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Death's story is one of felicitous, accidental rebirth. Three guys from Detroit formed a rock band in the '70s that barely got off the ground, someone rescued their 1974 demo from an attic, it was repackaged in 2009 as . . . For the Whole World To See, said album kicked a surprising amount of ass, and lo, a big fat asterisk was slapped on proto-punk history. Of course, the ensuing excitement meant that there had to be more Death material to unearth, so here comes Spiritual, Mental, Physical, a collection of flotsam recorded way back when. Unfortunately, a healthy chunk of this material was not worth resurrecting. First, two upsides: "Views" captures Death trying to fine-tune a potent hook, and the placid "The Change" makes for a nice, bluesy instrumental. But an excess of scraps and loose ends practically sink the record. "Can You Give Me a Thrill???" is clunky and far too long, there are three meandering, pointless solos, and more than one song ends abruptly. Sound quality and volume bounce from one track to the next, diminishing any sense of cohesion. What Spiritual, Mental, Physical documents is a group kicking around possibilities that could go somewhere great, but as they appear here, only a handful of these half-cooked ideas deserve an audience.
