Death Metal -- Classic or Dud?

"It's boring out there in the snowy woods": Heybuddy, there's a DM/BM/ GC band from (I think) Newfoundland called LONG WINTER'S STARE.

There's also THOU SHALT SUFFER. I think no genre has funnier names (not even hardcore back in the 80s).

http://www.relapse.com/real/pig_destroyer-scatology_homework.ram http://www.relapse.com/real/pig_destroyer-starbelly.ram http://www.relapse.com/real/pig_destroyer-mapplethorpe_grey.ram http://www.relapse.com/mp3/PigDestroyer-PissAngel.mp3

Hmmm - but if you saw them live you'd appreciate the technical skill in creating those sounds. Ultrafast, speedoflight tremolo pickings that makes hands blur. Oh - try Ulver's NATTENS MADRIGAL album. They have changed style radically with every single album. For that one they went to a totally necro sound via cheap digital distortion and a high-end mix. The guitars sound like a knife, yet they produce some of the most beautiful melodies imaginable. I can tape you it if you like.

a new list:

HailMetal.Com ~Top 50 Death Metal Albums Of All Time

http://www.hailmetal.com/gate.html?name=BestOfDeath

number 1:

1 AT THE GATES - THE RED IN THE SKY IS OURS

bizarre old list. one album per artist = zero cred

it's a kinda shit list, but it's good to see some overlooked albums on there. miasma, abomination's first one*, stargazer's fucking AMAZING the scream that tore the sky (highly recommended for anyone into sadus/atheist technical but still ripping jams), arghoslent.

i have to be honest and say i never really cared for at the gates. and soulside journey? c'moooonnnn....

* i love the abomination album, but it totally doesn't deserve to be on this list. death strike, maybe, or the master 1985 recordings.

the rest...summary

#2 MORBID ANGEL - ALTARS OF MADNESS
#3 AMORPHIS - TALES FROM THE THOUSAND LAKES
#4 KATATONIA - BRAVE MURDER DAY
#5 DEATH - SPIRITUAL HEALING
#6 THE CHASM - DEATHCULT FOR ETERNITY: THE TRIUMPH
#7 THERION - BEYOND SANCTORUM
#8 OBITUARY - CAUSE OF DEATH
#9 ENTOMBED - LEFT HAND PATH
#10 OPETH - MORNINGRISE

11. Vader - Litany
12. Possessed - Seven Churches
13. Unleashed - Where No Life Dwells
14. Asphyx - The Rack
15. Dark Tranquillity - The Gallery
16. Nile - Annihilation of the Wicked
17. Arghoslent - Incorrigible Bigotry
18. Carcass - Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious
19. Cryptopsy - None So Vile
20. Malevolent Creation - The Ten Commandments
21. Darkthrone - Soulside Journey
22. Pestilence - Consuming Impulse
23. Sepultura - Morbid Visions
24. Dismember - Like an Everflowing Stream
25. Grave - Into the Grave
26. Tiamat - The Astral Sleep
27. Unanimated - Ancient God of Evil
28. Massacra - Final Holocaust
29. Bolt Thrower - ...For Victory
30. Carnage - Dark Recollections
31. Psycroptic - Scepter of the Ancients
32. Autopsy- Severed Survival
33. Hate Eternal - I, Monarch
34. Gorguts - Obscura
35. Amon Amarth - Once Sent from the Golden Hall
36. Atheist - Piece of Time
37. God Macabre - The Winterlong
38. Runemagick - The Supreme Force of Eternity
39. Nocturnus - The Key
40. Abomination - Abomination
41. Cadaver - ...In Pains
42. Macabre - Sinister Slaughter
43.Necrophobic - The Nocturnal Silence
44. Cannibal Corpse - Tomb of the Mutilated
45. Stargazer - The Scream that Tore the Sky
46. Deicide - Deicide
47. Fleshcrawl - Descend into the Absurd
48. Miasma - Changes
49.Demigod - Slumber of Sullen Eyes
50. In Flames - The Jester Race

Spiritual Healing is definitely not the best album by Death. Especially the rhythm section is shaky at best, and the one the thing redeeming the album are James Murphy's solospots. I would vote for everything after that album, specifically Human and Symbolic (that one being my favorite Death-album, even though they started sounding more like a technical thrashmetal band).

Glad to see "The Astral Sleep" there, an oft-overlooked classic (its inclusion in the genre can be argued, though).

Tomb of the Mutilated is not the best album by Cannibal Corpse. That would be The Bleeding.

Classic, although melo-death is a total dud.

This list is almost spot-on.

listening to Messiah's "Rotten Perish". looking for a lot of these obscure 80s/90s death metal(ish) releases. any others I might have missed? recently got into Massacra too.

Sorrow's "Hatred and Disgust" is a death/doom cd I've been listening to lately. I've had it for years, but it wasn't my style at the time, so I've rediscovered it.

Revenant - Prophecies of a Dying World

Infester - To the Depths ... In Degradation

They may not be considered obscure. At this point it's difficult to tell.

And yes to Sorrow. I like their Forgotten Sunrise EP too.

thanks, good start!

