Death Metal

[Scourge of God]

Blakkheim has laid guitar down on 15 fullength albums and has tremendous skill,talent and diversity.

So where, exactly, does he display this 'skill, talent and diversity'? Bloodbath is a fucking TRIBUTE BAND and, like Katatonia was a bog simple bands that is no more technically demanding than Obituary was, Diabolical Masquerade sounds exactly like what it is - Dissection riffs as interpreted by Katatonia - and Bewitched was a generic, 10th tier retro-thrash act that borrowed heavily from those masters of technicality, Venom. I suppose there is a 'diversity' of a kind in his career, but it's a diversity akin to a line up featuring turd from three or four different animals.

Allen has about 3 solos and 3 death metal riffs he stole from celtic frost and played on some Obituary cds and is one of the most sloppy generic crappy redundant guitarist.

There's no question that Obituary was influenced by Frost - there's also no question the band built on that influence to create several absolute defining classics of the genre, while Blakkheim has spent his career in a series of creatively irrelevant crap bands.

 

[Astrum]

You're an idiot. I generally skip that song.

That song is alright. I like the rest of the album too, though.

 

[Scourge of God]

I am not talking purely about technical proficiency fucktard (although as you eluded, both are as good as you will ever find).

Look, if you don't know the meaning of the words you use, don't use them, you gibbering moron.

The drummer is tremendously talented in terms of playing with groove and also playing alot of fairly original and interesting rhythms.

Their drummer sounds like the kind of uppity moron who thinks people listen to death metal to hear the drummer. His style is distracting and intrusive, which is the opposite of what good percussionists aim for.

The bassist is one of the best in DM.

And he also sounds like he's not even playing the same song as the other guys. Congratulations! You can play jazz, now shut the fuck up and bang out some counterpoint and move out of the way.

All the musicians play with tremendous emotion

An autistic kid pitching a tantrum is 'emotional,' but it's not emotion connected to any overarching purpose. You're still left with the same parts is parts crap that undermines most 'technical' bands.

actually the mood changes are highly effective, the songs flow very well despite having so many different parts (IE the classical intro to some brutal riffing in "beatus" or the intro to "lair of purity" followed by some slightly heavier parts and then some melodic parts with female/male clean vocals followed by an excellent instrumental outro.)

Wow, they have intros and outros, so daringly outré! Too bad they never got around to the part where they write songs that are lucid enough to count as, you know, songs, rather than a series of musical vignettes strung together in the absence of logic.

 

[skeptik]

Dave, you can't just call various things "interesting," "original," "emotional," "tremendously talented," and "highly effective" and submit that as a proper dissertation of the quality of a band's compositional prowess.

 

[Hell Awaits Us All]

Their drummer sounds like the kind of uppity moron who thinks people listen to death metal to hear the drummer. His style is distracting and intrusive, which is the opposite of what good percussionists aim for.

he actually plays with somewhat of a sense of restraint. It's not overplaying at all which is what you seem to be implying. His style kind of reminds me of steve flynn from atheist, who is the best DM drummer ever.

And he also sounds like he's not even playing the same song as the other guys. Congratulations! You can play jazz, now shut the fuck up and bang out some counterpoint and move out of the way.

dominic is terribly sorry for injecting creativity and originality to the death metal bass, bands should stick to inaudible bass .

Wow, they have intros and outros, so daringly outré! Too bad they never got around to the part where they write songs that are lucid enough to count as, you know, songs, rather than a series of musical vignettes strung together in the absence of logic.

you have been making this assertion that the band just plays random unconnected musical parts, and then does copy and paste. This is just plain false, the music makes perfect sense and the transitions between the various moods actually are well written (there are almost no sudden unnatural transitions). Riffs flow from one to another with beautiful grace and melody. Perhaps to your ear they are a disjointed mess but I don't find this to be the case at all. Not to mention the band has a knack for writing very memorable and pretty unique riffs and solos.

the band also plays with tremendous passion and conviction, two of the most important things in creating good DM. Overall, they sound like a classically influenced version of atheist with some various other influences.

 

[Dazed and Brutal]

Stop! Nobody is convincing anybody about anything right now.

 

[Mort Divine]

Behemoth and Lykathea Aflame (the former especially) are both highly derivative of Morbid Angel, as is Nile. If your knowledge of death metal is limited to nowadays bullshit and Cannibal Corpse, you need to bone up on the actual classics. Until then, shut the fuck up and stop wasting bandwidth with your moronic assertions.

Lykathea Aflame is no better than Nile, and just as fucking gimmicky.

Hahahah, oh yes because we all know that Morbid Angel had grind elements in their music, and and that their sound was based around uplifting melodies.

LA is in no way gimmicky - whereas Nile is a living breathing gimmick.

