LEPROSY

VERY Rebel Music

It seems logical, when writing this review, to compare this album to the debut - Scream Bloody Gore. First of all, the line-up has changed. Instead of the grand total of two musicians that participated in the recording of the debut record, which was essentially a compilation of earlier Death's demo's, there is an actual group here - with each member handling the right instruments. I suppose that meant they could play the material live as well, but don't ask me - I was just born at the time of this release! Chuck Schuldiner, the brainchild behind Death's music, has matured in terms of technical skill, songwriting and writing lyrics. Although the lyrics are still strongly concentrated on the gore stuff here, the Scream Bloody Gore's apocalyptic feel is gone and the lyrics are more philosophical, which can be especially felt on the classic track Pull The Plug - a sign of greater things to come sooner.

The music is hardly a dramatic change from the predecessor, however, it is an undeniable fact that it has evolved into a more conscious, mature and technical shape. After listening to the album, you can't really predict that this group would later release albums starting from Human and change their style so much, although some progressive moments appear a few times(I'll be couragous enough to admit I find a few parts of SBG to be quite progressive for its time as well), specifically on the above-mentioned Pull The Plug, as well as Born Dead, if my memory serves me correctly. You can finally feel the joy of better production, being able to hear the bass well and the twin guitar work of Chuck Schuldiner and Rick Rozz. The drumming is rather simple and repetitive, which is a general trait speaking about the Death Metal genre in general. Riffs are present throughout the record non-stop and are technical and catchy. Still, Chuck's best riffs are still to come.

What's left to conclude is that this particular album contains little elements that could serve any interest to the average Prog fan. However, in its year of release - 1988 - there were not too many musicians as credible as Death. Its hisorical importance and progression is undeniable, which means that any person interested in the roots of Death Metal should give this work a listen. Leprosy can be easily used as a representative of this type of music. It also needs to be added that whoever enjoyed SBG should not ignore this one either. Moreover, people who know Death Metal in forms when it is mixed with other elements, and thus altered, must give an album like Leprosy a chance to see what Death Metal was meant to sound like. Most proggers here tend to think that Blackwater Park is the pinaccle of DM, which is deceptive to say the least. The usual progger, on the other hand, will not be interested in this grotesque, energetic and aggressive music.

"Leprosy" is the follow-up to the eponymous Scream Bloody Gore. Yes, it is probably my least favorite Death album. In song-writing it's even an improvement to the first album. Somehow, there aren't such memorable tunes like "Infernal Death", "Zombie Ritual" or "Scream Bloody Gore" on it.

For me, the highlights on this album are "Open Casket", "Leprosy", "Pull the Plug", "Left To Die" and the closer "Choke On It".

The main problem with it is Chuck's backing band. Rick Rozz is very annoying and gets old very fast. Terry Butler does nothing with the bass. Bill Andrews is just boring, at times it seems as though he only has a snare, bass, and cymbol. But, Chuck shreds and growls away so that makes everything balance out.

One of the main differences between Leprosy and SBG is that Leprosy is more varied. Tempos change, the songs are now longer, and the album is more technical. But it's a lesser album to SBG because of this. SBG was just full speed rip-your-face- off Death Metal. Leprosy changed that formula, which is good, because it led Death to become to behemoth they became. Another difference on Leprosy is the lyrics, Chuck's lyrics got more diverse, while still keeping the gore and death formula.

Leprosy starts off with the great title track, with it's many time changes make it a forbarer of what's to come. "Born Dead" again has many tempo changes but it is shorter then the preceeding track. "Forgotten Past" is more straight forward, it almost sounds like a holdover from SBG. "Left to Die" is another straight ahead asskicker. It also contains the only Rick Rozz solo I like. "Pull the Plug", one of Death's staples comes in at a bonecrushing number five. "Open Casket", my favorite song on the album has a great solo by Chuck and is one of the first Death songs to have meaningful lyrics. "Primitive Ways" is probably the weakest song on here, figures though, it was penned by Rozz, great lyrics though. "Choke On It" closes Leprosy on again a more progressive note and foreshadowed the future idea of Chuck Schuldiner's mission on DEATH metal. With numerous changes and shredding leads it again is a great song.

