Supposedly three dudes got together in 1990 and recorded Sleaze Merchants, disbanded, reformed on Razorback, released this album, which strangely sounds a lot like Maniac Neil (Lord Gore/Frightmare/Whore/Maniac Killer) was behind it, then got killed in a horrible car accident by their titular turkey monster, and passed on the mantle to Maniac Neil (hmmmm). Anyone smell a scent familiar to the Ghoul and County Medical Examiners‘ fiascos? Needless to say, the whole background behind Blood Freak is pretty hard to swallow; hell I think I’d have an easier time believing Anton Crowley wasn’t really Phil Anselmo than believing this.

Anyhow, these "three young lads" sound strangely like Maniac Neil. Imagine Frightmare. Now take out the punk influences and slasher obsession and replace them with a bigger focus on old school death metal, psychedelic guitars, and old ass grindhouse horror. The music is dirty, crushing, and down right trippy at times. It feels like the death metal soundtrack to I Drink Your Blood; it has all the workings of something you’d probably find on the Something Weird DVD label. Fuck, they even sample the famous séance scene from I Drink Your Blood in "Awakening the Beast". The end result is this weird, disturbing, and relentlessly brutal beast of death metal that is constantly looming over the listener like an old, doped out S&M freak suspended from the ceiling of a dilapidated barn, armed with a hydraulic sledge hammer, and waiting for the listener’s head to get close enough so he can blow his gray matter all over the hay stacks and store his blood for the upcoming crop harvest.

If Sleaze Merchants is any sign of the material to come, dear lord Maniac Neil will deliver. Seriously, this has yet to leave my cd player. Long live Blood Freak; Neil better hurry up with the follow-up, I need my Blood Freak fix.

Written By: Necro-tron