•
Rating: The never too lamented "Evil Chuck" Schuldiner, before experimenting with a progressive and ultra-technical death metal (see "Symbolic" and "The Sound Of Perseverance"), created a raw, brutal, and terribly heavy death metal.
What I mean by this definition is precisely this masterpiece: "Leprosy", released in 1988. The album opens with three heavy chords that introduce us to the title track (certainly one of the best on the CD) and immediately the group's intentions are clear: not much technique (although increased from the debut "Scream Bloody Gore") and a strong desire to rock!
The album continues with the solid "Born Dead" and "Forgotten Past", progressing to the fantastic "Left To Die"… the chorus is amazing ("You’ll not return alive – Left To Die"). The fifth track is that masterpiece known as "Pull The Plug", performed even at the last Death concerts (like "Live In L.A.").
It proceeds with the excellent "Open Casket" where an outstanding Bill Andrews is noticeable, along with Schuldiner's heavy growl screaming the song's title in the chorus. The album ends with "Primitive Ways" and "Choke On It", maintaining the standards of "Born Dead". It's also worth mentioning the excellent performance of bassist Terry Butler who, while not the immense DiGiorgio, still maintains a good level. The lyrics are still quite immature (except "Pull The Plug" which seems to address the still relevant topic of euthanasia): death, death, death!
A sick and dark voice, an oppressive drum and notably downtuned and extremely fast guitars are the characteristics of this CD... a must for anyone who wants to know early Death and the early, raw death metal!
P.S.: note the Slayer shirt worn by Butler and the Sadus shirt worn by Chuck on the back cover!
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Leprosy (06:20)
Bodies deformed way beyond belief
Cast out from their concerned society
Flesh contorting day after day
Freak of the dark world is what the people say
Their lives decay before their eyes
There is no hope of cure
Among their own kind they live
A life that's so obscure
First an arm and then a leg
Deterioration grows
Rotting while they breathe - Death comes slow
Leprosy will take control and bring you to your death
No chance of a normal life to live just like the rest
Leprosy will spread with time, Your body soon to change
Appearance becomes hideous a sight too much to take
Tuberculoid the most severe
Decay of the nerves comes fast
Sense of feeling soon to be gone
Life will never last
No hope of recovery after the nerves are eaten away
Damage is done you feel no more pain
Bones decay deterioration grows
Origin of this horrid disease nobody knows
Their lives decay before their eyes
There is no hope of cure
Among their own kind they live
A life that's so obscure
First an arm and then a leg
Deterioration grows
Rotting while they breathe - Death comes slow
Leprosy will take control and bring you to your death
No chance of a normal life to live just like the rest
Leprosy will spread with time, Your body soon to changel
Appearance becomes hideous a sight too much to take
03 Forgotten Past (04:36)
Deep in your mind there is another side
A morbid truth one cannot hide
Unimaginable gore was your past time high
To hear people scream, To watch them die
Return back to the burial site
Face your dreams upon this night
Severed limbs not far away
Spirit past you now obey
Images of the forgotten past
Your first life revealed at last
Now you'll find to your surprise
All the corpses you left behind
A place you feel you've been to before
Where life would turn right into gore
You dig deep down through the years of decay
The truth is revealed, You found your way
Return back to the burial site
Face your dreams upon this night
Severed limbs not far away
Spirit past you now obey
Images of the forgotten past
Your first life revealed at last
Now you'll find to your surprise
All the corpses you left behind
05 Pull the Plug (04:26)
Memory's all that's left behind
As I lay and wait to die
Little do they know
That I hear their choice of life
End it now, it is the only way
Too cruel, that is what they say
Release me from this lonely world
There is no hope - Why don't you
Pull the plug
Let me pass away
Pull the plug
Don't want to live this way
Once I had full control of my life
I now behold a machine decides my fate
End it now it's all to late
What has now been days, It seems like years
To stay like this is what I fear
Life ends so fast, So take your chance
And make it last
End it now, It is the only way
Too cruel, That is what they say
Release me from this lonely world
There is no hope - Why don't you
Pull the plug
Let me pass away
Pull the plug
Don't want to live this way
06 Open Casket (04:55)
Approach the image filled with fear
As the image grows so clear
Future now takes full control
The one whose past you now behold
Touch - The flesh it is so cold
Turn away - You now have been told
Never to return, Memories will last
In the future, You'll think about the past
Never to forget, What you have seen
People come to pay respect
Taking pictures of the dead
That is what life comes to be
Once they lived, Now they're deceased
Death is oh so strange
The past no one can change
What you can't predict
Is how long you'll exist
Open casket - Open casket
Life will never be the same
Death can never be explained
It's their time to go beyond
Empty feeling when they're gone
Never to return, Memories will last
In the future, You'll think about the past
Never to forget, What you have seen
What can not be real you now believe
07 Primitive Ways (04:33)
Go against the ways and experience pain
Leading a life which one might call insane
Bathe in the blood of the one you killed
Slaughter to survive, Your needs are fulfulled
Using horrid waste
Some of them will taste
Removing deadly disease
With such primitive ease
Cannibals practising the art of butchery
Emotions don't exist, Pain you can't resist
Primitive ways
Conducting ceremonies to meet the ancient ones
While having an outer body experience
Celebrate the kill of the day
Then walk among the guts of the fallen prey
Using horrid waste
Some of them will taste
Removing deadly disease
With such primitive ease
Cannibals practising the art of butchery
Emotions don't exist, Pain you can't resist
08 Choke on It (05:54)
Freedom is just a breath away
Will you live to see the day
As the heat intensifies
You start to choke, Your insides fry
Seizure now sets in
Torture will begin
Twisted bodies lie
Waiting now to die
Choke on it - As your tongue goes down
Choke on it - Death is all around
Screaming fills your frenzied mind
No way out no more time
Example made from those to see
Your freedom turned to misery
World is all around
Of what they have found
Lesson to be learn
You will not return
Choke on it - As your tongue goes down
Choke on it - Death is all around
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By jigoro
This CD is a masterpiece.
We are faced with a very angry Chuck, who revisits the philosophy with which he composed the previous one: 'This is what I want to play, and I play it. If you jerks want to buy it, buy it, if not, well, then go to hell.'
By sfascia carrozze
When someone gargles with muriatic acid, concrete nails, and the metal spheres of stainless steel bearings and then screams in your face with all the strength and wheezing desperation they possess 'STACCALASPINA', for me they are the undisputed champion of the entire (un)known universe in terms of elegiac assorted poetics.
If those old baboons of the Royal Academy of Sciences lounged in plenary session in Stockholm had a minimal sense of art instead of awarding it to that old mouflon Roberto Dilano, they should have assigned it, even posthumously, to the indomitable Don Chuck Schuldiner.
