Scream Bloody Gore
Album Review
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Released May 25, 1987, SCREAM BLOODY GORE, the debut album from Florida death metal pioneers DEATH, marks a dark and transformative turning point from thrash metal into something else…something with “thrash overtones” that “sounds like thrash” but also doesn’t. While it seemed to be the next logical evolutionary step for extreme metal, we weren’t exactly sure what it was. It was still thrashy, yet there was a much darker presence to it than the thrash to which we were accustomed.
As it turns out, when you mix in the violent themes of horror movies like ‘Evil Dead’ with the sonic intensity of thrash metal, you end up with death metal, the genre which Chuck Schuldiner and DEATH helped establish in the mid 1980’s, putting Florida on the map as the death metal capital of the world.
Discover how immersion reading can make Dr. Seuss and Lord of the Rings even more compelling, always remember where you should “NEVER put alcohol…”, and find out which song on this album was “renamed” (thanks to the PMRC) when you JOIN US (with special guest “Xander Bonerman”) as we explore the dark depths of the debut album from the band that revolutionized extreme metal by launching a brand new subgenre of horror infused thrash with DEATH and SCREAM BLOODY GORE.
The Album That Created Death Metal
On May 25, 1987, a 20-year-old kid from Florida named Chuck Schuldiner released an album that single-handedly created a genre — playing almost every instrument himself, recording it twice because the label hated the first version, and crediting a guitarist who never actually played a single note on it. Scream Bloody Gore is the Big Bang of death metal.
SCREAM BLOODY GORE
| Artist | Death |
| Album | Scream Bloody Gore |
| Released | May 25, 1987 |
| Label | Combat Records |
| Recorded by | Chuck Schuldiner (all guitars, bass, vocals) & Chris Reifert (drums) |
| Producer | Randy Burns |
| Recorded | Los Angeles, CA (second attempt — see below) |
| Cover art | Ed Repka (same artist: Megadeth's Peace Sells and Rust in Peace) |
| Genre | Death Metal — widely considered the first true example of it |
The Story Behind the Album
Chuck Schuldiner started the band as Mantas in Altamonte Springs, Florida in 1983 with Kam Lee and Rick Rozz. In 1984 the name changed to Death — "it better represented the vision," Chuck said at the time. Over the next two years, the band churned through six different demo lineups before a single note of a debut album was ever recorded.
By 1986, Chuck had stripped things back to just two people: himself and new drummer Chris Reifert. Their Mutilation demo caught the ear of Combat Records, who signed them. Then the trouble started.
Recorded twice. Combat flew them to Florida to record the album — then hated the mix. They scrapped those sessions (only rhythm guitar and drums had been tracked) and sent the band to Los Angeles to re-record everything with producer Randy Burns. The Florida sessions only surfaced decades later on the 2016 Relapse reissue.
The ghost guitarist. John Hand is listed in the liner notes as rhythm guitarist. His photograph is in the booklet. He never played a single note on the album — he joined the band briefly after the recording was already finished. Metal's greatest phantom credit.
The censored track. The original title of track four was "Sacrificial Cunt" — Combat Records forced a rename, almost certainly due to PMRC pressure (the same year Metallica was fighting censorship stickers on Master of Puppets). The renamed version, simply called "Sacrificial," made the cut.
The Ed Repka connection. The iconic cover — zombie surgeons, gore, the works — was painted by Ed Repka, the same artist behind Megadeth's Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? and Rust in Peace covers. One artist was simultaneously defining the visual language of both thrash and death metal.
The aftermath. Chris Reifert left Death immediately after the album was recorded and went on to found Autopsy — another foundational death metal band. He played on THE first death metal album, walked out the door, and started another classic. The death metal family tree in one paragraph.
Track by Track
Half of this album is essentially a Lucio Fulci and Sam Raimi tribute. Chuck was obsessed with Italian horror cinema — and it shows.
Infernal Death
Originally from the 1985 Infernal Death demo — Chuck was 18 when he wrote this. No intro, no build-up, no easing in. Pure statement of intent from the very first second.
Zombie Ritual Lucio Fulci's Zombie 2 (1979)
Arguably the defining track of the album. Inspired by Fulci's 1979 splatter film. The opening guitar leads are stunning for 1987 — Chuck was operating well above the technical level of his peers.
Denial of Life
One of the few tracks written specifically for this album rather than pulled from demo material. Pure composition, no recycling.
Sacrificial (originally "Sacrificial Cunt")
Renamed under Combat Records pressure. The censored title is honestly funnier than whatever they could have kept. PMRC strikes again.
Mutilation
From the Mutilation demo (1986) — the recording that got them signed. The demo version appears on the 2016 reissue for direct comparison.