At metal-archives there's a thread called OSDM Gems. It has an obscene amount of awesome unknown greatness amidst its 24 pages. If a link is broken/expired, it's a good idea to do a manual YT search. There is SO MUCH that I'd recommend taking it in teeny tiny doses.

christ I'm on that site daily and I'd never seen that. THANKS

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/death-metal-music-attracts-sharks-documentary-crew-finds-out-10381295.html

^^^ proof that God hates us & wants us to be dead

I never thought I'd see the day AC/DC were described as Death Metal, but there it is.

Dudes should try some Kraanium or Devourment

(This is not an endorsement of Kraanium or Devourment)

damn I'm loving Brutality's "Screams of Anguish" lately

I have to check that out again - always felt like Brutality (along with Malevolent Creation) were mediocre back in the day, but I might've been wrong. Also I kinda like old school mediocre death metal these days.

they kinda scratch the same itch as early MC did really.

Ha I just remembered Brutality's demo having a song called "Lust For Sex" on it.

I went through a death metal period as a teenager, but most of it doesn't hold up today. The vocal style is stupid, the satanic lyrics are stupid, and I hate the absurd obsession with "keepin' it real" in death metal.

I'll spin a Morbid Angel or Napalm Death track once every few years, but personally, I have no interest in the exploring new death metal. It's angry music for angry people - and I'm just not that angry anymore.

Cool, thanks for stopping by!

^^^

i for one want to hear more personal opinions of this valuable poster

he has a point tho - we're clearly VERY angry people!

shut the fuck up turd

I've always liked this Eno quote:

Ambient is closer to heavy metal than anything else. Because it's to do with immersion and so is heavy metal. It's obvious to me that the next step is going to be something like metal ambient, some extremely harsh, hostile but intriguing sonic environment.

Admittedly, this is from a while ago, and certainly bands like Isis were around, but I've noticed that especially when it comes to more "extreme" metal the music can transcend the genre trappings and achieve a certain dense, monolithic reverie. I mean, it's not music for hospitals, but it can be music to get lost in, ambient music of a different sort.

Less so the more technical stuff, whose stop-start tricky time sigs take me out, though they of course offer their own pleasures.

It's angry music for angry people - and I'm just not that angry anymore.

― TetrisAttack, Saturday, July 25, 2015 9:20 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

either way, I'm sorry the changes in your life have deprived you of the pleasures of DM, but I hope you're enjoying your newfound inner peace :)

xpost Melechesh kinda does that for me

I never understood metal being called essentially angry music. I don't feel like most of it is essentially angry, though some of it definitely is. I see the love of loudness, heavy sounds and threatening imagery. But even most of the violent and savage imagery doesn't make me think it's an expression of anger.
I've seen a lot of metal musicians talking about the anger they put into their music but I'm sceptical about how much of what they do rests upon that.
I feel like the awe is more important. From my comparatively limited experience it seems like early metal is more often sung from the perspective of a horrified victim/bystander or excited adventurer and the later more extreme stuff from the perspective of monsters. When singing from the perspective of a monster the songs of all-consuming hatred sound a bit too larger than life, abstract and mythic to come from real anger. There will be loads of exceptions of course.

most of metal that seemed fueled purely by anger was the aggro-bro shit I don't even like. a poorly kept secret is that metalheads, despite the meathead stereotype, are a goofy, nerdy bunch who like to listen to concept albums about elves. where else can you do a cheesy air guitar with two other complete strangers to Abysmal Dawn, who are playing 50 feet away from you? or get drunk and excitedly talk about the bands on a dude's battle jacket? or share a blunt with Steve Asheim?

i don't doubt my teen angst likely spurred me getting into it in the first place but it sure as hell wouldn't have kept me listening through adulthood if that's all it had.

I think what first enamored me to metal in general (but death metal particularly) were the different textures woven. I'd never heard a guitar *do* those things before, when I'd previously just listened to alt rock, Metallica/Megadeth, and pop music. It doesn't necessarily sound like a standout compared to what's around it, but the first time I heard Hypocrisy's "The Final Chapter" (first melo-death album I bought) I thought 'this is what i've been looking for, all this time!'.

I assume when they mean angry they mean the shouty vox. but that applies to hardcore and punk too

big news for Autopsy fans (aka me) - http://www.peaceville.com/news/article/208541

A new record, with a special 4-disc edition containing all their demos, and unreleased tracks.

that'll be a weekend lost for me when that drops

HELL YEAH

mmm The Chasm's "Procession to the Infraworld"....

Several years ago on itunes I stumbled on Awakening: Females In Extreme Music. I was impressed by the clean vocals on the Acrostichon track "Pain" but discovered she mostly did monster vocals which didn't sound as good to me but some of you might like it.

Scott Seward has praised their first album Engraved In Black multiple times and it was reissued with new cover art last year.

I gotta go back and check that out. I remember tape-trading for their demo and album back in the day but it didn't stick with me.

There's an Acrostichon related band called Spina Bifida (I know) who are pretty solid death/doom, for anyone in the market for that. They also had a woman vocalist.

Been listening to Windham Hell's South Facing Epitaph. Very 90s with the serial killer fixation. The way the use clips from films/tv with guitars over it is a lot like Butthole Surfers, especially the untitled 12th track. Way too much deep voice effects though. I quite liked it; got their third album waiting for me.

Ha, I love the name. Surprised I haven't heard of them before.

For some reason I have a vague desire to listen to Malevolent Creation. Should I do this?

yes but only if their first two or three albums