By no means is Leprosy the best Death album but it is still essential death metal. Not as ground breaking or neither as memorable as SBG but the primitive form of the Death sound was perfected on it. On the next album "Spiritual Healing" began the real progression of Death.

Album rating: 7/10 points = 72 % on MPV scale = 3/5 stars

point-system: 0 - 3 points = 1 star / 3.5 - 5.5 points = 2 stars / 6 - 7 points = 3 stars / 7.5 - 8.5 points = 4 stars / 9 - 10 points = 5 stars

Some things need to be said in blunt ways. This is a terrible album.

Chuck Schuldiner had a different approach to music. He formed his band Death (of which he is the only consistent member), to make brutal and aggressive music with an attitude to shock the metal world. Sound like the Stradinsky of metal right, WRONG! Schuldiner accomplishes his objective of shocking the metal world with song titles like "Choke On It" and "Open Casket", but he doesn't do it in a musical fashion at all. There is not a single piece featuring musical variation on this album. It's drop-tuned guitars, overdistorted, playing at obscene volume levels the entire album. There is nothing inventive about this album musically, only in attitude is this album a musical landmark.

Chuck Schuldiner minimizes his role from vocals, guitars, and bass to vocals and guitars on this album. Schuldiner writes the majority of the juvenile riffs throughout this album. The songs never seem to develop or go anywhere. They are just four musicians playing as fast and sloppy as they can for three minutes at a time. Schuldiner makes to attempt at melody. There are some skillfull solos, but nothing creative in relation to music. The vocals are underdeveloped growls. There isn't really any vocal ability being demonstrated here, but credit must be given to Schuldiner. His poor performance as a growler was at the time unique, and lead to the influence of better growls featured in extreme music. He laid a blueprint, but his particular structure feel.

Rick Rozz also plays some interesting solo licks like Schuldiner, but other than that simply plays the exact same rythymns as Schuldiner throughout the entire album. There is very little reason for Rozz to even be on this album. Due to the lack of variation in the guitar parts. Rozz was later fired from Death by Schuldiner because he started liking his hair too much. Schuldiner was a hard man to work with, but at this team, he was nothing but attitude.

Terry Butler makes another unremarkable perfomance on bass. His part pretty much follows the rythymn guitar the entire time, and I've already said enough about that.

Bill Andrews plays another typical performance from an extreme metal drummer. There are some blast beats, some flashy drum fills, but the entire album is pretty much 4/4 beats with a lot of bass drum.

The production is awful, no clarity, no definition, but a bunch of distortion that fits the attitude of the music.

Stay away, download it if your curiosity is peaked, but this album is a waste of money in any collection.

This album is straightfoward death metal. Like its predecessor, Scream Bloody Gore, this is very thrash oriented. I do like this album however, after hearing Death's later work it no longer is as appealing to me. While enjoyable I would prefer later albums from the band. There is alot of tremolo picking, blast beats, double bass drums, and wild guitar solos. Fine for thrash/death metal enthusiasts, but probably not for a alot of prog listeners. The guitar work is great, and the bass is absolutely amazing. I don't know how you can't like it. With the insane guitars shredding through the background you hear simple, stringy, bass and I just love it. The drumming is basic thrash/death metal beats and a little boring after a while. The lyrics are a little gore related and Chuck's vocals are the same "Death Grunt" as before.

While pretty simple, there is some improvement from their prior release. The song Born Dead is my favorite from this album, and is actually fairly technical and progressive, (especially given the rest of the album). Overall, a good album but can't compare to Death's later works and is not for everyone.

EDIT: I have recently changed my rating from 3 stars to 2. While this is a good death metal album, that's just what it is and even a lot of prog-metal fans probably will not care for it. This album is for Death fans only.

