Death – Leprosy [Deluxe Reissue] (2014)

Genre: Death
Subgenre: Death Metal
Bitrate: 320 k
Size: 400.15 MB

TRACKLIST:

Disc 1

01. Leprosy
02. Born Dead
03. Forgotten Past
04. Left To Die
05. Pull The Plug
06. Open Casket
07. Primitive Ways
08. Choke On It

Disc 2

Leprosy - 9/23/87 Rehearsal

01. Open Casket
02. Choke On It
03. Left To Die
04. Left To Die - Take 2

Leprosy - 12/05/87 Rehearsals

05. Left To Die
06. Open Casket
07. Pull The Plug
08. Choke On It
09. Born Dead
10. Forgotten Past

Disc 3

Live at Backstreets, Rochester, NY - December 13th, 1988

01. Leprosy
02. Open Casket
03. Zombie Ritual
04. Pull The Plug
05. Left To Die
06. Mutilation
07. Forgotten Past
08. Born Dead
09. Denial Of Life
10. Primitive Ways
11. Infernal Death

Live at The Dirt Club, Bloomfield, NJ - December 11, 1988

12. Leprosy
13. Pull The Plug
14. Forgotten Past
15. Primitive Ways

Digital Deluxe ONLY Bonus Tracks - Live at The Dirt Club, Bloomfield, NJ - December 11, 1988

16. Open Casket
17. Mutilation
18. Infernal Death


INFO:

Death was an American metal band founded in 1983. The band's founder, Chuck Schuldiner, is considered "a pioneering force in death metal and grindcore". The band ceased to exist after Schuldiner died of brain cancer in 2001, though remains an enduring heavy metal brand.

Death is considered one of the most influential bands in metal. The band's debut, Scream Bloody Gore, has been described as "death metal's first archetypal document" and "the first true death metal record". One music biographer has referred to Schuldiner as the "Father of Death Metal" while another has claimed that Schuldiner is "readily acknowledged as the true founder of the U.S. death metal scene".

As of 2008, Death had sold over 2 million albums worldwide, with over 500,000 copies sold by December 2009 in the U.S. alone (excluding the numerous sales before the SoundScan era) making them the top-selling death metal band worldwide, and only topped in the U.S. by Cannibal Corpse.

Founded in 1983 by Chuck Schuldiner under the original name of Mantas in Orlando, Death was among the more widely known, early pioneers of the death metal sound along with California's Possessed. In the late 80s, the band was both a part of and integral in defining the death metal scene which gained international recognition with the release of albums by a number of area acts.

Together with Kam Lee (Barney Kamalani Lee), and Rick Rozz (Frederick DeLillo), Schuldiner started to compose songs that were released on several rehearsal tapes in 1984. These tapes, along with the Death by Metal demo, circulated through the tape-trader world, quickly establishing the band's name. In 1984, Schuldiner dissolved Mantas and quickly started a new band under the name Death. Tim Aymar, in an article written in December 2010, states that Chuck Schuldiner renamed the band Death in order to turn the death of his brother Frank into "something positive". Its members included the same Rick Rozz and Kam Lee. Another demo was released, called Reign of Terror.

In 1985, after the Infernal Death tape was recorded and released, Schuldiner fired Lee and Rozz in favor of Repulsion's bassist and guitarist, Scott Carlson and Matt Olivio, respectively. However, a drummer could not be found; consequently the band dissolved again. Schuldiner moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and recruited DRI drummer Eric Brecht, but he was not happy with this incarnation of Death and moved back to Florida without a band. There, in 1986, Schuldiner got an invitation from early Canadian thrash band Slaughter to play on their album, which he accepted, moving to Canada. This only lasted two weeks, however, as he found the situation not to his liking. He returned to Florida, then moved quickly to the San Francisco Bay Area again, where he joined with Chris Reifert. They recorded the Mutilation demo, which led to a deal with Combat Records, owned by Important Distribution (later becoming Relativity), that enabled them to record the first LP.

Scream Bloody Gore was released in 1987, widely considered a genre template for death metal. Schuldiner briefly had a second guitar player, John Hand, but Hand did not appear on the album (though his photo did). By this time Schuldiner had moved back to Florida, leaving Chris Reifert behind. There, Schuldiner teamed up with former bandmate Rick Rozz and two members of Rozz's band Massacre, Terry Butler and Bill Andrews.

In 1988, that line-up recorded Leprosy. After much touring in support of the album, including a quick and ill-planned tour of Europe, Rick Rozz was fired in 1989. After a tour of Mexico featuring guitarist Paul Masvidal (later to re-emerge in the Death camp), a replacement was found in James Murphy, with whom the third album Spiritual Healing was recorded in Tampa in the summer of 1989. Murphy was sacked relatively quickly. By this time Schuldiner abandoned the "gore" lyrical theme for more social critique as Death's musical style progressed from a more brutal style of death metal to a more complex, technical death metal. Additional melody was added to the band's sound as well as more varied timings and song structures.

