Twenty-two years is a long time to wait to take care of unfinished business. In the case of Florida death metal legends MASSACRE and their new album, ‘Back From Beyond’, it's most certainly better late than never.

Not that MASSACRE's band members stalled their comeback intentionally, nor were they sitting around doing nothing. For his part, bassist Terry Butler spent time in the pit and on the road with Six Feet Under and Obituary, yet MASSACRE was always bubbling under the surface in the minds of the fans.

"All the years I was with Six Feet Under, doing the tours everyone was asking me about MASSACRE," says Butler. "I'd tell the fans that the band was dead and buried; the drummer lives in Japan, I hadn't spoken to Rick Rozz (guitars) in 10 years. But, one day I contacted Rick out of the blue and told him I'd be interested in getting together and doing some stuff if he was interested. One thing led to another; we did a rehearsal, we found a singer, and MASSACRE came back to life from there."

The band's legacy dates back to 1984, although they didn't release their now-classic debut-album ‘From Beyond’ until 1991. Up until that point, it was an on-again / off again affair, however, in that Butler, Rozz and Bill Andrews (drums) put MASSACRE on hold as they teamed up with late metal icon Chuck Schuldiner in his band DEATH (for several genre-defining releases and plenty of worldwide touring). After the release of DEATH’s “Spiritual Healing” album, MASSACRE would eventually regroup and go on to record ‘From Beyond’, following it up in 1992 with the ‘Inhuman Condition’ EP as well as several legendary European tours with the likes of Grave, Morgoth, Demolition Hammer and Immolation. That was the last anyone would hear from them for a long time...

"We did some tours and everything was going well," says Butler, "but around 1993 or so I guess Rick and Kam (Lee/vocals) wanted to go in a different direction. Bill was kind of getting disillusioned with the whole scene and ended up moving to Japan. The band kind of broke up, although those guys did put a record out in 1996 called ‘Promise’, It was released a few years after it was recorded and by then they had parted ways already. We’ve agreed not to talk about that era (laughs).”

Fast forward to January 2012, when the reunited MASSACRE performed on the ‘70,000 Tons Of Metal’ cruise in the Caribbean. They were already looking for a label at that point, having teamed up with their former manager Eric Greif from the DEATH days, and as fate would have it some key Century Media Records staff members were also on the cruise. It was clear that MASSACRE - now with Ed Webb (vocals, ex Diabolic / Eulogy) and Mike Mazzonetto (drums, ex Pain Principle) filling out the line-up - were serious about being back in business, showcased in great shape and were offered a record deal on the spot.

‘Back From Beyond’ is classic no-nonsense Florida death metal written over the last couple years. It comes on the heels of the two-song 7" ‘Condemned To The Shadows’ (2012), hitting hard and heavy with huge riffs and massive grooves, reminiscent of early DEATH or classic Slayer and clearly heading home to MASSACRE’s original sound approach.

"That's Rick's writing style," Butler says of the DEATH comparison. "He co-wrote a lot of the songs on ‘Leprosy’ (1988), so he has that Slayer / DEATH '80s death metal feel. That's totally what we're into. I co-wrote songs for DEATH's ‘Spiritual Healing’ (1990), so that writing style is there. It's the style we grew up with and it's in our souls. We wanted to put something out that's true to MASSACRE; a bit of thrash thrown in with death metal. We basically wanted to do a modern version of ‘From Beyond’. I hope we've accomplished that."

Butler and his bandmates are well aware of MASSACRE's cult following; ‘Back From Beyond’, recorded with Tim Vazquez at CGM Studios in the fall of 2013 and packaged with artwork by Toshihiro Egawa (Cryptopsy, Krisiun, Devourment), was crafted with those fans in mind. No need for the extra bells and whistles you're bound to find in modern-day death metal productions , and no attempts were made to make MASSACRE something they're not.

“You've got your super-technical death metal, the grindcore, and on and on," Butler notes. "’Back From Beyond’ is straightforward heavy Florida death metal, and we're just happy that we're able to put out a record in 2014 that's relevant."