Death Metal: A Voyage of (Re-)Discovery
I think you've got all the necessary releases now. If you want to go deeper, you could check out Hellwitch, Merciless, Massacra, Master, Atrocity and Cancer.
I have some of those on my shortlist already, Ben, but I have added Atrocity and Hellwitch so thanks for the suggestions. The first album I have been checking out from 1990 is one I'm surprised you haven't listed - Paradise Lost's debut, Lost Paradise - which is not quite what I expected!
So, as promised (or threatened, depending on your point of view) I am now moving into the nineties with my voyage of death metal discovery and am beginning with an album I have never heard before, despite being quite familiar with the band in question.
Paradise Lost - Lost Paradise (1990)
February of 1990 saw the release of an album that I have found to be very interesting indeed - Paradise Lost's debut, Lost Paradise. I have hardly been reticent in my oft-spouted dismissal of a fair bit of the output of the so-named Peaceville Three, but this is a whole different kettle of fish entirely. Anyone, like me, approaching this after hearing their later gothic death doom output first may be a little wrong-footed by the rawness of this debut. It takes the downtuned and dirty approach of Autopsy's Severed Survival and slows it down further, incorporating even more Sabbath/Pentagram doom riffs and as a result turn in a slab of very early death doom which would go on to be extremely influential, certainly upon the UK death doom scene but further afield too. This is quite a different beast to the band's subsequent releases, with their gothic leanings, which are virtually non-existent here other than a few seconds of haunting female vocals during Breeding Fear.
I was particularly impressed by Nick Holmes' phlegmy, guttural growl which is a great iteration of death metal singing and one I would like to hear in a more conventional death metal setting. I see he also provides vocals for Bloodbath (after replacing Mikael Akerfeldt) a band I have inexcusably never listened to yet, so I think I will have to give them a shot to see if he is as effective with a more direct death metal style, as I suspect he may be. Despite Holmes' impressive vocals, I think it is quite apparent that Lost Paradise is the product of a band who are still finding their way, learning their craft and searching for an identity of their own. It is a raw-sounding album, there are plenty of decent riffs and guitar phrases and the slower tempo and doomy atmosphere add a different dimension to the death metal template, exploring this avenue even further than forerunners Autopsy and Sempiternal Deathreign and giving a good pointer to the direction Paradise Lost intended to take their sound.
At first I didn't really "feel" Lost Paradise, but as I have got to know it better over the last week or two, I have come to recognise that there are some really interesting tracks here and that this shouldn't merely be dismissed as a "warm-up" for the band's more celebrated material. It is almost impossible to discuss Lost Paradise with at least some mention of the follow-up Gothic, which is an album I was at first very reticent about but which has since wormed it's way up in my affections and now is one of my most-favoured gothic death doom releases. That album actually contains a lot more of the debut's DNA than I at first thought and it is the inspired addition of Sisters of Mercy-like gothic tendencies and Holmes' incorporation of Andrew Eldritch's vocal stylings into his own death metal growl that proved to be the move that allowed Paradise Lost to find their own (now much-aped) voice.
As I said at the beginning of these ramblings, I found this to be a particularly interesting release with some good, if not great material on it. Ultimately it indicated a band who were still a work in progress, but who were looking for a unique sound and, in hindsight, provided ample proof that they would be up to the task of taking that sound to the next level.
4/5
I've never quite seen the appeal in "Lost Paradise" to be honest. It always sounded a little bit flat to me. It's admittedly been many years since I heard it though & even "Gothic" didn't blow me away like it did most other doom/death fans. Paradise Lost were always trailing the other two members of the Peaceville Three by a fair margin for me personally. They didn't really capture me until they dropped their doom/death sound altogether on "Icon" & "Draconian Times".
I've never quite seen the appeal in "Lost Paradise" to be honest. It always sounded a little bit flat to me. It's admittedly been many years since I heard it though & even "Gothic" didn't blow me away like it did most other doom/death fans. Paradise Lost were always trailing the other two members of the Peaceville Three by a fair margin for me personally. They didn't really capture me until they dropped their doom/death sound altogether on "Icon" & "Draconian Times".
Yeah, I'm kind of the inverse to that. I picked up Icon cheap, second-hand in a local music shop years ago. I had heard of Paradise Lost obviously but never listened to them before that. To be honest that album put me off them for ages as I really wasn't much for it and it wasn't until I forced myself to listen to Gothic that I discovered that perhaps they did have something I could be interested in. Maybe I'll dig that Icon CD out and give it a re-evaluation just in case my perception has altered sufficiently.
Of the Peaceville Three it's Anathema that I struggle with most. I may be being unkind, but I just can't get why they are so revered at all.
