LEFT TO DIE – Initium Mortis (Album Review)

The initiation has come again.

It is impossible to overstate the importance that Death has in relation not only to the subgenre of metal that bears their name, but to the broader extreme side of the movement that emerged in the 90s and is still at its vanguard to this very day. Though Bay Area death/thrash pioneers Possessed are often lauded as the first band to field a complete LP in the subgenre via 1985’s Seven Churches, by the same time this Florida trailblazer that had initially gone under the moniker of Mantas had amassed a comparable haul of original studio material in demo form that was already making the rounds in the tape trading circuit and landing a tad closer to where the fully codified style was in the late 80s.

Sadly, much of the early material in question would not enjoy a finalized studio production by the time 1987’s Scream Bloody Gore came to light, and would since be shelved as mastermind Chuck Schuldiner (R.I.P.) continued to expand his creative palette and repertoire with a highly prolific and ever more eclectic streak of compositional output.

Given the ongoing renaissance that old school death metal has been experiencing for more than a decade, it seems to be fate that a tribute band consisting of some of the musicians that helped bring Schuldiner’s vision to fruition decades ago would take on the task of unveiling the many lost treasures of Death’s formative era. Led by charismatic front man and guitarist Matt Harvey of Exhumed fame and also the lynchpin of the OSDM and Death-inspired project Gruesome, guitarist Rick Rozz and bassist Terry Butler have returned to the roles that they vacated at the end of the 90s under the banner of Left To Die, which is arguably the closest that today’s generation will ever come to experiencing Death as it was when death metal first began to challenge thrash metal for prominence at the dawn of the 90s.

Combined with the manic yet technically precise kit work of Gruesome drummer Gus Rios, this reanimated undead juggernaut trudges out of the graveyard that is the old Florida sound with the fury of a vengeful revenant, blowing more than 4 decades of dust off an explosive medley of lost classics. In almost every respect, the resulting Initium Mortis functions both as a version of Scream Bloody Gore that could have happened in an alternate universe, as well as something that well could have been thrown together by Death in between said debut and their game-changing sophomore LP Leprosy.

The more smoothed out and compressed coat of paint that this receives via a mid-2020s digital production does set it apart from the time period in question, yet Harvey’s incredibly faithful emulation of Schuldiner’s signature guttural roar, combined with his and Rick Rozz’s seamless performance of the riffing and soloing approach that these songs had appropriated from the earliest strides into dark sonic territory made by Slayer, Venom and Celtic Frost, makes for a product that is practically indistinguishable from the original.

Occasional allusions to more traditional metal stylings make their way through at times, with Mantas-era entries like “Rise Of Satan” and “Mantas” betraying some fairly overt nods to Motorhead and Judas Priest that would be largely absent from their sound by the late 80s, though could perhaps be considered early forerunners to the latter-day death ‘n’ roll craze.

Of equal importance to the fact that Left To Die has perfectly recreated the original spirit of death metal primordial state is that they’ve done so by constructing what feels like a proper studio LP. From the highly expositional first foray of “Legion Of Doom” through the raging coup de grace of “Death By Metal”, there is a methodical flow to how this album gets from A to B that can stand on equal footing with what the original titans of the style were serving up between 1987 and 1990.

Standout entries that still come off as frenetic 40 years later, like “Archangel” and “Witch Of Hell,” are made to order for anyone that wants their auditory violence at breakneck speeds yet still possessed of a strong sense of musicality. Meanwhile, the haunting vibes put forth by the chilling instrumental “Zombie” could function as the main theme of its own film soundtrack, occasionally showing some thematic similarities to Iron Maiden’s “Transylvania”, though played about twice as fast. But the one that really brings home the necrotic bacon and points to death metal as it became at its commercial peak in the 90s is “Slaughterhouse”, which brings the brutality in a manner pointing directly to Cannibal Corpse’s Eaten Back To Life.

Left To Die can be seen as many things, from a celebration of a sound that paved the way for a revolution within heavy metal itself, to a bittersweet love letter to a legend that was taken from us all far too early. In keeping with the horrific character that typified Death’s formative years, the way in which these songs are so faithfully polished to a moribund shine results in an experience so vivid that it could be likened to the ghosts of the past screaming forward in time through Harvey’s resounding shouts and Rozz’s screaming leads.

To the survivors of the generation that witnessed death metal’s birth, it’s a nostalgic trip back to the youthful days of chaos in the mosh pit being a novel concept, whereas the younger generation will hear the same revivalist stylings that Gruesome, Skeletal Remains and Morfin have been churning out in tribute to the original for the past 10 years. But no matter what perspective one approaches this album from, the greatness of the artists that originally crafted these songs is not in doubt, nor are the abilities of those that came in to unearth them.

Release Date: July 17th, 2026
Record Label: Relapse Records
Genre: Death Metal

Musicians:

• Matt Harvey / Guitars, vocals
• Rick Rozz / Guitars
• Terry Butler / Bass
• Gus Rios / Drums

Initium Mortis Track-list:

1. Legion Of Doom
2. Archangel
3. Power Of Darkness
4. Zombie
5. Witch Of Hell
6. Rise Of Satan
7. Summoned To Die
8. Mantas
9. Slaughterhouse
10. Death By Metal

Order the album here.