I might be alone here, but I think "brutal" death metal is almost invariably terrible.
It is devoid of all the sinister morbidity that made early thrash/death so exciting, and it is overly focused on speed and lacks the variety of riffs that made the more 'old school' bands so timeless.
A lot of these bands are essentially attempting to show off their needless musicianship within the umbrella of death metal, but have lost everything that it used to be about.
I can appreciate bands like Suffocation - often labelled brutal death - because I find their riffs innovative and their range of dynamics more balanced. However, most of this newer generation of brutal death bands (ie. see Unique Leader's entire roster pretty much) are lifeless and monotonous.
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I may as well also spew another of my hates in death metal here, and that is gore lyrics.
WHAT IS THE POINT? It is the same point as I made above - the first generation of death metal bands did not need to make childish attempts to outdo each other's gore credentials in order to appear dark - their music and occult themes did that much better than pathetic fairytale splatter lyrics can.
As for a band like Cannibal Corpse, I just think they are shit musically as well as lyrically.
It is devoid of all the sinister morbidity that made early thrash/death so exciting, and it is overly focused on speed and lacks the variety of riffs that made the more 'old school' bands so timeless.
A lot of these bands are essentially attempting to show off their needless musicianship within the umbrella of death metal, but have lost everything that it used to be about.
I can appreciate bands like Suffocation - often labelled brutal death - because I find their riffs innovative and their range of dynamics more balanced. However, most of this newer generation of brutal death bands (ie. see Unique Leader's entire roster pretty much) are lifeless and monotonous.
-------
I may as well also spew another of my hates in death metal here, and that is gore lyrics.
WHAT IS THE POINT? It is the same point as I made above - the first generation of death metal bands did not need to make childish attempts to outdo each other's gore credentials in order to appear dark - their music and occult themes did that much better than pathetic fairytale splatter lyrics can.
As for a band like Cannibal Corpse, I just think they are shit musically as well as lyrically.