shit, forgot the faceless. awesome band, although i prefered akeldama...matter of taste, i guess.
anyways, as for necrophagist being the n.1 tech death band....well, maybe it's part of their sound that they combine technique with brutality and some melody, but imho for each of these aspects there are loads of other bands that are already doing better than necro. obscura e.g. is doing way more complex stuff, both technically and melodically/harmonically speaking. beneath the massacre is also way more technical AND more brutal, while lacking some of that neoclassical melody obviously. but thinking about it, spawn of possession actually is another band that's technical and melodic as fuck while being really brutal.
and as far as technical perfection of their playing goes....well....i know for fact that they're as much of a studio band as anyone nowadays. don't try to picture them going into the studio and laying down those riffs on the fly....i'm not saying muhammed isn't a good guitarist (he obviously is), but he's not the super player people try to make out of him. he's a really really good composer, though!
and while it's way fucking difficult to sing and play like that at the same time, he's not the only one who can pull that off.....once again, obscura's singer/guitarist is doing so too, and fwiw some of their riffs are even more complex to play than necro ones. check it out:
tbh i was really fucking impressed when i saw them live, because i expected christian münzner to handle most of the difficult lines so that steffen could concentrate on singing....nope....he's actually playing the higher harmony for the main riff, which is way more difficult....goes like 7th D string to 2nd E string 6th 2nd etc...but i digress...
Anyway, it's not just about that. They have a far more original sound, more abstract modes/scales/timing etc
