The Book of Death Metal by Emir
Year: 1996
Band: Cryptopsy
Clan: The Horde
Genre: Death Metal
This is the list that brings together many magnum opuses of old-school Death Metal. Only one record was selected from each band in the list to increase variability and to pay homage to all the important works I consider worth mentioning. Therefore, all the selected albums from the bands are considered "their best" in my humble opinion. Additionally, you'll find some parables/allegories/metaphors that try to define the "spirit of the album", to give you a different experience and feed your imagination.
Once a trio desired to summon the demonic resentment from the realm of the occult. From the Sumerian depts to the Biblical testimony of demonology, they agreed the "Covenant" dictated by the entity known as Morbid Angel, who could either be Oranssi Pazuzu, Lucifer, or whatever you name it.
Philosophizing about the hypocrisy and the introspection and observation towards the "human nature"... Either by an enlightenment or by an intellectual curse, you found out what you were in search of.
"In dreams my thoughts take their form,
To give memories identity."
The ultimate incarnation of what it would be like, "to be extreme for the sake of being extreme in a grotesque aestheticism". A gallery of the darkest corner of a decadent human mind.
Black magic, astrology, forbidden history, heretic doctrines and many more... The "Dark Academia" of Death Metal.
Embodiment of a zealot satanic priest who wants to bring destruction upon the hearts of institutionalized and canonized beliefs. In this regard, one cannot find a more radical and testing opus than this.
"Where is my crucifix,
I can't die without it"
Concrete walls of a torture room. You are imprisoned there while you listen. There is nothing but your own remorse as a torture method. Could it be worse than this?
"Welcome to my church..."
Horrors in sacred tombs, or whispers from crypts... Whatever you call it, it is a journey of a paraphiliac mind into the morbid depths.
A hellish diary of religious trauma. It tests its reader/listener to see the end of it. Many couldn't do it, while those who could understood that even the Necronomicon sounds like a fairytale compared to this.
The equivalent of a top-tier sci-fi/horror fiction in death metal. Both the cosmic and worldly entities together hunt you in nightmares since you are the person holding "the key".
There is an unnameable thing that wants to devour you in the gastly sewers, abandoned hangars and sinister mansions. Oh, you must have done something very wrong... like... Reading "The King in Yellow" or "Necronomicon".
Therefore, YOU are "the Cause of Death".
Ah... That one... The unique moments when the ghosts of Bach, Vivaldi, and Paganini visit you and then teach you the ways of channelling your inner darkness through high art.
A haunted chapel in a district full of morbid personas. You can do nothing but freeze once you enter that chapel due to the blasphemous acts you witnessed.
The seductive aura of misty gatherings started indoctrination. All who heed the call ultimately become an initiate. But... Why is everyone lying around on the ground, as if they are dead?
The dream of disappointed Hölderlin, or, an attempt to find his broken heart through the demented maze of his reason...
Paradoxical truths create a vacuum that only sarcasm can bear. This is like inverting the hourglass once you have found your answer, thus provoking the eternal recurrence. From now on, time is just a sadistic joke.
Technically perfect, ambitious, and bold. In its aggressive nature, one can also find some dramatic moments. It can either be "your grave", or your "forsaken cry".
Survival from a witch hunt. Its aftermath is a scenario that will haunt those who condemn the unorthodox.
“(The Priest:)
I can heal the dead
(The Unorthodox:)
Paroxysmal ecstasy, dementia or deity?
Sapless you are crawling,
To confess your sins?”