Initium Mortis has jus been released. The album title speaks for itself. On this record, two former members of Death join forces with Matt and Gus of Gruesome to breathe new life into ten songs taken from the earliest Mantas and Death demos. In other words, this is where the story of Death truly begins. Zware Metalen had the opportunity to sit down with bass legend Terry Butler, who laid down the low end on Death’s second and third albums and now handles bass duties for Left To Die. Of course, he also played on Massacre’s monumental debut album and has been playing in Obituary for many years now. Despite being on the eve of a European tour, Terry was remarkably relaxed during his conversation with our writer Michiel. Among other things, he spoke about the enduring appeal of Death’s music to younger generations, the decision to give Initium Mortis that unmistakable Morrisound sound, the upcoming tour and the band’s ambition to eventually release entirely original material under the Left To Die banner. Let’s go!
Hi Terry, this Friday Initia Mortis will be released. It is a great old-school death metal record, albeit with a modern production. Well, perhaps “modern” isn’t quite the right word. It’s certainly not one of those overly compressed productions that some contemporary bands seem to favour, yet by today’s standards the sound is excellent. So, first of all, congratulations on the new album! After all these years in the metal scene, does releasing new music still feel special?
Yes, definitely. That’s the ultimate thing: you put out an album with songs. And then you get out there and you see the crowd singing along to your songs and just having a great time. It’s just a great feeling and I still love doing it. And there’s there’s still demand for this kind of music, a huge demand in fact.
Before we dive deeper into Initium Mortis, let’s go back to the origins of Left To Die. If I’m not mistaken, the band came together in 2022. In the promotional material you mention that it went from being just an idea to a full U.S. tour in roughly three months. That must have been quite a rollercoaster.
It certainly was!
Who came up with the original idea for Left To Die in those early days?
We played two shows here in Tampa under the moniker of Living Monstrosity. The line-up featured James Murphy (known for his fluid lead guitar work on albums such as Death’s Spiritual Healing, Obituary’s Cause of Death, and several Testament records-MH), Gus Rios (drums, also of Gruesome-MH), Matt Harvey (guitar and vocals, also of Gruesome and Exhumed-MH), and myself. It was put together by a guy named Stephen Bergwanger. He’s a massive Death fan. He just wanted to have a show, brought James Murphy in and it was a success: two sold-out nights!
Well shortly after that show Rick (Rozz, guitar on the Mantas demos, Death demos, Death‘s Leprosy and Massacre‘s From Beyond-MH) posed a question online: would anybody like to hear hear Leprosy in its entirety live. The response was overwhelming, so we talked about it. We were thinking of playing a couple shows here locally, just to see how it would go. But once the news got out we immediately started getting offers to do a real tour. We were a bit blown away and thought: let’s just go for it. And it was an instant success. We did a really nice tour on the east coast and into the middle of America. So that gave us the confidence to take it to Europe. Same thing! So we took it to South America and it just has become this entity on its own. It’s just amazing to know that in this day and age people still want to hear Death’s music performed live. And what makes it even more special is the number of younger fans coming to the shows. That kind of leads us to how this album even came about! To me it’s amazing people still embrace this music. And Matt Harvey is just incredible. If you close your eyes when we’re playing you think you’re in the crowd at a Death show in 1988. That is exactly the feeling we want to create.
So yes, the band really rose from the ashes of that Living Monstrosity event, it wasn’t even an actual band at the time. Eventually, it evolved into Left To Die, and now there’s no stopping us. It’s been a wonderful surprise.
Left To Die (on the left: Terry Butler)
Speaking about the allure of the music of Death. I was at a festival a couple of weeks ago and I saw a lot of fresh faces wearing Death shirts. My guess is these kids weren’t even born when Chuck died. What do you think is the enduring attraction of the music of Death?
Death obviously has incredible music. I mean the music the music speaks for itself, but the band was also one of the pioneers of death metal. They helped lay the foundations of the entire genre. In that sense, Death has become the torchbearer for death metal. For many people outside the scene, when you talk about death metal, you’re talking about Death. I think that has helped keep the legacy alive.
Young fans discovering heavier music inevitably read that Death was one of the pioneers. Then they put the records on and think: Wow… this is killer stuff. From that moment on, they’re hooked. Of course, there are also plenty of younger fans who discovered the band through friends, their dad, or even their grandfather. But in the end, it all comes down to the music itself. Great music never dies. That’s why, when we play live, you’ll see kids in the front row who are ten or fifteen years old wearing Scream Bloody Gore or Spiritual Healing shirts. At some point we started wondering: they probably know Scream Bloody Gore, but do they actually know where Death really began? Unless you’ve spent hours digging through YouTube videos or hunting down old demo tapes, you’re not going to hear all those songs. During a tour early last year we started talking about it: what if we re-recorded some of those demos? That way we could show a whole new generation where Death originally started. We just started figuring out ten or twelve of the best songs that represent that whole timeline from the first the Mantas demo to the last Death demo (before the debut album-MH).
