The Rock Blogger

Death. Individual Thought Patterns. 1993. 5 stars.

Where would the death metal genre be without the band that shares its namesake? Over their decade-plus career, Death revolutionized extreme metal, introducing progressive elements to their brutal, technically stunning sound. Psychotic riffs, solos and fluid bass lines make up Death’s dexterous attack while the late Chuck Schuldiner provides an intelligent and aggressive vocal performance. After 1991’s renowned Human, Death began a string of hard-hitting and virtuosic releases that brought death metal to a higher plane with winding compositions and thoughtful lyrics. Individual Thought Patterns, the first post-Human album continued the band’s impressive momentum.

The song structures are complex and compelling. The drilling percussion backs the fretless lines while the ripping guitar solos rage on. Everything flows together beautifully as the musianship remains tight and relentless. You would be hard-pressed to find a death metal album that blends seering technical precision with creative songwriting as seamlessly as Individual Thought Patterns. In short, this album is a metal masterpiece, that stands alongside Death’s latter works (Symbolic, Sound of Perseverance). This, or anything by Death, is simply essential.

Death - “Overactive Imagination”

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 1:45 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.