UMUR
"Luck of the Corpse" is the debut full-length studio album by US death metal act Deceased. The album was released through Relapse Records in December 1991. It´s interesting to note that the material featured on the album were recorded in October 1990, so it took the band a full year and then some to get the album released. In Europe the album wasn´t even released until February 1992. The early death metal scene was plagued (and in many cases blessed) by small labels promising artists more than they could deliver, and while I don´t know if Deceased had been in contact with other labels before settling on Relapse Records, it wouldn´t surprise me if that was the case.
Stylistically the material on the 11 track, 36:30 minutes long album is old school death metal with several ties to the most raw and brutal part of 80s thrash metal. Some tracks are more in the death metal fold (the opener "Fading Survival" is an example of that), while others (and probably earlier composed) tracks have more in common with raw and simple thrash metal than death metal ditto. While this is old school to the bone, and you´ll find every traditional old school death metal element featured here, "Luck of the Corpse" is still a bit unusual sounding. It´s hard to put a finger on what it is, that makes "Luck of the Corpse" stand out, but there is certainly a degree of creativity in the songwriting that not all death metal albums contain. Some of the songtitles are also quite inventive. How about "The Cemetery's Full", "Shrieks From the Hearse", and "Psychedelic Warriors".
"Luck of the Corpse" is relatively well performed and the sound production is decent too, but none of those features really elevate the album above standard quality for the genre. So it´s definitely the songwriting which is the most interesting feature of the album. Upon conclusion "Luck of the Corpse" is a decent quality death metal release from the early 90s, but considering the vast amount of contemporary quality releases, it´s not an album which stands out much. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.