Death - Scream Bloody Gore (1987)

When I was younger and Death had only released their initial trio of albums I think I may have preferred this album to the other two. Through the years, though, I've come to the conclusion that, aside from the novelty that this was about as intense of an album as you could get during the time of it's release (with the exception of Napalm Death's 'Scum'), I found it to be rather boring and despite what certain pseudo-intellectual bloggers might tell ya, I'll take Deicide's debut over this any day of the week.

The identity of the songs on display here vary a bit more than on 'Leprosy' but they're all still painfully straightforward and after about 1/2-way through the first track I'm already planning my exit-strategy.

Sure, this sounded groundbreaking and pretty damn cool when it came out but it didn't take long for me to outgrow it and unlike most fanatics out there, I actually prefer the 3rd and 4th albums over the first two. Oddly enough, I'm not a fan of Symbolic whatsoever and the small amount I've heard off of the last album (The Sound of Perseverance) did little to nothing for me as well. I feel that Death pretty much peaked right smack dab in the middle of their (Chuck's) career with Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy being stepping stones toward bigger and better things. Innovative? Perhaps in terms of intensity but again, for me the novelty of being a death metal band so early in the game wore off once I heard what else was out there such as Carcass, Pestilence and Entombed. Those were band's that were creating material that catered to my imagination in a way that Death never could.

Death - Leprosy (1988)

Cool and iconic album cover aside, for the life of me I just cannot get into this album. Granted, Death were an important stepping stone in my life when it came to early death metal, but there were always better things out there lying in wait.

First off, the songs are just fucking boring. Sure, there's a moment or two where things get fairly interesting, such as the beginning of 'Left to Die', but it doesn't take long before the 'womp womp' kicks back in. Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know, I know... Chuck's this "awesome" lead guitar player, yada-fucking-yada. Oh well. Guess what? Never gave a fuck about leads, so 'blam'... once you take that out of the equation what have you got left? The drums? Ha! An amputated midget could've come up with more interesting fills and beats and holy-fucking-shitballs... what the FUCK is up with that annoying god-damned snare? This guy's barely past the Lars Ulrich stage. I mean, dude, c'mon... skank beat after skank beat. And they're not even like the Slayer-style skanks filled with anxiety and aggression. These just sound like the drummer is bored out of his fucking mind and can't wait to go sit in traffic for an hour.

The actual riffs/songs themselves are not much better. I swear, even for an older, "catchier" album the tracks on 'Leprosy' have a tendency to bleed into one another and I begin to think I'm listening to some epic song of unparalleled and rage-inducing boredom until I realize that three tracks have already skated on by. Believe me, as a fan of funeral doom I am no stranger to redundant droning and the like, but this...

About the only thing of worth here, to me, are the vocals, which were quite the tasty morsel in their day and still sound very convincing even now. Unfortunately, they do very little to make the rest of this album interesting to me. To be honest, I've always been on the fence with Death, even back when I first heard them in the late '80's, which is saying something as death metal as a genre was still in the cradle sucking on a pacifier. For me, the band didn't truly begin to "cook" until their 3rd LP, 'Spiritual Healing', which even then carried many of the same lackluster traits that made it so hard for me to get into their first two albums. Sure, the nostalgia factor is not lost on me and I respect the band's historical standing but again, I have never been able to transcend the notion that in the beginning, despite the novelty of being THE pioneering death metal band, Death was on the losing side of a battle with tepid mediocrity and it wouldn't be until the homos from Cynic hopped on board that Death truly came into their own. As far as the early sounds of death metal are concerned and the long-standing debate of the beginnings of the genre, I'll take Possessed any day of the week.

Death - Leprosy (1988)

Sorry, I don't give a shit what anyone says, but this album is a total fucking bore. Even when it came out I was not terribly impressed. I always preferred 'Spiritual Healing' over this. Hell, even 'Human'. To a degree I can understand why it's such a cult classic among the metalhead community but for me, listening to this album was a tedious endeavor at best.

I have to say, as sick and innovative as Death were in those days, I was always more into other shit like the early albums by Obituary, Carcass, Napalm Death and Bolt Thrower. Hell, I even thought the first Deicide album utterly decimated Death! Sure, they might have been the first "legitimate" death metal band (for my money, Possessed was and will always be a thrash metal band, despite having a song entitled 'Death Metal') but I preferred the work of others at that time. This is not to say that I absolutely did not like Death, but I certainly were not on their dick like seemingly everyone else. Shit, to this day everyone stumbles over themselves to jump on Chuck's long rotten, maggot-filled cock. Sorry folks. Death just never really did it for me and this album I thought was the weakest out of the "classic era".

First off, the riffs are just plain fucking boring. I'm not against straightforwardness, but this is \practically mindless. There are a couple of winners here and there such as 'Primitive Ways' and 'Left Behind' but the majority of this album is unbelievably pedestrian with a majority of the songs dragging along on crutches to get to the other side of the street.

