Scream Bloody Gore is the debut studio album by American death metal band Death, released on May 25, 1987, by Combat Records. It is considered by many to be "the first true death metal record". Chuck Schuldiner, the band’s co-founder and leader, performed guitar, bass and vocals, and composed all tracks on the album.

John Hand is noted in the album's credits as playing rhythm guitar, though this was incorrect and Hand was only in the band for a short period and never performed or recorded on the album. This is the only Death album to feature drummer Chris Reifert, who had joined for the Mutilation demo, and the only Death album that was not recorded at Morrisound Recording.

Perseverance Holdings, Ltd. and Relapse Records reissued the album on May 20, 2016, on CD, vinyl, and cassette. The album was remastered for this release, and also included the original Florida session as well as recordings of rehearsals performed in 1986.

Background and recording

Schuldiner and drummer Chris Reifert recorded the Mutilation demo, which caught the attention of Combat Records, who signed the band.

Bassist Steve Di Giorgio, who had previously played with the band as it shared practice space with Sadus, recorded bass on a test pressing of the album.

The album was recorded twice. The first recording of the album was done in Florida at American Recording Studios, which was not equipped to produce. According to Reifert, "the deal was sealed and [Combat] trusted us to find a studio and go at it on our own, which turned out to be a terrible idea! [laughs] We were enthusiastic, but unaware that the studio we picked was a bad choice, due to the fact that the folks who ran it had NO idea of what metal was. We figured our brutality would shine through, ya know?" Reifert noted that, "[the engineers] just looked at us blankly, like they didn't know anything about metal." This version of the album only featured guitar and drum tracks, and was rejected by Combat Records when it was sent to them. Reifert remarked, "They heard what had been going on and said 'no, this is not gonna work,' so we had to scrap that plan." The track listing for the Florida sessions consisted of "Torn to Pieces", "Legion of Doom", "Scream Bloody Gore", "Sacrificial Cunt" (later shortened to "Sacrificial" because the label asked the band to do so, possibly because "they didn't want to get P.M.R.C. on their case"), "Mutilation", "Land of No Return" and "Baptized in Blood".

Combat Records sent Death to a studio called the Music Grinder in Los Angeles. Reifert said it felt like an "airplane hangar." The sound has been called "primitive." Writer Ian Christe stated in Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal that the album emulated hardcore punk, "[evoking] the dark moods of horror sound tracks from the drive-in zombie and cannibal horror films of George Romero". Metal Forces described the album as "death metal at its utmost extreme, brutal, raw and offensive – the kind that separates the true death metallers from countless trend-following wimps". Sam Sodomsky of Pitchfork described the album as having a "weed-and-beer-scented basement atmosphere", and the music as "bludgeoning and immediate". The album's lyrics contain themes such as zombies and slasher film-style violence. Steve Huey of AllMusic said that although Scream Bloody Gore appears "slightly musically amateurish" in comparison to Death's later releases, it "trades polish for savage, gut-wrenching force and speed." Chuck Schuldiner played using a Boss distortion pedal on the album. Certain songs on the album were inspired by horror movies. "Regurgitated Guts" was inspired by the 1980 film City of the Living Dead (a.k.a. The Gates of Hell), "Beyond the Unholy Grave" was influenced by the 1981 film The Beyond, and "Zombie Ritual" was inspired by the 1979 film Zombie, all of which were directed by Italian director Lucio Fulci. "Torn to Pieces" was inspired by Make Them Die Slowly. "Evil Dead" was named after the film of the same name, while the title track was inspired by Re-Animator.

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Scream Bloody Gore is often considered the first death metal album. Although some critics consider Seven Churches by Possessed to be the first death metal record, Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic writes that, "Seven Churches was a transition between thrash metal and death metal, while Scream Bloody Gore defined the core elements of death metal". According to music journalist Joel McIver, Death's debut album was a "turning-point in extreme metal", and qualified it as "the first true death metal album". Canadian journalist Martin Popoff indicated Schuldiner as the musician who introduced "a new level of convolution that will mark the beginnings of the next stage in extreme."

Power metal band DragonForce covered "Evil Dead" as a bonus track from their 2017 album Reaching into Infinity. It was also covered by the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem for the vinyl bonus disc of their 2019 album Daemon.

Track listings

All tracks written by Chuck Schuldiner.

Personnel

Death

  • Chuck Schuldiner – vocals, guitars, bass
  • Chris Reifert – drums
  • John Hand – credited on the album as being on rhythm guitar, but he did not perform on the album or any live performances.