One of the first death metal bands, originally founded in 1983
as Mantas (US),
changed their name to Death in late 1984.
Death disbanded due to Chuck Schuldiner dying of brain stem
cancer on December 13th, 2001.
Throughout all the albums, Death has been going through constant
band member changes. People claim that Death is Chuck; he is the
band. He has appeared on all albums, except one demo that Kam Lee
released with the "Death" label after Chuck moved to San Francisco
in 1985. (The demo is better considered Massacre material.)
Death have had some dramatic changes in their sound. In the
beginning, before even releasing a demo and under the name Mantas,
the band wanted to play Venom/Celtic Frost
influenced metal, but upon hearing bands like Possessed,
Mantas wanted to play and expand death metal. Thus, they decided to
change their name to Death to sum up what their music and lyrics
are about. So Death started off as death metal with gore related
lyrics (Scream Bloody Gore). Up to the "Human" album, we start
seeing the transformation of Death, with lyrics not relating to
gore but more to the human mind. Up to "Individual Thought
Patterns," the band has brought in progressive elements, thus on
the last of the studio albums (The Sound Of Perseverance) has a
sound no where near death metal but more progressive metal.
