Apparently, I love death metal.

[FictiveDegradation]

Hi, all. I listen to lots of music, from a number of genres. Lately I've been listening to four or five albums a day, counting second and third listens.

For a time, I had avoided most forms of extreme metal; as one of few exceptions, I enjoyed "blackgaze" acts like Deafheaven, Sylvaine, and Alcest. Then my friend recommended me Onset of Purefaction, by Necrophagist. I listened, and while I enjoyed it only mildly, I appreciated the dense, mathematical guitar work and drum programming.

So I decided to give it another listen. I enjoyed it more, and asked my friend for other death metal recommendations. These were Obscura, by Gorguts, Slaughter of the Soul, by At The Gates, Symbolic, by Death, The Satanist, by Behemoth, and two Viking metal albums, one by Ensiferium, the other by Amon Amarth.

I liked Slaughter of the Soul, Symbolic, The Satanist, and the Viking metal (which my friend has a penchant for). Obscura, however, was easily the most upsetting musical experience of my life; it felt like a botched eardrum acupuncture session. Still, since I knew it was a landmark work, if not the landmark work, of its genre, I decided to give Gorguts another try with Colored Sands. Something clicked about halfway through Colored Sands, probably during the title track, where I fell in love with death metal.

Now I can't stop; I've listened to at least another seven or eight tech-death albums since. Today alone, I've listened to Colored Sands for the third time, Cosmogenesis, by Obscura, for the second, and Pleiades' Dust and From Wisdom To Hate, also by Gorguts, each for the first. I finished Shrines of Paralysis, by Ulcerate, a few minutes ago. Tomorrow I plan on listening to another five tech-death albums: Blessed Are The Sick, by Morbid Angel, On Strange Loops, by Mithras, Mind Cemeteries, by Coma Cluster Void, Starspawn, by Blood Incantation, and Scream Bloody Gore, by Death.

Anyway, I figured I'd join a forum where I can talk with others about metal, more particularly tech-death, which, as you might be able to tell, has become one of my favorite genres. My username, FictiveDegradation, is a lyric from my favorite Obscura track, "Nostalgia." (I gave Obscura another listen after Colored Sands and enjoyed it immensely.) I'm open to pretty much any kind of metal besides tech-death. Some other, non-death albums I plan on listening to within the next few days include In the Nightside Eclipse, by Emperor, Marrow of the Spirit, by Agalloch, M, by Myrkur, Infinite Dissolution, by Locrian, New Bermuda, by Deafheaven, and Luminiferous, by High On Fire. If you all have any more recommendations, whether for tech-death or otherwise, let me know.

Thanks for reading; I look forward to talking with you all.

[Will]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I like death metal myself, including a few of the bands that you've mentioned. Just a heads up, Scream Bloody Gore is not a Tech-Death Album. Death weren't really a Tech-Death Band until Human (most of their stuff is still great though).

[FatherAlabaster]

Welcome. We have a recommendation thread stickied at the top of the DM forum, as well as some shorter and more specific threads with mentions of some good stuff. There are so many good bands that it's easy to get overwhelmed. All of Death's albums are worth hearing. For early progressive DM, also check out Atheist, Nocturnus, and Obliveon. For experimental and/or dissonant stuff, try the first two Abyssal albums, Ad Nauseam, Mitochondrion, Negativa (basically a continuation of Obscura-era Gorguts), new albums from Plebeian Grandstand, Skáphe, Sunless, maybe Setentia and Zhrine; some of it gets hard to classify, but also check out Krallice, Imperial Triumphant, and Deathspell Omega. A range of other tech-inflected bands that I like (at least some albums, not always the whole discography): Suffocation, Decapitated, Pavor, Demilich, Cryptopsy, Anata, Cephalic Carnage, Martyr, Origin, Wormed, Artificial Brain, Neuraxis, Unhuman, Decrepit Birth, and new albums from Australis, Virvum, and Unfathomable Ruination. I'm forgetting some at the moment. Dig around a bit and see what grabs your interest, I'm happy to try and refine this more.

[deathstorm]

Welcome to the forum 

[Skull_Kollektor]

Hi! I'd suggest you to stop right there for a while. Give each record its time and don't rush!

