Death: Classic or Dud.

What are you defining as the start here? The first I am aware of the term death metal is the song "Death Metal" (1985) by The Possessed, which IS ferociously complex and almost jazzy but also so ahead of its time to be the exception rather than the rule. Some of the seminal death metal bands' early material (Deicide s/t, Death - "Spiritual Healing"), is generally not that far from the monotonous thrashing you hear in black metal these days (or even early Bathory). I think the modern concept of death metal probably emerged with "Blessed Are the Sick" by Morbid Angel. When I say I want my death metal senseless and brutal though, it's referring to a certain physicality that I can find just as easily in ultra technical death metal as in mindless black metal. Bands like Suffocation and Cryptopsy just pummel you from every direction; rather than appealing to a listener's higher-order mental processes they couterpunch them into submission. THAT'S the kind of death metal I like.

great band. sophisiticated, well crafted songs with brilliant riffs. i guess my point of reference is mainly 'symbolic' and 'sound of perserverance', but they're both simply classics of the genre.

Cryptopsy - word!

How seven years can change things.

this thread is supposed to be about death the band, right? i'm totally getting mixed signals now that i glance more closely at some of the posts.

and yeah, cryptospsy no longer seem to be holding the flag for technically-orientated death metal

Illogicist is where you wanna go for that good gooey tech-death, son

Tech-death bands I am listening to unhealthy amounts of right now: Brain Drill, Decrepit Birth, Infected Malignity, Job For A Cowboy, Malignancy, Martyr, Necrophagist, Neuraxis, Origin, Psycroptic...

duly noted vis a vis illogicist.
in fact i've got their page up now. doing very interesting things with the bass. i like it. complete with smart little lead fills as well.

decrepit birth and malignancy i like. the others i don't know much about. but a focused hour or two can change all that.

i liked the decrepit birth album but they were like the worst metal band ive ever seen live.

Origin's first album is amazing, but everything they've done since has bored me to numbness.

Classic during all their periods. The only Florida DM band who might've been better than Morbid Angel (is this a CHALL-OP?).

Which Death album is the best place to start?

Either Human or Individual Thought Patterns. Those two, and Symbolic, are the must-own items from their discography. The other albums are OK but for diehards only.

Those three are amazing, yeah, but so is Scream Bloody Gore. It's different than the others, all pre-progged and primitive, and the first four words are all "DIIIIEEEE!"

Scream Bloody Gore
Yes

so as a newcomber to extreme metal this is my new favorite band.. i've already gone and done a dumb new shitpost on the rolling metal thread with my xasthur thing.. might as well spew my dumb newb thoughts on death here:

chuck just seems like one of those extremely advanced virtuoso artists who know exactly what they want to do and can totally execute it. spectacular thrilling absolutely brutal guitar playing, KILLER vocals that dynamically synergize with the guitar playing PERFECTLY, and lyrics that... i mean even his early gore lyrics are amazing, and I'm not exactly sure why. it's really interesting to trace his lyrics from the gore stuff on SBG to Leprosy where it's still gore but has more political overtones, to spiritual healing which is super political, to human and beyond where he gets pretty out there lyrically but super interesting and just an incredible feel for how words sound.

this is where i'm going to come off as a total newb choad but: why aren't there more metal vocalists that sounds more like chuck? he sounds like his body is LITERALLY being torn to pieces... but he's getting energized at the same time...

SBG and Leprosy are both such solid relentless neck quaking brutality.. not sure what's a better opening line.. "DIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" or "BODIES DEFORMED WAY BEYOND BELIEF"

still wrapping myself around on spiritual healing, riffs galore though.

human and individual thought patterns are incredible works of art, bountiful riches of musicality (sorry), just endless fun to listen to. paul masdival's solos on human are fucking insane.

haven't gotten around to the last two albums or the control denied album but i understand they're "different"..

i also love reading about what a cool guy chuck was. like the guitarist who played on spiritual healing talking about their first meeting where chuck randomly just called out at him as he was walking by to compliment his agent steel tshirt after a concert <3

why aren't there more metal vocalists that sounds more like chuck? he sounds like his body is LITERALLY being torn to pieces... but he's getting energized at the same time...