Regurgitated Guts Fulci's City of the Living Dead (1980)
Inspired by Fulci's City of the Living Dead (aka Gates of Hell). Fulci's influence on the full album is enormous — the Italian gore director as unexpected death metal muse.
Baptized in Blood
From the Infernal Death demo (1985). One of the oldest tracks on the album — Chuck had been sitting on this riff for two years before the world heard it.
Torn to Pieces Cannibal Ferox (1981)
Inspired by Umberto Lenzi's Cannibal Ferox. Contains a riff borrowed from Death's own 1985 "Rigor Mortis" demo. Self-sampling before it was a thing.
Evil Dead Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1981)
One of the most famous tracks. Inspired by Raimi's Evil Dead. DragonForce covered this in 2017 — proving death metal's reach goes further than anyone expected. Great crossover: Evil Dead fans stumbling on death metal through the title alone.
Scream Bloody Gore Re-Animator (1985)
Inspired by Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator, itself based on H.P. Lovecraft. The title track closes the album. Lovecraft → Italian horror → Chuck Schuldiner → death metal is a lineage nobody planned but everyone inherited.
Scream Bloody Gore isn't just historically significant — it sounds like nothing that existed before it. Where Possessed's Seven Churches (1985) had clear thrash metal DNA running through it, Scream Bloody Gore cut the cord completely. The tempo, the vocals, the riff construction, the production — it was a different genre.
Chuck Schuldiner was 20 years old. He wrote every riff, played almost every instrument, and essentially recorded the album alone with a drummer he'd known for less than a year. The scope of what he created — and the fact that he then went on to evolve Death through six more increasingly sophisticated albums — makes him one of the most important figures in the entire history of heavy music.
He died of brain cancer on December 13, 2001. He was 34 years old. In any other genre, a figure with his level of creative impact would be treated like Hendrix or Cobain. In death metal, he's simply called the Father of Death Metal — and nobody argues with it.
- Recorded: Twice — first attempt scrapped by Combat Records
- Personnel: Effectively two people (Chuck + Chris Reifert)
- Horror films referenced: 5 across 10 tracks
- Ghost credits: 1 (John Hand, listed but never played)
- Billboard chart debut: #174 — on the 2016 reissue, 29 years after release
- Chuck's age at release: 20 years old
- Legacy: Entire genre of death metal — not bad for a kid from Florida
☠️ Is Scream Bloody Gore THE first death metal album — or does Possessed's Seven Churches take it?
The metal world is genuinely split. The case for SBG: it has none of the thrash crossover that Seven Churches carries — it's pure death metal from track one. The case for Seven Churches: it came out in 1985, two full years earlier. Where do you land?
🎸 Best Death album — Scream Bloody Gore or Human?
The eternal Death fan debate: raw founding brutality (SBG, Leprosy) vs. technical prog-influenced brilliance (Human, Individual Thought Patterns, Symbolic). SBG created the genre. Human arguably perfected it. Which matters more?
👑 Is Chuck Schuldiner the most important figure in death metal history — full stop?
The "Father of Death Metal" title is basically uncontested. But is he also the most underrated figure in all of metal? He created a genre, evolved it across seven albums, and died at 34. In any other genre he'd be deified.
🥁 Chris Reifert — most important one-album drummer in metal history?
He plays on the founding death metal album, immediately leaves, and starts Autopsy — another foundational death metal band. Is this the greatest single-album contribution by a drummer in extreme metal? Someone has to argue this.