Matt put an incredible amount of work into it. He went through and kind of sussed out all the rhythms and stuff because these songs were recorded on a boombox back in 1984 and 1985 and over the years the tapes had deteriorated because they’d been copied countless times. Matt sat down and worked out every riff note for note. Rick already knew some of the material, of course, because he was involved with a bunch of these songs as he was in Mantas and Death at the time those demos were recorded. Matt then sent us playthrough videos so we could learn our parts, and after that we recorded everything.
Earlier you talked about the production. We obviously wanted the songs to have a better production than the demos, but we didn’t want it to sound like 2026. You know, a super polished pro tools production. We wanted it to sound like it came out of Morrisound in 1989. Our producer and engineer, Matt LaPlant, absolutely nailed that.
And this way you managed to keep the old-school charm of the songs. Was it always the idea to only record demo songs that – as such – have not found a place on the albums of Death?
We did talk about writing original material. In fact, we still want to do that, but but we want to make sure it’s good. Anything connected to Death is automatically going to be scrutinised, so we don’t want to just put something out there. The songs have to be strong. That’s why we’re taking our time with it. We want to write some good riffs and catchy stuff that fit within that classic death metal sound. That’s very much the way Rick writes, and it’s pretty much how I write as well. We don’t want to rush the process. Once we started discussing the idea of re-recording those old demo songs, though, everything moved incredibly fast. Within a month after first talking about it we were already starting to flesh out the songs, so it happened quick.
The album title really refers to where it all started: three fifteen-year-old kids in a garage working out these songs an hammering them out. That’s what we wanted to show and I think we accomplished that. Now we’re taking the album on the road and we’ll see where it leads us from here.
Yes, that was kind of one of the stipulations for me. Matt and Gus had to be involved. I knew they were both massive Death fans. Matt was already listening to Leprosy when he was thirteen or fourteen years old, sitting in his bedroom figuring out those riffs. Gus is every bit as passionate. On top of that, their performance during those Living Monstrosity shows was really on strut. I’d known them for years and had seen Gruesome play, so I already knew they’re totally dedicated to the whole kind of Death-universe. Thankfully, Matt and Gus were immediately excited about the idea as well.
Was Bill Andrews (who played drums on Leprosy and Spiritual Healing) ever in the picture? Or is he no longer active as a drummer?
For the Living Monstrosity shows, we actually tried to bring him over from Japan to play a few songs with us. But it was a difficult period. I think the world was only just starting to reopen after the COVID pandemic, and Bill ran into visa issues, so unfortunately it never happened. That said, he’s always welcome to join us for a few songs if the opportunity ever comes up. We were never specifically looking at him as a permanent drummer. It simply would have been great to have him up there for a few songs. We’ll see what the future brings.
That would certainly be a fun thing. Of course, Left To Die is also the title of one of the songs on Leprosy. Was choosing that name really as straightforward as it seems, or was there more to it?
It really was that simple. We’re doing the first two Death albums at this point, but we never wanted to use the word “Death” in our band’s name. To us, that’s sacred ground. So we figured we’d just pick a cool song title instead and Left To Die just seemed to fit. Many bands have done this. The band Steeler probably took their name from the Judas Priest song. Or Suffocation… Obituary already had a song with that title. I’m not saying that’s where they got their name, but you know what I mean. That’s just how things work sometimes. And Left To Die simply felt like the right name.
Looking at your recent setlists, it’s clear that you’re embracing Death‘s early years. If anything, you’re playing even more songs from Scream Bloody Gore than from Leprosy these days. What is it about that really early, raw era of Death that appeals to you so much?
We looked at it from a couple of different angles. First of all, we wanted to focus on the period when Rick and I were actually members of Death. That feels like our era. On top of that, it’s very much Rick’s style of writing. The Leprosy material, the Massacre stuff, that’s what he likes. And I love that style too. I like all the Death albums, but Human is the last one I really got into. There were better riffs, it was grippy and those earlier records just lend to our styles. So it was natural to concentrate on those first albums, especially because we never had some five or ten year plan. We simply wanted to play a handful of Death songs at a few local shows in Tampa as a tribute, not even a band. But now it’s taking on a life of its own and it has become a real band. And we’ll tour as much as we can as much as people want us. If no one wants to see us anymore, it will end.
I don’t think that’ll happen anytime soon. So, Matt went through all the demos to figure out which songs would end up on Initium Mortis. As far as I know, there aren’t many demo tracks left that haven’t already appeared either on a Death release or on this album. You mentioned earlier that you’d like to write original material in the future, but could there ever be an Initium Mortis Part II?
I think we got the demo section covered. But if we do some new music at some point, we could always record a couple of those unused demo songs as extras. That’s kind of what we would probably do. There were about five or six songs that we did not choose to put on this record. They’re good songs but we felt the ones we recorded were a slightly better representation of the band.
You already mentioned the upcoming tour. In just a few weeks you’ll be back in Europe, including appearances at the Alcatraz Festival in Belgium and the Dynamo Metalfest Pre-Party in the Netherlands. Are you looking forward to it?
