Immolation is also my favourite. The first five records are all canonical examples of how to do technical
Death Metal, be it the more traditional styling of
Dawn of Possession or the insanely
Fucked Up and twisting
Here In After and
Failures For Gods. I've probably listen to
Suffocation the most out of the three though, they were one of the earliest DM bands I knew. I need to revist all of Incantation's discography though.
Here's my writeup (including the Pan.Thy.Monium album I heard):
-Carcass' Necroticism:
Descanting The Insalubrious: I have a weird relationship with this record: some of the songs on it are so amazing that they're among my
Absolute favourite
Death Metal tracks ever, but I really feel that the album is held back by the fact that it's about five to
Ten minutes overlong.
This record was when
Carcass fully transistioned away from grindcore. This still has the thick, groovy riffs and some grinding blast beats, but for the most part, this is a more technical, restrained, and purely
Death Metal take on their sound. The riff work is great and at times, absolutely fucking fantastic (seriously, that main riff to "Incarnated Solvent Abuse" is ridiculously fucking godly), and the more melodic soloing does, for the most part, work out well. The production job is cleaner but still excellent - I love the fucking guitar tone.
What holds this back for me is that most of these songs are kind of overlong. The riffs are truly great, but the song
Structures don't quite support them all that well, and so some of them can meander a lot. This is a shame, because when the songs are dead on, they're fucking dead on - "Inpropagation", "Corporal Jigsaw Quandary", "Expectorate..." and the aforementioned "Incarnated..." are absolutely amazing songs. Symphonies of
Sickness is a bit better as an album, but some of the songs here are Carcass' greatest moments, by far.
-Mordicus' Dances From Left: A real oddball of a record, this one is. It's not hard to think that these guys were actually Swedish, the guitar tone sounds like a more trebly Sunlight
Chainsaw tone and it has the death 'n' roll influence of Entombed. (they're Finns, for the record) But this is honestly a pretty cool little record, with some really awesome riffs, a solid sense of melody and pacing, and the rocking grooves actually really fit this band well. I guess it's probably most comparable to Carcass' Heartwork or the second
Eucharist record, but thrashier. It's not a bad little record at all.
-The Crown's Eternal Death: I'm not typically a big fan of the Gothenburg sound, because a lot of it kind of comes across as overly sugary at times and lacks the aggression of death metal. Not these guys!
I haven't checked out the other Crown releases yet, but man, this is some really fucking
Vicious stuff. The riffs are melodic and catchy, but the band plays with a level of speed and fury that is well
Beyond most Gothenburg-esque bands. The riffs are extremely well written and memorable, and the drumming is absolutely superb, with a loose yet powerful styling that fits the songs well. (I love the fucking drum sound in general; the toms sound rich and thick, and the snare is explosive without totally cancelling out the riffs during the blasts) Johan Lindstand's gravelling, intelligible screaming ranges as one of the most
Vicious vocal performances in
Extreme metal. (especially on "Kill (The Priest).
Kill THE PRIEST AND
Burn THE CHURCH!") I'm gonna look into the rest of their releases, this record fucking owns.
Pan.Thy.Monium's
Dawn of Dreams: Man, this is some profounding weird shit, and i've heard a
Ton of really bizarre records. It's hard to describe it, but imagine a really progressive take on Swedish
Death Metal, with bluesy solos, jazzy saxophone leads, elements of experimental noise, vocals are used entirely as a rhythm instrument, thick riffs derived from both early Edge of Sanity and Celtic Frost... it's just fucking weird. None of the songs have titles either, so it also feels like it plays out like one really fucked up dream. Very hard to describe, but a really cool record.
-Obituary's Cause of Death: Everybody knows this for a reason: it's a fucking awesome album. This relies heavily on that really dark, thick atmosphere that bleeds off of the bludgeoning, Celtic Frost-meets-Slayer inspired riffs and Donald Tardy's superb drumming. The atmosphere really enhances the sheer power of the sudden change ups the band likes to use in order to shift from mid-pace to fast speeds. The riffs are excellent, the songs are well done, and to top it off you have James Murphy delivering one of the absolute greatest lead guitar performances ever... his melodic and studied, somewhat technical style still fits perfectly with the band's fairly simplisic but heavy as fuck sound. I also give this HUGE props for having the best Celtic Frost cover i've ever heard, with their rendition of "Circle of the Tyrants". Just an excellent record, it's a shame how dull they became on subsequent releases.
