Not too long ago, I played this demo to a few youngsters who were “into Death Metal”. They thought this was a very aggressive Hardcore–Punk band and didn’t like the three songs at all. Well, to me this defines the first wave of Death Metal like few other recordings and yes, it is indeed close to Hardcore in terms of relentless urgency. All three songs rip with ultimate ferocity and the sound is so fucking great that it’s safe to say, DEATH never ever came close to this power again. Although I liked Kam Lee’s vocals much better (my favourite Death Metal singer ever!), his sloppy drumming and the overall sloppyness of this demo just are perfect. You cannot produce more power with three songs. Impossible. Never. Forget it. If you have a band and strive for raw power in sound, give it up and do something else with your life.
I was penpal with all of DEATH’s original members and a couple of friends of the band since 1984 on. This resulted in me receiving numerous tapes and memorabilia of all sorts (including candy Chuck had stolen to send me and such). Good thing for you: My rip is coming from a genuine first generation source, making it sound a lot better in sound than on the recently released controversial doubly-CD anthology (“Chuck Schuldiner: Zero Tolerance”). I never did receive a cover though. I’ve seen one on the internet but I’m not so sure it actually came with the tape in the first place. Anybody has more information? I did scan the piece of paper tracklist I got with the tape, written by Chuck appearantly. I didn’t edit the tape, leaving it as it was, dubbed from the master tape directly.
However – make sure you got some beer at hand, your heads sorted out and then turn up loud ….
Infernal Death.mp3
Baptized in Blood.mp3
Arch angel.mp3
26 Comments
I have poor quality 1000th generation rips of the death demos so it is great to finally hear a good quality rip of these tunes. If you have more and there is interest then please keep the Death rips coming… Thank You !
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Don’t get me wrong, I like Death— but only like. They never grabbed me the way Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, Possessed, Divine Eve/Crimson Relic or early Bathory did. Not enough dirt or darkness in their sound– especially after the first few releases (“Scream Bloody Gore” in particular was great).
That said, I’m with Dave in my appreciation to hear this stuff not dubbed from a cassette that’d been sitting in a hot van for 4 months.
BTW, best death metal gargler: Pete Helmkamp from Order From Chaos/Angelcorpse (which coincidentally, I have on the first page of my pathetic little blog).
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thanx so much for this. amazing sound! i’ve seen a colored cover of this but i think it wasn’t official. keep up the great work. best blog ever!!
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u r the guy from fear of god, ain’t you? best voice ever YOURS! sickest voice ever!!! youre right about this tape its the best death ever recorded. do you still have the candy cuck sent you ?
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“Candy Cuck”. That would be a great band name, a great Death Metal band name!
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And you wonder WHY people search you out Erich! AMAZING!!! FUCKING AMAZING!!! And the sound is just…PERFECT!
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Thanks E! I totally missed the “Gore” album when it was released and tried to jump the bandwagon too late by buying Human. Of course I was not impressed. But this is the shit!!!
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….and I am drinking Beer, as always!
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Kam lee Of Florida Massacre?? I have 2 demos of them I must download this to hear it!!!
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Please post a picture of the candy Chuck sent.
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I used to get these from Chuck back in the day aswell. Nast Ronnie (Nasty Savage) turned me onto Death. All of my demos and rehersals have hand written covers aswell. Great Post!
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i liked Death, it was one of the bands that made me start listening death metal back in early 90′s, now this woke up old memories..need a beer right now! great demo, thanks Erich
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Thank you very much for this one.I have at least 6 versions of this demo (in quality) and finally here is the right one.Thank you.
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coooooool. I still have my original dub of this from 1985, so ive been pretty well sussed out when it comes to Death, and YES-they were never better. Most Death Metal of this era never got better than the demos. Sodom, Kreator, Destruction, Hellhammer, and especially Morbid Angel, NEVER surpassed their demos. I was in a death metal band myself, and our first demo is clearly the only *great* thing we ever did, proof that when you are in the start of a new movement, the first cut is usually the deepest. Awesome post.
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PS: Those kids that thought this was some aggressive hardcore and didn’t like it? Oh-so sad-I weep for their definition of “good” metal. Granted, this is archaic and passe by today’s metal, but the new stuff is so stylized and removed from any facet of profound personal inspiration, be it evil or otherwise, that most of it ends up sounding not too much different from the recent DETHKLOK cartoon, which is a parody/homage of today’s metal scene-and it’s fucking spot on. But hey-those kids will get it eventually-when they get old enough to “understand.” Please remember my new adage in these 21st century times- DON’T TRUST ANYBODY UNDER 30. (lol)
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Thanks Frankie! What was the name of the Death Metal you were in?
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Yeah I’ve heard this demo from a only-Satan-might-know what-source.
it’s cool to hear it again and this time from a direct source.
Cheers, you rule.
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I think the demo is really awesome. The sound is really, really good! Love it raw and brutal! Death the ancient way!
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I got a liverecordning with Sacrilege BC from 85 were they dedicate a song to Death and Desecration that plys with them that night. Does anybody know if there is a recording of the other two bands from that night? It has great sound and I would love to hear both bands from that gig.
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My band was the very obscure Dead Conspiracy. Our demos just got re-issued by the guys in Nunslaughter.
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@ Frankie: The name Dead Conspiracy rings a very tiny bell, though I don’t think I have heard the music. Any chance of supplying some tunes?
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There’s too many youngsters who mistakenly think widdly-widdly metalcore is death metal, but this demo is surely the best indication of what a tour-de-force early Mantas/Death were. If you have any more first generation tapes from this period (83-85) please upload ‘em, as most of mine were ruined in the late 80′s…
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New skool death metal fuckin sucks! This shit is great! Thanks so much for making it available!
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to bad chuck’s dead. but he couldn’t keep a lineup to save his life (oops sorry) but you know what i mean. i can picture him stealing candy for you. did he like your band erich?
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Great demo that made a big impression on me when it was released.Great quality rip of this godly demo.Love the old DEATH/MANTAS.Hey Erich,please post the original HELLHAMMER demo’s “Death Fiend”,”Triumph Of Death” & “Satanic Rites”,it’s better than the “Demon Entrails” crap they released & just to piss of Tom,haha.Couldn’t track down Marco Surreman for the tapes…it seems he’s lost in thin air…
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the sound quality of your rips is simply amazing. I’ve never heard these songs like this before. AWESOME!!!!!!
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