As with the debut, Leprosy continues to pioneer death metal with its fast, short, and brutal stabs at music. This is where Chuck begins his revolving door method of running Death. The songs here are all infused with campy gore that belies the insight and intelligence in Chuck's later albums. Pull the Plug, Left to Die, and the title track are enjoyable numbers, but to call them prog would open up the archives to the likes of Motorhead and the Dead Kennedys. This album is extremely important to the formation of a genre, but it's not a good as its predecessor and Chuck still has a lot of kinks to work out, though his fretwork is already amazing.

Fans of Chuck should own everthing by him, but proggies should stick to the albums from Human forward as well as the Control Denied album.

Grade: D-

"Leprosy" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US death metal act Death. The album was released through Combat Records in August 1988. After releasing "Scream Bloody Gore (1987)", band founder Chuck Schuldiner opted to move back to Florida, and as Death was essentially a two-man band at the time, and drummer Chris Reifert decided to stay in California (he would later found Autopsy), a whole new lineup had to be assembled. Rick Rozz who had been a member of Death in their formative demo years joined as the band´s second guitarist, and drummer Bill Andrews was also added to the lineup. Although Terry Butler is credited for playing the bass on the album, Schuldiner stated in several interviews over the years, that it was in fact him who performed bass in addition to guitars and vocals. As the case also was on the predecessor "Leprosy" is graced by one of the distinct looking cover artworks by Edward J. Repka. The album was recorded in April 1988 at Morrisound Recording with producer Dan Johnson, and is one of the earliest examples of a death metal album recorded at that now legendary studio.

While the music style on the album is old school US death metal, which was also the case on "Scream Bloody Gore (1987)", and the music on "Leprosy" is unmistakably the sound of Death, there is still a huge difference between the two albums in terms of the quality and complexity of the songwriting, the sound production, and the musicianship. "Leprosy" was not only the next logical step for Death, it was also a transformation from a rather primitive and raw death metal act to a more sophisticated (yet still brutal and raw) ditto. This is not technical death metal by any means though, and some of the transitions between sections are still a bit amaturish and abrupt, but it´s obvious that Schuldiner had grown as a composer/musician since the debut, but also that the rest of the lineup was relatively technically skilled.

The material on the 8 track, 38:51 minutes long album is generally well written and for the most part quite catchy for the genre. The riffs are brutal yet intelligent, the guitar solos delivered with fierce intensity, the rhythm section is solid, and the intelligible aggressive growling vocals are performed with passion and conviction. Highlights include the title track, "Pull the Plug", and "Open Casket", but "Leprosy" is a solid release through and through.

The sound production is raw and brutal, yet detailed, and suits the music perfectly. So "Leprosy" is in any way possible a step up from the debut, and overall a great quality release. It´s the perfect transition album between the old school death metal of "Scream Bloody Gore (1987)" and the more technically focused death metal of "Spiritual Healing (1990)". A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

Not as groundbreaking as Scream Bloody Gore, and not as good as their later releases

With the 1987 release of Scream Bloody Gore Death had established themselves as one of the most innovative bands in the metal world, pushing the boundaries of extreme metal from Slayer and Metallica to a whole new level of extreme. It is much debated whether or not that is the first death metal album, but it's historical importance is undeniable no matter where you stand.

Death's 1988 output Leprosy uses the same formula used on Scream Bloody Gore. Crushing riffs, fast blast-beat drumming, morbid lyrics, and just overall brutality is the name of the game here. Scream Bloody Gore was a very important album in the metal world, even though I don't consider it a great album. Leprosy isn't a great album either, but it doesn't have the same amount of importance that their debut album had, thus it is not as recommended.

Death's later albums which can be described as technical/progressive death metal are why they are on the archives. Up until Human Death had nothing "prog" about them, even though they were one of the most "progressive" bands around. This is pure old school death metal with nothing even related to prog in it. If you're looking for prog I recommend Death's later albums.

Aside from not being prog, is it a good album?

Even though this album isn't prog or historically important, it still has many flaws. For one, the production quality is really poor. Those stupid 80's drums are present, and the overall sound of this album is muddy and not produced well.