Show Notes:
(00:01): “It IS a thing…to listen to the audio book and then read the exact same book…”/
“That’s what it sounds like without lube…”/ “Do you have a neighbor that has a ginormous drone?”/ “It sounded like a hornet the size of this table…”/ “We have some bees here that are called cicada killers…”/ “That looks like a horror story waiting to happen…”/
“Giant hornet vs cicada killer…”/ “I’ve seen bigger ones…”/ #restingdickface / “Those motherfuckers will come AT you!”/ ***WARNING: #listenerdiscretionisadvised ***
(06:06): ***WELCOME BACK TO THE METAL NERDERY PODCAST!!!*** /
“The only reason I was jealous is because y’all looked good without shirts and you got poon…”/ #Ascension / #HotCarlson / #CrotchQuicksand #Dickhammered /
***PATREON US AT patreon.com/metalnerderypodcast *** / “I added the cunt part…”/
“That was the first official #storytellers edition of Metal Nerdery Podcast…”/ #thehogstory /
“The more you talk it up…the less good it’s gonna be…”
(10:55): #RussellsReflectionsKittenEdition / “When the wife brought home strange pussy…”/ “Mark all the time, please…”/ “I wake up in the morning with whiskers on my face…”/ “Maybe buy her a fucking steak, bro…”/ “OMG, so you’re THAT guy!”/ “Does she kill people?” / “As long as she’s on top…”/ “Never put alcohol on your dick…or butthole…”/
***SOCIAL MEDIA US at #metalnerderypodcast on #Facebook #Instagram #YouTube and #TikTok & EMAIL US at metalnerdery@gmail.com & VOICEMAIL US at 980-666-8182!!!*** / “That was like #KingDiamond with a really bad cold…”
(18:38): “Let’s go back in time a little bit…”/ #Era / #TheDocket METAL NERDERY PODCAST PRESENTS: DEATH – SCREAM BLOODY GORE / “Annnnd Take 2…”/
***Check out our Death Inside The Metal episode!!!***/ “It’s not thrash, but it sounds like thrash…”/ #genre / “Dude, when I cup it sounds better…”/ “We were wearing masks back then…”/ “Do y’all have early memories of Scream Bloody Gore?”/ #grower / “It wasn’t what WE were used to…”/ Released May 25, 1987 / (NOTE: it’ll be 3 days after, not 4…) / #UltimateRevenge / “This and Leprosy have thrash overtones…”/ “THAT’s a fucking album cover!”/ #origami
(27:27): INFERNAL DEATH / “Yeah, that’s ’87 all day…”/ “It’s kinda got a #RigorMortis sound…”/ “It’s like thrash plus…the next wave…”/ ZOMBIE RITUAL / “It was progressive even then…first album.”/ “So much reverb…like they’re playing in a cave…”/ “At that time, that’s definitely thrash metal…”/ “They don’t have the cookie monster vocals, which is kinda nice…”/ “How do you do the death metal vocals?”/ “It’s…all in the throat…”/
“Finish it, because I know where it’s goin’…”/ #throatsinging / “Girls…”
(36:00): DENIAL OF LIFE / “Death had a lot of drummers over the years…”/ #offtopic / “How will you know…if he really loves you? When he finishes…”/ “San Francisco was the city of thrash, but Florida is the state of death metal…”/ “It was renamed…because the #PMRC are cunts…”/ SACRIFICIAL / “They just have a sound…if you take the vocals out…you can tell it’s Death.”
(43:07): “What’s another band (like that)?” / “I think #IronMaiden is like that…even the new stuff…”/ “Pantera maybe a little bit…”/ “I would never confuse #DOWN with #COC …”/
“Motorhead always sounds like Motorhead…but Zeppelin is all over the place…Sabbath is really all over the place…”/ #futureepisodeidea / “What are bands that, if you took the vocals out, you could still tell who they were?”
(47:13): MUTILATION / “I can hear how you would hear Rigor Mortis with this…”/
“Would it be fair to say that horror metal and death metal are kinda…symbiotic?”/
“No fisting dude, that’s a high five all day…”/ REGURGITATED GUTS / “That’s just old thrash…”/ “You can almost see them writing it…like in the jam room…”/
“As the screamer for Decimation, did you offer input for riffs?”/ “So, he was kinda like the Lars Ulrich of Decimation…in a way…”
(54:32): “This is a song about period sex, y’all…”/ BAPTIZED IN BLOOD / #Bonerman /
“One thing you’ve gotta hand to Death…especially Chuck, he does not write boring songs…”/ “Have y’all watched the documentary on Chuck?” / #DeathByMetal /
“Everything does happen for a reason…”/ TORN TO PIECES / “It’s all horror film stuff, isn’t it?”/ “Uh oh…”
(1:01:01): “Did y’all ever see the movie?”/ “It’s just Evil Dead…it’s not like ‘Black Sabbath I’…”/ “Evil Dead 2…it’s like ‘The Origin of the Feces’ of Evil Dead…”/ “I wanna see her Dunst…” / #SamRaimi / EVIL DEAD / “See, that feels like 1987 to me, all day…”/
“Did you see the remake of the original ‘Evil Dead’?”/ #EvilDead / “So it’s better is what you’re saying…”/ “Let’s watch the trailer real quick…”/ “There’s nothing funny in this movie…”/ “Death and horror movies kinda go together…”/ “Do you think that really good actors have to have a multiple personality disorder to do it?”
(1:12:40): SCREAM BLOODY GORE / #killercloser / “That’s thrash…”/ #notontheboat / “Excuse me, is Greg here? Thank you!”/ “Inspired by Re-Animator…”/
“I think we know the best scene in that movie…”/ “For funzies…play the song ‘Re-Animator’ by Rigor Mortis…”/ RE-ANIMATOR (Rigor Mortis – 1988) / “So, what did y’all think about THAT scene…when you saw it?”/ “I was told I looked pig eyed!”/ “How about a little taste of the reissue?”/ SCREAM BLOODY GORE (SBG reissue – 2016) / “It’s way louder and way bigger…”/ THANK YOU FOR JOINING US!!! / “Xander Bonerman…”/ #untilthenext #outroreel