Savage Death (USA) - "Mass Genocide" demo, 1985

1985 was one of the best years for death metal. Following a series of landmark recordings in 1984 such as the demos by Possessed and Mantas, dozens of new bands formed and inspired by the genre's founders, released their own demo tapes. From all areas of the globe ranging from Brazil to Denmark to Japan and all the way back to the US, what started as a handful of teenagers pushing the limits a little beyond their favorite Exodus and Venom recordings quickly turned into a tangible genre that would be well defined a by the tail end of the decade. 1985 was the year that many of these first wave bands got their start, and at this tine the death metal genre was still nebulous in that it would constantly overlap with the developing thrash metal and black metal scenes. Savage Death were one of the many bands releasing their first demo at this time, and certainly rank among the greatest.

Hailing from East Rutherford, New Jersey, Savage Death naturally took a more American approach to death metal than some of their contemporaries. Instead of drawing influence from Hellhammer or Sodom like the European bands, Savage Death's sound was derived more from American thrash. Possessed cited that Exodus were one of their biggest influences, and based on this recording, its clear that these guys had a similar approach. The music on presented on this demo is fast and reckless the same way that "Bonded by Blood" and "Darkness Descends" are, except the vocal approach is much rougher and the music is far less polished. The vocals are typically delivered in raspy growl; exceptions to this come in the form of totally over the top high pitched shrieks which make appearances through the rest of the recording, including a very memorable wail that opens up the demo. Vocalizations such as these greatly add to the overall energetic feel of the primitive metal played under them.

The sheer energy which is exuded from this recording alone would propel this into great demo status. Not to say that the music on this album isn't totally catchy, fun and well written, but I always find it preferably when the band is able to capture a sound that sounds uncontrollable as opposed to bands who overproduce and overrehearse their music to the point where it sounds clinical and sterile. Musically it may not be the most original stuff in the world (the opening riff to the first song sounds suspiciously like Death's "Infernal Death"), but the band has such an intense vibe that even when they slow down and play on a mid-tempo riff you can still tell that they still mean business. The songs themselves aren't too complex and don't really exceed a handful of riffs, but considering that this is death metal from 1985, that isn't too far out of the ordinary.

Later these guys would do another demo in 1986 called "Crucified in Hell", and guitar player Tom Stevens went on to play with other bands such as Nokturnel, Morpheus Descends and Exhile, but for my money, this demo is the classic recording. This demo absolutely deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as other death metal classics from the mid 80s; "Surrender or Die", "Seven Churches", "Bestial Devastation"... it really is that good. Unlike some of the other demos released around this time, the production is rough enough to give it a more sinister sound, but not too raw that hinders its listenability. For first wave death metal, it really doesn't get much better than this.