Death Scream Bloody Gore

Death ‘Scream Bloody Gore’ (Under One Flag, 1987)

‘Death, the first word in Death Metal!’ That advertising tag line has had Pringle and I in stitches for 25 years.

I remember this album cover was always in the background of every underground band’s inner sleeve collages, along with ‘Morbid Tales’ and ‘Seven Churches’, and it is one of Ed Repka’s finest. It’s so good that I have the album framed and displayed with pride in my hallway and Gorgoroth has a superbly rendered version of it on his leather.

Pringle and I debated furiously during our recent trip to the dry Iron Maiden gig in Istanbul about which Death record would be Blipped. ‘Leprosy’ was probably our favourite, but ‘Spiritual Healing’ was the album we salivated most over as we actually anticipated its release rather than buying it retrospectively. We had some hilarious set ups in mind including Pringle posing in a wheelchair and me disguised as a deceitful TV evangelist, but they were all slightly, err, distasteful.

Although I’d heard ‘The Unholy Grave’ (a bonus track on the CD version of the album) on ‘Speed Kills 3’ and loved the song, Death were one of the bands who suffered as I still frantically bought the likes of Nuclear Assault et al.

As previously mentioned ‘Scream Bloody Gore’ was first heard completely by accident when the album had been incorrectly placed in the sleeve of Mikey’s copy of Acid Reign’s ‘The Fear’. The mistake led us all down a (Left Hand) path which proved to be the most important musical development in my life since I purchased ‘Among the Living’.

‘Scream Bloody Gore’ features Chris Reifert of Autopsy fame on drums, as Fray whispered to me when we last saw the Californian gods of gore when Mr. Reifert took the stage; ‘That man’s a legend’, and as a result certainly has the best rhythm style and sound of any of the Death albums until ‘Human’. Although Reifert can sound like he’s speeding out of control at least he is a force of nature rather than the punily impotent Bill Andrews. The sloppy, yet deadly bombast certainly suits Death’s loose and punky style displayed throughout their debut LP.

Chuck Schuldiner (or ‘School Dinner’ as we used to hilariously call him) never sounded better vocally and his riffs pour out of the speakers in infernal torrents. The songwriting of ‘Leprosy’ isn’t quite there, but as an opening statement in the pantheon of death metal there is little to surpass ‘Scream Bloody Gore’ and classics like ‘Zombie Ritual’, ‘Sacrificial’ and ‘Evil Dead’.

We first saw Death supporting Kreator at the Calton Studios in 1990. At this stage there had been a schism within Death and the rhythm section toured with hired hands from Devastation. Half way through their set they encouraged the crowd to raise their middle fingers and chant ‘F*ck Chuck!’ because the estranged frontman had decided to pull out of the tour at the last minute. Of course we did this with glee because the lack of Chuck meant that only one song from our favourite LP, ‘Spiritual Healing’, was aired.

Looking back, the gig was an absolute Old Schoolers wet dream with almost the entirety of ‘Scream Bloody Gore’ aired, but at the time we were new school and the gig wasn’t as revelatory as we had expected. Although Kreator absolutely nailed it that night and it remains one of my top 10 gigs of all time.

We tried to see Death at the Venue some months later and once again Chuck didn’t turn up and we didn’t waste our money seeing third rate support act Re-animator. By the time we got to see them live it was 1992 and we’d seen Morbid Angel and about 10 other bands who had bettered Death in almost every way. Chuck once again failed to endear himself to us by arriving late on stage and demanding a shower before he graced us with ultra sanitised versions of his back catalogue. The guy even revised the band’s logo, getting rid of the classic cobweb, rotting monk and inverted cross, as he became the darling of all that went wrong with Death Metal. To cut a long story short he became a muso and bored me to death (!) with virtuoso progressive noodlings.

The last time Pringle and I saw Death was in 1998 at the Dynamo Festival where we heckled all post 1990 songs and went ape to the likes of the blinding classic ‘Pull the Plug’. There was a good few revisionists there that day I’ll wager as we were greeted by many a perplexed face for being so vocal in our support/disdain for a band that nobody seemed to care about; Death are now the touchstone for all beard strokers in metal!

Unfortunately, Chuck succumbed to a brain tumour in 2001 at the tender age of 34. Quite rightly the legacy of the ‘Godfather of Death Metal’ lives on both in all the new/old school bands who slavishly try to copy the template created by ‘Scream Bloody Gore’ and the sweaty fret fiddlers who focus on the later entries to his catalogue.

Pringle and I mostly remember him for his strangely effeminate voice and his inability to pronounce Deicide correctly, both impersonated on many a drunken occasion!

Peace