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Underrated-but-great oldskool death metal


Thrashman

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We'll probably be covering a bunch of ground we've already gone over in the main rec thread, but I think it might be cool to have a strictly old-school thread.

Deteriorate - Rotting In Hell: this album kicks ass, early 90s DM from Pennsylvania. Kind of a "warm" sound, savage vocals, and riffs that explore a lot of what the era had to offer - aggressive chunk, evil-sounding tremolo sections, drawn-out doomy bits, and the occasional creepy melody. Not reinventing any wheels, but catchy and fun.

 

Scattered Remnants - Procreating Mass Carnage: this "demo" sounds like shit in a good way. Dark, brutal, and filthy, occasionally brooding but mostly pummeling.

 

Broken Hope - The Bowels Of Repugnance: I'm not fond of their bland "comeback" stuff, but this album has personality. Deep gutturals, brutal chunk, plodding death, blasting grind, all in good fun.

 

Ripping Corpse - Dreaming With The Dead: technically accomplished but still raw, this 1991 album is another that exemplifies what DM had to offer at the time. Aggressive and somewhat thrashy vocals, tough-as-nails riffing, energetic songwriting - these guys were poised to go places, but apparently were turned down for a contract because they didn't have the right look. Members would go on to Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal, and Dim Mak. EDIT - full album stream got taken down, so here's one track that's still up:

 

Amorphis - Privilege Of Evil: we'll leave the USA for a moment. This band may need no introduction, but they've all but left their roots behind, and those roots were fucking awesome. Grim, dark, and moody, this recording in particular captures most of what I love about Finnish DM, without the polish of the more professional recording on "The Karelian Isthmus". See if it doesn't draw you in.

 

I'll add more later - one other thing, for Morta Skuld I actually prefer "As Humanity Fades". For some reason "Dying Remains" gets the props, but I think the follow-up is stronger and more mature.

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  • 2 months later...

Another handful of recs to add.

Pyrexia - Sermon Of Mockery: They were contemporaries of Suffocation in the early 90s NYDM scene (Guy Marchais was in both bands), and there are a lot of similarities between this album and old Suffo, but "Sermon Of Mockery" focuses even more on simple beat-down brutality.
 

 

Infernal Torment - Man's True Nature: Speaking of brutality, this 1995 album from Denmark is fucking feral. Nasty sound, angry gutturals, sporadic blasts, heavy churns, punches thrown. NSFW.
 

 

Hieronymus Bosch - The Human Abstract: Leaving the realm of gratuitous brutality behind for more refined prog-death shores, we have this inventive 1995 album from Russia. Cool riffs, weird ideas, interesting melodic choices - it's sort of like a cross between Edge Of Sanity and Atheist with an occasional contribution from early Septic Flesh.

Disaffected - Vast: Sticking with prog-death from 1995, this phenomenal album from Portugal also reminds me strongly of Edge Of Sanity. Very cool use of keyboards to add a bit of atmosphere behind heavy DM riffing, with an idiosyncratic approach to song structure that I find highly appealing. This album rules.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
Yes indeed! 

I'm particularly liking the Disaffected album.

The Hieronymus Bosch one is also very interesting.

Quite like Pyrexia too, but it's a little too satanic for my taste.

 

Disaffected is great. I get a Cynic vibe from them, but they're more accomplished and interesting than Cynic ever was.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not actually old, but very much old school in style:

Soulskinner - Crypts Of Ancient Wisdom

Obsecration - The Mourning Of Lost Life

Stench Of Decay - Creation Of Carnal Lust

Necrot - Blood Offerings

And while I'm going off on slight tangents, there's a thread about death-doom here:

 

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19 minutes ago, BlutAusNerd said:

I've been after that Morgue album for a while

Dark Descent have reissued it, with a bunch of demo tracks. 

But yeah, think I'm going to try and hold out for a reasonably-priced original pressing.

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19 minutes ago, BlutAusNerd said: I've been after that Morgue album for a while

Dark Descent have reissued it, with a bunch of demo tracks. 

But yeah, think I'm going to try and hold out for a reasonably-priced original pressing.

 

I must not have seen that yet. I'll gladly snag a reissue, the most reasonably priced original that I remember seeing was $60.

 

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42 minutes ago, BlutAusNerd said:

I must not have seen that yet. I'll gladly snag a reissue, the most reasonably priced original that I remember seeing was $60.

I'd probably pay that, but really wouldn't want to pay more.

Might end up caving and buying the reissue, I'm just not a fan of having several versions of the same tracks on a CD.

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42 minutes ago, BlutAusNerd said: I must not have seen that yet. I'll gladly snag a reissue, the most reasonably priced original that I remember seeing was $60.

I'd probably pay that, but really wouldn't want to pay more.

Might end up caving and buying the reissue, I'm just not a fan of having several versions of the same tracks on a CD.