I bought "Icon" upon release & was initially underwhelmed too as I had a preconceived expectation of what I was going to hear & what I got certainly wasn't that. But after a couple of repeat listens I was able to accept the band's new direction & found the song-writing to be the strongest of their career. For the record, Anathema are my pick of the Peaceville Three because I find their music to be much more complex & sophisticated than the other two as well being the most consistently capable of pulling on my heart-strings. I'm not just talking about their early works either. They've had a wonderful career with a slew of fantastic releases spread right across their discography. My Dying Bride's early work was equal to anything they've done however they've tended to repeat themselves & haven't been as consistent since their early-to-mid 90's peak in my opinion.
I may have to revisit Anathema at some point too - maybe a Peaceville Three rediscovery project is in the offing!
My Dying Bride, despite some good early material, became too theatrical-sounding for me - a bit like a doom metal Cradle of Filth.
I think it's apparent however from my published views that for me personally complex & sophisticated aren't the first things I look for in metal. My favourite bands in each of my clans are Darkthrone, Reverend Bizarre and Slayer - all pretty much no-frills metal bands. That's what is so annoying when non-metal music fans criticise metalheads for all being the same (the rym-core adherents for example, a more sheep-like bunch of music fans you would be hard-pressed to find). Metal is in fact, for want of a better phrase, a very broad church and that diversity of thought is reflected nowhere better than here on Metal Academy. Despite being few in number, most of the regular contributors here all have very different takes on our uniting passion, metal music, and I respect each and every one of them for their differing views whether agreeing with them or not.
Massacra - Final Holocaust (1990)
Massacra's debut marks the point at which the French throw their hat into the death metal ring and try to stand toe-to-toe with the big boys. Final Holocaust epitomises that death/thrash crossover sound that was a hallmark of the late-eighties' transition from brutal thrash to death metal and is an aggressive and relentless blast through ten tracks of vicious and venomous death metal that still maintains a significant proportion of thrash sensibilities, the Teutonic influence of Kreator being particularly apparent I would suggest. There are some cool riffs and solos with energy aplenty to be found within the ten tracks, but unfortunately I don't find that much of the album "sticks" with me. Don't get me wrong, I find Final Holocaust to be a really good blast while it's on, but by the time you get halfway through most of the tracks start to blur one into another and the second it stops I have trouble recalling any of the songs. I really don't want to be too critical because I have heard far worse albums, but this lack of memorability is a significant stumbling block. Would I put it on in preference to Kreator, Slayer, Morbid Angel or Death? No of course I wouldn't, but I wouldn't turn it off and replace it with something else if it was already on either because there is plenty here that I enjoyed. Not every album can be earth-shattering or life-changing, but Massacra do what they do extremely well and deserve some praise for what is a consistent and energetic release. I have been getting more from it the more spins it receives, yet I still struggle to recall many of the tracks later, so maybe it's just me.
3.5/5
And so to the first big-hitter of 1990:
Atheist - Piece of Time (1990)
I'm not the biggest champion of technical death metal to say the least and Piece of Time is an album I have heard before, without it really making much impression on me. So I went into it this time with a determination to get to the bottom of why it is so well-received and simultaneously to try to get something out of tech-death that has eluded me in the main up to this point. The first thing that leaps out at me is that this is quite obviously a unique record for early 1990 and, to use a much-abused cliche which is actually true on this occasion, it genuinely sounds ahead of it's time - maybe it should have been entitled Piece Out of Time! OK, so I don't know what I was thinking when I originally rated this as a 3/5 because I got far more out of it this time around than that score suggests, so it is definitely long overdue for a reappraisal.
Firstly, this is not that overtly technical as I have come to understand the term. I associate the phrase "technical" metal, be it thrash or death metal, with unlistenable time changes and excessive guitar wankery, bass lines bursting in and out seemingly at random and a drummer who desperarely seems to be trying to make up for the fact that he is the drummer! In other words a general lack of the things that originally drew me to metal music - riffs that will blow your bollocks off at fifty yards. For me "technical" metal (as opposed to progressive metal) is more for students of music theory and those who understand what the musicians are about - which I can assure you does not include me - rather than a visceral, emotional experience which is much more what I look for in music. So either I have completely misrepresented tech-death in my own mind or this isn't as technical as I thought it was because this has got some awesome riffing and the technical work is nothing like as jarring as I have found it elsewhere, being more interesting than annoying to my more literal way of thinking.
