well damnit

Death's song structures on TSOP are really the same than most part of the post-SH period; the whole 'let's play the song twice with a bridge at the middle' is something Chuck did before in the same way - see Symbolic. Maybe the problem is that TSOP has a higher pitched vocal delivery, a tad more major key sections and it's more melodic than the rest, but hell, many songs could have been easily included on Symbolic, an album that still had a less annoying vocal tone.

Oh, and TSOP production is flawless. That bass drum is the best I've heard in a metal record.

My 99,9% theory didn't fail.

Regarding this comment and that of Twisted Psychology, I don't disagree, but it seems to me that the songs on SOP are on average quite a bit longer. I don't remember much except the last track on SYmbolic exceeding five minutes in length, and that applies even more to older songs. Then again, a song full of powerful riffs and great solos tends to appear to fly by. I'm not a huge Death fan really but I think the early albums are great.

Kveldulv, that may be true about the drum sound, but I find Richard Christy's performance to be particularly wanky. The guy can sure play but, I don't know, I'm just not a fan.

Spiritual Beggars!
I'm pretty sure I knew it wasn't going to be death metal or grindcore when I saw the cover of ''Mantra III" but when I read the credits and saw that Michael Amott from Carcass played I was quite disappointed.
On Fire and Mantra III are really good albums though even if it is hippy jam rock
Lets not speak of Bill Steer and Firebird...

Not really, since Spiritual Beggars is his band.
Demons is a fantastic album, with JB from Grand Magus on vocals, Ludwig Witt from Shining on drums, Sharlee D'Angelo from Mercyful Fate on bass and Per Wiberg from Opeth on keyboards. An all-star line up where it all just comes together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCNze-gA ... 5CAFF2584E

As a (former) drummer, I love Christy's performance. I think his style adds a lot to the songs to not sound repetitive. It's an album that you can enjoy as a whole and for its individual performance alone as well. There are some pretty impressive fills and he still manages to sound powerful enough to not be confused by a Portnoy clone or something like that. The ending of A Moment of Clarity is pretty heavy due the relentless bass drum work. I also saw Christy live on the TSOP tour and he nailed every song of every Death era with ease, playing them even way faster; he did every pattern and fill just like the records.

Hoglan on ITP was 'wanky' too, added a lot of weird patterns with the bass drums and cymbals. Symbolic was a bit more straight forward but it still had some quite complex patterns. I think TSOP could have been a bit better understood if it came after ITP, which was the most progressive Death album ever, at least in terms of drumming and prog feeling.

Anyway, I enjoy all Death albums for different reasons. I think Human is the most balanced record of Chuck; mostly brutal yet complex enough.

This thread has been derailed quite a bit, but I agree that Human is the best and most balanced, combining the brutality of the early stuff and not going into the pseudo-progginess of the later stuff.

About TSOP, I don't find it very progressive at all. Long and repetitive maybe, but not progressive. Playing a riff 4 times, and then playing it another 4 times but changing the drum beat by a couple of cymbals? Doesn't work for me.

Firebird never had the wrong guitarist in Bill Steer...that shit is really great, actually. THey had the wrong singer, though. that guy had no power at all. The music needs something with more genuine blues feeling.

I think it's pretty obvious that Bill Steer and Michael Amott were definitely more interested in playing blues rock/heavy metal/stoner whatever than they were in playing any form of extreme metal for a long time (hell, it's probably still true).

...And there's nothing at all wrong with that; I'd take Firebird over a lot of Carcass, actually. Still wish they had a better singer, but eh, the vocalist is the weak link in the band 90% of the time so in so many cases I just kind of deal with it and accept that some guy is doing his best and sometiems making it sound good.

Taking on what has been discussed at most recent here... I agree with Kve on his comments about Death and about Richard Christy's work on SoP and actually SoP is my favorite Death album. don't know why... it just is.

And I agree with Abominatrix about Firebird in both I prefer it over most of Carcass's work cause I like the earliest shit better with that band and I do think the vocals while not ultra weak.. but he could've done a better job.

X2
My 99,9% theory didn't fail...

A shredder with limited chops is like a sprinter without legs. If you don't have chops, shredding isn't your bag. James Hetfield's solo on "To Live is To Die" is vastly superior to Kirk's, and how much shredding does it have? Absolutely none. Listen to Kirk Hammett and then listen to some real shredders like Forbidden's Glen Avelais and Craig Locicero and the massive difference in skill and quality is immediately apparent. Kirk Hammett would have been more at home in some '70s-style hard rock band where he could play recycled blues licks all day and...hey, wait a minute...

Early Iced Earth is a band that could have used both a different lead guitarist and a different drummer. Randall Shawver and Richey Secchiari are competent musicians but don't seem to understand this whole thrash metal thing and don't really add much to the music.

And last but not least, there's that guy from Manowar, uh, Karl Logan. It's kind of hard to remember his name, what with him being a nonentity and all. He is technically more proficient than Ross the Boss, but he doesn't have much in the way of energy or personality, or really anything except nice hair. They could probably replace him with a MIDI sequencer with an expensive wig and get the same effect.

Isn't that what they're already doing with their drummer?