Now it's easy to devalue stuff because everything is so readily available that it becomes a commodity.

I remember when I bought "The Legacy" by Testament as a 14yr old and thought "fuck, this is too heavy for me, I need to get used to it" so for a month straight every single day coming back from school I listened to nothing else but that very album! Needless to say I never got bored of it and actually truly appreciated every nuance (yes, it's thrash, but there are nuances too).

Some 3 or 4 thousand original albums later, I miss those days of discovery and naivete.

[FictiveDegradation]

6 hours ago, Skull_Kollektor said:

Hi! I'd suggest you to stop right there for a while. Give each record its time and don't rush!

Now it's easy to devalue stuff because everything is so readily available that it becomes a commodity.

I remember when I bought "The Legacy" by Testament as a 14yr old and thought "fuck, this is too heavy for me, I need to get used to it" so for a month straight every single day coming back from school I listened to nothing else but that very album! Needless to say I never got bored of it and actually truly appreciated every nuance (yes, it's thrash, but there are nuances too).

Some 3 or 4 thousand original albums later, I miss those days of discovery and naivete.

I think you're right. Death metal is so layered and complex that repetition is highly rewarding, and I don't want to blow through the genre. I'll revisit the albums I've already listened to, making sure I didn't miss anything (which I'm sure I did), etc. Meanwhile, I've found some other, interesting non-metal bands to listen to.

__________

FatherAlabaster, thanks for all those recommendations! I'll definitely get around to each of those bands eventually.

And everyone else, thanks for the warm welcomes.

[BlutAusNerd]

Welcome. It looks like you're off to a good start and have lots of discovery ahead of you. Don't be intimidated by Skull Kollector, as while I do agree with him that it's good to give new albums time to sink in, you'll never run out of music to explore. Ever. There's so much out there that you could never listen to every great metal album. In other words, don't rush yourself and enjoy the journey, but know that as long as you want to explore it, that path is virtually endless.

 

I'm more into old-school tech-death, but I do have some recommendations of it in that DM thread that is stickies to the top of the section. A lot that's in there is less technical and/or more messy, so if it doesn't click with you at first listen, circle back to it later. It seems to have been a good tactic with tech-death, so I see no reason why it wouldn't be the same for meat and potatoes death metal.

 

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[Skull_Kollektor]

Eheh of course one life is not enough for all the goodies out there, but what is the point in having heard tons of records if you cannot singalong or hum or whatever to none?

REPETITA IUVANT.

[FatherAlabaster]

I don't think there's anything wrong with listening for research. I prefer to spend a lot of time with albums when they catch my interest, but I wouldn't just hammer on something out of a sense of obligation. Shallow listening can be a problem, but it sounds like the OP's heart is in the right place.

[FictiveDegradation]

So, FatherAlabaster, I've listened to albums from several of the bands you recommended:

Unquestionable Presence, Atheist. (I enjoyed it and will be giving it a couple more listens later on.)

Archaeaeon, Mitochondrion. (I didn't finish it, as it didn't do much for me—though I may have been in the wrong mood.)

Urraca, Sunless. (I'm listening to this right now, in fact, and love it; I plan to buy it.)

Unortheta, Zhrine. (This is excellent, and exactly the kind of music I love; I've given it three listens already, and plan to buy it.)

Labyrinth Constellation, Artificial Brain. (I enjoyed it, and will give it another listen later, as well as maybe buy it.)

As regards Artificial Brain, they're actually having a concert in my area soon. I may go see it, as my first metal concert.

I listened to some of the albums I said in the OP I would listen to: Marrow of the Spirit, by Agalloch, Mind Cemeteries, by Coma Cluster Void, and Starspawn, by Blood Incantation. I haven't gotten around to any of the others yet, but liked those ones, with the exception of Mind Cemeteries. I'll still give Mind Cemeteries another listen, in case it grows on me.

Some other listens of mine include Dasein, by First Fragment, A Perfect Absolution, by Gorod, Pleiades' Dust, by Gorguts, The Destroyers of All, by Ulcerate, and Embers of a Dying World, by Mors Principium Est. I liked all of them, but my favorite would have to be Pleiades' Dust, followed by The Destroyers of All, then Embers of a Dying World.