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.
