Left To Die has spent the last few years thrilling audiences by resurrecting the raw, primitive sound of early Death, performing classics from Leprosy and Scream Bloody Gore. But according to guitarist Frederick “Rick Rozz” DeLillo, the supergroup—which features classic Death alumni alongside members of Gruesome and Exhumed—might soon evolve from a tribute act into a creative entity of its own.
In a new interview with “Reckless” Rexx Ruger of the “Pod Scum” podcast, Rozz confirmed that the band has had internal discussions about stepping into the studio to record original material.
While the project initially formed to celebrate the legacy of Chuck Schuldiner, Rozz expressed enthusiasm for the idea of contributing new chapters to the old-school death metal canon.
“I don’t know. We talked about doing some originals, like maybe doing an EP or something like that. But, yeah, only time will tell, man. Who knows? We’ll see. That would be great, though. For real,” Rozz told the podcast (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
He went on to outline a specific concept he pitched to his bandmates: a democratized songwriting approach where every member—bassist Terry Butler (Obituary, ex-Death), drummer Gus Rios (ex-Malevolent Creation), and frontman Matt Harvey (Exhumed)—would contribute equally.
“I don’t know. We just thought it would be a good idea. If it happens. It’s talk [right now]. And my idea was that the four of us would each write a song. And, of course, there’d be other input from the other members, but the main majority [of each of the four songs would be done by the individual member who wrote it]. And then maybe do a couple of cool covers and do, like, a six-song [EP], [with] four originals. And that was just an idea that I came up with. I’m not speaking for the other guys. But an EP has been talked about. I have riffs. Gus has riffs. Everybody plays guitar as well, so everybody can write a fr*cking riff. But we’ll see what happens, man. Only time will tell.”
Rozz also pulled back the curtain on his personal creative process. Despite being a veteran of the scene, he treats writing less like a job and more like a spontaneous habit, capturing ideas on his phone whenever inspiration strikes.
“I don’t really look at it as a job thing. And it all depends. I’ve got guitars sitting around. I pick ’em up every once in a while and sometimes I just play some rock guitar or I’ll play some acoustic stuff. But as far as writing metal stuff — no, I don’t think about it too much. I just sit down and I’ll have a riff and I’ll have my phone and I’ll put record and I’ll just play at acoustically. I’ll put the riff down. And I have probably 20 riffs on my phone, just little snippets, so I don’t forget.”
However, Rozz admitted that phone recordings pale in comparison to the energy of a live room, expressing a longing for the collaborative friction of a rehearsal space.
“Then when it’s time to really, ‘Okay, s**t, I need to put some stuff together…’ I dig jamming by myself, but it’s so much cooler to play riffs with a drummer. I miss getting in the room with people and jamming to where you can really get a good feel. You know when a riff is cool, but then maybe somebody else might not like it. And I’m not gonna go, ‘Oh, it has to be there.’ ‘Cause somebody might go, ‘Yeah, that sounds like this, that and the other.’ Da da. And then we’d be like, ‘Okay, cool. What you got?’ [Laughs]”
Left To Die continues to tour, bringing the seminal sounds of Florida death metal to stages worldwide. Recently, professionally filmed footage of their entire March 2025 concert at the Melbourne Dethfest surfaced on the “Riff Crew” YouTube channel.
