DEATH Leprosy (1988)

There is a before and after Leprosy in death metal history. When Chuck Schuldiner released this in 1988, the genre was still finding its footing, and he basically planted a flag and told everyone else where the ceiling was.

Leprosy is tighter, heavier, and more deliberately constructed than Scream Bloody Gore, with Rick Rozz and Bill Andrews locking in behind Schuldiner's riffs in a way that made the whole thing feel like a machine rather than a rehearsal. The title track alone justifies the price of admission, but Born Dead, Pull the Plug and Open Casket are the kind of songs that made a generation of teenagers realise music could be genuinely extreme without being sloppy. This isn't nostalgia bait. It's foundational. Death metal as a genre has a direct lineage from this record to almost everything worth hearing in the extreme metal underground, including a fair amount of what gets stocked here.

1988 full length album on black vinyl LP. American death metal. Classic reissue pressing.

Fans of: Autopsy, Possessed, Vader, Obituary, Malevolent Creation, Carcass