On the Downfall of Death Metal (Oct. 2010)

In the shadows of the early-to-mid 1980s, a malevolent darkness fell over the underground Metal scene. While Speed and Thrash Metal were more intense and aggressive than what came before it, the First Wave of Black Metal and the early Death Metal bands created an atmosphere that was shrouded in evil, death, and darkness. This truly was a special time in music history, when the stars were aligned in such a manner that allowed for so much creativity and the spawning of various new sub-genres.

Inspired by the early Thrash and Black Metal bands, Death Metal came forth in the mid-80s, and little did anyone suspect that it would grow as large as it did. Many look to Possessed and Mantas / Death as the first Death Metal bands, though the lyrical content, aesthetics and execution of Seven Churches links Possessed much more strongly to the likes of Venom, Slayer, Bathory and Hellhammer. With Possessed belonging to the First Wave of Black Metal, this leaves Mantas / Death as the true beginning of pure Death Metal. In a short time, many other bands formed and those earliest groups forged ahead and represented the true spirit of this new sub-genre of Metal. Morbid Angel, Necrophagia, Xecutioner / Obituary, Massacre, Autopsy and many more joined in establishing the core elements of Death Metal. In time, the plague began to spread and other bands, some of which were playing Thrash or Grindcore, were soon drawn into the ranks (including Nihilist, Pestilence, Carcass, Napalm Death, Carnage, etc.).

Death Metal grew in popularity, throughout the late 80s and into the early 90s. All of the best albums of the sub-genre were released between 1987 and 1991, roughly. However, just as thing seemed to be going well, the same problems that befell Thrash Metal began to afflict the scene. Record labels saw dollar signs and signed a slew of uninspired bands, many that were merely taking influence from their contemporaries rather than from those bands and the ideology that had served as the original source. Instead of having a handful of talented bands making great albums, legions of mediocre and unimaginative bands were churning out rehashed music that had little passion or creativity. One of the problems was that many bands were all aiming for the same sound as those that they looked up to, leading to a situation where everything seemed to sound alike.

The two most popular places to record were Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida and Studio Sunlight in Stockholm, Sweden. After the release of Entombed's Left Hand Path, most Scandinavian Death Metal bands wanted to record at Sunlight in an attempt to get the same sound. And, more times than not, Tomas Skogsberg succeeded in giving the band the general sound that they were looking for. As a result, most Swedish Death Metal from this period sounds very similar. Bands even traveled from Norway and Finland to get this type of production. In the states, the problem was even more detrimental. The cause for homogenization was lead by Scott Burns, whose awful production jobs sucked the life out of nearly every record that he ever had a hand in. Death, Obituary, Morbid Angel, Deicide, Malevolent Creation, Cannibal Corpse and dozens of others were all ruined by this man's vision of what Death Metal should sound like, as well as their own bad choice of seeking out this particular studio. Bands even traveled from abroad to get this awful sound, such as Napalm Death and Pestilence. So many good Death Metal albums were all reduced to non-threatening, soft piles of wasted potential. Some classics, such as Blessed Are the Sick, manage to shine despite this, but imagine how much better the record could have been if it only the band had gone to another studio or not suffered the ineptitude of Scott Burns. Thrash, Black and Death Metal are supposed to have a raw sound, and each loses a great bit of atmosphere as the production techniques slowly smooth away those rough edges.

Another problem was branching out and becoming too progressive. This went against the very essence of Death Metal. In the beginning, they were conjuring the essence of death, and you can hear this in the old albums. From Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy to Consuming Impulse and Slowly We Rot, you could almost smell the decaying flesh and rotting graves. [In all honesty, releases such as Altars of Madness seemed to owe more to the old Black Metal bands, in atmosphere and content. Similarly, Deicide did very little to invoke a feeling of death. As many in the Norwegian Black Metal scene said, they were more like a commercial Black Metal band, as their message was Satanic and had nothing to do with death, more or less, yet they utilized the typical Death Metal sound.]

As time went on, even the more established bands began changing their style. Some were obviously tired of playing Death Metal, seeing that the sub-genre had certain limitations that did not allow them to grow as musicians. So, rather than give up their bands and move on to something else, they began to allow different influences into their albums. Their "Death Metal" riffs were boring and generic, and were then fused with technical nonsense, or more traditional Metal riffs and arrangements, often creating more upbeat and accessible music than they previously had. One need look no further than Death for one of the earliest examples of this. Of course, other bands came along with this idea from their beginnings, such as Atheist. It would be difficult to call such a band pure Death Metal, as there's really nothing deathlike about the atmosphere that they created. The same can be said for many others. With so many bands ripping each other off and using the same studios and producers, it's no wonder that some ventured outside the boundaries of the sub-genre in an attempt to make themselves stand out as something “unique”. However, injecting jazz influences in Death Metal... there is no excuse for this. It seemed that the progression away from pure Death Metal first took place in Europe, as many bands from Entombed and Tiamat to Amorphis and Sentenced all drifted to different territory.

