MORBID SAINT's Spectrum of Death was recorded at Opus Recording in 1988 and originally released as Lock Up Your Children on demo cassette. The recent pro-tape reissue of that demo, replicating the original design, is available here.
We pretty much recorded our current set that we were playing out at the time. Going into the studio and laying those tracks down was really no different than jamming at practice or playing a live show for me. There was really no pressure, no time constraints. We had a limited budget, but Eric Greif and Opus worked with what we had. From what I remember, it was recorded over the course of a month or so. I suppose the production could have been better if we had the budget for it, but overall we were satisfied with the recording at that time.
- Tony Paletti / Morbid Saint interview, Nocturnal Cult, 2006
Eric Greif (manager and promoter of several other metal bands at the time, most notably DEATH) licensed the recording to Avanzada Metálica in Mexico who released the retitled Spectrum of Death LP on this day in 1990.
It was a very interesting experience being in a professional studio for the first time and we were very excited about the opportunity to record there. We actually took out a loan to pay for the studio time, so we wanted to make sure we were prepared to play the tracks as quickly as we could and not waste any of the time. We recorded the drum and both guitar tracks together live, and we recorded all the songs on the first take, except two which were recorded on the second take. There wasn't any fancy editing, or time aligning, like the way music is recorded today, which is why I think it has a different feel to it.
- Jay Visser / Morbid Saint interview, Metal Crypt, 2012