THE BEAST

Terry Butler says that his former MASSACRE bandmates Rick Rozz and Mike Mazzonetto "destroyed" the band with their "behind-the-scenes backtalking and backstabbing."

MASSACRE's last incarnation included guitarist Rozz and drummer Mazzonetto alongside Butler and vocalist Ed Webb. That lineup lasted for four years and released a critically acclaimed album, 2014's "Back From Beyond", via Century Media Records.

Back in December, Rozz and singer Kam Lee announced that they were rejoining forces in a revamped version of MASSACRE, dubbed MASSACRE X . The main objective of the group — which also features Rozz's THE END bandmates Michael Grim (bass/vocals) and Mazzonetto — was said to be "to rekindle the sound, style, aggression, and passion that originally elevated MASSACRE to cult status in the death metal scene two and a half decades ago."

In a brand new interview with Metal Wani, Butler confirmed that he had no involvement in the reactivated MASSACRE and explained: "When 'Back From Beyond' came out in 2014, it was a great record and we did a tour with DEATH TO ALL and OBITUARY, and we had another tour lined up in Europe with DEATH TO ALL. But by the end of the tour, Rick and the drummer Mikey had destroyed the band. They sabotaged it — a lot of behind-the-scenes backtalking and backstabbing they did. So I said, 'That's it. The band's over.' Because Bill Andrews [original MASSACRE drummer], who owns the band name, and it's his band, gave us his blessing to keep MASSACRE going. So when all that went down, it's, like, 'That's it. The band's over.' But recently, Rick has a band called THE END, and they were doing their own thing, whatever. But then Kam Lee got involved, and they wanted to call the band MASSACRE. So Bill and I were, like, 'No. You're not gonna do that. You're not gonna keep watering down the band name. And that's it. You've gotta call it something else, but you ain't gonna call it MASSACRE,' because, legally, Bill and I own the name. So… whatever."

Butler went on to make it clear that Rozz and Lee's new band "cannot be called MASSACRE." He added: "They can do all they want and write all the songs in the world they want, but it's not gonna be called MASSACRE."

MASSACRE X will make its live debut on June 24 at the Protzen Open Air festival in Protzen, Germany. Additional shows will take place later in the year.

The band's plan is to play songs from the "From Beyond" album, along with a few new tracks and old classics from DEATH and the pre-DEATH outfit MANTAS.

Rozz started his career at the age of 16 when he formed MANTAS with Chuck Schuldiner. The band's "Death By Metal" demo from 1984 was as influential on the early death metal scene as early recordings by POSSESSED (who released their infamous "Death Metal" demo the same year) and HELLHAMMER's 1983 demos. MANTAS changed its name to DEATH later in 1984, followed by the creation of MASSACRE, with Butler joining the group a short time later. After recording and touring as members of DEATH, Rozz and Butler released the MASSACRE death metal cult classic "From Beyond" in 1991, influencing generations of extreme metal bands worldwide.