Death by Metal

Alright then. What we have here is the super raw recording of five blood-thirsty devastating metal assaults, that were pioneering and essential for shaping the entire Death Metal genre. We hear Charles "Evil Chuck" Schuldiner's first recording, alongside Barney Kamalani Lee and Frederick DeLillo aka. "Rick Rozz".

The recording quality is pretty raw and snotty, however, the Death demos were never known for being mastered properly. The demo tape starts off with "Legion of Doom" and contains some very good, back then unheard brutal guitar riffs. The vocals by Kam Lee are destroying (consider, it was 1984). It is growling for the most part, but with a certain amount of high-pitched screams. There is a slower part in the song that reminds me of the beginning of the song "Infernal Death" that would first be recorded in 1985.

The first song is followed by "Evil Dead", probably one of Death's most famous songs. From the well-known lead intro over the Kam Lee style vocals and the powerful riffs by Schuldiner and Rozz to the guitar lead, this is pretty much the "Scream Bloody Gore" version. Track #3 is "Beyond the unholy Grave", a very fast and all-in-its-way-crushing song with a simplistic but super audible and fast guitar riff, supported by Kam's smashing intro cymbals and pounding drum beats.

Track four, "Power of Darkness", is a very short but nevertheless kickass song, with a less audible guitar riff and drums, but some excellent death growls.
We then arrive at the final and title-track, "Death by Metal", which is next to "Evil Dead" my favorite on this album. Everything here is what you can only expect from the murder trio. The beginning riff and cymbals are super-headbangable, and the main riff is fuckin awesome. It's a pity this song didn't find its way to an album. It's really worth it.

The only thing however, that is not good, is the production. This demo was recorded in a rehearsal room with Rick Rozz's cassette player and that's what it sounds like. It reminds me of the horrible sound quality of Hellhammer's 1983 demo tapes. Still, if you imagine what the songs -could- sound like, you will agree with me when I say that they're definitely fucking A.
Because of that, and probably also because I'm hardcore into Death, I give this demo a 75 % rating because it was ground-breaking for Death Metal.