Death was an influential death metal band from North America that was founded in 1983 and dissolved in 1999.
Founded in 1983 by Chuck Schuldiner under the original name of Mantas in Orlando, Death pioneered the death metal sound along with Morbid Angel and Possessed. It was a part of and helped define the famous Florida death metal scene.
Together with Barney "Kam" Lee, and Rick Rozz, Schuldiner started to compose songs that were released on several rehearsal tapes in 1984. These tapes, along with the Death by Metal demo, circulated through the tape trader world, quickly establishing the band's name. In 1984, Schuldiner dissolved Mantas and quickly started a new band under the name Death. Its members included the same Rick Rozz and Kam Lee. Another demo was released, called Reign of Terror.
In 1985, after the Infernal Death tape was recorded and released, Schuldiner fired Lee and Rozz in favour of Repulsion's bassists and guitarists, Scott Carlson and Matt Olivio, respectively. However, a drummer could not be found; the band dissolved again. Schuldiner moved to San Francisco and recruited DRI drummer Eric Brecht, but he was not happy with this incarnation of Death and moved back to Florida without a band.
There, in 1986, Schuldiner got an invitation from early Canadian thrash band Slaughter to play on its album, which he accepted, moving to Canada. This only lasted two weeks, as he found out it was not his thing. He returned to Florida, then moved quickly to San Francisco again, where he joined with Chris Reifert. They recorded the Mutilation demo, which led to a deal with Combat Records that enabled them to record the first LP.
