At No End - Building the Rebellion

The word that comes to mind is "languid."

Portal - Black Houses

The sound of pissed-off demonic vacuum cleaners.

Helion Prime - s/t

Catchy, awesome power metal, definitely one of the stronger releases of the year so far.

The Kills - Heart of a Dog

Groovy, slightly electronic, slightly poppy rock music with sultry, emotive female vocals. Digging it.

Great Asphyx song.

Mortician - Flesheaters

My brain's leaking.

I was listening to the album, but yeah it is.

"Ashes Into Wood" -
Asymmetry

I would love to own this on cassette if I ever happen to come across it at a show or festival. This is a solid piece of really raw, esoteric Atmospheric Black Metal.

Cirrhus - Dystonic Frenzy
Reopening (2013)

Copping this tape very soon. Wish they would revisit this track at least once, that fucking chorus riff...

Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids

The bass and keyboard work on this album is incredible

Blind Illusion - The Sane Asylum

Progressive thrash at its finest. Still one of my all time faves. Their latest album is a joke.

Very, very cool album. One of the most interesting metal records out there. I still get a big kick out of it.

Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind

My first spin of this album. What a fine, fine thing it is; abrasive and cathartic to no end.

Death - Symbolic

I've been listening to Death for like an hour... if I'm not digging this yet, will I ever dig it? Was this band really that good? I'm struggling to like this band, I like a few of the riffs, the drumming is creative, but something's missing. Maybe I'm not cut out for these dudes.

I hate Death, but Symbolic is a great album, which is not something I am ever going to change my mind about. I don't listen to it very much anymore because there are better albums and bands out there, but I put it on when I'm in the mood for it. I never liked Death anyway, and I never will, but this album is an exception.

Candlemass - Ancient Dreams

Been spinning this a lot lately. I think I actually prefer it to Nightfall, but it's not quite as good as Epicus IMO.

Death is a tad overrated for sure but they still get some spins from me, i get in a mood for them every now and then

NP: V/A - Odour of Dust and Rot

Interesting little comp of atmospheric-ish black metal, pretty good overall.

Muse - Dead Inside, off Drones

Loving Bellamy's voice in this. Hope the rest of the album's just as good.

@M_o_T Curious about that. I thought Death was the extreme metal band everybody could agree on. I like all of their albums, some way less than others obviously. But early Death just friggen rules. And even prog Death is sick. ITP, although the most pretentious shit ever lyrically, is still a monster of good riffs. +The solos.

Death - Killing Spree
Spiritual Healing (1990)

This one’s my personal fav. All the songs have at least one killer riff.

I'm not sure how much of a death metal guy you are, but I know you're a big classic/thrash metal guy. If you have those tastes and you don't like Symbolic, yea, you won't like Death. I have to admit I've become very conservative with death metal lately and haven't actively listened to post-Spiritual Healing Death in a long time.

Addendum: Maybe, MAYBE you'll like Individual Thought Patterns.


Darkthrone- Nor The Silent Whisper

While I like Soulside Journey, this is definitely a retroactive appreciation album. In the grand scheme of death metal, this is barely rankable, especially since it came out in 91. Black metal gets accused of being a hoard of musicians who can't play their instruments and this is definitely proof that Fenriz, Ted, etc. could be technical.

Yeah, I am big into more oldschool metal, and I have recently been digging into death metal more and more. It's not my fave, but I've been finding lots of stuff I can enjoy - that's why I keep trying to see if I can get into Death, and I just can't get into them. The musicianship is great, a few of the riffs are great, but I find it lacks overall creativity. I'll move on to other bands.

I guess Death is one of those universally loved bands, but I never really found them to be anything special, and I certainly don't consider them to be the quintessential death metal band as many people on the Internet say. I find this thrashy death metal style to be quite boring. If I wanted to listen to non-blast beat death/thrash, I'd listen to Obituary's first two albums, which I have gotten bored of over time. To me though, Malevolent Creation take Death's style and make it 100 times better, especially on The Ten Commandments... And they have blast beats, too.

Malevolent Creation - Retribution

This is more like it. Proper old school death metal that is unfortunately doesn't get enough recognition.

JAM Project - THE HERO!! ~Set Fire to the Furious Fist~

Ahh! Ahh!! AHH!! AHH!! AAAHHH!! I WANNA BE THE SAIKYOU HEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Not being into them or whatever is fine, but calling Death "nothing special" is kinda backwards, seeing how they're pioneers of the scene. Really slimy thrash metal with hoarse shouts for vocals is where everything got started, and complaining about it not having blast beats or whatever is basically missing the forest for the trees.

"The Price Of Existence" -
All Shall Perish

This has more Deathcore elements in it than Hate, Malice, Revenge but it's still a fun album.

Attack - Destinies of War

Suicidal Tendencies - How Will I Laugh Tomorrow...

My fave ST album. The whole thing is superb but Rocky George in particular really shines. He was one of the best and most underrated lead guitarists back in the day.

It's not backwards. Just like how Metallica became "nothing special" in comparison to their peers like Megadeth and Slayer. Starting a trend, or genre, doesn't make the originator the best at it. Of course, everything starts from a small idea and begins to develop into something larger, but I'm sorry, Death weren't very creative. The band that represents the true sound of death metal is without question, Morbid Angel. Anyway, they have their place in history, and nobody can change that. I just question why they're the be all end all of death metal.

