I still listen to that stuff all the time it’s considered classic for a reason.
Basically all of the “entry-level” stuff, for lack of a better term. Who were the first death metal bands that really resonated with you and do you still listen to them regularly now? Alex: At the Gates, Gorguts, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Cryptopsy, Death. I couldn’t get enough death metal if I tried after that. But then when I was probably about sixteen or seventeen or so, I was introduced to stuff like Slaughter of the Soul, Obscura and Heartwork, and that kind of sh*t just hooked me immediately. I didn’t start getting into it in any sort of meaningful way until I had already gotten pretty into other heavy stuff like black metal, crust punk, etc. So Alex, did you gravitate to death metal early on, or were there any real gateway bands you think helped you get into it? Alex: I definitely was not a death metal head at an early age. I asked Alex (Jones – vocals) about his journey with death metal: It gained widespread acclaim and the band have just recently been cited by Max Cavalera as one of his favourite current bands. Rochester, NY’s Undeath released their debut album Lesions of a Different Kind last year on Prosthetic Records. I spoke to a few of the bands in this new crop about what drives them, inspires them and what’s next for this burgeoning scene. A whole new crop of bands who were brought up listening to some of the music I’ve mentioned above, are now generating some of the most exciting and downright enjoyable death metal in years. As the various branches continue to grow from their mutual points of origin, different characteristics develop and recede as the years go on, but something that is certainly becoming more prevalent at the moment is an increasingly overt love for, and drawing influence from, Old School Death Metal, or OSDM as it’s more often know. Most pleasingly though, is the amount of people who are now championing the current death metal landscape as one of (if not the) most quality-rich and diverse that the genre has ever seen in its thirty-five or forty-year history. I also speak to a lot of fans who believe the soul of death metal lies in the theme of its name and as such they look to the likes of Cannibal Corpse, Deicide or Suffocation to get their hit. There are also death metal fans who maintain that the UK crop from the early 90’s such as Napalm Death (after the first 2 albums they’re more death than grind), Carcass and Bolt Thrower are the standard bearers for what the genre can achieve. They created something that had been hinted at before, but they made it flesh, so to speak. Bands like Death, Morbid Angel, Obituary coming out of the Floridian scene in the early to mid-80’s basically defined the death metal sound.
There is a school of thought that it never got better than the early days. There are a number of opposing opinions about what constitutes death metal’s greatest period. To find out, Sam Houlden dug a bit deeper, speaking to new era death metal bands Undeath and Sanguisugabogg about the state of the scene today, what has influenced it and where it’s headed. But what’s behind this explosion in a scene that has historically been hard to penetrate or market beyond a hardcore contingent of superfans…? Monthly listeners to both the new crop of bands and their progenitors are up on and vintage merch has become even more de rigeur than it was before, if you can believe it. There seems to be a resurgence of sorts, but not in quite the same way as the myriad emo revivals have happened, for example. Depending on the parts of the musical spectrum that you’re interested in, or even keep an eye on, you may or may not have noticed a significant increase in the amount of new bands, publicity, fans and general visibility surrounding the world of death metal of late.
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