Death Metal

[The Ozzman]

The Key is awesome

 

[skeptik]

You'll have your work cut out for you obtaining the Demigod album, and the Molested album has long been OOP (though it is going to see a reissue next year). Out of that list, and attempting to take your taste into account, I would narrow it down to Amorphis, Possessed, Tiamat, Morbid Angel, and Nocturnus.

 

[Zephyrus]

OK I'll prioritize those.

 

[ShredHeadJHJ]

I think Death's best album is definitely "Individual Thought Patterns". I've been listening to "Spiritual Healing" lately, but it's probably about my 4th favorite album by them. I think their first & last albums are their worst. Everything else ranges from "decent" to "pretty good", but nothing by them is goosebump inducing to me in anyway, with a brief couple of exceptions on "IDT".

 

[Alter]

I have long overlooked Asphyx. Any where I should start.

Nec, why the fuck did you change your classic avatar?

 

[HaggardBastard]

I've long worshipped at the throne of Assuck. I actually prefer Misery Index to Anticapital/Blindspot solely because of the beefier and even warmer tones present on the former, but both are mandatory.



Also, what's the general consensus on Vital Remains? They've been around for ages, I know, but I only today picked up their latest, Icons of Evil. Certainly an unrelenting band, I'm impressed thus far, this being my initial exposure: there're plenty of blasting, ultra-violence (everybody please note the Death Angel allusion) passages, but also a substantial melodic presence via a strong Morbid Angel influence, which lends the Riffs (with a capital R) that ever-important memorability/hummability factor. The songs are structured more cyclically/traditionally than the standard "brutal" fare seen bandied about at the beginning of the decade (think Unique Leader and that ilk), although they do retain a degree of linearity typical of much of the death metal of the current day. Most surprising, and pleasantly so, is Benton's vocal performance: I haven't heard him sound this guttural and visceral and genuinely pissed of since the first Deicide record. It's great, and probably the only thing that I really wanted for Christmas. I've heard Dechristianize and some of their earlier works are even better, so what's the word?



Listening to this album today got me to thinking about just how much death metal has evolved throughout it's twenty-odd years existence. Though Morbid Angel's early works were extraordinarily ahead of their time, particularly in retrospect, the likes of Deicide, Obituary, pre-Human Death and the Stockholm bands were deceptively simple. Entombed, Dismember, and Unleashed, for example, all Swedes, took a great deal of influence from hardcore, especially the d-beating, Scandinavian strand: the rhythms they employed were lifted straight from Anti-Cimex and Discharge, tweaked here and there for added weight and metalosity (my word, trademarked me, 2007). No wonder they were possessed of such sheer, unbridled energy. Even the American bands did it (think Obituary, Autopsy, Scream Bloody Gore) and I don't think it was until Suffocation released Effigy of the Forgotten in '91 that death metal really started to become blazingly and flatteningly technical. Now, death metal is easily one of the single most complex forms of music being played anywhere in the world; the Vital Remains album I just talked about, not to mention the recent work of bands like Nile and even Cannibal Corpse, is prime evidence.

I ramble. Idea for a new thread.

 

[ohiogrinder]

finally someone else who gets the influence hardcore punk had on death metal. and this is coming from a former punk himself.

Zephyrus, get these:

Dismember - Like An Everflowing Stream
Asphyx - The Rack
Autopsy - Severed Survival/Mental Funeral (yes, both)
Possessed - Seven Churches

 

[ohiogrinder]

I've long worshipped at the throne of Assuck. I actually prefer Misery Index to Anticapital/Blindspot solely because of the beefier and even warmer tones present on the former, but both are mandatory.

I'm the other way around, but yeah, definitely manditory.

 

[llamaking]

anyone heard of
annotations of an autopsy or embryonic devourment both good.

edit:waking the cadaver is good too.

 

[ShredHeadJHJ]

Now, death metal is easily one of the single most complex forms of music being played anywhere in the world

Naw d00d, there are many much more complex forms of music out there. This is a big ass rock we live on. Sure, Death Metal can get very technical, but it's not always as thought out as other forms of music. Some of the forms of music you never would of thought can be much more intricate in both writing & execution.

 

[HaggardBastard]

Naw d00d, there are many much more complex forms of music out there. This is a big ass rock we live on. Sure, Death Metal can get very technical, but it's not always as thought out as other forms of music. Some of the forms of music you never would of thought can be much more intricate in both writing & execution.

I guess what I mean is in regard to "rock-based" or "rock-oriented" music. Outside of prog, it's hard to get much more OTT than some death metal.

 

[Zhou Tai 04]

Also, what's the general consensus on Vital Remains?

I absolutely cannot stand them. Some of the most boring stuff I've ever heard aside from Origin, Krisiun, and Hate Eternal.

 

[HaggardBastard]

I take it you're not into the heads-down blasting/extreme speed stakes?

 

[llamaking]

I guess what I mean is in regard to "rock-based" or "rock-oriented" music. Outside of prog, it's hard to get much more OTT than some death metal.

most tech death metal, there are some bands such as, job for a cowboy, as blood runs black, etc. that arent very complex.

dont get me wrong i like jfac and abrb, but i guess most deathcore isnt very complex, and a lot of death metal isnt either.

tech-death is highly complex, and thus being a sub genre of death metal you could say that death metal is complex, lol.

and if it is one of the most complex genres or not, it kicks ass either way

 

[Zhou Tai 04]

I take it you're not into the heads-down blasting/extreme speed stakes?

Not if that's all they ever do.



I have really been enjoying Crypt of Kerberos - The Macrodex of War and World of Myths, Evocation - Tales from the Tomb, and Funebrarum - Beneath the Columns of Abandoned Gods and Conjuration of the Sepulchral lately. I'm really looking forward to Funebrarum's new cd. The advance songs on their Myspace page sound great.

 

[ShredHeadJHJ]

I guess what I mean is in regard to "rock-based" or "rock-oriented" music. Outside of prog, it's hard to get much more OTT than some death metal.

Yeah, I got ya.

On a side note, nearly all the SOOPER Technical Death Metal bands I've heard couldn't write a great song to save their lives. I'd like to hear Death Metal with songwriting like Spiral Architect with Death vocals over top it

 

[Koude Haat]

 

[rfe]

I'm looking forward to Grave's new album. Last one kicked alot of ass.

 

[Koude Haat]

opinions on Martyr(can)?

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

Horrible vocals, otherwise good.