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User
Soundoffs 24
Album Ratings 5199
Objectivity 74%
Last Active 08-19-22 8:00 pm
Joined 11-13-18
Review Comments 4,473
| Death, Ranked
Part of my ongoing intention to rank the discographies of bands who I've listened to their entire studio output. Death, like Mastodon, is one of those rare bands that have never put out a bad album. At. All. Please keep in mind, this is just my personal ranking of them, and therefore shouldn't be thought of as definitive. | | 1 |  | Death
Leprosy
Worlds away a step up and in the right direction from their debut, Death took everything they did right and amplified it to an unimaginable degree here, presenting such a perfect album both in style and tone that they would never top themselves, although they would come DAMN close.... | | 2 |  | Death
The Sound of Perseverance
... And that would be this album right here. Taking a step back from their progressive outings before this, Death pulled out the blueprint to what made "Leprosy" such a fantastic album, and applied many of the things that worked there to here, opting to trim their more extraneous impulses in favor of a more streamlined beast, making everything here sound more vicious and evil than before. Talk about going out on a high note; RIP Chuck. | | 3 |  | Death
Spiritual Healing
Using "Leprosy" as a springboard, Death doubled down on the more speed and thrash elements of that album and offered up this album, while also showing more than a few hints of experimentation along the way, proving that they were more than a flash in the pan, musically speaking, and providing a glimpse into what the future held for the band. | | 4 |  | Death
Human
Death's first album where they really leaned into more progressive avenues of expression, this is probably the best balance between the aggression found on their first few and the progressive styles of their next entries; still lean enough though to really assert their dominance over their peers and competition at this point. | | 5 |  | Death
Symbolic
After the more indulgent leanings of their last two albums, it felt here that Death opted for a more stripped back approach, opting less for progressive experimentation and more towards straight musicianship and dynamics, which lent a more immediate and personal feel to the album. | | 6 |  | Death
Individual Thought Patterns
By this entry, it felt like Death was content in its success from their previous albums that they wanted to rest on their laurels, so to speak, and craft an album that felt purely self-indulgent. Now that's not a bad thing, per se, and one could argue that Death had more than earned that status by this point in their career, but it feels that despite all that, the constant experimentation found here sort of took away a little of that hard-earned respect that they built up before this. It's comforting to note though, in hindsight, Death was quick to rectify their more extraneous impulses and craft them to better serve their vision. | | 7 |  | Death
Scream Bloody Gore
And here we are, at the beginning of it all, the album that introduced the music and metal world at large to the genius that was Chuck Schuldinger. While from a production standpoint this album hasn't aged terribly well, the style and songwriting present pointed towards a new and exciting dynamic in the metal world, and laid the foundation on which Death would launch itself into the stratosphere of success. | |
Uzumaki
09.23.19 | Let's add a little boop for relevancy. Boop. | artiswar
09.23.19 | no | Uzumaki
09.23.19 | Silly. | Source
09.23.19 | Interesting | Pikazilla
09.23.19 | I am so confused | Uzumaki
09.23.19 | In what way? | Source
09.23.19 | Riff overload | hexfix93
09.23.19 | Interesting ranking. A bit confused on your descriptions though. How is TSoP less progressive than the albums before it? That's easily their most progressive album. I'm genuinely confused on that lol, not sure if I'm misunderstanding you or something.
Symbolic is also a good bit more prog sounding compared to the albums before it. Judging by your descriptions to ITP/Human, it almost looks like you're using "progressive" to mean "technical"? I don't know. Not trying to be pedantic, just confused lol | Confessed2005
09.23.19 | Delightful list. Very accurate. | Uzumaki
09.23.19 | @hexfix, to me, TSoP does have progressive elements present throughout, but to me it felt like they were going back to the more aggressive elements in L and SP, so I guess TSoP has less prog than S, ITP and H? Does that help?
Their run from H to TSoP is very technical in its musicianship, but they mix in prog to keep things fresh, and that's a big plus, but again, to me, Symbolic is a step back in their older sound, after H and ITP were exercises in proggy experimentation within their death metal formula. It was kinda easy to tell the prog difference between albums 4/5 and 6/7. | hexfix93
09.24.19 | Interesting. I feel TSoP and Symbolic are far removed from Death's original sound (and dm in general) compared to Human/ITP. I would say Human and ITP are just death metal albums with some prog influences, with ITP being their most technical release. Symbolic turns the prog way up and adds more melody, as well as strips away a lot of the technicality found on ITP. I see TSoP as just straight up progressive metal with some death metal influence. It has far more in common with Control Denied than it does to any Death record imo. Some songs like Spirit Crusher and Bite the Pain were originally written for Control Denied's debut.
That's not to say "you're wrong" so don't take it that way lol, your view is just very different from what I'm used to seeing so it just kinda threw me off. TSoP is generally seen as their most progressive outing, and many people love or hate it for that reason. I think the "issue" here is just that we have very different views as to what defines "progressive". | NOTINTHEFACE
09.24.19 | Yeahhhh... gonna have to agree with hex here. I came into this discog almost completely fresh about 6 months ago, having never listened to a Death album before. TSoP and Symbolic have more in common with modern prog metal than with the more traditional sound on Leprosy. Taste and to a certain extent genre is subjective, but most people don't hear what you hear. Nothing wrong with that, I just disagree. | Hawks
09.24.19 | 6 > 2 > 5 > 7 > 1 > 4 > 3 | Uzumaki
09.28.19 | No problems. I honestly welcome and respect the hell out of your viewpoints, even if we disagree ultimately. | JokineAugustus
05.25.20 | Somehow you managed to make the worst ranking ever, besides 7 being 7. | Uzumaki
05.25.20 | Love you too! | parksungjoon
05.25.20 | cursed list | Deez
05.25.20 | 6>4>5>3>1>2>7 | Inoculaeted
05.25.20 | Ranking Death is like fighting the war on terror. It’s a worthy cause except no one knows where to look and the only horrible solution is to carpet bomb the innocent. Total stay away. | parksungjoon
05.25.20 | hahaha | Uzumaki
05.25.20 | I can agree with that analogy lol. |
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