Scream Bloody Gore

''Scream Bloody Gore'' is the debut studio album by American death metal band Death, released on May 25, 1987, by Combat Records. It is considered by many to be "the first true death metal record". Chuck Schuldiner, the band’s co-founder and leader, performed guitar, bass and vocals, and composed all tracks on the album.

John Hand is noted in the album's credits as playing rhythm guitar, though this was incorrect and Hand was only in the band for a short period and never performed or recorded on the album. This is also the only Death album to feature drummer Chris Reifert, who had joined for the ''Mutilation'' demo, and the only one of the band's albums to not be recorded at Morrisound Recording.

Perseverance Holdings, Ltd. and Relapse Records reissued the album on May 20, 2016, on CD, vinyl, and cassette. The album was remastered for this release, and also included the original Florida session as well as recordings of rehearsals performed in 1986.

Background and recording

Bassist Steve DiGiorgio, who had previously played with the band as it shared practice space with Sadus, recorded bass on a test pressing of the album.

The album was recorded twice. The first recording of the album was done in Florida at American Recording Studios, which was not equipped to produce. According to band manager Eric Greif, "the deal was sealed and ombattrusted us to find a studio and go at it on our own, which turned out to be a terrible idea! 'laughs''We were enthusiastic, but unaware that the studio we picked was a bad choice, due to the fact that the folks who ran it had NO idea of what metal was. We figured our brutality would shine through, ya know?" According to Reifert, " he engineersjust looked at us blankly, like they didn't know anything about metal." This version of the album only featured guitar and drum tracks, and was rejected by Combat Records when it was sent to them. "They heard what had been going on and said 'no, this is not gonna work,' so we had to scrap that plan," according to Reifert. The track listing for the Florida sessions consisted of "Torn to Pieces", "Legion of Doom", "Scream Bloody Gore", "Sacrificial Cunt" (later shortened to "Sacrificial" because the label asked the band to do so, possibly because "they didn't want to get P.M.R.C. on their case"), "Mutilation", "Land of No Return" and "Baptized in Blood".

Combat Records sent Death to a studio called the Music Grinder in Los Angeles. Reifert said it felt like an " airplane hangar." Schuldiner and Reifert re-recorded the album with Randy Burns as producer. Band manager Eric Greif recalled, "When Steve was making arrangements for the recording of he album'ssecond incarnation ..from what I understand from Randy, it was just like 'Try to refine this a little. Try to make this as mainstream metal as you can.' That was the instruction given to Randy when it came time to record the record."

The Los Angeles session was released as the complete album by label Combat Records (later Relativity). Once Schuldiner returned to Florida, the first session was released as a promotional tape, and was eventually bootlegged. "Legion of Doom" was a longtime staple of Death's rehearsals and live shows, and was indeed the first song written, reaching back to when they were known as Mantas.

Despite the many songs written during Death's demo days, only half of them were re-recorded for the album, the rest being new compositions. "Infernal Death" and "Baptized in Blood" originally appeared on the ''Infernal Death'' demo. "Mutilation", "Zombie Ritual" and "Land of No Return" originally appeared on the ''Mutilation'' demo, and "Evil Dead" and "Beyond the Unholy Grave" were originally on ''Death By Metal''. "Beyond the Unholy Grave" and "Land of No Return" were also cut from the vinyl and cassette versions of the album, though were included as CD-only bonus tracks and on subsequent re-releases in other formats, along with two live audio tracks taken from the ''Ultimate Revenge II'' video.

Music and lyrics

The style of ''Scream Bloody Gore'' has been described as drawing from bands such as Possessed, Slayer and Sepultura, fusing "the wild vitriol of thrash and black metal" with "a handful of swanky melodies" and "insanely" violent lyrics. The sound has been called "primitive." Writer Ian Christe stated in '' Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal'' that the album emulated hardcore punk, " vokingthe dark moods of horror sound tracks from the drive-in zombie and cannibal horror films of George Romero". ''Metal Forces'' described the album as "death metal at its utmost extreme, brutal, raw and offensive – the kind that separates the true death metallers from countless trend-following wimps". Sam Sodomsky of Pitchfork described the album as having a "weed-and-beer-scented basement atmosphere", and the music as "bludgeoning and immediate". The album's lyrics contain themes such as zombies and slasher film-style violence. Steve Huey of AllMusic said that although ''Scream Bloody Gore'' appears "slightly musically amateurish" in comparison to Death's later releases, it "trades polish for savage, gut-wrenching force and speed." Arthur von Nagel of American progressive metal band Cormorant observed, "the album's lyrics are rife with slasher flick violence, misogyny, homophobia, and sexual aggression, traits which clashed with the narrative of self-discovery distortion pedal on the album. Certain songs on the album were inspired by horror movies. "Regurgitated Guts" was inspired by the 1980 film '' City of the Living Dead'' (a.k.a. ''The Gates of Hell''), "Beyond the Unholy Grave" was influenced by the 1981 film '' The Beyond'', and "Zombie Ritual" was inspired by the 1979 film ''Zombie'', all of which were directed by Italian director Lucio Fulci. "Torn to Pieces" was inspired by '' Make Them Die Slowly''. "Evil Dead" was named after the film of the same name, while the title track was inspired by ''Re-Animator''.

Reception and legacy

''Scream Bloody Gore'' is often considered the first death metal album. Although some critics consider '' Seven Churches'' by Possessed to be the first death metal record, Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic writes that, "''Seven Churches'' was a transition between thrash metal and death metal, while ''Scream Bloody Gore'' defined the core elements of death metal". According to music journalist Joel McIver, Death's debut album was a "turning-point in extreme metal", and qualified it as "the first true death metal album". Canadian journalist Martin Popoff indicated Schuldiner as the musician who introduced "a new level of convolution that will mark the beginnings of the next stage in extreme."

Steve Huey of AllMusic said ''Scream Bloody Gore'' is "a necessary item for anyone interested in the genesis of death metal." Jonathan Horsley of MusicRadar said the album is "one of death metal’s foundational texts." According to Matt Mills of WhatCulture, ''Scream Bloody Gore'' "deserves to be put on a pedestal alongside ''Black Sabbath'', '' Kill ‘Em All'' and ''Iron Maiden.''"

In 2016, a re-release of the album was one of the top 200 selling albums in the United States in its first week of release, marking Death's first appearance in the US Billboard 200 chart at .

Brazilian thrash metal band Sepultura covered "Zombie Ritual" as a bonus track for their 2013 album ''The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart'' and was included as the second side of the digital single The Age Of The Atheist.

Power metal band DragonForce covered "Evil Dead" as a bonus track from their 2017 album '' Reaching into Infinity''. It was also covered by the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem for the vinyl bonus disc of their 2019 album ''Daemon''.

Track listings

All tracks written by Chuck Schuldiner.

Personnel

* Chuck Schuldiner – vocals, guitar, bass
* Chris Reifert – drums
* John Hand – credited on the album as rhythm guitar but did not perform on album or during any live performances
* Randy Burns – percussion, producer
* Edward Repka – design, illustration

Charts

References

{{Authority control

1987 debut albums
Albums produced by Randy Burns (music producer)
Albums with cover art by Ed Repka
Combat Records albums
Death (metal band) albums