 

I used to think that too, but you can always skip those tracks, and they might grow on you later.

 

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Most of these I only discovered thanks to people on here. Not all of them are underrated as such, but anyway...

Gorguts - Considered Dead

 

Obliveon - From This Day Forward

 

Obliveon - Nemesis

 

Desultory - Into Eternity

 

Darkthrone - Soulside Journey

 

Pestilence - Twisted Truth

 

Solstice - Netherworld

 

Cemetary - An Evil Shade Of Grey

 

Brutality - Screams Of Anguish

 

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Here are some 90s Finnish DM highlights, in no particular order. This has been one of my favorite scenes to explore, due to its dark overall vibe, occasional weirdness, and prevalence of hidden gems. This is an incomplete list, an overview at best. I doubt I'll ever discover or be able to remember everything about this scene, but thanks to the magic of the internet, we can get a peek into a somewhat obscure breeding ground for some very cool, aggressive music.  I'm not going to do individual writeups for these, but I encourage checking them out and digging further. There's a pool of filthy old demos to wade into if you look through RYM lists and such, so if anyone has any cool old-school Finnish DM gems to add, please feel free.

____

Convulse - World Without God

 

Demigod - Slumber Of Sullen Eyes

 

Demilich - Nespithe

 

Amorphis - The Karelian Isthmus

 

Adramelech - Psychostasia

 

Funebre - Children Of The Scorn

 

Depravity - Silence Of The Centuries (reissue discography compilation)

 

Altar/Cartilage - Ex Obliveone/The Fragile Concept Of Affection split

 

Phlegethon - Neutral Forest (Lasse Pykko would go on to Vacant Coffin, Hooded Menace, and other bands. I encourage finding Phlegethon's other stuff - there's a discography compilation somewhere, I think - not because it's all good, but because they got really fucking weird, and were forerunners of other bands' experiments with electronic and psych rock influences.)

 

Abhorrence - s/t 7" (the breakup of this band would lead to the formation of Amorphis - apparently Abhorrence is back together now, but they don't appear to have recorded any new material)

 

Purtenance - Member Of Immortal Damnation

 

Rippikoulu - Musta Seremonia

 

Xysma - Swarming Of The Maggots

 

Disgrace - Inside The Labyrinth Of Depression (they had a full length in 1992 but I haven't given it much of a listen yet, somehow I found the demo first. Not to be confused with the Swedish band of the same name producing grimy DM demo material around the same time.)

EDIT - found a Youtube link for the full album, which kicks ass.
Disgrace - Grey Misery

 

Agonized - Gods

 

Carnifex - Decadence

 

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1 hour ago, FatherAlabaster said:

This is another one - I want the original release, minus the endless dodgy demo versions which Dark Descent have elected to include.

Guess if I cave where the Morgue album is concerned then I'll probably do the same for this.

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17 minutes ago, Thrashman said:

This is another one - I want the original release, minus the endless dodgy demo versions which Dark Descent have elected to include.

Guess if I cave where the Morgue album is concerned then I'll probably do the same for this.

I like the demos, actually, but I can see how the murky sound wouldn't appeal to everyone. I can also understand the collector's desire to own an original copy, but I guess I don't have much of that drive left anymore. Better to have the tracks and not want them than the opposite, IMO.

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17 minutes ago, Thrashman said: This is another one - I want the original release, minus the endless dodgy demo versions which Dark Descent have elected to include.

Guess if I cave where the Morgue album is concerned then I'll probably do the same for this.

I like the demos, actually, but I can see how the murky sound wouldn't appeal to everyone. I can also understand the collector's desire to own an original copy, but I guess I don't have much of that drive left anymore. Better to have the tracks and not want them than the opposite, IMO.

 

That's how I feel about it. Finding originals is cool, but I'm not made of money, so I take what I can get.

 

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2 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

I like the demos, actually, but I can see how the murky sound wouldn't appeal to everyone. I can also understand the collector's desire to own an original copy, but I guess I don't have much of that drive left anymore. Better to have the tracks and not want them than the opposite, IMO.

 

43 minutes ago, BlutAusNerd said:

That's how I feel about it. Finding originals is cool, but I'm not made of money, so I take what I can get.

 

Well, I compromised.

Cheapest I could find the Morgue album in decent condition was £60, so I bought the reissue for £12.

But when it came to the Depravity EP - the reissue was a minimum £22, so I shelled out £32 for the original.

(all prices including postage)

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20 minutes ago, Thrashman said:

 

 

Well, I compromised.

Cheapest I could find the Morgue album in decent condition was £60, so I bought the reissue for £12.

But when it came to the Depravity EP - the reissue was a minimum £22, so I shelled out £32 for the original.

(all prices including postage)

Be careful sewing those original covers onto your jacket! Extra needle holes can ruin the resale value. :D

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