I know blast beats don't make a band better, but it's just the icing on the cake.

Except Metallica did not become "nothing special" next to Megadeth and Slayer. That's a ridiculous thing to say, as is saying Death wasn't that creative. I love Morbid Angel too but your whole post isn't really making a strong case. All these bands are classics and your declarations of which ones are special just seems to be based on your personal taste. Which is fine but it seems like you're really over-analyzing this in that case...

Ария - Раскачаем этот мир

Some good heavy metal from Moscow, Russia. I've read that they have a significant following in Russia, but almost no international recognition (or at least I'd never heard of them until more recently). Great band, very Maiden-esque.

Yeah, I can safely strongly agree with all of this. MC kick ass in ways Death never could for me. Their first two albums are some of the best death metal I've heard yet, with Ten Commandments being thrashy death, and Retribution being death with a little thrash - both kick ass.


ST has two of my all time thrash albums in that one and Revolution. The fact that they are so underrated is ridiculous. Rocky could shred like the best but he had a better sense of melody than other thrash lead guitarists in that time, except for maybe Skolnik. But he could play circles around Hammett that's for sure.

Well, early Death is historically relevant, though Morbid Angel and Deicide definitely outstripped them in terms of songwriting. I like my death metal to be linear and labyrinthine, and Death's work is always too rigidly structured for my liking. Especially their "prog" stuf, actually - so many bands in the early 90s were exploring more interesting and daring styles than Human/ITP/Symbolic did.

At War - Ordered To Kill

Amazing, underrated band. I know they recently played in Chicago's Metal Threat Fest. They also performed twice in Osaka's annual True Thrash Fest, which I was sadly unable to go to. This is a white vinyl with red splatter, and also came with a poster.

I hate to borrow a term from TV Tropes, but Death really does seem to suffer from a terminal case of "Seinfeld is Unfunny". I see so many people, people relatively new to death metal in general mostly, go on about how they're nothing special and they just don't really get what the big deal is and yak yak yak. Almost everything we know about death metal came from what, like five bands? Death was obviously an early pioneer and their multitude of early demos were a big deal in the scene as well, so I think people sorta get confused and don't realize that they were well established as an underground tour de force by the time Scream Bloody Gore came out. Other bands came around later and refined what they established, sure, but something like Leprosy or Human is still top of the class (I can take or leave Spiritual Healing, personally. It's easily my least favorite outside of Individual Thought Patterns, which is outright bad). I have a soft spot for Symbolic as well since I listened to it so much in high school, but generally death Death is better than prog Death.

Death really seems to be one of those bands where your opinion of them depends entirely on when you heard them in relation to other death metal bands. The first three I ever got into were Vader, Cannibal Corpse, and Death, in that order, so I still really like them. Whenever somebody says Leprosy is boring I can't help but imagine they're under the age of 20 and entered the genre through either Origin or deathcore.

Master_of_Tryingtoohard

My thoughts on Death are pretty typical from a "veteran" metalhead. They were one of my gateway bands into extreme metal but I rarely listen to them nowadays. I still like them despite not really digging Chuck's vocals though. Human, Leprosy or Symbolic are all fucking good albums. I think using the "nothing special" argument is always pretty dumb since everyone is misusing the term. Whether you like them or not, they were a "special" band, this criticism applies to generic music and not original and innovative bands.

NP: the new Altar of Oblivion EP. A bit short for such a long wait but it's good.

Yeah, the "nothing special" argument just seems like historical revisionism to me. It's like, just cause you got to hear all these bands 30 years after the fact doesn't mean you can just downplay everything. Bit of an arrogant thing to do really.

The Kills - Impossible Tracks

Dirty, sultry grooves and lounge-singer vocals like something from a '40s detective story. Great album.

I'd say 'nothing special' is an apt description of early Death. In what way are they outstanding? Are their songs faster, heavier or significantly better written and performed then their peers? Well, no, not really. They're pretty much as middle of the road as you can get, as far as death metal goes.

Riot - Thundersteel

Much better than the Rhapsody cover. Unrelenting riffing, soloing, drumming... Full of energy and without all the unnecessary orchestrations, choirs and shizzle like that.

Finally, someone that agrees with me. Thank you!

Again, there's nothing I can do to change history, but Death shouldn't have been the ones to steal the spotlight from bands that have perfected the genre and defined it better than Death has. It is what it is really. Death was a gateway band for me, and even then, I didn't find them interesting in the slightest. Some people act like they're the best just because they were the first ones to do something. I see it all the time with Black Sabbath and Metallica.

I really think most early originators of a style of metal are less generic than people tend to think. Death quickly went into this strange and rarely imtated style of progressive metal, Metallica often had more of a heavy metal influence in their songs and wrote longer, more "literary" epics than the typical thrash band, and even Mayhem really doesn't have an album that closely fits the traditional black metal mold. To use another TV Tropes term, a lot of highly influential metal bands seem to be afflicted with Early Installment Weirdness, where the originators of a style of metal wear their previous influence on their sleeve or fumble around trying to find a sound that hasn't been established yet, which is something following bands rarely do.

Supposedly generic thrashy death metal? Reminds me of these guys:

Grave - Into the Grave

Fantastic stuff. The pure essence of death metal, about as oldschool as it gets.

"Graves Of The Archangels" -
Dead Congregation

Purifying Consecrated Ground was so good I had to listen to another! I can't believe I haven't listened to them until now.