The Metal Crypt - Left to Die Interview

Interviews Left to Die

Interview with bassist Terry Butler
Interview conducted by Luxi Lahtinen

Date online: September 11, 2024

Live pictures by Luxi Lahtinen

Thanks to Dieter 'Heavy-D' Bossaerts of Total World Domination for setting up the interview.

Left to Die is a Death tribute band, consisting of ex-Death members Rick Rozz on guitar and Terry Butler on bass, accompanied by Matt Harvey from Exhumed (and many other bands) on guitar and vocals, and Gus Rios from Gruesome on drums. The band has been performing Death's second album, Leprosy, in its entirety and some songs off Death's iconic debut album, Scream Bloody Gore, on their ongoing European tour, together with true death metal stalwarts, Incantation.

The tour reached Finland on August 26, 2024, and The Metal Crypt managed to sit down briefly at the On the Rocks venue in Helsinki, Finland, with Terry Butler and we had the following conversation prior to their show, crossing topics from Left to Die's lineup and chemistry, to the early days of Mantas and Death, to Chuck Schuldiner (R.I.P.) and what the future might hold for the band. Read on...

Hey, Terry! How's it going, man?

Terry: Thank you. I am doing great. The tour is going great. We've been all over Europe. The weather feels great here [*chuckles*]. Not so much down in Italy [*laughs*]. Good crowds, good response, and we're really happy.

Have all the shows been sold out so far, like this one here in Finland?

Terry: A lot of them have been, and a lot of them have been close to selling out as well. It's a good response, definitely.

I guess it says something about Finnish crowds and how they have a certain understanding for old school death metal here...

Terry: Yes, definitely. For sure you guys do. You love it, yes [*chuckles*].

This is not your first time in Finland. What kind of memories do you have from your earlier visits?

Terry: I love coming to Finland. I came here with Death around 1990, also with Massacre, Obituary, Left to Die now, Six Feet Under, back in the day. I love playing in Finland. There are always good crowds and its nice scenery and everything. It's pleasant.

What made you guys start Left to Die in the very first place?

Terry: A couple of years ago, James Murphy, Matt, and Gus, and I did Spiritual Healing shows in Tampa, back-to-back nights. That was put together by this huge Death fan. His name is Steven Berwanger. He lives in America. He contacted us and asked us if we would be interested in doing that and we said yes. We played those shows. They were great. There were two sold-out nights in Tampa.

A couple of weeks later, maybe a month later, Rick posed the question online, would anybody like to see Leprosy done in its entirety? There was a huge response. I was contacted by Gus and Matt to see if I would be interested. I said, "Yes, if you guys are involved," because I think Gus and Matt are perfect. Matt sounds just like Chuck. He plays Chuck's leads note for note. Gus is an amazing drummer and they're huge Death fans and they love old-school death metal.

Our intention was to maybe just play a few shows. The response was so big, a tour was booked within a month or two in the States. We're like, "All right, let's take this on the road and see how it goes." There was a huge response. It was great. The show is total dedication to Chuck and the music of Death. We just like to have a good time. We're playing the first two albums. We're playing all of Leprosy and about five songs from Scream Bloody Gore. If you close your eyes, it sounds like you're in 1988. It's perfect.

CHUCK'S LEGACY LIVES ON

There's this whole new generation of metalheads you never had a chance to witness Death live. I guess it's important for you guys to keep Death's legacy alive and let these younger metalheads enjoy a "Death" show.

Terry: Definitely. There's a younger generation that wants to know where death metal started and where it came from. Death never really came this far back in the day. There were not very many tours in Europe with Death. This music has never been played in Finland, probably. It's great to see the younger kids there. They want to know where death metal came from. They're respectful. Every night, there's a bunch of young kids right in the front row, singing the songs. That's great. It's good to see that.

How does it feel to play these iconic Death songs live? What kind of memories do they bring to mind when you played them with Mr. Schuldiner many, many years ago?

Terry: It's great, because like that first tour I told you about, it immediately brought back good feelings of playing these songs live. Back then, they were fresh and new and cutting edge. Now, you might hear Leprosy and think, "Oh, this is not as heavy as this band," but it's not true. This is where it started. It's very heavy live, and I think it's great. I have a great feeling playing these songs when we play them. I feel honored.

GODFATHERS OF DEATH METAL?

This may be a tough question for you, but do you see Chuck as the godfather of death metal, or at least one of them, along with Possessed, who paved the way for this heavy genre of metal music?

Terry: Well, at the time, Rick and Kam, way back in the Mantas days, or later when they changed the name to Death, they were just playing music they liked. They weren't even thinking about writing music that 30 years later would be the blueprint of what death metal is, and I'm going to be the godfather of death metal. That was never thought about. It was never a thing until he passed away.

He was writing cool music that made sense, and it was heavy, and it had good structure, and it was catchy. Death came out maybe six months after Possessed, so they're very close. I don't care who started it. It was never about writing music and 30 years later being considered gods. No, that wasn't it. It's cool that the music has lasted and stood the test of time, and it will continue to be that way.

