Before streaming playlists made it easy to discover every obscure band on the planet, compilations were how you found the good shit.
 
1332 Records Presents... Flesheaters! is exactly that kind of record: a 27-song snapshot of the underground, assembled with absolutely no interest in keeping things neatly inside one genre. Released in 2006, Flesheaters! clocks in at just over an hour and packs an impressive amount of punk, horror, hardcore, metal, and general musical depravity into one CD.
 
And that's the beauty of it.
 
The compilation kicks things off with Maximum Rnr's “Say What” before immediately throwing the listener into Hummingbird of Death, The Contra, and Malicious Damage.
From there, things get progressively weirder. Wilson St. Pub & Sluthouse Band bring their country-fried horror with “Under the Full Moon (Levi's Song),” while BaptizedxFire, Meinhof, Exussum, Bovalexia, Lazaras, and Cestus keep the record moving through a constantly shifting landscape of punk and heavy music.
 
Then you've got the horror-punk contingent.
 
The Whorrorz, The Lurking Corpses, Blitzkid, The Casket Chronicle, and others make Flesheaters! feel right at home in the horror-punk tradition, while The Cobra Skulls bring a shot of melodic punk energy with “Cobra Skulls at the Top of Your Lungs.” Blitzkid's appearance is particularly fitting given the band's long-standing connection to horror movies and B-movie imagery.
 
But Flesheaters! isn't content to be a straight horror-punk compilation. That's where the record gets interesting.
 
You've got Slapendehonden's “Dismembered Rabbit Smegma,” Arch Goat of Sodomy's “Refugee Sex,” Manville's “Caboodle Cartridge,” Enchanted Faeries, and Japan's Low Fat closing the record with “Ochite Yuku Saki Ni Hikari Nashi.” There's a genuine sense of discovery here — the compilation feels less like a carefully curated genre sampler and more like somebody opening the door to a filthy underground record room and saying, start digging.
 
And buried in the middle are tracks that would become particularly recognizable within the 1332 catalog. The Casket Chronicle's “Repossessed” would also appear on the band's self-titled 2007 album, while Wilson St. Pub & Sluthouse Band's “Under the Full Moon (Levi's Song)” gives a perfect introduction to the band's bizarre country/horror universe.
That's ultimately what makes Flesheaters! worth revisiting.
 
It isn't polished. It isn't predictable. It isn't trying to give you the "best of" anything. It's a document of an underground scene where punk, horror, metal, hardcore, rockabilly, and outright weirdness could all exist on the same 27-song CD.
 
If you were there when this stuff was coming out, Flesheaters! is a time capsule.
If you weren't, it's a pretty damn good place to start digging.
 
27 bands. 27 songs. One CD. No algorithm required.
 
1332 Records Presents... Flesheaters!
 
Originally released by 1332 Records in 2006.