The drumming is hilariously uninventive but unfortunately the humorous aspects give way to tedious predictability and soon after I find myself just plain annoyed with it all.

The guitar duo of Chuck and Rick Rozz is quite the anomaly as Chuck's lead style is pristine and very classy while Rick's whammy bar retardation is second to none.

The only thing on this album that has stood out for me and deserves perhaps more credit than it's ever gotten, especially these days, are the vocals. Chuck took what Becerra was doing in Possessed and improved upon them. Chuck's vocals here are significantly ghastly and his diction is on point, which to me is of the utmost importance. Not enough death metal vocalists have such clarity, which is what gives the lyrical content that extra shock value. When all you hear is a constant flow of "ree-ree-ree-ree" the subject matter, literally, gets lost in translation. Here, and on just about every death album (at least up until 'Symbolic') Chuck's pronunciation and delivery overall takes what is in my opinion a painfully average recording and puts it over the top. Honestly, if it wasn't for his vocal performance, I would have forgotten this album altogether.

Death - Human (1991)

With Death, you have on one side of the spectrum all of the "old school death metal" faggots that claim allegiance to the first two albums and those two only (with a few, apparently "forgiving" denizens adding in 'Spiritual Healing' to the equation) and then you have the artsy/techno-nerd types who are rendered  "breathless" by everything the band has done from 'Human' on out (though for some reason all factions tend to agree that The Sound of Perseverance gargles laminated donkey testicles).

Personally, I think they're all wrong. Spiritual Healing, without a doubt, belongs with the first two albums as part of Death's classic and initial phase. The Sound of Perseverance is not as bad as everyone makes it out, especially after the ultra-bland flavorless gruel that is 'Symbolic', and Human is in all likelihood the band's pinnacle moment with Individual Thought Patterns a strong runner-up.

I always thought that 'Human' was a substantial "fuck you" to the mongoloids in Massacre. I mean, talk about regression, it was clearly evident who the weakest links were once the homey's in Death got the collective boot and re-formed Massacre. The songwriting "skills" sank considerably and Rozz's whammy wanking ways were left unchecked while flying guitar strings were the bane of many an eyeball across the nation. If something boring and lame is considered "pedestrian" than the guys in Massacre were a pack of cripples trying to cross the street in wheelchairs. The muscianship between the two bands is incomparable. Once the Massacre dolts got dropkicked from the ranks, Schuldiner's creative juices truly began to flow.

The cool thing about 'Human', to me, was that, more than being just a technical upgrade, the songs remained catchy and even more so than any of the band's previous outings. Their was a finesse here that the band acquired and everything sounded, dare I say, smooth, which is surprisingly a good thing. Hey, I don't mind a job well done in the studio. I'm not one of these "necro" fucks who whines all day about shit not sounding raw enough. Whatever. Up until this point, 'Human' was the best sounding Death album and probably the best in their career. Do I like it the best? Nah. I have a soft spot for 'Spiritual Healing', though 'Human' comes in right behind it.

Thankfully, the fags in Cynic are only here as hired hands, otherwise 'Human' would have been an altogether different "experience".

Death - Symbolic (1995)

I know a lot of people consider this to be a great album by the band, especially those who prefer a more technically progressive approach. I also know that many folks out there consider The Sound of Perseverance to be the one major flaw in Death's career. Personally, I felt that 'Symbolic' was the beginning of the end for Death. I tend to disagree with many of the pretentious "old school" fanatics that adhere only to the first two albums (with only the truly forgiving among them giving a pass to 'Spiritual Healing'. Not sure why that albums receives the dissent that it does as I've always considered it to be the pinnacle of the first three album era). I felt that 'Human' was a great fuck you to his ex-bandmates in Massacre, who, in all honesty released a monstrously boring debut that same year with 'From Beyond' and 'Individual Thought Patterns' was a perfect companion piece to 'Human'.

Enter 'Symbolic' and it's painfully obvious that Schuldiner was bored to (ahem) death with Death. Vocally, you can hear the transition he was making from all out death rasps to a higher pitched, dare I say more "accessible" sounding vocal emission. The rhythms here sound pretty flat to me. Honestly, the whole album sounds pretty uninspired. 'Symbolic' sounds like a "diet" version of the previous two albums. You can forget any sort return to the sound of the first three albums here. This is pretty much a warm up for 'The Sound of Perseverance'. Hell, I actually probably like that album a little better. For one, Richard Christy's drumming is fucking phenomenal and two, the album's not that much of a letdown considering I had pretty much written the band off after hearing this. Whereas 'Human' is a tempered beast yet nonetheless volatile, even beautiful, and 'Individual Thought...' was a more excitedly paced version of that, even a bit more technical without ever going overboard, 'Symbolic' is just plain boring. It's barely even death metal. this is death metal "lite". This is the kind of shit that pseudo-intellectual prog-fags worship. As if to "symbolize" the fire being taken out of the band, 'Symbolic' is the first album not to feature the blazing 'T' in the band's logo. How ironic.