Basically, on Piece of Time, Atheist have taken the nascent death metal genre as a foundation and recast it with a completely different approach from the full-on brutalisation of Morbid Angel, Autopsy or Obituary, producing the tightest-sounding death metal album released up to this point. The technical, jazzy showcasing does definitely rear it's head at many points, but it never seems to be merely for it's own sake and it never disrupts the flow of the tracks which is where I think many tech bands go wrong when they sacrifice the songs upon the altar of technicality. Anyway, I have harped on about the technical nature of Piece of Time for long enough now - what we really have here is a super-energetic death metal album that is full of life and is a powerful representation of what can be achieved when a band take a different approach to what is becoming established as the norm in any given genre without sacrificing what has made that genre so appealing in the first place. The guitar work is exemplary, the riffs and leads are plenty aggressive as are the vocals spat out by Kelly Shaefer whose delivery is especially venomous-sounding. The drums and bass are given more freedom than usual up to this point, but this certainly doesn't undermine their ability to propel the tracks forwards, rather they enhance the lead work with interesting contributions of their own.
In conclusion, I have got to say that I was originally very, very wrong about Piece of Time and, having stripped away the prejudices the "technical" tag produce in me, can now see it for the ground-breaking and original piece of work that it really was and found myself enjoying it immensely. Maybe I have mellowed over the intervening years and have become more accepting of diverse elements in metal music and if that is the reason why this sounds so awesome then I am extremely glad. I'm really looking forward to reviewing Unquestionable Presence now if that is supposed to be even better!
4.5/5
Thanks Ben and Daniel for your comments on my review of Dark Recollections explaining the Swedish Death Metal sound to me, I think I'm getting the picture. So what, in your opinions, is the pinnacle release of the Swedish Sound?
It's Entombed's "Clandestine" for me personally. Sonny
And so to the first big-hitter of 1990:
Atheist - Piece of Time (1990)
I'm not the biggest champion of technical death metal to say the least and Piece of Time is an album I have heard before, without it really making much impression on me. So I went into it this time with a determination to get to the bottom of why it is so well-received and simultaneously to try to get something out of tech-death that has eluded me in the main up to this point. The first thing that leaps out at me is that this is quite obviously a unique record for early 1990 and, to use a much-abused cliche which is actually true on this occasion, it genuinely sounds ahead of it's time - maybe it should have been entitled Piece Out of Time! OK, so I don't know what I was thinking when I originally rated this as a 3/5 because I got far more out of it this time around than that score suggests, so it is definitely long overdue for a reappraisal.
Firstly, this is not that overtly technical as I have come to understand the term. I associate the phrase "technical" metal, be it thrash or death metal, with unlistenable time changes and excessive guitar wankery, bass lines bursting in and out seemingly at random and a drummer who desperarely seems to be trying to make up for the fact that he is the drummer! In other words a general lack of the things that originally drew me to metal music - riffs that will blow your bollocks off at fifty yards. For me "technical" metal (as opposed to progressive metal) is more for students of music theory and those who understand what the musicians are about - which I can assure you does not include me - rather than a visceral, emotional experience which is much more what I look for in music. So either I have completely misrepresented tech-death in my own mind or this isn't as technical as I thought it was because this has got some awesome riffing and the technical work is nothing like as jarring as I have found it elsewhere, being more interesting than annoying to my more literal way of thinking.
Basically, on Piece of Time, Atheist have taken the nascent death metal genre as a foundation and recast it with a completely different approach from the full-on brutalisation of Morbid Angel, Autopsy or Obituary, producing the tightest-sounding death metal album released up to this point. The technical, jazzy showcasing does definitely rear it's head at many points, but it never seems to be merely for it's own sake and it never disrupts the flow of the tracks which is where I think many tech bands go wrong when they sacrifice the songs upon the altar of technicality. Anyway, I have harped on about the technical nature of Piece of Time for long enough now - what we really have here is a super-energetic death metal album that is full of life and is a powerful representation of what can be achieved when a band take a different approach to what is becoming established as the norm in any given genre without sacrificing what has made that genre so appealing in the first place. The guitar work is exemplary, the riffs and leads are plenty aggressive as are the vocals spat out by Kelly Shaefer whose delivery is especially venomous-sounding. The drums and bass are given more freedom than usual up to this point, but this certainly doesn't undermine their ability to propel the tracks forwards, rather they enhance the lead work with interesting contributions of their own.
In conclusion, I have got to say that I was originally very, very wrong about Piece of Time and, having stripped away the prejudices the "technical" tag produce in me, can now see it for the ground-breaking and original piece of work that it really was and found myself enjoying it immensely. Maybe I have mellowed over the intervening years and have become more accepting of diverse elements in metal music and if that is the reason why this sounds so awesome then I am extremely glad. I'm really looking forward to reviewing Unquestionable Presence now if that is supposed to be even better!
