Artist: Death Sentence
Country: USA
Label: Smuggler Tapes
Formats: Cassette Tape
Year: 2025
Although the only four officially released tracks of Death Sentence, originally recorded and released in 1985, has been widely spread in the underground since they came out, it surprisingly never appeared as a stand alone release. As Death Sentence is basically the band that somehow morphed into what would eventually become the ultimate underground Death Metal institute Nunslaughter, the majority of the fans of the band will have these four songs on Nunslaughter’s ‘Demoslaughter’ double CD compilation from 2009 and its 4LP vinyl variant, released two years later. Besides this official reappearance, true fanatics also found it as a bootleg 7″ EP that began circulating in 2010.
Smuggler Tapes, a new tape label from the USA, did what actually should’ve been done way earlier: give these tracks the stand alone release they deserve. Not even so much because of the musical value of these songs, but mostly for their historical importance. Death Sentence was a rather short-lived band, starting out in 1985 and depending on the sources you’re reading, they either disbanded or changed their name to Nunslaughter in 1987. But the fact that this is considered a pre-Nunslaughter band is what makes these tracks to have a certain significance.
Like the majority of the early Death Metal bands around at that time, Death Sentence too was more of a ferociously fast Thrash Metal band. The four songs presented on this rehearsal demo are akin to bands like Dark Angel and Possessed. Please keep in mind that this was recorded in 1985. 1985! That means that this piece of Death/Thrash Metal is equally old as ‘We Have Arrived’ and ‘Seven Churches’ or the demos of bands like Slaughter, NME, Master and Mantas/Death. It is in that musical constellation that you have to place ‘Death Is The Only Way’, proto-Death Metal with fast and occasionally even D.R.I. or Hirax-like riffing and rhythms.
While the historical value being way larger, there is still enough to enjoy on the musical side of things as well. Obviously, these recording are raw and crude, but once you’ve heard them a couple of times, it is rather easy to listen through the hiss and cracks and find out that Death Sentence was onto something here. In fact, these songs do sound better than a lot of the earliest Nunslaughter recordings. And besides all of this, it is great to hear Jerre ‘Jer The Butcher’ Jameson and Donald ‘Don Of The Dead’ Crotsley in one of their earliest musical escapades.
