Shadow Kingdom Records, as is becoming habit, has dug up some more obscure 80s recordings and given them the spiffy reissue treatment. This time around beneficiary is Chicago death metal outfit Terminal Death, whose entire recorded output, a demo and some rehearsal tapes, has been compiled in a self-titled package.
The meat of this affair is a six track, fifteen minute demo from 1985. What this demo reveals is a band that, though entirely unheralded, was on the leading edge of death metal at the time. Comparisons could no doubt be drawn to fellow Chicago death pioneers Master; the music is similarly raw and barbaric, but Terminal Death’s general level of musicianship is a fair bit higher and its songwriting somewhat more sophisticated, adding up to a group that sounds much closer to what we now think of as death metal than some of the style’s more famous progenitors.
The rest of the compilation is made up of two recorded rehearsals, totaling forty two minutes, which feature, for the most part, the same songs that appear on the demo, with poorer sound and performance quality. The value of these recordings is negligible, but for the sake of padding out the release, it does not hurt to throw them into the package. Though the digital promo only contains the musical portion of this release, the physical copy purportedly contains a “massive” booklet with a “very in-depth and lengthy interview,” to give you a little more value for your twelve bucks.
While Terminal Death’s music was notable, perhaps even revelatory in 1985, almost thirty years after the fact, the impact is significantly lessened. There’s no denying the sick groove of “Terminal Death,” and its companion piece, “Judge Death,” is a spectacularly ferocious bit of death metal. Furthermore, “Hacksaw” could perhaps be the world’s first gore-metal tune.
Ultimately, though, there is nothing mind-blowing about these compositions outside of their historical context. This is some damn fine, older-than-old-school death metal to be sure, but the real hook of this release is imagining what this band could have become with more seasoning, more exposure, and a decent recording budget. If things had gone differently we might be speaking of Terminal Death with the same reverence we reserve for death metal legends like Possessed, Death, Sepultura, and the aforementioned Master, but such is not the case. For early death metal aficionados, Terminal Death is a treasure, but more casual fans might have difficulty hearing what all the fuss is about.