4.5/5
Here are my thoughts on "Piece Of Time":
Florida tech death/thrash legends Atheist's 1990 debut album "Piece Of Time" made a significant impact on me & was high on my rotation list at the time but as soon as their follow-up "Unquestionable Presence" was released I kinda forgot about it as the band's sophomore effort was a clear step up from the debut & an undeniable classic. It's been interesting to rediscover the point that Atheist were at in their creative & artistic journey with "Piece Of Time" this week as it's generally regarded as somewhat of a classic too.
The opening title track is an absolute belter & sounds exactly like the material from "Unquestionable Presence" which is a sure-fire indication that it was the most recently composed track included on the album. The other material sees them varying the amount of traditional thrash metal & more progressive elements & I'm willing to bet that I could piece together the exact order that the tracks were written because you can easily hear the band developing their sound over the course of the nine songs. For that reason, I've never found "Piece Of Time" to be quite the finished product however it undeniably represents a huge step up in ambition for the extreme metal movement. No one had attempted anything like this before & the more atmospheric & progressive parts of the album were a particular revelation that would be expanded upon significantly on later releases. Death, Cynic & Pestilence can all be found to be trying very similar things in the years that followed too & I don't think that's a coincidence.
The level of musicianship on display here is absolutely outstanding, particularly the shredding lead guitar work & Roger Patterson's super-interesting bass lines which take an up-front position in the mix. Kelly Shaefer's vocal delivery has never really struck me as being particularly "death metal" though & sounds more like a raspier thrash front man like Sadus' front man Darren Travis than it does Chuck Schuldiner. I probably would have preferred a little more extremity there to be honest but then again... that may have changed the feel of the album completely so it may be for the best.
Overall, "Piece Of Time" is a ground-breaking & highly influential debut that offers consistent quality & strong hints at the potential that was to be fulfilled in the coming years.
For fans of 90's Death, early Cynic & the more technical Pestilence albums.
4/5
Massacra - Final Holocaust (1990)
Massacra's debut marks the point at which the French throw their hat into the death metal ring and try to stand toe-to-toe with the big boys. Final Holocaust epitomises that death/thrash crossover sound that was a hallmark of the late-eighties' transition from brutal thrash to death metal and is an aggressive and relentless blast through ten tracks of vicious and venomous death metal that still maintains a significant proportion of thrash sensibilities, the Teutonic influence of Kreator being particularly apparent I would suggest. There are some cool riffs and solos with energy aplenty to be found within the ten tracks, but unfortunately I don't find that much of the album "sticks" with me. Don't get me wrong, I find Final Holocaust to be a really good blast while it's on, but by the time you get halfway through most of the tracks start to blur one into another and the second it stops I have trouble recalling any of the songs. I really don't want to be too critical because I have heard far worse albums, but this lack of memorability is a significant stumbling block. Would I put it on in preference to Kreator, Slayer, Morbid Angel or Death? No of course I wouldn't, but I wouldn't turn it off and replace it with something else if it was already on either because there is plenty here that I enjoyed. Not every album can be earth-shattering or life-changing, but Massacra do what they do extremely well and deserve some praise for what is a consistent and energetic release. I have been getting more from it the more spins it receives, yet I still struggle to recall many of the tracks later, so maybe it's just me.
3.5/5
I picked this one up through tape trading back in the day & really enjoyed it. It's been eons since I've heard it but I'm feeling like it might have to be pulled out again.
It's Entombed's "Clandestine" for me personally. Sonny
I have actually owned Clandestine on CD for years. Weirdly though, it just seemed to appear in my collection and I had absolutely no idea where it came from! I had no recollection of ever buying it and I'm pretty sure I didn't borrow it from anyone either. In fact, until I found it on the shelf I hadn't even heard of Entombed before. Like I say, weird!
It's Entombed's "Clandestine" for me personally. Sonny
Me too!
I forgot to post this on the thread when I reviewed it recently, so here it is now:
Carnage - Dark Recollections (1990)
OK, surprise, surprise Carnage are another death metal band whose existence I was completely oblivious to. It appears these Swedes had quite a short run, the band being formed by several members of Dismember who were joined by Michael Amott, future Arch Enemy mainman, originally playing grindcore. By the time of the release of their sole full-length, Dark Recollections, in March of 1990, they had lost their grindcore beginnings and produced an album of pretty lethal, out-and-out death metal. Now I have insufficient knowledge of the minutiae of death metal as to the differences between, say, the Floridian scene and the burgeoning Swedish scene (if someone could enlighten me then please do), but I can only assume this played a significant part in the latter (along with Entombed's imminent Left Hand Path debut album).