Another main issue I have with this album is the people playing along with Chuck Schuldiner. He does a great job, but the rest of the band just isn't present. Bill Andrews is a pretty boring drummer to be honest. Death's future would have some really great drummers: Gene Hoglan, Sean Reinert, and Richard Christy are all excellent. I don't consider Andrews to be up there with these greats. I don't think Terry Butler can compete with Steve DiGiorgio, and I don't think Rick Rozz is Death's best guitarist either. All in all, I don't think the musicianship here is nearly as good as it would be in the later albums.

I also don't think the songwriting is too great either. There are only a few memorable tracks, and even those aren't without flaws. Some are just pure throwaways as well.

THE MUSIC:

"Leprosy"- The first (and longest) song on the album has a pretty cool opening with some good riffs. I think this is one of the best songs on the album, as it is very enjoyable. I really like some of the riffs, and this sounds like a proto-type to their later technical metal days. This song has really the only proggy moments on the album. This would have been a great song if it wasn't for the stupid production.

"Born Dead"- Opening up with a galloping-like metal riff. From there on out this is a pretty standard verse-chorus-verse death metal song. The chorus has some cool riffs, but the verses are really annoying.

"Forgotten Past"- This opens up with another really good metal riff. This has really good progressions from verse to chorus, and it is one of the few really memorable songs on the album. This has a very good guitar solo in it. Not prog, but a very good metal song.

"Left To Die"- After a short shredding intro, the main riff enters. This song is fast and takes no prisoners. I think this is a pretty poor song, and it does absolutely nothing for me.

"Pull The Plug"- This song is absolutely excellent. The riffs are absolutely perfect, and this song is a highlight of early death metal. The riff during the chorus is superb, and everything about this is perfectly crafted. One of the few memorable songs on the album.

"Open Casket"- This song is mostly just blast beat drumming with guttural growls. The chorus is decent, but as a whole this song is not even slightly memorable.

"Primitive Ways"- This entire song is pretty much just blast beat drumming. I think it has a few decent moments, but as a whole this song is not very memorable. Bill Andrews does a good job on this song, and I wish he could have drummed like this more on the rest of the album.

"Choke On It"- Despite the song title that makes me chuckle every time I see it, this is one of the best songs on the album. It has a few proggy moments, and I really enjoy this song. I wish more of the album could have been like this.

Conclusion:

Leprosy is a decent old school death metal album. It is flawed, but still not a throwaway album. On a metal site I would give this flawed album a 3, but since this is a prog site, I will give it a 2. If you're looking for progressive death metal, go to Death's later outputs. If you're looking for classic old school death metal, this is for you. But keep in mind, this album is not flawless.

2 stars.

'Leprosy' - Death (6/10)

After having released a debut which has since been labelled a classic in the death metal scene, there's no denying that Florida metallers Death had a hard act to follow up on. While the successor to 1987's 'Scream Bloody Gore' may not have the historical significance of the former, 'Leprosy' does take Death's early death metal style and develop upon it, improving virtually every aspect of the music to some degree, and perhaps most importantly, taking the band's subject matter out of the simple 'gore' topics and into some more philosophical and complex lyrical regions.

As with virtually every Death release, the man of the front and center is Chuck Schuldiner, a man that has reached a near-godlike status with metalheads after his tragic death in 2001. While quick to be labelled death metal, the sound here is more accurately labelled as a mixture of death and thrash metal styles. All of the songs here are high-energy and focused around the powerful axework and vocal delivery of Schuldiner. While there are still tracks here that revolve around gore, death, and graphic human suffering in general, a handful of tracks really show Schuldiner exploring new territory with the lyrics. 'Pull The Plug,' for example revolves around the ethics of euthanasia; certainly a far cry from the b-movie subject matter of the first album.

While 'Leprosy' is a decent death metal album, it could have been alot better had it not been for the lacking backing band. While the basswork of Terry Butler is functional, it doesn't any dimension to the music, instead choosing the simplest way to emulate whatever Chuck is playing on guitar. Worst yet is the drumming of Bill Andrews here. While Andrews isn't necessarily a horrible musician, the sound of the percussion is utterly lifeless, and sounds like a poorly programmed computer drummer. While the majority of the appeal in Death is obviously centered around the talents of Schuldiner, a better host of fellow musicians could have really brought other aspects of this music to life. While Schuldiner's guitar work here delivers some absolutely killer riffs throughout the album, there are even parts of his work with 'Leprosy' that don't sit well with me. In particular is his soloing technique; while a skilled shredder, each of the solos here seems to sound quite alike to each other, and each like a tribute to Kerry King's work in Slayer at that.

