Death
Drag City
*****
This debut album from Detroit rockers Death is an excellent example of great modern garage music, but with a retro 1970s tinge, and there's a reason for that. The album was originally recorded in 1975. Death was a trio of African American brothers who were inspired to start playing rock after seeing a rock and roll concert (accounts differ as to whether it was Alice Cooper, the Stooges, or Grand Funk Railroad). Defying conventions of the day, these boys wanted to rock, and rock hard. The brothers were noticed by Columbia and Clive Davis who brought them into the studio to begin recording an album. It seems Clive liked everything about them except for that grisly name. An uncompromising band, they were booted from the studio halfway through the album recording because they would not change their name (brother David was planning a whole rock opera centered around a positive view of death, and felt that their moniker was important).
The band pressed 500 copies of a single that they released before fading into obscurity, remembered only by the collectors who would feverishly bid on the precious pieces of wax online. Fast forward 30 odd years to a young son of one of the brothers hearing the single at a party. Recognizing his father's voice, he questioned his father about it and finally heard the story. A collector who had been obsessed with the vinyl single hooked the brothers up with Drag City. Fate and luck traveled a strange road and the whole original session was released this year.
The 7 song album boasts some incredible highs that carries it through some (very few) lows. The overall feel of the album is one of amped up adrenaline. The brother's instrumental skills are impressive, and their ferocity is stunning. The first tracks, “Keep on Knocking” and “Rock and Roll Victim” set an intense pace that the whole album follows except for the brief introspective interlude of “Let the World Turn,” which marks the resting phase of this short but intense album. The crowning achievement is the final track, “Politicians in My Eyes.” Although the album manages to display an incredibly prescient modernity throughout, this track feels like it could have been written and recorded just yesterday. The end of the track, with its fast paced, fever pitch instrumental jam will literally blow you away. The frantic whammy bar heavy guitar sections, the precise Dave Grohl-esque power drumming fight for and hold their own with a hurtling meteor of a bass line in “Politicians in Your Eyes” that leaves the listener gasping for breath.
Political, heartfelt, and deadly serious, Death firmly plants their footprint in the annals of rock. This album is well worth a listen and will most assuredly be a favorite in heavy rotation for anyone who great garage rock. Ultimately though the album creates a feeling of sadness. The contribution that Death could have made to rock and roll history had they reached higher levels of popularity cannot even be guessed, and the listener is left hungry for more. There may not be any new Death coming out, but thank the gods for this small blessing. Death's album, ...For the Whole World to See, is a crumb from the table of God that the angels of rock have sent.
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