FadingEmbers | Sputnikmusic

	Bathory Blood Fire Death It's hard for me to place Blood Fire Death. I know it's great, but it's one that has never really done a whole lot for me personally. Granted, I love "A Fine Day to Die" which I consider to be one of the best black metal songs of all time. A lot of the songs devolve into a bad kind of chaos where the riffs become lost in white noise and the overpowering drums. Despite this, there are tons of strong moments full of groove and the record deserves no less than a 3.5.	3.5 09.28.23
	Suffocation Effigy of the Forgotten In regards to composition, I find this to be pretty equal to Pierced From Within. It's technical, but in a way that you don't realize just how mind boggling the guitar work is without looking at the tabs. This is not tech-death after all. It is brutal death metal, and brutal it is. The riffs are full of the typical chromatic death metal melodies which admittedly do become mundane as the album goes on. Fortunately, the rhythms of the riffs remain fresh and creative for the full runtime and this is further enhanced by the expert drumming which beats the listener into submission. The production is not quite as refined as Pierced From Within with	3.5 09.28.23
	Tomb Mold The Enduring Spirit This hits the Goldilocks zone for me in terms of melody versus abrasiveness. Moving away from OSDM, Tomb Mold explores some very progressive ideas in this release featuring some jazzy riffs and moments with a clean guitar tone. Don't get too comfortable though, because this is very much still a death metal record and those soft moments are always ambushed by crushing riffs and stampeding drums. These are accompanied by very deep and deathly gutturals which I do not find to be particularly clear. They serve their purpose though.	3.5 09.27.23
	Cannibal Corpse Chaos Horrific Chaos Horrific is what you'd expect. It's full of fast songs with that same demonic guitar tone. I do find the rhythm guitar to be a bit muddier on this than some of the previous albums. This album would've benefited from a slow, crushing song similar to The Scourge of Iron or Evisceration Plague to break up the monotony. George Fisher is as consistent as ever, continuing to be one of the best vocalists in modern death metal. His ability to growl while enunciating words is unmatched.	3.0 09.25.23
	Suffocation Pierced from Within This is a generous 4.0 for me as I nearly gave 3.5. Suffocation's strongest element on this album is their creative rhythms that are complex yet groovy. The frequent use of rests simultaneously between all instruments makes the chugging hit so much harder. All of this is made possible by the insane talent of drummer Doug Bohn who in my opinion carries this whole experience. The riffs on this thing are hit or miss. I suspect this is partially due to the production hindering the note clarity which is a frequent issue I find in brutal death metal. This is also a result of the strictly chromatic melodies they use which I don't find to be terribly	4.0 08.10.23
	Control Denied The Fragile Art of Existence I view this record as a sequel to The Sound of Perseverance by Death, or even a version of it from an alternate dimension. The instrumentation, the guitar tone, and the lyrical content are all strongly reminiscent of it. The quality of the writing is right on par with the predecessor. What really makes this album different from Death's are Tim Aymar's vocals which could be compared to those of Ronnie James Dio. A voice that is gritty, yet elegantly carries the melodies. The guitars complement the vocals perfectly as Chuck Schuldiner and Shannon Hamm make them sing fast yet expressive riffs that lie somewhere between progressive and death meta	4.5 08.10.23
	Iron Maiden The Number of the Beast As years pass since I initially got into metal, I find that this one has stuck with me less than many other classics. Of course it's a good album. I just think the timing of its release is the biggest reason for the reverence the metal community views it with. 1982 is very early and this was very innovative for the time. However, I don't think it aged as well as people think. I mean, it's an eight song record but only three or four of the songs are worth talking about. Songs like "Run to the Hills" seem like they were written with the intention of being carried by the catchy chorus. The song most worth talking about, "Hallowed Be Thy Name," i	3.0 08.10.23