 

[Hell Awaits Us All]

It'd be nice if people'd stop but you've got two complete tools argueing with each other, until someone comes in and smacks them they're not going to stop.

calling yourself and that anus.com faggot a tool I see, very nice

 

[skeptik]

Shut the fuck up, everyone. And yes, Lykathea Aflame is not devoid of gimmick.

 

[Mort Divine]

Then no band is.

 

[CF87]

Blakkheim while doing some tribute stuff still has his own twists and style and is productive musician demenstrating he can play different styles, he has written tons of very interesting and neat guitar harmonies and clean guitar parts that he can say are his, he always has ideas and great acoustics and has style and identity as a musician

Allen West is not a productive guitarist and really has not demenstrated style or indentiy as a guitarist nor has expirimented or anything showing he is a good musician, he always does the same crap and even had a horrible stink in six feet under. I just don't see how someone can take this guy good or a serious musician.

Blakkheim has written much better and worthwhile material than someone like allen west.

Atleast put a musician that is actually worthwhile up to Blakkheim so discussing this is not so ridiculous. I would hope to god in years to come Blakkheim gets his credit and is appreciated over people like allen west because if not that would just be wrong.

 

[Hell Awaits Us All]

lykathea is a fucking awesome band

elvenfris=absolutely brilliant.

 

[Mort Divine]

Elvenefris is probably somewhere in my top 10 DM, not quite top 5 though.

 

[skeptik]

Then no band is.

Pretty much yeah, but I also wouldn't say that Lykathea Aflame is near the bottom in terms of having a gimmick either...they're actually fairly gimmicky.

 

[Hell Awaits Us All]

Elvenefris is probably somewhere in my top 10 DM, not quite top 5 though.

it's around my top 10, although I will admit I don't listen to much DM anymore outside of the gym.

 

[Dazed and Brutal]

Not liking a band because of a gimmick is completely retarded... unless of course the gimmick is weight lifting and gay sex.

Lykathea is way overrated! I used to jiz over Elvenfris, but looking back on it the record is a complete mess, shit being thrown in ever and at seemingly wrong times (no real organizations was put into some parts). The record could do without the vocals (the clean ones are alright). Overall, I still liked it okay just on the atmosphere that was is presented and for some decent melodies. They just need to organize some of their songs, because with the music the seem capable of making, Lykathea could be fucking powerhouse. Not to mention that the drummer is one of the best I have ever heard.

 

[Hell Awaits Us All]

Not like a band because of a gimmick is completely retarded... unless of course the gimmick is weight lifting and gay sex.

weight lifting and gay sex? WTF

 

[ohiogrinder]

Dave, you don't dislike non-technical, sludgy death metal like Autopsy and the like, do you?

I certaintly hope you don't, cause Autopsy and Entombed and bands like that are awesome.

 

[zoidberg]

Not like a band because of a gimmick is completely retarded... unless of course the gimmick is weight lifting and gay sex.

Lykathea is way overrated! I used to jiz over Elvenfris, but looking back on it the record is a complete mess, shit being thrown in ever and at seemingly wrong times (no real organizations was put into some parts). The record could do without the vocals (the clean ones are alright). Overall, I still liked it okay just on the atmosphere that was is presented and for some decent melodies. They just need to organize some of their songs, because with the music the seem capable of making, Lykathea could be fucking powerhouse. Not to mention that the drummer is one of the best I have ever heard.

Jiz?

 

[Scourge of God]

he actually plays with somewhat of a sense of restraint. It's not overplaying at all which is what you seem to be implying. His style kind of reminds me of steve flynn from atheist, who is the best DM drummer ever.

Steve Flynn was also in a band whose style emphasized polyrhythmic interplay while Augury is a rhythmically conventional band playing what is basically a prog metal take on the Gothenburg style. Talented drummers adapt their style to the demands of the music, they don't impose a style on music that it isn't suited for. Good drumming doesn't call attention to itself.

dominic is terribly sorry for injecting creativity and originality to the death metal bass, bands should stick to inaudible bass .

Jazz bassists are a dime a dozen. There's nothing original or creative about what he does. Flashy, sure, but bass isn't a lead instrument, and shouldn't be treated as if it were. Again, it's an intrusive fucking distraction, not an improvement.

you have been making this assertion that the band just plays random unconnected musical parts

It's not an 'assertion' - it's a statement of fact. In coherent songs, the juxtaposition of elements is dictated by the underlying concepts expressed: musical signifiers reinforce lyrical signifiers and create meaning. That relationship between signifiers and signified is totally absent in Augury's music because the array of musical elements the band uses aren't there to delineate meaning, but to create a superficially 'unique' aesthetic to market as novelty.

the band also plays with tremendous passion and conviction

More meaningless buzzwords. Maybe they are passionate. Maybe they do play with conviction. How does that make them any different from thousands of other bands who really like what they do, but haven't got the creative wherewithal to turn out a decent song?