I'm not a newcomer to death metal by any means, but lately I've been listening a lot to this genre, for instance Suffocation, Cryptopsy, Decapitated and Blood Red Throne. I find this genre very interesting, but there is a thing that bothers me to some extent. When listening to later Cryptopsy and Decapitated, for instance, I feel that some of the "flow" of the music has been replaced with rather pointless technical riffs. Of course, technical musicianship is not necessarily a bad thing, but I feel that some of these über-technical riffs tend to be quite boring, and these riffs give me absolutely nothing.
Is death metal becoming more and more stagnant? I find that there were less "pointless" riffs in older death metal. A lot of the bands went for simplicity instead of too much technicality (is that even a word?). Cryptopsy's "Blasphemy Made Flesh" and "None So Vile" are favourites of mine, mainly because they manage to combine technical musicianship without losing intensity and without ruining the song's structures. Of course, there are interesting, creative bands in today's scene, like Decapitated (even though they are a bit over-the-top sometimes), Vital Remains, Vehemence and Nile. What do you think about the future face of death metal - is the genre becoming more stagnant, and do the bands throw in pointless guitar-masturbating to fill a record?