Artist: LEFT TO DIE
Album: INITIUM MORTIS (CD)

Release date: 17.07.2026
EAN/UPS: 781676764020
Media type: CD

LEFT TO DIE will release its debut full-length album, "Initium Mortis", on July 17 via Relapse Records. LEFT TO DIE is the band featuring classic DEATH members Terry Butler (also formerly of MASSACRE and currently in OBITUARY) and Frederick "Rick Rozz" DeLillo (ex-MASSACRE) paired with GRUESOME founders Matt Harvey (EXHUMED) and Gus Rios (ex-MALEVOLENT CREATION).

LEFT TO DIE performs most of the songs from DEATH's classic "Leprosy" album, along with cuts from DEATH's debut LP, "Scream Bloody Gore". "Initium Mortis" pays homage to the brutal beginnings of DEATH with newly recorded versions of songs from the band's early catalog, including cuts from DEATH mastermind Chuck Schuldiner's pre-DEATH band MANTAS, which also featured Rozz and vocalist/drummer Kam Lee.

Harvey comments: "After Gus and I performed [DEATH's] 'Spiritual Healing' in its entirety with Terry and James [Murphy at a tribute show to Chuck in 2021], Rick wondered if people might want to hear something similar, but with him joining the three of us to perform 'Leprosy'. Of course, I leapt at the chance to do it, and we quickly threw together a tour which surpassed everyone's expectations, especially in terms of how much fun we were having playing together. As we continued to tour throughout the U.S., Europe, Latin America, Australia and Asia, people kept asking if we were going to record or write anything. After going back and forth on the topic, we felt that (ahem) exhuming some of these old tracks made the most sense for us. After all, we're not gonna top 'Leprosy'. I gleefully combed through the myriad DEATH/MANTAS demos and rehearsals looking for stuff that would make sense for a record, and we ended up going with tunes that we felt would make the most cohesive album, hence why 'Skill To Kill' and 'Back From The Dead' sadly didn't make the cut.

"I look at 'Initium Mortis' as a kind of 'alternate-universe' version of the 'Scream Bloody Gore' track list, as so many of these tunes were circling around the many DEATH lineups and rehearsals from '83-'87. In fact, Chuck and Chris [Reifert] recorded a version of 'Legion Of Doom' for 'Scream Bloody Gore' that never got completed. In revisiting these songs, it was crystal-clear to me that Rick's fingerprints are all over the MANTAS stuff and tunes like 'Slaughterhouse', so with that connection, the songs where his style really shone through immediately made sense to include on 'Initium Mortis'."

Featuring tracks like "Archangel", "Witch Of Hell" and "Legion Of Doom" expertly executed in the now, "Initium Mortis" is a must-have for DEATH fans and collectors alike. Ultimately, LEFT TO DIE celebrates a seminal band and the camaraderie of the genre's most extreme corner of music.

CD/ LP:

01. Legion Of Doom
02. Archangel
03. Power Of Darkness
04. Zombie
05. Witch Of Hell
06. Rise Of Satan
07. Summoned To Die
08. Mantas
09. Slaughterhouse
10. Death By Metal