VHS Screaming Mad Gore CD

Hailing from Thunder Bay, Ontario, the Canadian extreme metal band VHS released their debut full-length album, Screaming Mad Gore, in 2016 through the German label Splatter Zombie Records. The band’s name stands for Violent Horror Spirit, and the album serves as a high-speed tribute to 1980s horror cinema, blending the raw intensity of death metal and grindcore with a strong sense of campy nostalgia. The musical direction of this release is often described as horror-grind, prioritizing groovy riffs and aggressive speed while heavily utilizing samples from cult horror films to set a cinematic and eerie tone. The record features a prolific tracklist of seventeen songs, including titles such as The Ghouls and the Girls, Screaming Mad Gore, Gore on the Floor, and A Thin Line Between Flesh and Bone. The lineup for this recording was led by primary songwriter Mike Hochins on guitars and vocals, accompanied by Curtis on drums and Andy on bass. Lyrically, the album functions like an anthology of horror tropes, referencing slashers, zombies, and supernatural entities with a playful but brutal delivery. The production on Screaming Mad Gore is punchy and energetic, typical of the Splatter Zombie roster, and it helped establish VHS as one of the most hardworking and fun-loving acts in the modern underground scene, leading to a massive string of subsequent releases and high-profile collaborations.