins beneath a nuked New York City…

The demonic cries of guitar wizard, vocalist and synth master Mark Pursino send a chill down the spine as the creepy dungeon synths of “A Passage Down” provide that low budget horror film, the bass from Nieves adding an eerie haunting quality. Over all too soon, the 73 second opening makes way for a flurry of lead riffs instrumental “Into the Catacombs” takes its turn in the limelight. A showcase moment for some virtuoso guitar work, it gives Pursino the opportunity to concentrate on the six string and while the bass is a little heavy in the mix, it doesn’t detract from the fact that this 125 second piece would actually sit very well in the middle of a six or seven minute magnum opus of a tune. A theme throughout the unnatural existence of Electrocutioner, the bands love of 80’s dystopian films rears its ugly head once more with “Corridor of Tormented Souls“. Evil laughter and screams wrapped in a layer of synths raise the hairs on the back of the neck as something wicked this way comes – and it does in “Rise of the Nukeromancer“. A Speed Thrash ripper of the finest order, it has improved vocals from Pursino when compared to those of the bands first record and the riffs are sheer class. Yes, the drum sound is a little on the raw side but that doesn’t detract from any of the quality of the musicianship and the storytelling abilities have once again been nailed. Do we really need another synth interlude at this point? Probably not but we get one none the less in “Unstable Potion” and it provides a quirky moment of atmosphere that screams out of Pursino to land a role in making film scores with Troma Entertainment. Nieves then gets a moment to shimmer in the darkness with the bass solo that is “Lost in the Labyrinth” and he offers up something suitably creepy to conclude a collection of oddities in demo form that deserve a right to life… [7/10]

Track Listing

1. A Passage Down (Intro)
2. Into the Catacombs (Instrumental)
3. Corridor of Tormented Souls (interlude)
4. Rise of the Nukeromancer
5. Unstable Potion (synth interlude)
6. Lost in the Labyrinth (bass solo)

“Escape From the Catacombs” by Electrocutioner was released on 20th April 2022 and is available over at bandcamp.