Keeping with bands that were exploring beyond their established borders, we come to the so-called "melodic Death Metal" bands, such as early In Flames and Dark Tranquillity. It is my view that this label is quite erroneous. While it is melodic, there's little about this that should link it to Death Metal, other than the harsh vocals. And, in fact, a lot of these bands had vocals more similar to the Second Wave Black Metal bands. For example, Joakim Göthberg, was briefly the vocalist for In Flames, after a two-album stint as the vocalist for Marduk. Many of the vocalists for these bands utilized a raspier sound, having little in common with the predominant style of the period, or that which preceded it. Musically, these bands had much more in common with Iron Maiden and Helloween, than with Death or Obituary. [While At the Gates is often thrown into this group, I would say that they gradually evolved (or devolved) to that point, over time. There's nothing melodic about Gardens of Grief, and while The Red in the Sky is Ours does utilize more melody, it's more closely related to the first Burzum album (with the exception of the drumming).] And, of course, rarely did any of these "melodic Death Metal" bands reference topics of death or darkness and, of course, lyrical content is very important.

The lyrics of the early bands were mostly inspired by horror films or serial killers, or even simply ruminations on death itself, in a more serious tone. But, in time, the Thrash influence took over, and many bands were writing lyrics with a more political nature or, in the case of Death, actually espousing positive thinking or using lyrics to address mundane worldly matters such as media slander or trash-talking ex-members. This was completely ridiculous and boring and had no place in Death Metal, whatsoever.

Then there were bands that didn't necessarily add the wrong kind of influences or topics, but they approached it incorrectly. By 1992 or so, the dominant sound of Death Metal was fast becoming more percussion-oriented. Quite often, the songs were driven by the drumming rather than the guitar riffs. The guitars were thicker and had more of a bass-like quality, with much less treble. Even the vocals were getting deeper and deeper. With vocalists such as Chris Barnes of Cannibal Corpse, Joe Ptacek of Broken Hope and Frank Mullen of Suffocation, it got to the point where the vocals took on the 'cookie monster' qualities and really stopped adding anything to the atmosphere. Even vocalists that had better styles, like David Vincent and Glen Benton began going deeper and deeper, losing the very qualities that made them stand out.

This deepening of the vocals was somewhat tied to this retarded concept of 'brutality'. By the mid-90s, it seemed that most of the Death Metal bands were trying to out-do one another, by being faster or more technical with more drum fills, time changes and riff cycles, with deeper and deeper vocals, or the ever-gimmicky dual vocalists, with one deep and one high-pitched. If the bands weren't bringing in Grindcore influences and making senseless noise, they were going in the other direction and trying to cram in so many riffs that Darkness Descends begins to look primitive and simplistic. As well, the overwhelming mindlessness of 90s “groove” began to take over as well, with bands focusing on catchy rhythms and breakdowns, further killing off the sub-genre and also making it appeal to a wider audience of mouth-breathing parasites.

To use an example, think of the A Nightmare on Elm Street series. The first one had a great concept and a creepy atmosphere. It looked pretty good, but was gritty enough to add to the ambiance and the story was well-written. The second one was, obviously, inferior but still not too far off. With the third installment of the series, it was now purely for the mainstream. Rather than seeming ominous and threatening, Freddy Krueger had become a stand-up comedian. In the original, he spoke very little and when he did, it was something like, “I'll kill you slow”. By the third film, he's smashing a girl's head into a televisions screen and saying, “Welcome to prime time, bitch”. The character turned into a joke, and there was nothing creepy about any of the sequels. There may have been “cool” scenes and interested kills, but the atmosphere had been completely lost. The same is true for Death Metal.

Bands may write a decent riff or two, but the atmosphere and feeling has been forsaken. By 1997-98, bands like Suffocation, Nile, Cryptopsy and Opeth were all quite popular, and not a single one of them embodied the spirit of what Death Metal was to me, so I washed my hands of it. Anytime that I've heard any modern releases, in the decade-plus that has followed, it never failed to disappoint. Nothing new is being done, rather, nothing that adds anything positive. Old bands are still churning out worthless garbage and cheapening their legacies, while new bands are ripping them off and contributing nothing. The original principles that Death Metal was founded upon were long since forgotten. This was something that many others realized long ago. The musicians in the Norwegian Black Metal scene, for example, recognized that Death Metal had become something trendy and designed for the unintelligent masses as early as 1991-92, and began to rebel against this.

