Marquee Records have delved into the album crypts and are emerging with speed metal classic: Abattoir’s Vicious Attack.

Los Angeles in the mid 1980’s will always be remembered for its heyday of the Sunset Strip music scene. But a fierce LA band by the name of Abattoir also made a definite impression in their own right. The big break came when they released the track “Screams From The Grave”, featuring John Cyriis who would later join Agent Steel, via Metal Blade Records compilation series Metal Massacre IV. A local radio DJ soon placed the song on regular rotation during his weekly show, The Mighty Metal Hour on KMET, and from there the band's career skyrocketed. Abattoir went from playing to crowds of 150 to 600 plus, well beyond many club capacities.

Spearheaded by guitarists Mark ‘The Shark’ Caro and Juan Garcia`s heavy bone-crushing riffs, the fierce rhythmic backbone of drummer Robert Wayne, bassist Mel Sanches and topped off by the blood-curdling screams of new vocalist Steve Gaines, Abattoir set out to follow up on their marginal success and record their first demo on a $3,000 budget. The finished effort was appropriately titled, Vicious Attack, and renowned metal label Combat Records, home to Megadeth, Possessed and Exodus, and a label that would go on to sign metal greats such as Death and Nuclear Assault, loved it so much they offered to press and release it without any further enhancements (other than omitting Garcia and Wayne from the album's credits who had since moved on, and instead displaying a photo of the new line-up completed by guitarist Danny Oliverio and drummer Danny Anaya, later of MX Machine).

Abattoir quickly gained widespread acclaim for both the album and their energetic, and at times unpredictable, live performances. The band soon graced the pages of national metal magazines such as Rip, Metal Hammer, Kerrang! and Metal Forces furthering the band`s indelible reputation. The Vicious Attack album sold exceptionally well for an indie label debut and helped set the standards for many with its raw speed metal and street-level aggression. Some records you can walk away from unscathed, but this one leaves its mark.

30 years later, having been originally released in 1985, Marquee Records are planning a reissue of the classic debut on June 22. Preorders are being taken at this location.

“Screams From The Grave”: