Death
Leprosy

Let's make it clear right away: this CD is a masterpiece. Don't bother with the lack of technique, the uncertain sounds, the excessive brutality, the lack of originality in the solos, blablabla.
These are the Death of the early, devastating period, the one of "Scream Bloody Gore" just to be clear, so don't expect melody or superhuman technique or thought-out tempos nor jazz players around, because you would be entirely wrong. THESE are the first Death, the Death of 1988, a year after the historic "Scream Bloody Gore".
This atomic weapon (luckily no one has discovered its potential use for war purposes, otherwise goodbye planet Earth) contains 8 shards of pleasantly raw thrash-death metal, edited during the period when Death was a band more eager to play than technical, deeply influenced by bands like Venom and Slayer which were extremely popular among metalheads at the time.
Sometimes incomprehensible speed, typically Slayeresque solos (from time to time you might wonder if you're listening to "Reign In Blood" or Death), dark and furious growl, terrible recording due to the limited budget, technique that begins to appear here and there in flashes and much more mature lyrics than the predecessor make this CD a masterpiece of death metal.
But let's move onto the analysis of the group's situation. The lineup is upset compared to "Scream...", in fact, we still find Charles "Chuck" Schuldiner (R.I.P) on guitar and vocals, while on the second guitar we find the chubby Rick Rozz (a pseudonym behind which hides the rolling countryside entity, as suggested by the false last name, that answers to the name Frederick DeLillo), Terry Butler on bass and Bill Andrews on drums.
These four elements have given life to one of the most wicked CDs in metal, unfortunately underrated, but which I personally don't hesitate to define as the masterpiece of the FIRST Death.
We are light-years away from gems like "Human" or "Individual Thought Patterns": here we are, in fact, 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, I really don't care about you at all".
The recording is terrible, the snare drum is really intrusive and often annoying, also due to its frequency: in fact, this CD has an industrial amount of tupatupatupatupa, which Death had inherited from Slayer. Anyway, we are faced with a much more mature work than the predecessor: songs like the beautiful title-track, "Born Dead", "Pull The Plug" (the best track of the early Death in my opinion) or "Open Basket" have now become part of the collective death metal imagination. Chuck, as usual, delivers a series of destructive growls, often accompanied by screams and not very reassuring echoes.
The solos are beginning to show a certain mastery of the instrument, even though we are miles away from the virtuosity of "The Philosopher": Chuck, however, showed that he had made a remarkable quality leap compared to "Scream...", presenting the usual Slayer-type solos, overused of pick tapping and tremolo on very high notes, but more internalized and personal, and from the next "Spiritual Healing" they will be absolutely devoid of influences but very personal and highly expressive. In short, an album that, although full of flaws, is a milestone in the path taken by Death and unfortunately interrupted prematurely.
A devastating album, even too much, in short, but it marks a step in the musical evolution of Death, then almost unrecognizable. Listen to it, and you'll understand how nice it must have been to be 17 in 1988 to say to your friends: "Hey old man, 'Leprosy', the latest LP by Death, is out, it's going to bust the turntable's needle!!!!!".
P.S. Note the beautiful cover, not surprisingly created by the great Edward Repka, the same one of the never too-praised sleeve of Megadeth's "Peace Sells..." and "Rust In Peace".
P.P.S.: Please let me know your impressions of the review, so maybe I can improve next time. Thanks. Best regards to everyone.