If I haven't made it clear I was a teenage skatepunk hardcore youth. But in the 80s, it was hard not to have a few favorite metal bands. I wasn't a big Death fan. I heard a song or two but it didn't grab me like Slayer. Now that I am an adult, I look back on the early death metal and cross over scences with rosy glasses and pretty much scoop up whatever I can track down. Luckily there seems to be a never ending supply of limited vinyl releases of early demos and rehearsals. This 2x7" set by Death is a prime example.
8 songs spread over 4 sides. The array of covers got me drooling-=Sodom "burst command til war", Slayer "Black Magic", "Into the Crypt of Rays" by Celtic Frost, "Paranoid" by Sabbath and "Armies of the Dead" by Genocide plus 3 originals.
When you are looking at something pressed from "rehearsal" May 2nd, 1985, you know you are going to trade sound quality for obscurity. The Sodom cover is lost in a layer of noise but the songs start to make them selves clear after that. It helps if you know the original song. All of the covers are done pretty much the same as the original. Definitely a lot of teenage enthusiasm. There was a time when this might have been the only way you could have heard this and as a teenager you knew that even recorded over the phone, this was better than most of the bullshit you saw on MTV or heard on the radio. And if you or your friends band ever made a practice tape that you went crazy listening to, this will be right up your ally.
No label info, but Hells Headbangers has it plus a lot of other lost classics.
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