UMUR "Season of the Dead" is the debut full-length studio album by US death metal act Necrophagia. The album was released through New Renaissance Records in February 1987, making it one of the earliest examples of a death metal album released through a label. Hell, it was even released a couple of months before "Scream Bloody Gore" by Death. Necrophagia had however been active in the US extreme metal underground and tape trading scene since they were founded in 1983, and had released several demos before releasing this debut album. A band history which should probably earn them the title as one of the originators of the death metal style along side acts like Death/Mantas, Massacre, Executioner (later Obituary), Morbid Angel, Death Strike, Possessed, and Deceased (just to mention a few of the heavily influential bands from the early years of death metal).

As the case is with many of the earliest death metal releases, the line between being a particularly raw sounding thrash metal release, and being a more brutal death metal ditto, is a bit blurry regarding "Season of the Dead". Personally I think I lean more towards calling it the former. The vocals are raw, but not really growling. They are actually quite odd sounding, as it sounds like Killjoy is talking/whispering the vocals while snarling. He sounds a bit out of breath, and the vocals ultimately aren´t that powerful. The riffs are basically raw and primitive sounding thrash metal riffs, and the same can be said about the drumming style. The whole thing is pretty lo-fi produced, murky, and dark sounding, which probably adds to the general view that "Season of the Dead" is a death metal album.

If the cover artwork featuring feasting zombies didn´t give it away, song titles like "Insane for Blood", "Bleeding Torment", and "Mental Decay" probably do. Yes... the lyrical content and the general image of the band is gore/horror themed.

If you like your thrash/death metal as raw and straight forward as possible you´ll probably greatly enjoy "Season of the Dead" and viewed upon a bit more objectively, it is in fact a decent early thrash oriented death metal release, but it´s neither the most originals sounding, nor the most interesting release from those days, and other than being incredibly influential regarding the development of the death metal genre, there are quite a few albums with a similar history, that I´d recommend before this one. The skill of the performers, the murky sound production, and the very standard quality songwriting aren´t enough to warrant more than a 3 star (60%) rating.

siLLy puPPy When the conversation leads to the actual birth pangs of death metal, there seems to be a consensus that much of what would be infused into the fully-fledged subgenre had its origins in the early blackened thrash hybrids of Venom, Slayer, Celtic Frost and Kreator. Take it a step further and it’s also fairly well known that bands like Possessed, Death and Obituary were pioneers in taking the fledgling sub into its adolescent stage of development however there is one band that often gets left out of the saga of the origins of death metal and they would be the other early extreme metal pioneer NECROPHAGIA. While other early pioneers originated from the American east and west coasts, this band was from the heartland hailing from Wellsville, Ohio of all places but in fact formed all the way back in 1983, released a whopping six demos from 84-86 and finally released their first full-length SEASON OF THE DEAD in 1987, the same year that Chuck Schuldner is credited for unleashing the adult version of death metal onto the world. NECROPHAGIA focused on gore and horror movies and employed a shock value and could possibly be considered a bridge between the shock rock of 70s Alice Cooper and 90s Marilyn Manson and White Zombie.

There were actually three phases of NECROPHAGIA. The first phase only lasted through the demo years up to this debut and then the band dissolved until band founder and leader Frank Pucci better known as Killjoy befriended Phil Anselmo and they began to write songs together eventually resurrecting the band in 1997 with Anselmo taking over vocal duties under the pseudonym Anton Crowley as Pantera was entering its final stages as a band. The third phase began in 2002 with yet another cast of band members however it’s the first incarnation of NECROPHAGIA that released this one relic SEASON OF THE DEAD that remains a vital part of metal history and a top notch album that sounds like no other to boot. Since Killjoy has been the only constant member throughout the entire run of NECROPHAGIA, this is the only album that features Larry Madison on guitar, Bill James on bass and Joe Blazer on drums.

Like many extreme albums of the mid-80s, SEASON OF THE DEAD is a mishmash of all the different styles floating around before the subgenres would sufficiently separate a few short years down the road and similar to Celtic Frost and Venom incorporate many aspects of thrash and traditional metal along with Sabbath inspired doom riffs and healthy doses of what has since been tagged as speed metal. This is a rather unique sounding album and begins with a head scratching long intro with clean guitar arpeggios slowly ratcheting up the tension much like those acoustic intros on Metallica’s “Ride The Lightning” with darkened minor chord arpeggios setting the mood for the zombie attack with a demented piano bass run with spooky choral vocals haunting the stage before the metal attack begins.

Once the metal final does kick in it rarely lets up as Larry Madison cranks out heavy riffs that range from thrash to traditional with melodic solos thrown in from time to time. The song structures have good forms and have many different features within them keeping things unpredictable. Thrash here, traditional there, throw in some doom etc. Joe Blazer has a rather unique drumming style and rarely employs fast tempo blastbeats or the percussive drive that death metal would become known for. Mostly he employs a standard 80s thrash metal delivery but sometimes he robotically follows the guitar like a shadow which reminds me more of the percussive drive heard on industrial metal in the 90s with Marilyn Manson particularly coming to mind. One of the most unique aspects of the entire album is Killjoy’s deranged vocals since his style is somewhat of a raspy black metal shriek mixed with a guttural growl as he delivers half-sung / half-spoken lyrics as if he were narrating tales of death and doom.

One of the aspects that sticks out the most for me is the fact that many of the riffs on here sound familiar and once it hit me why it started to make a lot of sense. There is a definitive influence on SEASON OF THE DEAD that clearly left a lasting impression on Pantera and some of the riffs on tracks like “Forbidden Pleasure” as well as other sound very similar to the heavy riffs on tracks like “Cemetery Gates” on Pantera’s groundbreaking “Cowboys From Hell.” I would almost bet money on the fact that when Anselmo joined Pantera and steered them to less glammy pastures that he had this album on his favorite list. There are also many references to “Kill Em All” era Metallica especially on the final closer “Beyond And Back” which ends the album with the same weirdo dark ambient as it began.

Personally i find this one woefully underrated, exceedingly too far off the radar and awfully under appreciated for being one of the major plays in the early years of death metal and although influential albums don’t necessarily equate to excellent listening experiences, i find that SEASON OF THE DEAD is a phenomenally brilliant album as nothing else sounds like it. While some albums sound dated as they are outdone by newer generations consistently refining and redefining, NECROPHAGIA made an album that sounds absolutely perfect as it was recorded and transcends time. They managed to create an almost punk type of feel with metal techniques utilized to beget one of the true early spawns of extreme metal and still retains the sense of shock and awe that it was designed to create back in the day when they were one of the hottest tickets in the underground cassette trading days.