Customer Reviews

For the Whole World to See

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

So of course lots of reviews are going to compare this band to early Bad Brains. Besides the fact that they are all African-American, I don't think that is completely accurate. It's not proto-hardcore here...it's more proto-punk and more on, just straight, brutal Detroit punk rock here.

Songs 6 & 7 feature some of the same vocal peculiarities that the Bad Brains had but this is still 16th note, closed hi-hat punk rock and NOT hardcore ala Middle Class, Discharge, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Die Kreuzen, etc.

These 1975 sessions were cut at the same time the Ramones were cutting their demos in NYC. Totally mindblowing, fast punk here. Hard to believe it was recorded in '75.

If you like Ramones, Johnny Thunders, Dead Boys, Mitch Ryder, Stooges, MC5's 2nd LP, Chuck Berry, Bad Brains' "Black Dots," and a million more things. These 7 songs coming out of the blue like this are truly one of the most historic discoveries of the punk / psych / post-punk / KBD -era to have ever been found.

YOU HAVE TO HEAR THIS TO BELIEVE IT. BUY NOW!

Wow this is a GREAT album. If someone played this for me w/o knowing anything about the band, I would say this is just awesome, really old school sounding punk that sounds way BETTER then MC5/STOOGES and would give it a very, very solid 4.5/5. The history behind how this album came to be released and me being a punk fan puts this into a very solid 5. Every track is good, most being great, 3 being into my favorite off all time rotation. I'll let you listen to this and form your own opinion and wont break them down individually. With the amount of crap coming out today you NEED to pick this up and give it some serious rotation, it will put a smile on your face.

Man, these guys could write songs. And they could play. From the awesome riffs to the squealing solos to the sharp bass and tight drumming and pitch-perfect vocals, the original Death (not to be confused with Chuck Schuldiner's seminal death-metal group) was one heck of a rock n' roll band. (I hesitate to call them punk rockers, or even proto-punk, because that would only partly capture who they were. Like the Stooges, while Death excelled at the fast, loud, and brutal, they also flirted with more delicate sounds.)

Incidentally, even though the album's technically not a reissue, since it was never previously released, and even though what you have here are demos, the sound quality is excellent and the mix is very well balanced.

[UPDATE (3/7/2010): If you prefer to download your music, you can get a FLAC (i.e., lossless) copy of the album from the Drag City Web site for a minuscule premium over the MP3s.]

There are rare moments in listening to music when one hears something that is far beyond expectation, when the chords rip or slip through flesh and strike the bone and resonate. The first notes of The Trinity Sessions, for example, or the throbbing bass on Folsom Prison Blues. Add this recording to my list of striking musical discoveries. The first time I listened to Death's "Politicians In My Eyes" I was floored--magnificent, a friend called it. Remarkable. Stunning. Epic. I downloaded the record, listened to it again, and found myself teary-eyed. The weird thing is, I don't know why. It's not somber music. I'm not even sad--just moved. Death my be "proto-punk" but it somehow manages to transcend the genre from the vanguard. It makes no sense that this band wasn't huge. It's our loss that they weren't, but it's our great fortune that we can turn back to them now.

Buy it quickly, then tell a friend.

Stunning proto-punk time capsule from 1975. Unbelievable this never got released before.

You'd swear the Clash stole from these guys. They should've been playing in London with the Ramones in 1976. They were already more developed artistically then the Ramones ever were (brilliant though they were).

They're no one-trick pony either, the guitar solos are excellent, the rhythm section is what you'd expect from a Detroit band in the 60's/70's. They sound the logical successors to the MC5/Stooges/Alice Cooper Detroit scene, with an edge that no one had ever heard anywhere in 1975.

Just heard this band on NPR this morning. Great story, great band, great music. With a more pallatable name, this band would've been well known since the 70's. Very unfortunate, but at least we have this great music now.

This is a great record. It sounds like MC5 a little, but less rock revival, and a tad more heavy. Every song is a doozy.

Predecessors of Bad Brains,Pure Hell,Fishbone,Living Colour,Black Death & 24-7 Spyz. The music itself has been labeled early Punk by some reviews but it's far from it. I think it's striaght up Rock by three bruthas from Detroit.

This is pretty good and interesting stuff, and a lot of that has to do with the guys that made this music, and when they did it. Definitely has some 60's/70's rock influence, I hear a bit of Who in there, but also has the energy and characteristics of early punk. I found this through a nice NY Times article profiling the story of the band.

Death's material, considering the time and era it was made -- And, hell, who it was made by -- Makes it absolutely progressive and ahead of the curve. Punk wouldn't be punk without this band, they were outlandishly visionary, and the material is absolutely mind blowing if you really examine the time it was written in.

Which is part of the biggest shame, too -- In a world where this band should be bigger than the Ramones, bigger than the Sex Pistols, bigger than even Black Flag or the Descendents, instead you have an obscure band that never got the attention it deserved even amongst the more savvy punk community.

It's 2009, finally this band is getting their work reissued, and this time it couldn't be more well timed. In our current stagnant state of music it is exactly what people should be anxious to hear if only because of the inspiration and invigoration it could provide current artists that are simply fighting the battle of "Well, it's all been done. What next?"