Technical Death Metal

[FatherAlabaster]

I've heard a LOT of tech death bands. I might like maybe two of them... Arsis is not one of those. I saw them live and I hate to say it but they were weak, lame little showboating Dungeons and Dragons kids. There were a few bands that sounded appealing at the outset, but not much that stuck around. I tend more towards the "brutal" or "grind" side of this stuff, although I love some good melodies. There's only so many clean blastbeat ride fill 32nd note triplet tapping pinch harmonic slide death growls I can take. Cephalic Carnage, I like because their musicianship is excellent but not pristine, and they write songs and even have a sense of humor. But really I was addressing it more from a writing point of view. As a musician, it's easy to work so hard on technique that you lose sight of whatever it was that got you started on a song in the first place. I've been down that road. It's a nice learning process, but if you can't get back to songwriting in the end, man, you're screwed.

[Metalhead Steve]

I'll go back and check it out.I have it on a computer but haven't listened to it in years. I was giving all of that stuff a chance around the same time that I tried listening to Despised Icon' date=' Job For A Cowboy, Faceless, etc, and just dropped them all indiscriminately after a few weeks.[/quote'] Well, the three bands you listed there I wouldn't nearly consider tech death. The Faceless is debatable, but were obvious deathcore in their earlier stages. Those are all deathcore ._. To RelentlessOblivion: Arsis is my favorite band, so yeah, they're a good example. Two more are Necrophagist and Atheist. These bands are what I consider technical, not the bullshit Alabaster is talking about in the post above yours. I've tried listening to Spawn Of Possession before and couldn't get into them.

[FatherAlabaster]

Well' date=' the three bands you listed there I wouldn't nearly consider tech death. The Faceless is debatable, but were obvious deathcore in their earlier stages. Those are all deathcore ._.[/quote'] You misunderstand. All I'm saying is that I was introduced to them along with a bunch of other music at the same time by the same group of people, and I tossed them all in the same recycle bin on my computer... and I don't miss them. There's a lot of crossover. I'd put Atheist's "Unquestionable Presence" over anything by any of these other bands. It's also a different time period, different scene. I appreciate that stuff in the same way that I do later Death. All the musicianship... much less garbage. I just tend to gravitate towards older death metal in general. Don't let's get into one of those nitpicky discussions that you hate so much.

[RelentlessOblivion]

I like death metal from all over the spectrum from the early stuff (Morbid Angel, Deicide, Obituary etc) to newer stuff (Nile, Arsis, Kronos, Sympathy etc). Actually I'm that way with most metal. If I like it then it doesn't matter what time period a band is from I'll listen to their music. It does really irk me when I listen to something like Spawn Of Possession and think "yeah you dudes can play but your music is boring". When Death went technical it was still Death and it worked really well although I consider Symbolic a major low point.

[FatherAlabaster]

I've met other people who feel the same way about Symbolic. For me it's one of their better albums, although nothing tops "Sound Of Perseverance" for sheer passion. Most drummers I know like "Human" the best of their later stuff. The album that got me into Death was "Individual Thought Patterns". It's all gravy. I don't know if I'd consider what they did so much technical as proggy/experimental, but whatever you want to call it, it kicked ass. As far as old vs. new, I do have more appreciation for the sound quality of older albums than I do for new recordings that I hear - for example Suffocation's "Pierced From Within", which sounds heavy as fuck until you put it up next to the latest crop of loudness-war-winning cut-and-paste AxeFX tone and DFH-sample-replaced mishmash. Or Deicide's "Legion", which sounds kind of terrible but also tough as nails, and is still an essential album for me. (No Steve it's not tech death yes I know) I can only assume that the way I feel about it is analogous to how people felt about early death metal when I was a teenager, getting into it for the first time, while they were still listening to power metal and glam. I fully accept my role as a curmudgeon.

[Iceni]

Sympathy is a great example of a good tech-death band, so I might suggest them to you. Group frickin' kills and I think murph with agree with me. They can definitely write a riff. You might also like Aletheian. I'm glad to hear that you like Individual Thought Patterns, that's the one Death album I can say I like.

[BlutAusNerd]

Re: Technical Death Metal A couple of other tech death favorites: Mw3Dp1bmwDQ 1CQaCFlLJGA Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2

[RelentlessOblivion]

Sympathy is a great example of a good tech-death band' date=' so I might suggest them to you. Group frickin' kills and I think murph with agree with me. They can definitely write a riff. You might also like Aletheian. I'm glad to hear that you like Individual Thought Patterns, that's the one Death album I can say I like.[/quote'] reviewed Sympathy's 'Anagogic Tyranny' recently. I consider them sort of a weird hybrid band.

[orcslayr23]

This may not fit blutausnerd's definition of tech death but Allegaeon is the only band I listen to that i'd consider tech-death. I'm not too big on the genre as a whole.

[BlutAusNerd]

Re: Technical Death Metal

This may not fit blutausnerd's definition of tech death but Allegaeon is the only band I listen to that i'd consider tech-death. I'm not too big on the genre as a whole.

