If you bought death metal fanzines in the late eighties/early nineties, Illinois’ Impetigo was all over the friggin' place. You'd think they were a lot more popular than they were because they had such a presence in the scene. Their debut album, 1990’s Ultimo Mondo Cannibale, was and is a fun blast, but Horror of the Zombies is a far more cohesive and strong record. Like Mortician, the band was horror obsessed, using movie samples and themes as grist for their song ideas. Musically speaking the band had no truck with the grinding sounds of many bands of their era, preferring to forge a very heavy, old school sound ala Autopsy or Nunslaughter. Thus, material like “I Work For the Streetcleaner” and “Wizard of Gore” come across as spontaneous and sloppy, yet amazingly heavy and impactful. The production captured perfectly the atmosphere of gloom, and the thick but hardly slick sound works great for the band's pretension free style. Good stuff from one of the scene's slightly forgotten elements, and by the way, their reunion and 2008 live album Live Total Zombie Gore Holocaust! is a whole lotta fun as well.
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