ENTER THE DEATH: A (BIASED) INSIGHT AND CULTURAL ANALYSIS ON EXTREME METAL'S FINEST.

Most people prefer disposable entertainment that puts no burden of understanding or engagement on their fragile psyche. They want art they can nod along to and then handwave to when all is said and done. They want television in audio form. This is how we get 50 different songs by 50 different artists every year about the same mundane, sanatized, universal experiences, topping the chart every year. Most people are fine with the unremarkable. I say, fuck that. Give me something that will disrupt the status quo. Take me to a dark, restrictive area in the furthest recesses of my mind. Take me where hope and dreams go to die.

Let's get one thing straight: I hate rock music, especially modern rock. I'm actually glad that rock music has, for the most part, been phased out in favor of things that people personally enjoy and can actually fuck their girlfriends to. But I've been a metalhead since I was a kid. I can't get enough of the stuff, and if the theory about music taste peaking in your teens is real, I probably never will. This is where my adoration of Death Metal comes in. I cannot get enough of DEATH METAL.

I consider Death Metal to be one of metal's most creative and innovative genres. It's created a home for virtuoso instrumentalists, fearless composers, and technological explorers interested in pushing any boundary you can name. Low tuned, distorted guitar playing accompanies gutteral growls, abrupt time signatures, drum effects that rival tanks rolling against the dirt and gravel of the battlefield, and lyrical themes that revolve around any and everything from horror movie dialogue to our existiental relevance in the grandness that is all of space and time. All in all, It's the ideal genre to set up camp for people like me; nerds who love doing acid and are very good at masquerading as jocks, stylistically and lyrically mutating as quickly as any virus that comes into contact with humans.

Don't believe me? Check out my favorite tracks from various Death Metal albums and tracks from their stylistic successors down below.

THE EARLY YEARS.

Scream Bloody Gore by Death and Seven Churches by Possessed are considered the genres godfathers, pioneers who laid the landscape for the majority of extreme music through the 80s, influencing the likes of Sepultura, Metallica, Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, and even overseas acts like Greece's Rotting Christ and Norway's Dimmu Borgir. Notice the girthy, visceral roars and grunts of deep seated anger just bugging to get out from the throats of both Chuck Schuldiner and Jeff Beccera on these tracks, and the instrumentals and lyrical themes around isolation and physical decay that accompany them.

I also have a fondness for Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness, Incantation's Mortal Throne of Azrene, Bolt Thrower's Mercenary, Obituary's Cause of Death, Autopsy's Severed Survival, and, of course, Death's Leprosy .

THE NOW: TECH, BRUTAL, AND GRIND.

Fast forward a couple of years to the 90s. Death is back with a new record, and right out of the gates, you can tell it's unlike anything you've ever heard before. This is a good thing, of course; a welcome change to the same old thing. The sound of Death stands out from the rest and has always managed to maintain their sound and tempo, even if Chuck Schuldiner has been known for vast experimentation. This album is still different though; way more technically complex than anything that came on Leprosy or Scream Bloody Gore. Supernatural, to some degree.

You don't know it yet, but a bounty of artists intend to do the same. This style will spread and mutate all across the US in the UK, the simplististic yet crude style of artistry you adore will become indecipherable from the Bebop and Jazz Fusion records collecting dust in your father's attic, and your moms fruit smoothie blenders turned up to their highest settings. These styles will become what we know today as Technical Death Metal, Brutal Death Metal, and, my personal favorite, Deathgrind.

ENTER THE DEATH: MORE RECS

Tech Death

Flattening of Emotions.
The Siege.
Slave Species of the Gods.

Brutal Death

Infecting the Crypts.
Graves of the Fathers.
Eclipse.

Deathgrind

Chainsaw Dismemberment.
Gravedancer.
Cabal.