Death by Metal

Before there was Death, there was Mantas: Chuck Schuldiner's fledgling high school band whose improbably prolific and well-documented demo recordings oftentimes trump -- in terms of influence if not sales, obviously -- entire official discographies by lesser heavy metal geniuses. Hence the release of Death by Metal, a 14-track collection of demo tapes and rehearsals captured by Schuldiner, fellow guitarist Rick Rozz, and drummer Kam Lee in 1984 (several more demos and dozens of songs would follow), some three years before Death's proper first album, Scream Bloody Gore. Speaking of.but one of the songs contained here -- the blazingly thrashy zombie tale "Evil Dead" -- survived long enough to appear in said debut, making this collection a minor treasure trove of embryonic death metal for die-hard fans and extreme metal historians alike -- so long as they're not put off by its muffled recording and the fact that only five truly "lost" tracks are featured, cast in duplicate or even triplic