A decade of metal on a two disc set. That’s what you’ll get when you pick up Monstrosity’s Enslaving The Masses. The first disc titled Crave The Blood consists of tracks from the band’s Horror Infinity demo, Imperial Doom full length debut and Slaves And Masters demo (whose tracks were re-recorded shortly thereafter on their 1996 effort Millennium). The second disc consists of a compilation of live material from the band’s North American tour to promote In Dark Purity. Strangely enough the album starts out with five remixed versions of the band’s Nuclear Blast debut, Imperial Doom. I’ve owned the original disc for about 9 years and have long since considered it to be one of the all-time greatest death metal releases. The remixed versions somehow make the tracks sound even better. Tracks 6-9 are taken from the band’s legendary Horror Infinity demo, recorded in December 1990, two months after the band’s formation, and nearly a full year before the recording of Imperial Doom. The tracks all found their way onto the band’s debut album, so basically the first nine tracks are Imperial Doom, just in a different order, with some remastered and some demo versions. The musicianship is incredible on all nine tracks, however the production on the Horror Infinity demo did leave a lot to be desired. The production on the Imperial Doom tracks are perfect, just as is the production of almost every death metal release recorded at Morrisound in the early 90s. The final three tracks were recorded during the Slaves And Masters sessions and are just very raw early recordings of the band’s 1996 sophomore release Millennium. There was only one minor change in the band’s line-up between Imperial Doom and Slaves And Masters, and that occurred in 1992 when the band relocated from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa after their European tour with Pestilence. The original line-up consisted of vocalist George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher (who also appeared on Suffocation’s Effigy Of The Forgotten, doing backing vocals on "Reincremation" and "Mass Obliteration"), guitarist Jon Rubin, bassist Mark Van Erp and drummer Lee Harris. When the band relocated Jon quit and was replaced by Jason Morgan. Shortly after signing to Conquest Music Mark left the group and was replaced by Kelly Conlon, and this line-up recorded 1996’s Millennium, George’s last contractual obligation to Monstrosity before joining Cannibal Corpse full-time. He was soon replaced by ex-Eulogy vocalist Jason Avery. 1997 saw Jason Morgan leave the band and return to Tennessee and was replaced by Jamie Harris. This newest line-up recorded the band’s most recent full length, 1999’s In Dark Purity. It was in support of this album that the second disc, entitled Stages Of Decay was recorded live in Tampa, Atlanta and Memphis. Four of the live tracks are taken from Imperial Doom, one is from Millennium, four tracks are from In Dark Purity along with an intro, a cover of Slayer’s "Angel Of Death" and another cover track "Deadlock", which sounds vaguely familiar, but for whatever reason I can’t seem to think of what band originally recorded it. The live disc is solid and Jason proves himself to be as good, if not better, than George Fisher. Personally I feel he does a better job, and the live tracks are all done with a lot of energy and the songs sound excellent considering the tracks were recorded live. No cheap bootleg sound here. Even after 10 years in the underground, Monstrosity have proven themselves to be one of the premiere acts, both in a live setting as well as still writing great material even after all of the line-up changes. Monstrosity fans new and old should definitely pick up this disc, as there will be a bit of something of interest for everyone. "I want to see some fucking injuries!" If I ever see them live there will be… oh yes… yes indeed. Perpetual Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrr!!!!!!

Review byTeufel