{"id":12004,"date":"2013-10-25T01:00:33","date_gmt":"2013-10-25T05:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=12004"},"modified":"2022-01-06T19:42:18","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T00:42:18","slug":"the-album-by-album-challenge-the-death-metal-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=12004","title":{"rendered":"The Album by Album Challenge: The Death Metal Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?attachment_id=12005\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12005\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-12005\" alt=\"death-metal-luke-kegley\" src=\"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/death-metal-luke-kegley-300x300.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>One of the many questions I get asked a lot is, \u201cHey Brainfart. How come you don\u2019t like Death Metal?\u201d Every time I answer this fucking question I sound like an old man. \u201cArrrhh, it\u2019s too loud. I can\u2019t understand the lyrics. Why does the singer sound like Cookie Monster? Why is it so goddamn fast? GET OFF MY LAWN!\u201d I know right? I sound like I\u2019m 75 or something.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>After some time of reflecting on this, I decided to present myself with a challenge. I went to the Facebook page (www.facebook.com\/thegreatsouthernbrainfart) and I asked my fellow Fartheads to recommend some death metal albums to listen to. After a day or to, I whittled down the list to FIVE ALBUMS and in Album by Album Challenge form, I listened to each of these albums front to back. Below are my thoughts on each of the albums that I listened to. I hope you\u2019ll enjoy my foray into the world of death metal for the first time ever.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>====================================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Carcass \u2013 Heartwork<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> October 18, 1993<br \/>\n<strong>Highlights:<\/strong> Buried Dreams, Carnal Forge, No Love Lost, Heartwork, Embodiment, Arbeit Macht Fleisch, Blind Leading the Blind, Doctrinal Expletives,<\/p>\n<p>This album has to be without a doubt the single most diverse death metal album I have heard yet. It\u2019s a riff lover\u2019s dream and in this album I really hear a lot of classic influence. Carcass seems like they took all their influences such as Maiden, Sabbath, and even some classic Merciful Fate and just created a really unique album. The songs are really awesomely played and even the kind of whacked out vocals of singer\/bassist Jeff Walker really isn\u2019t that bad. As a matter of fact, it really lends itself to this kinda of music and is a nice change from the cookie monster thing that just grates on my nerves after a while.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qeds8qK6u8o\" height=\"315\" width=\"420\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/center>Song for song this album just slays. All the songs have a groove to them that is sadly missed in death metal. Most death metal if not played at 100 mph it\u2019s played at the speed of dripping molasses but with Carcass, songs like \u201cHeartwork\u201d, \u201cBuried Dreams\u201d, and the stellar \u201dArbeit Macht Fleisch\u201d are prime examples of a band that refused to be pinned into a corner and pigeon holed into what everyone thought a death metal band should sound like. 20 years later, \u201cHeartwork\u201d is not only a classic piece of death metal awesomeness but an amazing, precise, and thought out heavy metal masterpiece that tore down boundaries and proved that an album like this can be embraced and loved by just about any fan of heavy metal music.<\/p>\n<p>====================================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Morbid Angel \u2013 Covenant<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> June 22, 1993<br \/>\n<strong>Highlights<\/strong>: Rapture, World of Shit, Blood on My Hands, Angel of Disease, Sworn to Black, God of Emptiness<\/p>\n<p>Morbid Angel was a band that was HUGE within my circle of friends who were into this kind of music. I remember one of my friends taking me to see them at the Masquerade when they toured for the \u201cDomination\u201d album. I remember seeing them live and just not really getting it. As the years have passed and I\u2019ve been exposed to more forms of metal and death metal included, I feel I can listen to this album and understand it a bit. \u201cRapture\u201d is a cool song and \u201cWorld of Shit\u201d was cool with all of the different changes and what not and \u201cVengeance is Mine\u201d totally reminded me of Slayer. \u201cAngel of Disease\u201d is the song of all of them that really surprised me the most as it sounded like something I could\u2019ve heard on Venom\u2019s \u201cBlack Metal\u201d or \u201cAt War with Satan\u201d albums. The closing \u201cGod of Emptiness\u201d is such a great song and I really dug the epicness of this song and even heard a touch of early sludge metal in there as well.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UYdfsZRURF0\" height=\"315\" width=\"420\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/center>Covenant as a whole really blew me away and opened my mind to Death Metal. While it might not be the most melodic album I\u2019ve never heard, it is definitely a very dynamic album. I even really didn\u2019t mind the vocals so much and they didn\u2019t bug me at all to be honest. I\u2019m starting to understand that these kinds of vocals are very much a part of the delivery of this type of music. This was a really cool album and this one without a doubt will get some repeat listens from me.<\/p>\n<p>====================================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Into Eternity \u2013 Buried in Oblivion<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> February 10, 2004<br \/>\n<strong>Highlights<\/strong>: Splintered Visions, Embraced by Desolation, Beginning of the End, Spiraling Into Depression, Buried in Oblivion, Black Sea of Agony, Morose Seclusion<\/p>\n<p>Now this is something really cool and unique here. Somehow this band has managed to do some really cool shit mixing progressive metal and death metal. I felt like I was listening to a Yes, Dream Theater, and Carcass all at the same time and this was something I really found myself enjoying quite a bit. Epica was the first band I ever heard use this mix of clean vocals and death metal growl vocals and while I like Epica, Into Eternity really seems to do this far better. The mix of the vocal stylings really creates a unique dynamic but it\u2019s the clean vocals with harmonies that take it into that more progressive stratosphere. The title track is this absolutely gorgeous classic guitar piece that once again took me into that progressive world with some really amazing clean vocals. What a great change of pace for this album. It\u2019s almost as if it was a chance to just take a break and catch your breath before the album continues slamming my face with \u201cBlack Sea of Agony.