Individual Thought Patterns

Death has always been one of my favorite bands and a band I consider one of the best in old school death metal. From the early releases like Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy as well as the few demos or rehearsals of their many i have been lucky to come across from their early days, all the way to their most famous and widely considered best work with "Human" the band has been one that is recognized as both one of the best early death metal acts and musically one of the most powerful forces out there in the scene during the early 90s, perfecting the genre to an absolute art.

However it's evident even on this album Death realized that had maxed out their potential with Human. Individual Thought Patterns had a lot to follow up on after an album that is widely considered among most metal circles to have been arguably one of the best albums produced by the genre, and as such many have been left disappointed by this album. The album does have moments where it gets boring. The songwriting itself as has been said is more a formula you could teach in math class with standard verse chorus verse chorus sort of riffing going on. The album does pick up on some tracks like parts of "Nothing is Everything" but as a whole unit the album definitely has many points it lacks from it's predecessors.

But regardless this is definitely not an album to neglect or one that should be tossed aside after being casted in the shadow of Human which has brought much of its negativity to it. The riffs themselves and the musicianship as a whole keeps getting progressively better with this band. Musically speaking the album is very solid to the point that this underrated album can actually compare or be considered better than many albums in the death metal genre past and present. The music itself is definitely up there with some of the best material both by Death and by most other bands in the genre that the album shouldn't simply be looked down upon because it doesn't reach the same potential that Human did. For that reason this album is still worth checking out and getting, even though you shouldn't expect it to be as amazing as some of their previous stuff. Consider it as a single death metal album or just a stand alone Death album though and it's much easier to appreciate as a whole.