Proto-punk band Death to release new album

Proto-punk band Death are set to release a new album, ‘NEW’, on 21 Apr though Drag City. The record is their first LP of new material for almost four decades. As previously reported, the band was formed by three brothers in 1973 and recorded their debut album, ‘For All The World To See’, two years later. However, it proved a difficult sell to labels, not least due to their absolute refusal to call themselves anything other than Death.

The album was eventually shelved and forgotten until their lone seven-inch single became a sought after collectors item. When the surviving brothers were tracked down, leader David Hackney having died, the album was uncovered and finally given a release 35 years after it was recorded. The story was captured in 2012 documentary ‘A Band Called Death’, which concluded with the band reforming and beginning work on new material.

Speaking to FACT, the band’s Bobby Hackney said of the new music: “What we really wanted to do was to capture that same magic that we got at United Sound in Detroit in 1975, and we were true to that. So we went into a state-of-the-art studio, we recorded the album as a band – as opposed to, say, the drum track being laid down and us building layers on top of that. We recorded it just the way we did at United Sound”.

He went on: “We loved the spirit, the vibe of the record, because what you hear is a performance of us really playing. When you hear the bass, the guitar, and the drums, the foundation of the album in every song – that’s all of us playing together”.

Source: CMU