The album's production is definitely something of note. David’s guitar cuts through the mix with grit reminiscent of early punk groups such as Dead Boys, but the lead parts come off more like Sly and the Family Stone. The bass does its own harmonic numbers with sufficient punk and the demented drumming (including the resonating cymbals) are picked up with clarity. It goes without saying that the cornucopia of added guitar parts will leave the headiest of hard-rock fans happy (and how!). What’s fascinating is how instruments and vocals are given different levels of reverberation, adding depth or width at discretion and will but, at times, growing echoes lead to an inevitable realization: the void of death.
The band forces an insuperable reality unto listeners, battling the danger or hard rock with yet another challenge: even more danger. Songs spiral toward the vortex of existential nothingness, detonating its surroundings with swaths of sonic fuzz. While most bands delay an album's conclusion with filler cuts, Death recognizes that such a fantasy screen is trash and that everyone must pass through the turmoil of destruction at some point. It is not that life is interrupted by death, but the opposite; life is an accident of death.
While the uncompleted album still leaves us audiophiles with a desire for conclusion and a lengthier cultural artifact — the album barely clocks in at 27 minutes — …For the Whole World To See is the missing evolutionary link between MC5 and CBGB punk rock with a fearless bit of Sabbath thrown into the mix. It is a extraordinary album, threatening, violent, challenging and, goddammit, it has that feel-good and relentless vibe that rock 'n’ roll gives its devoted minions that makes ‘em break things. For lovers of punk and hard rock, Death is essential.
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