Seems to be between Possessed 1985 debut 'Seven Churches' to Death's 'Scream Bloody Gore' where the conflict is which album founded the genre of death metal wholeheartedly? I'd have to say Death, especially well talked about on the "Death by Metal" documentary is that Possessed debut album was a bit "sloppy" and Death's 'Scream Bloody Gore' was "tighter". I'd have to agree with this synopsis. The music on here is raw, heavy and straightforward. Chuck Schuldiner did a great job on 3 avenues: vocals, guitar and bass, Chris Reifert on drums. They practiced a shit-ton to get this album out and made. They had to go through some loopholes before finally making a recording on Combat.

Whether this is your first experience with Death or not, one view is this: Chuck did not make any album sound the same. 'Leprosy' (released next year) was close but you could hear from that recording the songwriting progression. And different lineup as Chris was let go of his drum duties handed over to Bill Andrews ('Leprosy' and 'Spiritual Healing' [1990]). They acquired Terry Butler on those two recordings also on bass. 'Scream Bloody Gore' is nothing polished but the sound wasn't so raw that you couldn't make out the guitar riffs. And as Jim Morris from Morrisound Recordings says "Chuck is talking to you in the riffs." You'd better believe that!

The album itself is about 45 minutes and it's just brutal. Chris wanted to stay in the band but Chuck was already moving on. A lot of death metal bands keep producing the same records over and over, Chuck wanted to progress as a musician. So he never really fit that mold to playing death metal exclusively throughout his musical career. This album set the tone for other death metal bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide, Malevolent Creation, et al to move into this category. I think that the fact that he always thought "metal is metal" and it shouldn't follow in categories which now there are numerous categories of metal. He was opposed to these "categories."

These guys practiced and practiced for this to get made and out to listeners. What to expect in addition to what I said: 'Zombie Ritual', what a great song! It's fast, it's catchy, but like all the songs on here. Some people have commented that this album is "boring" and just the same thing over and over. But those are the people who aren't really listening. The production isn't the best, but it was good enough for Combat and even though this album was initially turned down, they found someone that could put in the time to make the recording even though he didn't know what the band members talked about in this genre (courtesy of "Death by Metal" documentary). Check it out!

Rating: 10 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
02/12/2022 20:58