The year is 1987, thrash metal is in its heyday, Metallica are preparing to release "...And Justice For All" and Chuck Schuldiner is at the beginning of his glorious career as a musician. This is the man, who decided that metal should take a deadly shape, crating an album of not only musical, but of historic value. This is considered by many the first death metal album and I would pretty much agree with them. For the first time the lyrical concept deals with desecrating, brutal killing, a lot of blood and a lot of death.

Chuck and company use a lot of thrash elements in creating "Scream...", but what is different is the blaring sound of the bass, the overall booming and dark sound and the constant double-bassing. The main change from thrash, though, are the vocals, in fact they are the most distinct feature of death metal. I have to say that Chuck's vocal performance is not so typical of the most brutal of styles, but at that time there is no Cannibal Corpse, no Sinister, no Morbid Angel. This was the most brutal and raw sound produced up to then.

Despite this album being the father of all other death metal albums, we can hear the very technical and varied solos of Chuck and make a comparison to the absent-minded grunting on albums of brutalizers like Rot. This becomes an album, displaying a meaning, which is about to be forgotten and be rarely rediscovered by some bands - namely, the meaning of technical death metal. In the following years we are to be distorted by the voice of Chris Barnes, but his band showing no quality, apart from brutality. It will take Cannibal Corpse about five years to come to "The Bleeding", blending death metal with technical guitars.

The father of all fathers, the starting point of all death metallers, the one and only death metal album in the discography of the one and only band Death. If you don't have it, you shouldn't be reading this review, if you still don't have it, buy it. It is a must!

Rating: 10