Death Row – Alive In Death

publisher

impulse buy

Black Widow
Produced by Joe Hasselvander

Most doom metal fans will know that Death Row is what became of Pentagram in the early 1980s before switching back to the Pentagram name after two demos and a few shows. Nothing by the band was ever officially released as most of the material became tracks on the first three Pentagram albums (many of which are here) between 1985 and 1994, but this release by Black Widow compiles a treasure trove of rare and raw material fans should enjoy.

The bulk of the first disc is nine live tracks, seven of which would later become Pentagram songs, from a 1982 show in Knoxville, Tennessee. A handful of bootleg recordings, often taken from soundboards, are in circulation and this one is above average in terms of sound quality. As an extra, and somewhat unnecessary bonus to close disc one is another live version of The Ghoul from a 1983 show in Beltsville, Maryland. At this particular show Death Row played some twenty songs, including several not played at the 1982 show, so including one of the few duplicate songs ahead of one of the different ones is ridiculous.

And why only include one song in the first place? The running time of the disc as it stands is only 50 minutes, so there’s at least half an hour of space remaining. On top of that the quality of this track is far inferior to the bootleg version of the complete show, which is presumably from the same soundboard recording. This is followed by a live rehearsal recording of The World Will Love Again (destined for 1994’s Be Forewarned album) also from 1983 which sounds terrible.

Disc two mostly fairs little better with the quality for its first six tracks, which all come from the band’s first jam recording in 1981. Obviously this is of historical signifcance and helps demonstrate the band’s evolution, but the quality makes it a curio rather than something that will bear repeated listening. It contists of three tracks which later appeared on the first Pentagram album and, of particular note, three Black Sabbath covers, which are a little clunky, but interesting nonetheless.

The excellent 1983 demo tracks which close disc two are the real gems of the release in terms of recording quality, sounding slightly better than the circulating bootleg copy, although the improvement is admittedly marginal, and the version of The World Will Love Again here provides even more evidence against the abysmal version on disc one. Madman would later appear on the second Pentagram album Day of Reckoning.

Given the complete lack of Death Row material available, this should be a winner with fans, but the poor quality of a lot of this, and the lack of more tracks from the Beltsville show, detract from the release somewhat, as does the absence of the 1982 demo. It could have been better than it is.

“ rare and raw material ”

Tracklist:
CD1 – Death Row / All Your Sins / The Deist / The Ghoul / Committed To Vengeance / Petrified / Run My Course / Evilseed / Through The Shadow / The Ghoul / The World Will Love Again
CD2 – Death Row / Dying World / Sinister / War Pigs / N.I.B. / Into The Void / Whore / The World Will Love Again / Madman

Written by Andy Lye
More: Compilation Albums, Doom Metal, Death Row