There was one called 'The Troll', that never appeared on any record. 'Six Feet Under', from our second record, was on that demotape as well. It was okay. I wouldn't now say that it was all great, but apparently the girl at Capitol liked it a lot.
A modest appraisal by bassist Casey Orr..! It's true they were a faster, tighter and more aggressive band by their next release, the brain melting self-titled album; but considering all but one song made it onto future albums(*), the material here is some of the best ever speed metal. Just rawer and less razor-precise than it became later.
* Foaming at the Mouth was re-recorded but didn't actually make it onto the album, it was included on the soundtrack for The Decline Of The Westem Civilisation Part II (1988). It has since been included as a bonus song on reissues of the first album.
Insane quality for a first demo. Every second of RIGOR MORTIS' only demo - recorded on this day in 1986 - kills! Wild speed metal from Arlington / Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas. Only 500 were made and the band soon signed to Capitol Records through label A&R Rachel Matthews. Capitol released RIGOR MORTIS' classic debut LP in 1988.
...we sold it at our shows and sent it to people and tried to promote it as much as we could. But actually, we didn't have that much time. We got signed fairly soon after we put out the tape, so once we got signed, we decided to start working on the songs for the record and everything and we didn't put out another, second demotape or anything.
I guess in 1983... we really formed as RIGOR MORTIS and got Bruce Corbitt to sing for us, he was our first singer. We put out a demotape in '86, only put out 500 copies of it, but a friend of ours got in contact with people from Capitol Records... Rachel Matthews, who was at Capitol Records at the time, and she liked it a lot and came down and saw us and they signed us. We thought it was a really great deal and that it was the biggest deal in the world.
- Casey Orr / Rigor Mortis interview, Voices from the Darkside
After Mike Scaccia's death in 2012, original members Casey Orr, Harden Harrison and Bruce Corbitt continued to play live as WIZARDS OF GORE. They played a special 30th anniversary show on the weekend of the 17th September 2016 to mark the release of this demo.
They have also put together a documentary covering the early days of the band. Part 1 is out now covering 83-87.