I love the guitar tone here, it's down and dirty enough but still has plenty of bite and the bass fortifies the sound as it seems to be prominently placed in the mix. Fred Estby's drum work, whilst being quite straightforward, is exceedingly effective and vocalist Matti Kärki has a great line in earnest bellowing. I have seen a number of complaints that this is merely generic death metal. Well, I disagree. There are some really nice riffs here and the lead work is rough but energetic, but more importantly, how can a death metal album that is one of the early examples, particularly of the Swedish scene, be generic? Surely the later albums these commentators are basing this judgement on are the generic ones.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that I am much better disposed to early death metal than the later, more technical or dissonant stuff that garners so much praise and this is a great example of youthful exuberance (the musicians were all in their teens still) made manifest. Sure it doesn't have the really memorable tracks of an Altars of Madness or any of the other releases from the big noises in the death metal scene of the time, but it does brutalise and batter with a relentless onslaught of dark and violent metal. And there is nothing at all wrong with that.
4/5
Death - Spiritual Healing (1990)
Spiritual Healing is one of the two Death albums I was still yet to listen to prior to this (the other being The Sound of Perseverance). There is a certain degree of progression throughout all of the Death discography and here Chuck Schuldiner decides (for Death were a band in name only and were essentially Chuck and a band of hired guns, all band decisions taken by he alone) on a stylistic departure from the first two albums. Gone are the cartoonish, horror-themed lyrics and cover art of SBG and Leprosy and in comes actual horrors from the real world - drug addiction, mental health issues, even abortion and the death penalty all come in for scrutiny from Chuck's lyrical examination. This lyrical evolution being just one of several obvious indicators of his increasing maturity as a songwriter and his refusal to keep retreading the same ground.
Death had pretty much established and refined the definition of death metal with their first two classics, but it is clear that Chuck wanted more. He had ditched guitarist Rick Rozz because he wasn't willing or able to go along with that ride and brought in the technically more impressive Hallows Eve guitarist James Murphy. The songs on Spiritual Healing have a greater level of complexity than on the first two albums, not exactly progressive, but certainly not mere simplistic head-banging material, most consisting of multiple riffs, tempo changes and guitar solos.
The overall sound is much clearer than previously and the guitar tone is great with a chunkiness that allows the stellar riffs to hammer home but is also precise and clean allowing James Murphy's shredding solos to absolutely slay. His soloing is arguably the most enervating and melodic in all of death metal up to this point, sounding more influenced by classic heavy metal guitarists than the Slayer duo of Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King that most death metal guitarists of the time referenced. Chuck's vocals are great and sound better than ever here, his earnest gruffness exemplifying the best of death metal singing at the time. Terry Butler turns in a solid performance on bass and Bill Andrews comes in for his usual technical kicking by those who know better than I, but Spiritual Healing is all about those riffs and solos, the functional rhythm section merely providing a base.
I have pointed out recently that there were a few albums released around this time that were really solid workouts but which didn't live long in my memory after they had finished (Massacra and Carnage to name a couple) but that is an accusation that certainly can't be levelled at Death, the opener Living Monstrosity, the title track and my personal favourite, the convoluted Low Life with it's insane solos, all had enough personality to keep them running through my mind long into the night! All in all I loved this album and it is yet another key to the lock that was my previous misunderstanding of how amazing Death were as a legendary metal outfit and the influence that Chuch Schuldiner had on the world of death metal. In fact I find it almost impossible to reconcile where I now stand with my previously held beliefs about Death.
4.5/5
Death - Spiritual Healing (1990)
Spiritual Healing is one of the two Death albums I was still yet to listen to prior to this (the other being The Sound of Perseverance). There is a certain degree of progression throughout all of the Death discography and here Chuck Schuldiner decides (for Death were a band in name only and were essentially Chuck and a band of hired guns, all band decisions taken by he alone) on a stylistic departure from the first two albums. Gone are the cartoonish, horror-themed lyrics and cover art of SBG and Leprosy and in comes actual horrors from the real world - drug addiction, mental health issues, even abortion and the death penalty all come in for scrutiny from Chuck's lyrical examination. This lyrical evolution being just one of several obvious indicators of his increasing maturity as a songwriter and his refusal to keep retreading the same ground.
Death had pretty much established and refined the definition of death metal with their first two classics, but it is clear that Chuck wanted more. He had ditched guitarist Rick Rozz because he wasn't willing or able to go along with that ride and brought in the technically more impressive Hallows Eve guitarist James Murphy. The songs on Spiritual Healing have a greater level of complexity than on the first two albums, not exactly progressive, but certainly not mere simplistic head-banging material, most consisting of multiple riffs, tempo changes and guitar solos.
