Necrophagia - Death Is Fun - limited digipak CD Review

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2002-08-04 : Al Kikuras : Link
Surprisingly, though this is demo material released before the classic Necrophagia debut album, Season of the Dead (1987), it is considerably more brutal than the album, especially in the vocal department. The production varies, but is consistently very raw throughout. I love collections like this... old demo tracks. Similar albums that I am also a big fan of are Bloodstorm's Death By The Stormwizard and Graveland's In The Glare of Burning Churches. A lot of people have heard Season of the Dead and had a hard time believing that it came out over 13 years ago. Some of the songs on Death is Fun date as far back as 1985 and I think disbelievers would be even more surprised. Death is Fun is infinitely more disgusting and brutal than other albums of the era, like Death's Scream Bloody Gore.

The variance in sound quality works to the album's advantage. Several tracks are repeated, but the different productions as well as Killjoy's ever-evolving vocal performance keep things from getting to be redundant.

The packaging is excellent, depicting scenes of murder and mutilation staged by renowned/reviled tattoo artist Paul Booth. The liner notes are a bit off. Track 11 definitely is not "Necrophagia" as reported, but another version of "Chainsaw Lust." Also, though 12 tracks are listed on the tray card, the inlay booklet and CD itself tell a different story, clocking the total number of songs at 14.

This is where the whole gore death metal thing that bands like Exhumed, Disgorge and others are now touting began, and I don't think I can say the stuff on Death is Fun has been outdone to date, not even by Necrophagia's subsequent releases. This is a piece of death metal history that each and every individual calling his or herself a fan of the genre should own for both historical reference and to see just how dirty and repulsive the stuff can get.