Because I knew Chuck, and he was a good friend of mine, and we lived together here and there on the road, and I was at his house a lot, blah, blah, I don't see him that way. I see him as just a guy that was at the forefront of a type of music, and he helped create that type of music. He obviously has hierarchy in that genre. Obviously, he's at the top, so if you want to call him a king or a god [*chuckles*], whatever. I don't see him that way because he was a friend of mine, and blah, blah. I can see how other people think that.

As you knew Chuck so closely, what would you say were some of his best assets?

Terry: I think some of his best assets were song structuring, songwriting, vocals, and his lyrics. He took pride in his lyrics. To me, those were his best attributes. His songs made sense. You've got a chorus here, a verse here, a chorus here. It just all made sense. To me, his best attributes are his songwriting, song structuring, his lyrics, and his vocals.

LEPROSY – THE HEAVIST METAL ALBUM OF ALL TIME

When you recorded the Leprosy album, was your intention to make the heaviest and most brutal sounding metal album ever. I mean, there were already albums like Reign of Blood by Slayer, Darkness Descends by Dark Angel, Pleasure to Kill by Kreator, etc.?

Terry: Of course. Yes, that's the way it always was. If we're going to write a fast song, hey, let's write this part as fast as we can and play it clean. Death, like I said, from the Mantas days to the Death demos, paid their dues for three or four years before they signed the contract and got Scream Bloody Gore out. They were there through Darkness Descends and all that stuff, but they just hadn't released a record yet. They were still in the demo stage. They didn't get the break yet, but they did finally, and the rest is history.

Which Death songs are the most fun to play live?

Terry: From the Scream Bloody Gore album, I would probably say the song "Scream Bloody Gore" and "Zombie Ritual," obviously. From Leprosy, I love playing "Choke on It" and "Born Dead." Those are great. "Pull the Plug," obviously. They're always fun to play.

Do you have any other tours planned for the fall this year with Left to Die?

Terry: This year, we're going to be done after this tour. Next year, we got some stuff planned for January and March 2025 [*clears throat*]. We just can't announce it yet, but we got some stuff planned. It won't be in Europe or America. It'll be somewhere else.

This is just a wild thought, but have you ever talked about recording a full-length album of Death covers with Left to Die?

Terry: We haven't thought about re-recording the songs. There is some talk of maybe, potentially, writing some new stuff. That's a whole other thing that we'd have to really get everyone together and talk about it. There could potentially be a live CD put out. The closest to re-recording those songs would be a live CD. That's probably what we would do, I'd say. We'll see.

What about making a road documentary? Would that be something cool to think about at least?

Terry: [*chuckles*] A day in the life of death metal. Yes, that would be cool. You never know [*laughs*].

How do you see the future of Left to Die? Do you believe as long as you get good and reasonable tour offers, you'll do these shows, as long as it feels fun to play shows with this lineup?

Terry: It's the kind of thing where if there is a demand for it, we'll show up. We only have a certain amount of source material to pull from. We can't keep touring every year playing the same stuff. It may get to where we just do some festivals here and there.

We want to hit as many parts of the world as we can. We can still do South America. We can still do Mexico. We can still do Australia. We can still do Asia. We can still do Canada. There are still some places we can hit. We just want to do as much as we can as long as people want to hear it.

We played six or seven festivals this year. You never know, maybe next year we can play six or seven different festivals. Who knows? We're there if we're needed.

THE RIGHT CHEMISTRY IS EVERYTHING

Would you still do this band if all the other guys - Rick, Matt, and Gus - weren't a part of the lineup? Do you think you've got the perfect chemistry to perform these classic Death songs in the current Left to Die lineup?

Terry: No, [*clears throat*] it would not. I don't want to change the chemistry at all. The people in the band right now are perfect for the band. If we change one member for whatever reason, it would not be the same. That's not going to happen. We're all brothers, and we all know exactly what we want to do. We're on the same page.

I have one more question left for you. What's your take on this Death to All lineup that, of course, has done all the Death songs as well?

Terry: Obviously, they're great musicians. They've all been in Death basically as touring musicians. They've played on some of the albums. Their take on it is a little different. I don't know if they're going to play the song "Scream Bloody Gore" exactly how it's supposed to be played. You know what I mean? They might try to fancy it up a bit, that kind of stuff. We want to play the songs exactly how they're recorded. That's just us. No disrespect to them. They're great musicians, and I know them all. They're friends. They have their thing they're doing. We're doing our thing, and that's cool.

I think it is a win-win situation for the fans of Death in the end, having two Death tribute bands out there, I guess.

Terry: Yes, definitely. The one thing that Left to Die has a little extra is that Rick and I actually wrote music in Death. Rick wrote a good amount of Leprosy. He's got riffs on Leprosy. He wrote the whole song "Primitive Ways." I helped write four songs on the Spiritual Healing record. That's what we have going for us. We play the first two albums. They play whatever and that's fine. That's who they are, and we are who we are. There's enough space on the planet for us to coexist [*laughs*].

Exactly. It won't be doing any harm to anyone to witness two separate Death tribute bands going at the same time. That's a cool thing. Well, thank you Terry for your time and wishing you all the best for the show.

Terry: Thank you.