nespithe is great and the karelian isthmus is good, but neither would feature on a top 10 DM list from me.
at the gates pre-TSD are my favourite band, or top 3 anyway. the most unsettled, vivid, personal/inward, poetic DM out there. ugh it's impossible to describe the power and beauty of it to people who don't understand.
it took me years to get into atheist, i'm very resistant to that kind of thing, but i love them now. both the first two. hopefully that'll happen with cadaver too eventually but i have my doubts...
i still think both AOM and BATS are overrated. god knows i've given both a billion listens, and they're still just good to me. i think BATS has the most problems structurally of the two but also has the most power when it's firing on all cylinders.
slumber of sullen eyes is outstanding. so is effigy of the forgotten. and the nocturnal silence, man, i listened to that for the first time in ages recently and fell in love with it all over again. sometimes the simplest pleasures are the greatest.