Death / black metal

[MPhelps]

I usually find that listening to the Morbid Angel catalog (with a few, well at least one, exceptions of course) tends to ease any need to listen to other death metal.

[DCR]

I usually find that listening to the Morbid Angel catalog (with a few, well at least one, exceptions of course) tends to ease any need to listen to other death metal.

Just one. (I dig Heretic.)

Also could fill in Immolation or Nile above. Nile’s first four in particular make me wonder why anyone else even bothers trying.

[Alex]

I usually find that listening to the Morbid Angel catalog (with a few, well at least one, exceptions of course) tends to ease any need to listen to other death metal.

Tell me this isn't the most incredible thing you've ever heard.

[DCR]

^ The ECW shirt amidst all that made me laugh.

[plaguewielder]

Yeah, the spinach album is pretty good.

[Alex]

Morbid Angel is incredible. No MA slander will be tolerated. I

[DCR]

My only negative comments on MA are re: the album that shall not be named, and that the production on Kingdoms Disdained infuriates me. The record is very good, but it could have been a classic if it didn’t cause such a fucking headache.

Any of y’all like Hate Eternal? I’ve had a tremendously hard time getting into them, mainly due again to the production. The stuff absolutely cannot be played in a car. I know I’m missing out.

[MPhelps]

Yeah. The one bad MA is actually not terrible when viewed in light of how bad everyone said it was. It's funny you mention Nile because I was going to add them to my post but the point was that if I only listened to one DM band it's MA. And I listen to them a lot.

Hate Eternal is pretty fucking good, especially Fury and Flames. Lots of lifting done to that album. But yeah, I get it about the production. It's a greater problem within DM. The overproduced drums mixed with cookie monster vocals, interchangeable riffs and unmemorable guitar solos can wear thin pretty soon and its all a dime a dozen after awhile.

Suffocation is probably my second favorite DM. Mike Smith is a fucking amazing drummer that has a feel for the music and doesn't sound like a rapid fire metronome (see Hate Eternal and some later Nile). Plus it's always funny to hear live stuff and listen to Frank Mullen talk in that Long island accent between songs. Doesn't fit the music at all. Sounds like he should be taking orders in a deli.

If I had one MA song ever:

[plaguewielder]

I remember there were alternative lyrics to the Infecting the Crypts floating around, something like:
Timmy the boy, fucking stop it stop it,
then he goes to church wasting his time,
man ingesting cock and pickels
get out of my way... something something


But yeah suffocation is top shit

[DCR]

This is gonna cause me to dig out my old Suffocation stuff. I dig it but it never “clicked” hard with me, likely because I’d grab a Suffocation record in a haul with like ten other things, and didn’t give it the attention it deserved.

When I’m looking for grindier dm, my go to is Cryptopsy. The last two EPs are so fucking good, as much as the lack of original members beyond Flo bothers me on pointless principle.

[MPhelps]

Another good point about DM. The interchangeable members makes it hard for me to pay any attention to a band, unless it really stands out musically. And not in a David Vincent vs Steve Tucker way. Like @dcr said, there's one original member (sometimes not even) and a revolving lineup for every album. I guess it's better than calling it a solo album. Not very metal sounding. Even if it's one guy and whomever he feels like working at the moment, it's better to have a cool name. Repentant Malfeasance sounds better than The Bill Watkins Band or something.

For some reason that doesn't bother me as much in black metal. Where Daargg has a different drummer on every album. Its always some tall Norwegian guy with a big forehead in corpse paint anyway.

[DCR]

Another good point about DM. The interchangeable members makes it hard for me to pay any attention to a band, unless it really stands out musically. And not in a David Vincent vs Steve Tucker way. Like @dcr said, there's one original member (sometimes not even) and a revolving lineup for every album. I guess it's better than calling it a solo album. Not very metal sounding. Even if it's one guy and whomever he feels like working at the moment, it's better to have a cool name. Repentant Malfeasance sounds better than The Bill Watkins Band or something.