I'm not familiar with them, but I tend to go mostly for old school death metal and more chaotic death/black metal hybrids, tech-death and brutal death are areas I don't know much about. I'll give them a listen though. Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2

[BlackFuckingMetal666]

Spawn of Possession is an awesome tech death band as well as Ouroboros. Their newer bands but still good in my opinion. I'm kinda new to the tech death genre as well but I do the old bands however I'm looking for some newer bands.

[BlutAusNerd]

This may not fit blutausnerd's definition of tech death but Allegaeon is the only band I listen to that i'd consider tech-death. I'm not too big on the genre as a whole.

Just listened to them, it actually sounded pretty good. I like it when bands like this emphasize melody and songwriting, but use a technical way to get there, as opposed to just being technical for the sake of it. Thanks.

[FatherAlabaster]

I checked out that Lykathea Aflame. That was really cool, in a sparse sort of old-school sounding way. Not sterile at all, experimental and imaginative. Not what I think of when I think of tech death. As far as Decapitated, I dunno, I gave them a really solid chance years ago and lots of my friends love them but they never did much for me. I hear a lot of Sinister in their stuff. Nothing wrong with Sinister... Listening to more of the Lykathea Aflame album. This is really good. I always hate it when unique bands like this just stop producing.

[RelentlessOblivion]

5FiPT6Cs5X4 Sympathy tops my tech-death list. There aren't any other songs like this one on the album which is a shame but then again tech-doom/death probably wouldn't work

[BlutAusNerd]

Re: Technical Death Metal

I checked out that Lykathea Aflame. That was really cool, in a sparse sort of old-school sounding way. Not sterile at all, experimental and imaginative. Not what I think of when I think of tech death. As far as Decapitated, I dunno, I gave them a really solid chance years ago and lots of my friends love them but they never did much for me. I hear a lot of Sinister in their stuff. Nothing wrong with Sinister... Listening to more of the Lykathea Aflame album. This is really good. I always hate it when unique bands like this just stop producing.

I love Lykathea Aflame, they're one of those totally unique and otherworldly bands that come along every so often and shake things up with a masterpiece. Demilich, dISEMBOWELMENT, Thergothon, and these guys all departed just leaving us with one masterpiece. Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2

[Iceni]

If you like Lykathea Aflame you might like Neglected Fields from Latvia. I don't know but give it a go. 8Iz1dhRjHMA

[FatherAlabaster]

That player is messing up for some reason, but I found other Neglected Fields on youtube. It's OK but nothing special to me. What I'm hearing is more Death and Carcass-influenced melodic death metal. The Sympathy track that RO posted was good, I'll have to listen to more of their stuff.

[fumigate]

Spawn of Possession is an awesome tech death band.

dude Spawn are the fucking kings of tech-death. hands down my #1 in the genre. i'll hear a new band, think they might be on the same level, but always go back to the mighty SPAWN OF POSSESSION!!!!

[RelentlessOblivion]

Spawn are technically outstanding but I just find their music lacking. They're too focused on being technical and their songwriting suffers as a result.

[deathstorm]

Abysmal. Dawn. Tech. Death. Yes or no

[fumigate]

Spawn are technically outstanding but I just find their music lacking. They're too focused on being technical and their songwriting suffers as a result.

well they don't follow the pop song structures of what order to play riffs and how many times, but don't confuse quick changes and spastic structures with poor writing. they use a tonne of transitions between riffs. you might like stuff of thier first album "Cabinet" better then everything else - its a little more riff driven then overall tech insanity.

[RelentlessOblivion]

My issue lies not with their defying the so-called normal song structures but with their obsession with the technical aspects of their music. Tech-death suffers when a band only concerns themselves with being technical.

[fumigate]

I agree on tech-death suffering with only focusing on one aspect of it, but thats pretty much what most bands go for in the genre...frankly you can say the same about any genre - black metal focusing on shitty production and tremelo picking, grind focusing on blast beats and randomness, etc. Spawn for example are probably 80% crazy tech overall, but most songs have a slower, non-tech, sometimes atmospheric interlude to them to give you a bit of a break. but I can see why someone could be put off by them, and tech-death in general as you need to be in a certain mood and actually want to focus when listening to it.

[RelentlessOblivion]

I dunno I guess I prefer my tech-death to be more like this UevUw8OJ16o

[BlutAusNerd]

Re: Technical Death Metal

I agree on tech-death suffering with only focusing on one aspect of it' date=' but thats pretty much what most bands go for in the genre...frankly you can say the same about any genre - black metal focusing on shitty production and tremelo picking, grind focusing on blast beats and randomness, etc.[/quote'] The worst part about stereotypes like these are that bands actually follow them. They may have been true about a small subsection of bands to begin with, and when people associate those techniques with the genre as a whole, new bands form following these "rules" that never actually existed. So yes, these could be true for surface level bands in these genres, but far from all of them. Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2