The overall sound is much clearer than previously and the guitar tone is great with a chunkiness that allows the stellar riffs to hammer home but is also precise and clean allowing James Murphy's shredding solos to absolutely slay. His soloing is arguably the most enervating and melodic in all of death metal up to this point, sounding more influenced by classic heavy metal guitarists than the Slayer duo of Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King that most death metal guitarists of the time referenced. Chuck's vocals are great and sound better than ever here, his earnest gruffness exemplifying the best of death metal singing at the time. Terry Butler turns in a solid performance on bass and Bill Andrews comes in for his usual technical kicking by those who know better than I, but Spiritual Healing is all about those riffs and solos, the functional rhythm section merely providing a base.
I have pointed out recently that there were a few albums released around this time that were really solid workouts but which didn't live long in my memory after they had finished (Massacra and Carnage to name a couple) but that is an accusation that certainly can't be levelled at Death, the opener Living Monstrosity, the title track and my personal favourite, the convoluted Low Life with it's insane solos, all had enough personality to keep them running through my mind long into the night! All in all I loved this album and it is yet another key to the lock that was my previous misunderstanding of how amazing Death were as a legendary metal outfit and the influence that Chuch Schuldiner had on the world of death metal. In fact I find it almost impossible to reconcile where I now stand with my previously held beliefs about Death.
4.5/5
This was my review of "Spiritual Healing" from many years ago:
In 1988 Chuck Schuldiner had turned the underground metal scene on its ear with Death’s second album “Leprosy”. It had really raised the bar as far as extremity was concerned but had also combined it with some excellent song-writing & memorable hooks. Extreme metal fans lapped it up it & it ended up going down as one of the defining death metal records in history. When the release of Death’s third album was announced most people were expecting an even more brutal assault on their senses. It marked the first Death release since my conversion to death metal so I had more than a casual interest in it.
“Spiritual Healing” saw Chuck make a number of conscious changes to his tried & tested formula. Firstly he decided to tone down the brutality a touch & incorporated some more progressive ideas into his song-writing. Listening back now it doesn’t sound like anything major but at the time it was regarded as a fairly adventurous approach. Chuck brought in hired gun guitar shredder James Murphy to add some class to the solos & Terry Butler got the opportunity to contribute on bass guitar for the first time. There was also a notable change in Chuck’s lyrical direction. This time he was tackling real life issues like drugs & abortion instead of the standard death metal themes of zombies, murder & general nastiness. These changes contributed to a more mature & professional sounding Death; one that was obviously looking to continue leading the pack rather coasting on past successes. Not everyone was positive about Death’s new direction but personally I thought it opened up a world of new possibilities & was intrigued.
Upon first listen it’s immediately obvious that this was not going to be “Leprosy II”. The clean & powerful production is an obvious step up from the raw ugliness of the past & everything sounds quite precise. There are some more adventurous timings on offer than we’d heard from a death metal band to that time but I wouldn’t say it’s anything over the top by today’s standards. In fact the drumming is quite simple throughout the album & that has always annoyed me a little. Bill Andrews drumming during the fast sections is simply not brutal or interesting enough for my liking & I feel that Chuck would have been much better served by recruiting someone more capable. Terry Butler puts in a solid performance on bass although I must say that I prefer the more progressive & challenging bass lines that are a feature of all subsequent Death releases.
On the more positive side of things James Murphy’s guitar solos are quite special & add an entirely new element to the band; one that would be a constant for the band even after his departure. Chuck’s riffs are consistently brilliant & I think his vocals sound more powerful & intimidating than ever before. Opening track “Living Monstrosity” is an absolute corker & is my favourite track on the album but the next four are all very solid pieces of death metal. There really aren’t any weak songs but I think the last three are probably a touch lower in quality than the rest of the album so things do just tail off a little in the back end. Most tracks have some cracking riffs that really utilize the production advancements & you are constantly reminded that this is a more mature Death than you’d heard on their first two albums.
"Spiritual Healing" is an often overlooked album in Death's back catalogue due to the classic releases either side of it but if you disregard those & look at it as a singular piece of art then it offers a clinical & fresh take on the death metal concept & a damn fine listening experience. In fact I probably favour it slightly over Death's ground-breaking debut album "Scream Bloody Gore" to be honest. "Spiritual Healing" is generally regarded as a transition album (& that idea is not without merit as 1991’s “Human” would expand & improve on the ideas Chuck presents here) but there is more to this album than that. This is high quality death metal that oozes class.
4/5
I forgot to post this on the thread when I reviewed it recently, so here it is now:
Carnage - Dark Recollections (1990)
OK, surprise, surprise Carnage are another death metal band whose existence I was completely oblivious to. It appears these Swedes had quite a short run, the band being formed by several members of Dismember who were joined by Michael Amott, future Arch Enemy mainman, originally playing grindcore. By the time of the release of their sole full-length, Dark Recollections, in March of 1990, they had lost their grindcore beginnings and produced an album of pretty lethal, out-and-out death metal. Now I have insufficient knowledge of the minutiae of death metal as to the differences between, say, the Floridian scene and the burgeoning Swedish scene (if someone could enlighten me then please do), but I can only assume this played a significant part in the latter (along with Entombed's imminent Left Hand Path debut album).
