UMUR "The 13 Frightened Souls" is an EP release by US death metal act Deceased. The EP was released through Relapse Records in 1993 and bridges the gap between the band´s debut and sophomore studio albums "Luck of the Corpse (1991)" and "The Blueprints for Madness (1995)". There has been one lineup change since the debut album as guitarist Doug Souther has been replaced by Mike Smith.

"The 13 Frightened Souls" features 5 tracks and a full playing time of 19:05 minutes. 4 tracks are originals while "Voivod" is a cover track of Canadian thrash/progressive metal act Voivod. The cover is fairly true to the savage nature of the original, but it´s the originals which are the most interesting material on the EP. Deceased are a well playing band and drummer/lead vocalist King Fowley has a powerful, raw, and intelligible growling delivery. His growling is more snarling than growling really, but the vocals are still nicely aggressive and extreme.

The occasionally adventurous approach to composing old school death metal, which was initiated on "Luck of the Corpse (1991)", is continued here. The tracks are not progressive or anything like that, but Deceased don´t always follow a "regular" vers/chorus structure song writing formula, and it makes their tracks a little more interesting and challenging to listen to than your average old school death metal act. The best examples of that on "The 13 Frightened Souls" are "Robotic Village" and "Nuclear Exorcist".

Production wise the sound quality is of a much higher quality on "The 13 Frightened Souls" than what is the case on "Luck of the Corpse (1991)", so in almost all departments this EP is a step up from the debut album. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.