-Death-

Unquestionably one of the most important and influential death metal acts to have ever emerged from the North American continent, Florida's DEATH came together in late 1983 when guitarist/vocalist Chuck Schuldiner and guitarist Rick Rozz (real name: Frederick DeLillo) got together with drummer/vocalist Barney "Kam" Lee to form Mantas. Drawing musical inspiration from Venom and Slayer, the trio (no bassist had yet entered the picture!) went about composing original tunes and making very rough, crude rehearsal recordings to send out to various tape-traders around the world. Out of these sessions came a completely unproduced five-song "demo" entitled Death By Metal (mid-1984), which --in spite of its primitive nature-- ended up establishing the group as one of most promising contenders for the American death metal throne, a status that at the time was being firmly held by San Francisco's Possessed.