The epitome of this is Sinister, consisting of the original drummer but now vocalist, and four guys who joined five minutes ago. And yet, the most recent two records rule. (And I never thought they were worth a shit previously.)

[neandrewthal]

I wonder if there's a list of bands with no original members somewhere.

[MPhelps]

Cattle Decapitation, In Flames are two death metal bands with no original members. In Flames isn't really death metal, or very good.

https://loudwire.com/rock-metal-bands-n ... l-members/

[DCR]

Looks like Travis Ryan joined CD before the first full length, so I’m good there.

I liked In Flames through Colony, that probably being my favorite of TJR and Whoracle. They lost me with Clayman, dragged me back a few records later with Come Clarity and A Sense of Purpose, and then utterly lost me with the irredeemable garbage they’ve been releasing since.

I was a much bigger Dark Tranquillity fan, but everything after Fiction has been forgettable to outright annoying. Character is my number one.

[neandrewthal]

Cattle Decapitation, In Flames are two death metal bands with no original members. In Flames isn't really death metal, or very good.

https://loudwire.com/rock-metal-bands-n ... l-members/

I like Cattle Decapitation. I saw In Flames dual headlining with Opeth a few years back. They fucking sucked ass.

[MPhelps]

Cattle Decapitation, In Flames are two death metal bands with no original members. In Flames isn't really death metal, or very good.

https://loudwire.com/rock-metal-bands-n ... l-members/

I like Cattle Decapitation. I saw In Flames dual headlining with Opeth a few years back. They fucking sucked ass.

Haha. I saw them open for Lamb of God and they also sucked ass. On the other hand, opeth had a really awesome couple of albums in Blackwater Park, Deliverance and sort of Ghost Reveries.

They also are one of the band that have no original members. Akerfeldt was brought in and then eventually fired everyone and yadda yadda yadda they play progressive rock 40 years after it became irrelevant.

[neandrewthal]

Cattle Decapitation, In Flames are two death metal bands with no original members. In Flames isn't really death metal, or very good.

https://loudwire.com/rock-metal-bands-n ... l-members/

I like Cattle Decapitation. I saw In Flames dual headlining with Opeth a few years back. They fucking sucked ass.

Haha. I saw them open for Lamb of God and they also sucked ass. On the other hand, opeth had a really awesome couple of albums in Blackwater Park, Deliverance and sort of Ghost Reveries.

They also are one of the band that have no original members. Akerfeldt was brought in and then eventually fired everyone and yadda yadda yadda they play progressive rock 40 years after it became irrelevant.

Ghost Reveries is kind of hit or miss with me. It's like they kept using this particular scale throughout much of it. IMO their perfect streak is My Arms Your Hearse through Deliverance. Just flawless throughout.

[MPhelps]

I've tried to listen to the albums before Blackwater Park but like a lot of their stuff, it's too much endless sameness. It could just be that Blackwater and Deliverance are so mind blowing that it's hard to get into anything else that's not at that level.

ETA. Listening to My Arms now. Did I miss this one? Did I give up after listening to Orchid and Morningrise and being bored to tears? This is actually really pretty damn good.

Another case of a band at their peak not just because of their leader (Akerfeldt), but the sum of him plus Martins Lopez and Mendez, and Peter Lindgren. A lot if times it seems like the leader fires his band because he wants to go in a different direction (make more money), or because he has a big ego. Or both.

[DCR]

Another case of a band at their peak not just because of their leader (Akerfeldt), but the sum of him plus Martins Lopez and Mendez, and Peter Lindgren.

After my initial obsessions with Metallica and Maiden, the first metal band that I really fell in love with was Megadeth. All of their early (read: not garbage) output was notable for exactly that reason - the contributions of everyone involved and not named Dave Mustaine. Mustaine at the time was a genius, but what elevated the band to even greater heights was that, in its two most well-know iterations, it was a band.