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"Accelerating riffs?" Death


Fabulousdisaster88

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Hello, I've been listening to death for a while now and I love them! All my favorite death songs have a certain type of riff in them, which I call "accelerating riffs." The ones I'm talkin about are the chorus riff in without judgement, the riff in spirit crusher where while he says "monster at heart!" and right before that, the riff in spirit crusher that lasts from 2:25ish to 2:55ish, and the riff from pull the plug that lasts from 0:25ish to 0:50ish. Is this constant in death metal? Is it in a different genre? Which genre uses it most? I haven't listened to much death metal other than a ton of deaths music. If anyone knows other songs with riffs like this please give me some suggestions. Please help! I need more!

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Lots of bands switch to double time halfway through riffs. Suffocation's "Pierced From Within" and Cephalic Carnage's "Lucid Interval" have some cool tempo changes on them, and I highly recommend them, but they don't sound like Death. If you're really enjoying Death, check out early Atheist and maybe Nocturnus, both great early progressive Floridian DM bands. If you get into the more modern technical sound, don't miss out on Anata's "The Conductor's Departure".

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16 minutes ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Lots of bands switch to double time halfway through riffs. Suffocation's "Pierced From Within" and Cephalic Carnage's "Lucid Interval" have some cool tempo changes on them, and I highly recommend them, but they don't sound like Death. If you're really enjoying Death, check out early Atheist and maybe Nocturnus, both great early progressive Floridian DM bands. If you get into the more modern technical sound, don't miss out on Anata's "The Conductor's Departure".

Awesome! Thanks!

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A classic example (not sure if it's exact double time, but it's definitely a big increase in speed) would be the transition from the initial riff to the faster, main riff in "Raining Blood". It goes from a nice mid-tempo riff to a much faster, more tremolo-picking-based riff. I'm sure you're familiar with it as a Slayer fan, but I thought I'd mention it since no one else did, and it's a very recognizable song to nearly anyone.

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1 hour ago, eyelessshiver said:

If you like Death...then I'd recommend the following bands:  Suffocation, Autopsy, Obituary, Malevolent Creation, Demigod, Entombed, Dismember...in all that 90s old-school death metal you will find those kinds of time changes you mentioned...

All of those bands have some great classic material (though I've soured on Entombed and Dismember), but I wouldn't recommend them to someone who likes Death just based on the time period alone. Good picks for someone doing their 90s DM research, though.

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My thinking is if you like later Death, you should check out their early stuff.  And in checking out their early stuff, you should also look at other death metal bands around that time.  But you're right, the stuff on Sound of Perseverance is way different from Scream Bloody Gore, and that variation is one reason I love the band so much.  Entombed and Dismember aren't quite as raw as some of those other bands.  Also might be worth mentioning Pestilence...and there are a bunch of others.  Lots of goodies to be found for a Death fan, I suppose.  

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