In 1990, on the eve of a European tour, Schuldiner decided against traveling, claiming at the last minute that he felt the tour was not adequately organized (and citing the group's previous disorganized European tour in 1988). Andrews and Butler continued with the tour of Europe as 'Death' regardless and recruited roadies Walter Trachsler (guitar) and Louie Carrisalez (vocals) to replace Schuldiner, much to Schuldiner's shock and disgust. Schuldiner took legal action and Butler and Andrews were fired from the band.

Schuldiner abandoned the idea of a band set-up altogether and began working with session musicians only. Schuldiner hired Steve DiGiorgio and recruited Sean Reinert and Paul Masvidal from underground Florida band Cynic. In 1991, Death released Human, which is considered a more technical and progressive album than their previous works. Human was Death's best-selling album yet, receiving many accolades and some MTV play for the group's first video, directed by David Bellino, for the track "Lack of Comprehension". Due to obligations with his primary band Sadus, DiGiorgio was forced to depart after the recording of Human and new bassist Skott Carino did Death's extensive world tour, from October 1991 until March 1992, in addition to appearing in the music video for "Lack of Comprehension".

Schuldiner fired his manager Eric Greif after Spiritual Healing but settled and re-hired him before the recording of Human. Although there were at least two lawsuits between Greif and Schuldiner, Schuldiner was characteristically mellow in an interview with Thrash 'n Burn about what the writer referred to as his "gruesome collaboration" with Greif: "We just came to the conclusion that it was stupid just fighting all the time, taking each other to court and all that stupid shit." "Fate has an interesting way of working these things out...Yes, we had a falling out, but we're working together again and it takes a lot of worries off my mind knowing Eric is the man for us", Schuldiner told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

In 1993, Reinert and Masvidal left the group to continue with Cynic, Schuldiner being unable to persuade them otherwise. Schuldiner replaced them with drummer Gene Hoglan of the recently dissolved thrash metal band Dark Angel, and worked with guitarist Andy LaRocque from King Diamond for Individual Thought Patterns. LaRocque being obligated to his band, Schuldiner hired a then-unknown Ralph Santolla as touring guitarist. Death was arguably at the peak of their commercial and popular culture success, and the video for the track The Philosopher even made it on to an episode of Beavis & Butt-head in 1994 (Beavis also parodies Schuldiner's vocals in a mock 'drive-thru' order of 'tacos, to go!' in death-metal style). Also in 1994, Death abandoned its eight year relationship with Relativity and signed with Roadrunner Records, their European distributor. For 1995's Symbolic, Santolla and DiGiorgio were exchanged for underground Florida musicians Kelly Conlon and Bobby Koelble. For the Symbolic tour Brian Benson was brought in on bass (Conlon having left the band prior to the tour due to conflicts with Schuldiner).

After Symbolic, Schuldiner and Roadrunner mutually agreed not to pursue an album option and he began writing songs for his progressive metal band Control Denied. Schuldiner entered into a licensing agreement with Nuclear Blast for both Death and Control Denied, and subsequently started writing material for the seventh Death release, The Sound of Perseverance. The new roster for Death included Florida musicians Richard Christy, Shannon Hamm and Scott Clendenin, and The Sound of Perseverance was completed at Morrisound Recording in Tampa and released on Nuclear Blast in 1998.

After the album and two supporting tours, Schuldiner put Death aside to pursue Control Denied with Christy and Hamm. Clendenin was dropped in favor of Steve DiGiorgio, who was once again available, and an underground power metal singer named Tim Aymar. Though the line-up and writing style was largely the same, Schuldiner created Control Denied in large part because he was displeased with the harsher vocals for Death. However, rather than betray what the band Death meant and sounded like to the fans, he opted to create a new band: "For me, it is just a matter of evolving, doing it the right way. I didn't put out a Death record with this stuff on it. I made the right choice and changed the name of the band. I tried to do everything the right way." As Schuldiner finished Control Denied's debut album, he was diagnosed with brain cancer, forcing the band to scrap plans for a U.S. and Canadian tour. As he worked on the second release, Schuldiner's condition improved, but the tumor left him in a weakened, vulnerable state. He contracted pneumonia and was placed in the hospital. On December 13, 2001, Schuldiner was released and returned home where, one hour later, he died

BANDMEMBERS:

Chuck Schuldiner (R.I.P. 2001) Guitars, Vocals, Bass, Lyrics
Rick Rozz Guitars
Bill Andrews Drums