Fate: The Best of Death

It could be stipulated that the advent of direct mp3 downloads has brought about the dual accomplishment of resurrecting the single and all but destroying the purpose of compilations. Being a full length album junkie myself, neither one of these changes in the economics of recording industry profit-mongering really phases me. But for some reason I found myself back at the bargain bin, gazing at a really beat up jewel case with a somewhat faded booklet containing this best of release from Death's so-called true death metal era (aka the "Scream Bloody Gore" to "Human" era). My better sense wants to punch me in the face for this decision, but at a mere $2.50 I figured what could be the harm?

Most compilations of this sort tend to get created in order for a band to fulfill a contract that isn't as good as it seemed at its signing, such as the very similarly pointless and poorly constructed "Capitol Punishment" put out by what was left of 90s Megadeth. But "Fate" doesn't really even have the excuse of ending a bad contract as it came about through One Flag Records getting rights to the songs via Combat Records, nor does it contain any new or exclusive material not on 4 already published full length albums. The polarizing nature of not only death metal, but Death as a band, pretty well invalidates anyone with a fleeting interest being the type to purchase this album, so the lack of bonus material already puts this thing at a disadvantage, even in the context of 1992 when online digital sale of individual songs was not yet possible.

All things thus being considered, the only real value that this unfortunate collection could have would be through its unique presentation and flow. In such things, song selection and pacing are key, and on this front this thing fails even harder. The two offerings from "Human" utterly clash with the rest of the material on here, and the inclusion of "Spiritual Healing" throws additional pacing issues onto a compilation dominated by the archaic 80s death/thrash that came in shorter and simpler doses. "Mutilation" and "Zombie Ritual" are obvious choices from a standpoint of a greatest hits approach as they lend the most towards accessibility and catchiness, as does "Pull The Plug", but these songs are spread out in the track order. Indeed, the selected ordering of these songs comes off as completely random apart from putting "Zombie Ritual" at the beginning.

I might be one to dismiss this album as mere profit-seeking, but the problem is that this doesn't really profit anyone. How this could have sold to any great extent is beyond me, as Death's devout followers would already possess all of these songs, and few fans of Poison or Pearl Jam would have ponied up for any of these songs. This is the handiwork of people who don't have a genuine understanding of the actual market and how death metal consumers tend to operate, hence the auspicious shortage of greatest hits compilations of this sort popping up in affiliate bands unless they come with plenty of exclusively released perks. I can't fully bomb this thing because all of these songs are great, but even at under $3, this is just not worth getting.