In the end, a sub-genre that was founded on the principle of creating and maintaining an atmosphere of death and darkness became sterile and, ironically, lifeless. That's the real death in Death Metal. It has no feeling whatsoever, just mechanical noise. Riffs and songs are interchangeable, as are the bands themselves. There hasn't been a relevant Death Metal release in well over a decade, and there's no reason to believe that this will ever change. Death Metal will continue on as a parody of itself, with very few of the musicians or fans even realizing it. It's a frustrating situation, but how can one even argue for the integrity of a sub-genre that was sold out by one of its own creators, almost two decades ago?

On Destroying the Musical Past

How many times has a band attempted to re-write history and only ended up tarnishing it instead? With the recent announcement that Gorgoroth intends to re-record Under the Sign of Hell, it brought up the never-ending debate on the issue of bands meddling with the past. This is something that I, generally, frown upon. Very rarely does it end with anything other than utter failure.

There are a few different manners by which a band will rape their own legacy. The most common is by simply remastering an album for re-release. Then there are times when they re-do parts of the recording, but not the entire thing. And, finally, there is the complete re-recording, whether of a song or two, or an entire album.

In the case of remasters, it's something that has been going on for quite some time. In many cases, it's hardly noticeable, and does nothing to severely alter the atmosphere of the original. Then there are bands like Megadeth, that want to “update” the albums so that they sound more contemporary. Some years ago, I found myself at the home of an acquaintance, looking for some tolerable music to listen to. I ran across the remastered version of Killing Is My Business.. and Business is Good! The different cover art was already enough of a turn-off, but suffering through the horridly altered music was another story. It was offensive, right from the beginning, yet some kind of morbid curiosity compelled me to continue. Not long ago, I learned that the other Megadeth albums also received this treatment, and sampled bits and pieces, for the sake of forming an opinion. The general feeling that I got was of having been aurally raped. One of my strongest reasons for disliking newer music is the sterile modern production that does nothing but suck the life right out of the music. Taking this mentality and robbing old albums of the aura that made them special is ridiculous. And this isn't merely limited to albums that I grew up on; i.e. this sentiment is not based on nostalgia, alone. The same goes for any Speed/Thrash album that I happen to dig up, all these years later. If any of those had such an empty and lifeless production job, I'd hate them as well. If the person in charge of remastering the album limits himself to making sure there are no imperfections (such as a drop in sound) then that is a different matter. In some cases, the clarity of the compact disc revealed imperfections from the source tape that weren't as easily noticed on vinyl or cassette, such as Anthrax's Fistful of Metal. If it was possible to go in and remove those imperfections without compromising the integrity of the album, that would be fully acceptable.

There are cases where an album needs to be remastered. Looking at some of the albums that came out of Hellspawn/Unisound, one can't help but feel pity for a few of those bands. In particular, Marduk was completely raped and had the impact of such works as Those of the Unlight and Opus Nocturne reduced to almost nothing. Years later, when they were remastered, it was for the better and only served to bring out the potential that was always there.

That brings up another interesting point. Perhaps this is what some artists feel they are doing. It could be that they were dissatisfied with the results and that the music did not live up to their original vision, whether it be due to errors in the production or the playing itself. However I see a strong difference between cleaning something up and trying to modernize it.

The next step is to actually re-record parts of the song, while retaining the rest. In some cases, someone will go in and re-do the bass lines or the vocals. Ozzy had the bass and drums re-recorded and replaced on his early albums, due to a royalty dispute with former bandmates. The result was more horrible filth that destroyed the feeling of the original albums though, being Ozzy releases, it wasn't nearly the same level of crime as the aforementioned Megadeth trickery. And speaking of Dave Mustaine, he is guilty of re-recording things as well. I don't have all the facts, but it seems that when it came time to remaster and reissue Rust In Peace, it was discovered that some of the original tapes were missing. This lead to the “natural conclusion” of re-recording some parts, and using alternate takes for others. This not only ruined the album, but completely killed it, dead. With the original being out of print, future generations will now have no choice but to accept this trash as the one and only version of this Thrash classic, without even knowing that they are listening to an inferior recording. My question is why they didn't just use an existing CD and make minimal changes (as I'm guessing one cannot do so much without having the separate tracks), but would still be better than altering the album. Of course, in my opinion, the album was fine as it was and didn't need to be tampered with, whatsoever. Then there was the more recent case of The Crown. I'm not terribly familiar with them, but I do remember reading that when their original vocalist returned to the band, they re-released the album that featured Tomas Lindberg, with his vocal tracks replaced.