I love the guitar tone here, it's down and dirty enough but still has plenty of bite and the bass fortifies the sound as it seems to be prominently placed in the mix. Fred Estby's drum work, whilst being quite straightforward, is exceedingly effective and vocalist Matti Kärki has a great line in earnest bellowing. I have seen a number of complaints that this is merely generic death metal. Well, I disagree. There are some really nice riffs here and the lead work is rough but energetic, but more importantly, how can a death metal album that is one of the early examples, particularly of the Swedish scene, be generic? Surely the later albums these commentators are basing this judgement on are the generic ones.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that I am much better disposed to early death metal than the later, more technical or dissonant stuff that garners so much praise and this is a great example of youthful exuberance (the musicians were all in their teens still) made manifest. Sure it doesn't have the really memorable tracks of an Altars of Madness or any of the other releases from the big noises in the death metal scene of the time, but it does brutalise and batter with a relentless onslaught of dark and violent metal. And there is nothing at all wrong with that.
4/5
I always really enjoyed this one. It's a very strong example of its type in my opinion.
Entombed - Left Hand Path (1990)
So, armed with my new-found knowledge of the Swedish death metal sound (thanks Ben and Daniel for enlightening me), I turn to Sweden's Entombed and their debut Left Hand Path. Now that it's been pointed out, the difference between the mainly US death metal that went before and the more heavily distorted sound produced by these Swedes is pretty obvious, even to my untrained ear. At the risk of being lambasted for such heresy, for me this increased distortion and the wall-of-sound it creates (the buzzsaw sound) is a large distraction from the riffs, which feel like they are buried under a thick layer that takes away from their efficacy. A further result of this is that the lack of definition in the riffs means that the songs then seem to blur into one another and rob them of their individuality. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for heavy distortion (you can't be as big a doom fan as me without it) but I really don't feel it particularly adds anything to the death metal sound and this lack of definition in the riffs robs them of their power to my ears. That said, this does not make Left Hand Path a poor album, but I found I had to approach it from the point of view of the overall effect of it as a whole rather than focussing on individual tracks, the diversity of which isn't massive. When taken as such it is a fairly evil-sounding release and that guitar sound does have a kind of hypnotic effect if you stop trying to differentiate the riffs and let it just overwhelm you, a lot like listening to the droning of a large (angry) bee colony.
The rhythm section seems pretty solid, if not spectacular and the growls are suitably gruff and threatening. The lead guitar work though is possibly my favourite part of the album and the solos seem to have lost the chaotic, Slayeresque aspect of so many predecessors and, in fact, sound far more like the work James Murphy put in on Death's Spiritual Healing.
Overall, I understand why Entombed are beloved by death metal fans, their sound was certainly a new direction for death metal at the time, but I prefer the greater clarity of the US sound or, at the very least, the all-in atmospheric representation of decay and death as peddled by the likes of Autopsy and Sempiternal Deathreign.
3.5/5
I have to agree with a lot of what you've said there Sonny. I've always found "Left Hand Path" to be decidedly underwhelming given all of the hype. I first experienced it shortly after release & remember thinking that it sounded really fresh but I just couldn't seem to find that sweet spot at any point & ended up moving on relatively quickly even though it was a generally enjoyable listen. "Clandestine" was another kettle of fish altogether though & completely blew my socks off. These days I'd even take "Wolverine Blues" over "Left Hand Path" if pushed to decide between the two. My position is obviously a complete anomaly within the death metal underground of course however I believe that Ben thinks "Left Hand Path" is somewhat overrated too so it could well be something to do with our metal upbringing.
3.5/5
Deicide - Deicide (1990)
Deicide are one death metal band I have been quite familiar with for quite some time, mainly due to a workmate who loaned me their first three albums when I returned to metal in the late nineties. Led by the inverted-cross branded, religion-despising, bassist/vocalist Glen Benton and featuring the Hoffman brothers on guitar I found Deicide to be an intimidating proposal and, in all honesty, back then I wasn't particularly keen as I found them far too abrasive. So, it's a measure of how far my taste has changed in the intervening twenty-odd years as, listening to this now, I found an awful lot to appreciate and actually really enjoyed it in a fuck-everything kind of way.