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9S_TkFRSVzM\" height=\"315\" width=\"420\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/center>I\u2019m curious to hear from the more hard core Death Metal fans about what they think about this album. Something in my mind tells me to prepare for screams of things like, \u201cThat band is shit\u201d or \u201cHAHA! THAT IS NOT DEATH METAL!!!\u201d Either way, I thought this was a really fantastic album and this one definitely blew me away and grabbed my attention. I feel like this kind may not be the die hard Death Metal that I\u2019ve been listening to for this whole challenge but it did offer up another side of this multifaceted genre and proving to me that not all Death Metal is created equal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>====================================================<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>At The Gates \u2013 Slaughter of the Soul<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> Blinded by Fear, Slaughter of the Soul, Cold, Into the Dead Sky, World of Lies,<br \/>\n<strong>Highlights<\/strong>: November 14, 1995<\/p>\n<p>Listening to this album I can see why it\u2019s considered a classic. This album reminds me an awful lot of Carcass\u2019 Heartwork album. The singer\u2019s voice sounds almost identical to Carcass\u2019 singer and I actually kind of dig this kind of singing. It\u2019s a departure from the low, rumbling Cookie Monster sounding vocals. The opening track \u201cBlinded by Fear\u201d is a total face melter and it totally caught me off guard. I really didn\u2019t know what to expect and by the time was starting to wrap my head around it the 2nd song \u201cSlaughter of the Soul\u201d was slamming me upside the head. \u201cUnder a Serpant Sun\u201d was without a doubt my favorite song on this album as I feel like these guys really exercised some serious dynamics in not just tempo changes but even mixing in some really hauntingly wicked clean tone guitar playing that created this sense of tension that I totally dug. \u201cInto the Dead Sky\u201d is a pretty amazing instrumental tune that showcases the band\u2019s versatility and also the fact that these guys are Iron Maiden fans without a doubt.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/URhmC865SGI\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/center>While I found myself really digging some of these tunes a good bit, by the \u00bd way mark of this album it all just started to sound the same. The songs just all started to run together and started losing their ability to stand out on their own to me and keep my interest. With that being said, there is something in here and for someone like me I can find it if I just look and listen a bit below the surface. Listening to this album I can really hear the influence of bands like Iron Maiden and other NWOBHM bands that have been thrown into a blender with bands like Slayer and Megadeth. Being that these guys are considered to be one of the band at the forefront of this metal movement, it\u2019s cool to hear how this sound was generated from a few distinct types of metal and combined together to create a genre all it\u2019s own. Pretty exciting shit to be honest.<br \/>\n====================================================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Death &#8211; Human<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date<\/strong>: October 22, 1991<br \/>\n<strong>Highlights<\/strong>: Suicide Machine, Together as One<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s virtually impossible to even talk about Death Metal and not mention the band Death. Other than the fact that they had one of the most bad ass band logos ever, I really didn\u2019t much more about these guys. I do know that they are without a doubt legends and forefathers of the genre. There is no denying that guitarist Chuck Schuldiner was a monstrous guitarist and is considered by many to have pioneered that growling style of \u201csinging.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j8vqGzUlyqE\" height=\"315\" width=\"420\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/center>Unfortunately, aside from a couple of songs, I just didn\u2019t find much that I dug about this album. I don\u2019t know what it was. I found myself liking bits of the music here and there and even his vocals weren\u2019t all that bad but I just didn\u2019t feel that the songs themselves did much for me. Maybe it\u2019s kind of the same way in how a lot of the early NWOBHM bands don\u2019t really connect with me at all. I understand and value the importance of their existence and their contributions but the songs just didn\u2019t do much for me. They all just seemed to kind of run into each other and not really differing much from the other which actually made it quite hard to listen to. Sorry but this one just didn\u2019t do much for me.<\/p>\n<p>====================================================<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>So there you have it. So did my outlook on death metal change? Ya know, somewhat. I didn&#8217;t notice this until piecing this thing together but none of these bands have a logo that looks like a giant shit pile of twigs.\u00a0 How odd is that?\u00a0 Also, I\u2019m still not sold on the 100mph blast beats upside the head cookie monster thing but what I did learn was that for me to think that all death metal bands are like that was a completely unfair assumption. I didn\u2019t love everything I heard on these albums (with the exception of Carcass and Morbid Angel) but I did find something in each of these albums that I could appreciate and even find myself getting into. If this challenge did anything for me it was that it reminded me not to be so quick to judge a band just based on a genre tag. Not all death metal is created equal and that right there folks is the lesson in it all.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the many questions I get asked a lot is, \u201cHey Brainfart. How come you don\u2019t like Death Metal?\u201d Every time I answer this fucking question I sound like an old man. \u201cArrrhh, it\u2019s too loud. I can\u2019t understand the lyrics. Why does the singer sound like Cookie Monster? Why is it so goddamn fast? GET OFF MY LAWN!\u201d I know right? I sound like I\u2019m 75 or something. After some time of reflecting on this, I decided to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[711,277],"tags":[1052,1049,1053,1051,1050],"class_list":["post-12004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-by-album-challenge","category-music-news","tag-at-the-gates","tag-carcass","tag-death","tag-into-eternity","tag-morbid-angel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19543,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12004\/revisions\/19543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}