Absolutely! We’re gonna play four or five of the songs from Initium Mortis so that’s some new blood mixed into the set and um yeah definitely looking forward to it. I love touring Europe. It’s always a great time. The crowds are always great. There’s this total metal feeling. I’m looking forward to playing the festivals. There are some really good festivals we’re doing: Rockstadt, Brutal Assault and – indeed – Alcatraz and the Pre-Party for Dynamo.
That actually answers my next question as well: you will be performing songs from Initium Mortis. You’ve already been playing Witch of Hell live from time to time.
Most of Initium Mortis had actually been recorded by last year, but I still had a few bass parts left to track when Left To Die headed out on tour. I ended up recording those while I was on the road with Obituary. Ken Andrews (one of Obituary‘s guitarists – MH), had brought along a small mobile recording setup, so I was able to finish the remaining bass tracks while we were touring. But Witch of Hell was one of the songs that had already been completed, so we decided to quietly slip it into the live set without making an announcement. It was just a nice little teaser, a subtle hint to the fans that maybe something’s going on.
Ah, a teaser! A few weeks ago I was at a festival where Death To All played an absolutely stunning set. Gene Hoglan was phenomenal, and Steve DiGiorgio was simply brilliant…
They’re incredible musicians!
Do Left To Die and Death To All ever get in each other’s way, or is there room for both?
Of course there is room! There is room on this planet for about 10 billion people and there’s plenty of room for Death To All and Left To Die. Death To All play songs from across the entire Death catalogue and we kind of stick to the era that Rick and I wer in the band. We do what we do. I don’t have any issue with that whatsoever. In fact, I was even asked to join Death To All for a few songs on a couple of occasions. Unfortunately, it coincided with an Obituary tour, so it wasn’t possible. So it’s all good between the bands and of course it’s it’s it’s nice that the music is being kept alive by two great bands.
Let’s talk about Relapse Records. Left To Die signed with the label that has an impressive roster. Obituary and Gruesome are both on Relapse as well. Did it help that those bands already had a relationship with the label?
Honestly, we never thought about going anywhere else. Matt has been working with Relapse for a very long time, I think since 1994. Obituary has been with them for around twelve years now. So we presented the idea to them first and they were totally into it. They immediately said: yes, let’s do this. They knew it was going to be pretty good because of Matt. They know Matt as a total professional. He’s going to put his heart into it and it’s going to represent them in a good way and we felt the same way: what we’re doing here is representing us as well so let’s make it respectable yes and i got the feeling that relapse records is working quite hard on this record they want it to be a success do you have the same feeling
I get the impression that Relapse is putting a lot of energy into this release. They really seem determined to make this album a success.
They’ve done a great job in my opinion marketing and pushing the album out there. I see lots of ads out there and and they’re very happy with it. We got one more little single we’re releasing when the record comes out friday, maybe Slaughterhouse. So they’re excited and we are excited!
As for us: we’re going to go to South America in September and we will be very busy next year as well. I’ll have to fit things in where I can between Obituary, Inhuman Condition and Left To Die. It’s like a puzzle, you got to put the pieces where they fit.
I assume that in that puzzle Obituary will always have priority?
Obituary is the number one band obviously. Whenever that band leaves some time, that’s when I can try and squeeze in the other stuff. Matt and Gus are like that too, especially Matt with Exhumed and they are both in Gruesome. So, it’s just one big family trying to make it work. We just need to have an Obituary, Left To Die, Gruesome, In Human Condition-tour and everyone’s covered. Oh, we would need Deicide as well (Taylor Nordberg of Inhuman Condition, also plays in Deicide-MH).
You’d practically spend the entire evening on stage! Musically, though, that would make for an incredible tour. By the way, have you already read the first reviews of Initium Mortis, or do you tend to leave those alone?
I’ve read a handful of reviews and they’re all positive, you know. I’ve seen a few that I wouldn’t say are totally negativem but a few that were not great. Okay here’s how i look at that. Pick the most awesome band in the world. Bands that you think the whole world likes, like Queen, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. There will be people on this planet that hate those bands… Those are three of the best bands in the world! What I’m trying to say is: no matter what how good something is, you’re always going to have a few people that want to bring it down. In general my rule of thought is that I don’t read reviews. I don’t ever read comments because you can have a hundred awesome comments but you have one bad one and all you think about is that one bad comment.
I’ve read that’s supported by psychological research as well: losses tend to have roughly twice the emotional impact of gains.
Exactly! So do yourself a favour: don’t read the reviews, don’t read the comments. Just move along, swipe it away, keep going and play for a lot of crazy fans that that are having the time of their life.
Well said. Is there anything you’d like to add that we haven’t covered yet?
I want to add that the artwork was done by Dan Goldsworthy. He’s done a bunch of stuff recently and is one of the new dudes that everyone wants ti work with. He’s done a lot of cool stuff. He’s done the covers for the Inhuman Condition album as well. We just wanted that classic late-’80s Ed Repka vibe. You know the look I’m talking about. I think Dan absolutely nailed it, and we’re genuinely thrilled with the result.
Other than that, I’d just like to thank all the fans for their incredible support. And, of course, if we’re playing anywhere near you, come out and see us live.
And thanks for the interview!
My pleasure. Thanks for taking the time to talk.
Links: