Despite only being thier second album, death metal legends and pioneers Death had a lot to show with Leprosy. Released a year after their debut Scream Bloody Gore Leprosy was recorded in April of 1988 after a cancelled tour and a rehearsal with Steve Di Girogio of Sadus. The band returned to Florida and recruited Rick Rozz, Terry Butler and Bill Andrews of Massacre. With the story out of the way let's venture into the leper colony to see what this album has to offer!
Now i listened to Leprosy last year, but felt as if my mind started to blank on a lot of sections. That's why i listened to it again today and consideriing the album is short i knew it would be easy. Now i had a blast, but first i wanna get into it in detail!
The album artwork was done by Ed Repka who did the artwork for SBG and would do for thier next album, Spiritual Healing. The art shows a closeup of a person with leprosy as they desperatly try to cover their scars. There isn't much behind them other than a rundown shack and a few other figures, but it does feel like a place I've seen in real life. It's also the only album i know of that has pink on the cover and still manages to be badass!
The instruments are very raw and guitarists Chuck Schuldiner and Rick Rozz deliver primal riffs and solos that still manage to sound cleaner than the previous album. Now the bass is a bit strange, and not in a way that it's bad, in fact i think it's heard very well and is executed well, especially on the opening track Leprosy. What is weird is that Terry Butler is credited as the bassist despite the fact that he did not play. He was, however, on the touring lineup. The real bass was recorded by Chuck.
Bill Andrews delivers an equally good performance and i think his drums are very hard hitting and brutal while, again, being cleaner than the previous album. He would go on to deliver an equally good set of drumming on the next album with a bit of technicallity mixed in. Chuck's vocals are in thier most ferocius era here as he always delivers growls as well as some screeches that absolutly kick ass. He always follows the instrumentals in a fast and relentless manner while still being able to do slow parts. I also like when in Pull the Plug the instruments briefly stop so it's just him. Lyrically Leprosy is similar to it's predacessor as we listen to a lot of gore and death, but there's mroe variety. The title tracks deals with leprosy and how much it sucks to be infected, Open Casket is about witnessing a loved one's body on a funeral and how much it sticks with you, and the alredy mentioned Pull the Plug is about a person on life support who desperatly want's to die and leave this world in peace. I enjoyed the variety and it's a glimpse into the future of Death's lyricism.
I think Leprosy kicks ass and it's a very important part of both Death's discography and death metal as a whole. I highly reccomend you give it a spin, stream or click and you can do so on the bandcamp page on the top of the page! My only negative about Leprosy is that it's a bit too slow, and some songs just seem way longer than they are. The title track, for example, doesn't really need to be 6 minutes long and some of the 5 minute tracks can be a minute shorter. My favorite tracks: Pull the Plug, Forgotten Past.