Cause of Death

I don't see what is so great about this album, to put it frankly it's just boring pap. Kind of like Death's Spiritual Healing it's just so boring and lazy sounding. The debut had this atmosphere that just reeked of filth. This, well this is just sleep inducing. The riffs are just slow and plodding. The debut had a mix of insanely fast thrash riffs and rotten slow creeping passages, the riffs here are weak and just drag on, and on. The drumming here is also very weak compared to the debut. Here it's just groove passages with some fast thrash breaks, but not many, just plodding drumming that doesn't excite the listener in any way. The one saving grace on this album though is James Murphy's soloing. His soloing is extremely melodic and beautiful sounding.

The vocals are still very annoying. John Tardy is easily one of the most annoying metal vocalists I have ever heard. I really don't enjoy his growl at all, it's just grating and irritating to hear. Brett Hoffman of Malevolent Creation has a similar growl but Brett Hoffman has far more power, range, vocal durability, and much better lyrics to boot. Dave Vincent also has a similar growl on the first two Morbid Angel records but he has a more evil and sinister voice as well as more interesting lyrics. John's growl is just annoying and you could barely understand what he says. The lyrics spewed out by Tardy are pretty simple. Compare these lyrics to Hoffman's from The Ten Commandments or Dave Vincent's and you'll see what I mean. John Tardy is no match for the likes of Glen Benton, Frank Mullen, or George Corpsgrinder. Those guys are a whole other level, no comparison, not even close. Sure Donald Tardy has some alright drumming moments. But his double bass and fills are nothing compared to the likes of Steve Asheim or Dave Lombardo, or Vinny Daze who pulverize the listener with their drumming. Donald just plods along as a I said before and his double bass is slow compared to the guys I mentioned before. This record is just awfully mediocre, yes it has some cool riffs and really good solos but that's about it, plus the extremely dry Scott Burns production doesn't help either. I personally prefer his more muddy "classic" sound on his records compared to the super dry stuff he's produced.

The bass is also inaudible so I can't tell you anything about Frank Watkins bass playing, but I'm sure he does at least something decent. The standout moments are every time James solos in the song, that's about it, if it weren't for his solos this album would be terrible. He at least saves it somewhat. Overall listen to their debut it is far better. It's heavier, better musicianship, better drumming, and more audible bass. I can't get past how this is considered one of the greatest death metal albums of all time. Okay 1990 was an early time for death metal but the records released during that year and before that I consider much better are Realm of Chaos, Deicide, Beneath the Remains, Slowly We Rot, Altars of Madness are all far better records that were released earlier or around the same time. So overall this is just mediocre and vastly overrated.