If you haven't done so already, get anything with Martin van Drunen on vocals - his two records with Pestilence, and his work with Asphyx and Hail Of Bullets.

Also highly recommended is the recent Death By Metal documentary which is very respectful but doesn't shy away from the lesser (paranoid/flaky) aspects of Chuck's personality.

Chuck's voice is interesting in that it doesn't even sound that much like a 'distorted' version of his speaking voice, it's just something he is able to do. and because there wasn't a template for 'death' vocals back then, he really had the freedom to do whatever he wanted, which is why I love so many of the vocalists from that era - they weren't pressured to fit into specific genre framework.

when I was first getting into extreme metal, I appreciated his voice as I wasn't ready for the gutteral vocal style yet, and his voice is one of the most unique in the genre. and it evolved over time too (though admittedly it went a little too shrill for me on Sound of Perseverence).

I feel like the vocalist for Horrendous does a similar style, but it doesn't have quite the same body to it.

co-sign Pestilence, Asphyx, and HoB

what also kills me is he literally went to my rival high school and lived probably ten minutes from me. granted, he was much older than me, but I coulda totally hung out with this dude had I been into the scene early enough.

love tha vocals on sound of perseverance, they're outrageous

INSTEAD
I BITE THE PAIN

symbolic and sound of perseverance were my first two death records, though, which i think is why i've never understood the (somehow... persisting?) controversy around the latter (not suggesting you share this opinion or were bringing this up neanderthal)

yeah, SoP is a solid album (it was my second), and there's solid tunes all over it. the vocals were my only gripe but he did manage a dope performance on "Painkiller".

I loved the Death to All tours that used to go around and play material from all of the different eras. they did quite a bit of SoP when I saw the tour.

literally every riff on sound of perseverance makes my brain flip over like a fish in a bowl

out of all of the bands I'll never see due to death/retirement/etc, Death is probably my second biggest regret next to Prince.

Yeah Asphyx! Been enjoying last one on earth

SPIRIT

CRUSHAAAAAAAAA

On a related note, thanks for the heads-up re: Demilich's Nespithe being on BC via yr recent dissodeath piece, Brad--that reissue's SEO on there is sub-optimal/doesn't show up/is v kvlt

Also xp to Brimstead, while I am also a noob I'd recommend Matterhorn from Switzerland in terms of a recent/contempo band whose vocals seem to me to be very much in the spirit of Chuck

(my other recommendation would be Gruesome, which maybe shouldn't count b/c they are explicitly a Death tribute band writing original material in that vein, but I think they do it extremely enjoyably well, esp on Twisted Prayers which focused on the sound/style of the Spiritual Unity/quasi-crossover era):

https://matterhorn-ch.bandcamp.com/

Spiritual Healing, whoops/haha
#deathcry

Gruesome are a blast. the first LP was my fav, and live they are a great time. I started an "Evil Chuck" chant at one of their shows, which they were cool w/.

i wrote a dissodeath piece? apologies if there’s another brad here lol

Matt Harvey of Exhumed is quite a mimic, as he had another side project (band name I forgot) that pretty much recreated Repulsion-esque grindcore - that might sound pejorative ("he can just copy people, he can't do his own shit!"), but I like the recent run of Exhumed albums a lot too

Oh, sorry! Got it twisted/diff Brad:
https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/dissonant-death-metal-list

lol i'm psyched to read this piece regardless

out of all of the bands I'll never see due to death/retirement/etc, Death is probably my second biggest regret next to Prince.

I was always wondering after he died, why did I never manage to see Death live all those years, when I saw all the other US death metal bands at least once? And then I watched the Death By Metal docu how he broke off those European tours prematurely and of course that's why.

naturally being from FL, I could have seen him in fuckin' Lakeland. but I was too busy listening to Ace of Base