Dr. Shrinker - Grotesque Wedlock (2004)

Dr. Shrinker was a short lived ('87-'91) death metal band from my stomping ground here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. 'Grotesque Wedlock' is a now out of print compilation from Necroharmonic Productions that gathers together the, 'Wedding The Grotesque' demo from '89, 'The Eponym' demo from '90 and the, 'Recognition' demo from '88. The booklet contains lyrics, various horror and band shots, old flyers as well as a few words on the bands existence. Dr. Shrinker was the name of a 1970s TV show.

Probably a bit unknown nowadays due to this compilation being out of print and the demos being so old, Dr. Shrinker was one of many early and influential death metal bands who were hugely into the tape trading scene in the 80's/early 90's and were even thanked in the booklet of Entombed's, 'Left Hand Path.' Although at first not entirely different from many other death metal demos from the period, musically, Shrinker preferred the term, 'Gore Core,' and instead of growled/grunted vocals, Rich Noonan used this vile, raspy voice, which was totally his own thing. Jim Potter and Chad Hensel were fantastic, talented and to an extent very original sounding guitarists with a macabre twist in every riff and a keen sense for writing unique and catchy music. Matt Grassberger's bass added an extra dimension of thick heaviness to these recordings, as well drummer Dave Priem was just phenomenal blasting away behind the kit with break neck precision.

Lyrically Dr. Shrinker wrote a lot of songs about old horror movies as well as just the standard blood & guts sort of thing, but in the 80's, much like death metal itself, gore lyrics were a new thing. Since these our demos the sound quality is raw and underground all the way, but nevertheless all the instruments are audible and it just forces you to turn the volume up more while listening. I fucking love the song, 'Dead by Dawn,' which opens with a sample from, 'Evil Dead 2,' and then just bleeds perfectly into death metal chaos, 'Rawhead Rex' & 'Chunk Blower' are actually fairly catchy, and 'Germ Farm' is quite simply one of the best death metal songs ever! Collectively 19 face peeling songs are present on this compilation.

In the 80's and early 90's Milwaukee had some really great bands with Dr. Shrinker, Phantasm and Viogression leading the way, but by the late 90's things began to change and when Milwaukee Metalfest finally collapsed in the early part of the new millennium it seemed like the scene around here had fallen with it. Nevertheless I'm glad labels had the good sense to re-release these old gems for the world to hear again. As for Dr. Shrinker, they never got signed nor did they ever release a full-length album, which is truly a shame...