On this, their debut, it is evident that Deicide had no intention of fucking around. Ten tracks and a runtime just a bit over half an hour, this is a release that hits fast and hits hard. The memorable riffs are exceedingly tight with a really cool guitar tone, the drumming of Steve Asheim is devastating and precise and Glen Benton's vocals spit bile and venom at his preferred target of organised religion with a genuinely disturbing spite and evil-sounding growl. Deicide is an album that is trimmed of all fat and is made of nothing but muscle, bone and gristle, getting straight down to business and never diverting from the path of intimidating and scaring the living shit out of anyone and everyone. The Hoffamn's solos are not really anything more than functional, but this album isn't about anything as superfluous as fancy guitar solos - it is pure distilled essence of death metal and as such may actually be toxic if taken internally.
But seriously, Deicide have had quite an inconsistent career and Glen Benton hasn't always been the most likeable individual, but on their debut they instantly got to the very core of death metal, illustrating an inate understanding of what it meant and creating an absolute textbook release that could be held up as an example for future generation of death metallers. If a band were getting too pretentious or arty-farty for their own good then they could do worse than sit themselves down with a copy of Deicide to reconnect with the beating heart of death metal and shear themselves of any unwanted pretentions. All-in-all an exciting and dangerous-sounding album that is the sort of release that reminds me why I got into metal in the first place, all those oh, so many years ago.
4.5/5
"Deicide" was absolutely life-changing for me at the time. I picked it up from an older school-mate very early in the piece & was completely blown away as it was comfortably the most evil sounding thing I'd heard to the time. It's also totally devoid of filler with the songs all being really well defined & realised by that point. Benton's sheer anger was a highlight but I love the super shredding lead solos which beautifully balanced technique with pure chaos. They clearly came from the Kerry King school of solos but the mid-heavy tone made them cut through the mix to slice my teenage face off.This was basically an album full of death metal anthems & I don't think Deicide have come close to matching it in all the years since.
5/5
I thought I would resurrect this thread to catalogue my attempt on the remainder of The Horde's Death Metal - The 1st Decade clan challenge. I'll be going through the list in chronological order so it remains in keeping with the thread's original intention of travelling through the timeline of death metal's early development. If there are any albums you feel I absolutely must hear in order to keep expanding my death metal education from 1990-94 then by all means post them here and I will check them out. I don't intend for this to be as exhaustive as it started out, as I say it is more to chart my tackling of the clan challenge, but I am not averse to a few more albums to listen to along the way.
Anyway, next up:
Obituary - Cause of Death (1990)
Obituary's debut Slowly We Rot was an exceedingly solid slab of death metal and was a decent calling card for the Floridians. However, the improvement from that album to Cause of Death is marked. With this Obituary made their most significant contribution to the development of death metal and in so doing laid down a stone-cold classic.
Cause of Death retained the things that the debut did well - John Tardy's vocals remained equally as evil-sounding and depraved and the guitar tone that dominated Slowly We Rot, derived as it so obviously is from Celtic Frost's classic sound, was honed to virtually the perfect death metal guitar sound that, for me, defined what OSDM riffs should sound like. On top of those good things from SWR, this time round Obituary upped their songwriting skills and the tracks on Cause of Death are far more memorable than those found on the debut, Body Bag and the title track, for example I find still rolling round my head long after the disc stops spinning. There aren't as many doomy, slow sections, but when the pace drops, I would say they are better done and are more effective for their sparseness. The most obvious upgrade from Slowly We Rot is the addition of transformative lead guitarist James Murphy whose contributions here, similarly to those he made on Death's Spiritual Healing from the same year, made an enormous difference, his solos being far more skillfully executed and interesting than those of his predecessor, Allen West. I don't think the improvements his involvement entailed can be underestimated as he is obviously an exceptionally gifted axeman and he managed to bring the soloing style of classic heavy metal gods like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest into the gnarly and foetid world of death metal without it sanitising the filthiness of the band's death metal sound but instead celebrating and bestowing it with a classiness it previously lacked. Drummer Donald Tardy also seemed to have upped his game and the addition of new bassist Frank Watkins solidified the rhythm section and they seem more on point with the pacier material of Cause of Death.
Once more, however, the band were determined to include a Celtic Frost cover and even though their version of Circle of the Tyrants is actually pretty awesome, it seems kind of redundant when you think that the band were one of the pioneers of a newer, more brutal style of metal, so why did they feel the need to reference back to earlier material that they had usurped and superceded? This is the only negative I can think of with regard to Cause of Death though and even that is kind of half-hearted because, as I said, the cover is actually excellent. I've not heard a lot of Obituary after this release, but consensus seems to be that they were never this good again, but to have been this good even once is an achievement not to be sniffed at.
5/5
Good stuff Sonny, looking forward to following this journey in the thread.