LEFT TO DIE — featuring former DEATH members Rick Rozz (guitar) and Terry Butler (bass), alongside Matt Harvey (EXHUMED, GRUESOME) and Gus Rios (ex-MALEVOLENT CREATION) — have announced their new album Initium Mortis, arriving July 17 via Relapse Records on CD, LP, cassette, and digital.
The album resurrects material from DEATH's foundational era — drawing from both the official early catalog and the pre-DEATH project MANTAS. Matt Harvey explains: "We felt that exhuming some of these old tracks made the most sense for us." Terry Butler adds: "We wanted to play the early material for the fans that couldn't see the first albums in a live setting."
Initium Mortis tracklist:
- Legion Of Doom
- Archangel
- Power Of Darkness
- Zombie
- Witch Of Hell
- Rise Of Satan
- Summoned To Die
- Mantas
- Slaughterhouse
- Death By Metal
This is not a casual nostalgia project. Rozz and Butler stood at the very genesis of death metal; Harvey built GRUESOME specifically to honor Chuck Schuldiner's legacy, and Rios brings serious credentials via MALEVOLENT CREATION. Together, they deliver material that predates even Scream Bloody Gore — the building blocks of death metal itself — with the fidelity and passion these songs always deserved.
Initium Mortis arrives via Relapse Records on July 17, 2026.