Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Death - Scream Bloody Gore (1987)
The first death metal album ever. End of debate here. There's so much here that breathes the very essence of what we all now know to be death metal that any other search for the first DM album is just redundant from the off once you have waded through the various thrash elements of Possessed on Seven Churches. What Chuck and Chris did here was simply define a whole new level of intensity and created a potent and vehement new branch of metal that to this day continues to inhabit music collections across the globe.
It's memorable as hell too. Nobody listens to Zombie Ritual, Mutilation or the title track and forgets them for the rest of their lives. Reifert's drums alone see to a large proportion of that memorability factor. Pounding and powerful throughout they bash a thunderous roadmap into the listener's brain like some warhammer crushing skulls. They sound full and assertive yet never steal the show, blending in perfectly with the rumbling bass, well-positioned in the mix against the backdrop of Chuck's maniacal and uncompromising vocals.
The guitar is a raging torrent of rampant noise that seems to swarm and consume the space it surges into, applying melody just enough to temper the storm when required but never being afraid to unleash those now trademark solos to do their nefarious acts. All helped by a solid and assured production job it should also be mentioned. The blueprint for death metal could not have been more clear or definitive really. There's a genuine sense of this album being due at this point in history, with the thrash metal masses having done their bit with the "death to all posers" attitude, this was the older brother of them all who'd been missing for a few years and had turned up again all bat shit crazy and with a lot of hours honing his evil plans for world domination with a guitar and some scrawled lyrics on a human skull. Arriving unannounced for dinner one evening carrying a dead cow on their back with teeth marks in it, they had thrown down their ghetto blaster watching the family lose their fucking minds.
It isn't five stars because of the overall quality of the music and the performances of the artists. It is five stars because of what it represents in the world of metal as a whole. A massively important album driven by the unwaivering determination of Chuck Schuldiner to deliver his own vision of what metal should be. Challenging and terrifying.