Scream Bloody Gore

This is the record named most often as the first true death metal album. It was recorded in November 1986 at The Music Grinder in Los Angeles with Randy Burns producing, and Combat Records released it on 25 May 1987. Chuck Schuldiner played guitar, bass and sang, and wrote everything on it. Chris Reifert is on drums, the only Death album he played on. The album was in fact recorded twice: the label was not satisfied with the mix of the first session, so the two of them went to Los Angeles and cut it again with Burns, and that is the version that came out. The riffing of "Infernal Death", "Zombie Ritual" and "Evil Dead", and a voice somewhere between singing and a growl, are not an extension of the thrash of the day. The lyrics and titles are built out of horror-film vocabulary, and the standard this record set gave the genre its name. The running order here is the 1987 original's as printed.