'Leprosy' has been my first legitimate experience with the work of Death, and while there are plenty of notable faults here, it's easy to see why there's such a hype about this project. While it wouldn't incorporate the progressive brilliance of the later work for a while yet, Death delivers the goods here to mixed results; 'Leprosy' is a recommended listen for the death metal fan.

With "Leprosy" Death make a step forward from the extremely radical death metal sound present in their first LP "Scream Bloody Gore", in every way. Except one; for me, the enjoyment of the album is the same I had with the first album.

Chuck Schuldiner had to gather a few more musicians for this album, so that Death could be an actual band and not just a one man project; we have Rick Rozz at guitars, Terry Butler at bass and Bill Andrews on drums. The musicianship is as a consequence an improvement, but still far from precise and virtuous. The production is still poor and rough, but even here slightly better than the one in "Scream Bloody Gore".

Musically, this is pure and simple death metal, with some more complex riffs and longer songs, an element that will become more and more developed by the band until, with "Human", they will become a Technical Death Metal band and use this formula constantly. But here we see only little traces of progressive song structures.The lyrical content is a little more intelligent than the one of first album, and some times they concern controversial matters, such as pulling the plug on somebody who lives in a vegetable state. But we still have pretty much those same themes we find on "Scream Bloody Gore", even though there in the second album there is a consistency concerning disease and extreme pessimism about living here in this world.

The reason why I didn't like this album is just the fact that I didn't get into the songs in here. There are some good moments, like in the title track, the longest song of the album, "Forgotten Past", or the already mentioned "Pull The Plug", but I don't care at all about the rest of the songs, which was kind of disappointing for me.

I know many people don't mind listening to this album, but I just got a little bored and I don't feel like picking it up for a long time now.But I can't deny that without this album Death maybe would have never been so great, and that it is most definitely a step forward.

Whether it's Relayer or Love Beach, I can at least apply some sort of positive acknowledgement towards album covers that reflect the contents of the music within, which was certainly useful back in the days before the internet. I look at a cover sleeve like Leprosy and immediately deduce that, contained in this release, there will be no song titles such as "Girl, I Need To Give You All My Lovin'" or "Disco Chicken".

This is pure, unabashed pre-grindcore influenced old-school death metal. Somewhat drop-tuned, and not even a typical horror film ambient piece to initiate the onslaught. Musically it's more ambitious than the band's debut, brandishing more riffs and tempo changes, along with lyrical subject matter that still stays true to the group's namesake, but less reliant on comical gore and occult themes which adorned Scream Bloody Gore. Of course, upping the difficulty factor concerning the rhythms by no means warrants Leprosy as a progressive release, as this stuff is still very much a product of its time, anchored in brutal thrash with hoarse, throaty growls wailing away over the riffage. Chuck was already beginning to excel regarding his guitar skills, but due to the limitations regarding the rest of the performers, his playing is tempered to simply pumping out the meanest chord progressions possible along with occasional tasteful guitar solos.

The production actually never bothered me way back when I first bought this release, yet revisiting it recently, the complaints critics charge towards the drum sound ring true to my ears, which is actually annoying since it never irked me before. But yeah, that snare is stupidly loud and brash to the point where it draws away from everything else to a certain extent.

As for the songs themselves, the title track is still a clear winner of utter nastiness boasting hellish riffs and an unmercifully grim subject matter. "Pull The Plug" and "Open Casket" are other doozies that retain the fun regarding the over-the-top song title shouts of Scream Bloody Gore, but as a whole, what Leprosy gains in maturity, loses in the sheer catchiness department. Their debut was a hilarious speed-fest, and about as prog as Rocket To Russia. Leprosy tempers the lunacy, but doesn't quite replace it with any 'wow' moments musically, although it was a logical step in the development of Chuck's prowess. I enjoy it, but mainly for a few killer tracks.

