From a band whose name stands for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, I'm sure I'm getting into something a bit on the heavier side of metal. MRSA has released their first full-length album "Horrifier," and I'm not sure whether to laugh at or stay a safe distance from this band. The members of MRSA don horror movie-themed masks and outfits for their live shows, and the press release spurts out gore-y buzzwords like "fleshripping," "brutal," and "grotesque" when describing their music that's ALSO all about horror movies. I'm not going in completely serious if these songs are about camp horror flicks, that's for sure.

Yup, these guys do not beat around the bush when it comes to having a song about a movie. The first single "Crystal Lake" features Jason on the cover and references the famous lake of the film. The track is a whole minute and forty-four seconds long and it's kind of brutal, I guess. Super fast drumming is always firing off in the background, and a weirdly-clear-sounding guitar solo just shoves it's way into the mix. I blinked thrice, and the song ended. It's modern death metal for sure, and there's not much more I can wring from this track. "I Am The Swarm" is the second single. Again, a very short track, this time it holds on for a smidge over two minutes. This song takes inspiration from Candyman, as the main character of that movie (if I recall correctly) has something to do with bees? Great. A fuzzy mix of the same kind of straight-forward death metal continues. The vocals are solid - the drum sound is not at all. It comes of as lazy when it's doing one thing throughout the entire track. Sounds of bees buzzing and more average death metal round out the song. The last single, "Into Pieces," finally explores the idea of a structured song. Too bad the lyrics suck. I'm guessing this is in reference to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre due to the cover.

I'm now paying more attention to guessing what movie the songs are about instead of the actual music at this point because MRSA is doing absolutely nothing for me. "The RE-ANIMATOR" is about a cult-classic film of the same name. Melody takes a step back as the vocals take on brutal death metal-like tones, and the slamming of the guitars/bass just repetitively slam until a solo breaks up the flow. The sample in "Mortuary" takes way too long, but the song itself is more melodic than the rest, gaining some much-needed approval from me. "Leprechaun" is barely even a minute, and there's still a sample. Grindcore anyone? "Bash With Hatchet" is the first song where I can't discern it's movie counterpart. Most of the movies are classics of the 70's and 80's, so I should know most of them. The barebones chorus that consists of chanting "bash with hatchet" is admittedly kind of catchy.

The second portion of tracks starts off with one of the silliest horror movie premises, "Pumpkinhead's Revenge." Everything about the sample and film is so camp it hurts. Again, a track with more melody than the rest, so it gets a hesitant thumbs-up. "The Incantation of Charles Lee Ray" is in reference to Chucky, and I had to look this one up because I didn't know Chucky had such a name. I'll give some credit to the band here - they do find good samples of the movies and they place them well overall. Sometimes they go on for too long, especially if the track is like a minute long, but it's creative. The murky death metal continues in all of these tracks and in the upcoming ones, without deviation from sound. "Creature" could be from any damn movie, "Savage Feast" takes a sudden drop in quality, and "Never Sleep Again" is a hint to Freddy Krueger.

This is clearly not as gorey or flesh-ripping as promised. In fact, I think it's kitschy. MRSA has found a niche all for themselves, and they seem to flourish in it. From the movie costumes, to the smorgasbord of horror films referenced in their songs, I actually find a little humor in it. While I appreciate the concept and themes, this is average death metal with slightly below-average mixing.