Deceased - Blueprints For Madness (2LP)

Facts Hells Headbangers, Black double vinyl. Comes in a gatefold cover with poster. Ltd 300 Originally released in 1995, The Blueprints for Madness followed four years on from Deceased's cult debut album, Luck of the Corpse - the very first album release on a then-young Relapse - but the band were far from idle in the interim. Between those years, they released the throwback EP The 13 Frightened Souls and three demos; still, little could've prepared the listener for the weird & wild The Blueprints for Madness. As evocatively suggested by it's Wes Benscoter cover artwork, Deceased's second full-length flipped the script on their sound and found them venturing down complex corridors, taking their horror storytelling to new heights (and depths, as it were). The sound & style were definitely Deceased's patented Death Metal From the Grave, but the supreme complexity as well as rough 'n' raw sound made this record quite unlike anything around in the mid '90s. Of course, King Fowley and crew would begin a new, epic epoch with Fearless Undead Machines two years later, thereby making The Blueprints for Madness both a crucial piece in their expansive discography as well as a unique jumping-off point.