Mutilation is a demo released by Death in 1986. The following year, they would release their debut album, Scream Bloody Gore, on Combat Records. Metal Maniacs magazine noted that the demo was "the most polished of the early Death recordings" and that "the underground and Combat Records were in agreement about Mutilation".[1]
Writer Albert Mudrian noted in his book Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal & Grindcore that the Mutilation demo "earned [Chuck] Schuldiner that elusive recording contract", stating it was "the band's most polished material in the form of the three-track demo".[2] Author Ian Christe, in his book Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal, noted that Death's demos "became as heavily shared by tape traders as any well-established act in metal".[3]