Death's debut was a decent blueprint for death metal but didn't have brilliant production; their second album would not only demonstrate that they had a few more technical chops than Screan Bloody Gore might have suggested, but also put the distinctive production style of Scott Burns on the map and made Morrisound in Florida the hub of the late 1980s/early 1990s US death metal explosion. With songs that incorporate a higher degree of technical capability without making technicality the sole focus and a production which teases out the hidden intricacies of the group's playing whilst retaining the fire and fury of the preceding album, it isn't a delicate or shy piece but it is an iconic one.

Following in the footsteps of Slayer and Possessed, the Orlando, FL based Chuck Schuldiner single handedly developed his band DEATH into a major metal powerhouse and then dropped his fully functional death metal bomb onto the unsuspecting world of heavy metal with his debut album "Scream Bloody Gore." While in effect a solo album with only the percussive bombast of Chris Reifert as a partner in musical mischief, Schuldiner had unknowingly unleashed an entirely unexplored universe of metal possibilities with darker and more sinister themes that utilized punishing guitar riffage, primeval raw distortion and those famous Schuldiner only blood curdling screams that finally took that last step out of the only recently developed thrash metal into the ultimate world of extremities.

One can basically view DEATH's all too brief existence as an incremental step-by-step evolution from the deathened thrash metal beginnings of Mantas to the full blown independence within the death metal camp on "Scream Bloody Gore." On Schuldiner's second album LEPROSY now under the DEATH moniker, Chuck (on bass and guitar) almost employs a complete lineup making this one sound more like a real band effort and not just an early solo noisefest. Thus on LEPROSY there were two more musicians with the only album appearance of Rick Rozz on guitar and Bill Andrews picking up the drummer role after Chris Reifert went off to start Autopsy. The result of the new lineup and some time to iron out the kinks presented on the debut resulted in a stunningly brilliant followup.

LEPROSY provided a much needed intermittent step from the raw primeval bombast of the debut and the increasing progressive touches that climaxed on the final album "The Sound Of Perseverance." While not quite in the progressive death metal camp, LEPROSY displays proto-offerings of the famous abrupt time signature changes and adventurous stylistic changes from chugga chug riffing to the histrionic guitar solos with an riveting changing it up of the drums that create an interesting mixture of styles all throughout the album. The proto-prog labyrinthine tendencies are in full regalia on LEPROSY and would only incrementally accrue on each subsequent release. Never mind the pink album cover. These sounds emanate from the deepest trenches of hell. Despite the choice of color for the album cover pastiche, Edward Repka's artwork is quite creepy!

While it's true that DEATH was still in its infancy and was climbing the ladder to one of the most innovative metal bands of all time, LEPROSY provides an interesting snapshot into the late 80s when glam metal bands like Whitesnake and Poison were dominating MTV, the pop charts and the overall public's perception of what metal was. While not exactly taking the world by storm in terms of popularity, Schuldiner was staunchly nurturing his newly sired craft into an incredible maelstrom of technical wizardry that would provide the blueprint of metal ingenuity for generations to come. For any fans of DEATH, you know you're either in it wholeheartedly or just casually dipping in to hear what all the fuss is about. It's simply impossible to follow Schuldiner's brainchild career without experiencing every single stop in the road along the way. LEPROSY provides that interesting phase two realm.

While i personally prefer the four more progressively infused albums that came last, LEPROSY is by far my favorite album of the first three as it successfully captures in perfect balance the raw and unrelenting origins of the DEATH universe but also begins to create more elaborate compositions that utilize not only traces of melody married with the youthful exuberance and sloppiness that comes from the initial stages of a band's existence. This is truly a subway stop on the road to greatness but because of Schuldiner's personal style and ferocious approach, i find this to be the quintessential satisfying release in the early years of old school death metal. Tech death is probably my favorite extreme metal style of the 21st century but LEPROSY is a classic that captures a moment in time that can never be repeated and captures it brilliantly. Brilliantly i say, brilliantly! Grrrrrrrrr.

4.5 but rounded down