Finally, we come to the issue of completely re-recording select songs, or even entire albums. In a sense, this is not as bad as the previous crime, since it is fully acknowledged as being a new recording rather than meddling with existing albums and trying to pass them off as the originals. What are the motives for re-recording music that has already been released on a proper studio album? In most cases, it is a matter of the artist not feeling that the material was presented as he intended for it to be.

Look at Burzum's “A Lost Forgotten Sad Spirit”, which was re-recorded a short time later for the Aske E.P. Varg was able to get the song just as he wished, and made this “correction” within a short time of the original release. In a situation such as this, it seems completely understandable. However, other times, it appears to be much more pointless. Take Black Funeral, for example. They released Vampyr – Throne of the Beast in 1996, and then re-recorded 85% of that material for Empire of Blood, in 1997. The arrangements were pretty much the same, with only the production and vocals being altered. Overall, this was rather useless, and a bit deceptive since the songs were all given new titles and no mention being made that they were the same as what appeared on the previous album. Still, it was within a relatively short amount of time and the argument could be made that the band members weren't pleased with the result of their 1996 effort, or simply chose to go in a slightly different direction afterward. Another reason to re-record an old song is for the band to showcase new members, usually for an E.P. Hypocrisy did it, on Inferior Devotees, re-recording a song with Peter on vocals, as a way of introducing the fans to his vocal style and to show that he was competent enough to fill Masse's position. As with the previous examples, this was done a short time after the original, and seemed to serve a specific purpose. However, as much as it pains me to bring this up, Dissection proved that, sometimes, the past needs to be left alone.

When Jon Nödtveidt was released from prison and reformed Dissection, they re-recorded “Unhallowed”, for the Maha Kali E.P. While they succeeded in displaying the skill of the new lineup (which I am sure was the ultimate goal), the song failed to capture the magic of the original. As an obsessed fan, I came to enjoy this rendition as well, but even I would not try to claim that it matched the version found on Storm of the Light's Bane. Still, in the end, it was merely a bonus track on a collector's E.P. And, after an absence of several years, it was important to show that Dissection was still a force to be reckoned with.

A somewhat pointless example would be Sodom, who re-recorded the classic In the Sign of Evil E.P., along with a handful of other songs that were, supposedly, meant to be recorded back in 1984. The sound does hearken back to the old days and maintains a raw, old school feeling. However, the re-recorded songs do not compare, favourably, to the originals and the new songs aren't good enough to justify this project. Since I don't recall these songs appearing on the demos that preceded the E.P. or the albums that followed, part of me wants to say that the guys just felt nostalgic for the past and decided to write some new songs in their old style, and the whole back story was merely a gimmick. I have no proof of that, obviously, but it does seem odd that they would be unable to record all of the songs that they had planned to, and then just tossed them aside and didn't bother to include them on Obsessed By Cruelty, for example. Whatever the case, at least they made an attempt to keep the raw sound and atmosphere when they did this.

If one wants to see just how disgusting re-recording classic material can be, look no further than Testament and Anthrax. On First Strike Still Deadly and The Greater of Two Evils, respectively, each band ripped through several songs from their classic period and raped them, thoroughly. Curiously, neither band had performed at quite the same level for some time, and revisiting these old songs showed that they were still capable of playing with a decent level of energy and precision. Still, trying to give 80s Thrash Metal a modern feeling is a crime beyond all others. In the case of Testament, the thicker production ruins everything and Chuck Billy's 90s vocal style does not fit well with the old songs. As for Anthrax... John Bush should never try to cover the Belladonna-era, or the Turbin-era, for that matter. He really seemed to try his best, but his style is nothing like either of those guys. The modern production ruins the feeling of the songs, as well. If the band wanted to revisit their glory days, they'd be much better off simply returning to their roots, rather than raping the past. A band like Anthrax should stop making trendy groove nonsense and go back to thrashing as they did on Fistful of Metal and Spreading the Disease. Take a cue from Bathory; when Quorthon decided to return to the Viking Metal sound, he didn't re-record Hammerheart, he wrote brand new material in the same vein, and ended up creating two more classic records.

While re-recording a song within a few months or so is one thing, going back a decade or two is rarely justified. Similarly, replacing bass or vocal tracks, or completely remastering the albums to give them a modern feel, thus stripping them of their very spirit, all of these things are crimes against music. Most bands would do well to leave the past alone. Of course, musicians and technology may improve with time, but that doesn't necessitate going back and ruining old records. They represent a moment in time that was captured and preserved and, nine times out of ten, the atmosphere and feeling of the original is not worth sacrificing for any reason.