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    Kolektiv Radio Non-commercial Community Radio Station Based in Prizren

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    The Last Gate

Metal

Historian On Strike

Ep. 14: Loved & Hated Death 'n' Roll

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Monday 23:00 23:59

The Death ‘n’ Roll trend of the 1990’s was probably necessary for the Death Metal genre to get all the Grunges out of its system – as with how some of the famous Thrash outlets just needed to become radio Rock, Nu Metal, or Goth. And just like with Thrash not everyone was affected – but some of the main acts from U.S., Sweden, and the Netherlands were. If the OG Swedish DM band Nirvana 2002 hadn’t disbanded around 1992 and also followed in that trend, they probably would have renamed themselves back to Nirvana as they were in 1988. But they wouldn’t have featured on this list of mostly mainstream DM bands.

 

1. Entombed first led the line with their classic DM album in 1990, but are in fact mostly known as a Death ‘n’ Roll band because most of their work is in that genre. Everyone seems to have loved it when they released Wolverine Blues in 1993. It is definitely a creative blend that came out seamlessly to them.

2. Unleashed had two straightforward gruesome DM outputs before making their first Viking album, which blended several styles including their first foray into melodic DM. But along were also tracks of rhythmic rolling groove. Not as universally well received as that of their more famous brothers.

3. Pestilence went for a more astral soundscape and really brought forth an interesting blend including some of Killing Joke, some of BÖC, some space rock too.

4. Asphyx and Pestilence both were fresh without Martin Van Drunen in the mid-90’s and looking for places to go. Asphyx simplified things, this album wasn’t too well received – but they achieved a memorable melancholic sound.

5. Gorefest, to top the Dutch triad, went as far as one can go with this Death ‘n’ Roll thing. They didn’t groove – instead making something that would have flown high at Woodstock ’69.

6. Grave was one of those examples of a band not coming under as much fire as others for having switched to the groovier sounds. It was probably expected of them.

7. Oft forgotten is that, before becoming Death Metal’s equivalent of David Gilmour, Karl Sanders “struggled” to achieve the technicality and stamina to play DM in the style of Morbid Angel. However true that was on Nile‘s first EP is debatable – but in atmosphere he surely made up for whatever shortcomings were in his self criticism. Yes, “Worship the Animal” is not as twisted as a typical Nile maelstrom – but the more you listen the more evident it is what will follow 4 years later.

8. Six Feet Under are everyone’s favorite DM band to hate. Chris Barnes has made it abundantly clear why he was no longer happy in Cannibal Corpse (the change of guitarist pre-Bleeding) and was constrained by that band’s direction. I don’t recall many people talking about them in terms of Death ‘n’ Roll before Bringer of Blood, but one can easily get that same satisfying rhythm from the very first SFU. Everything they did is grossly underrated – from this, through their mid-period, to their excellent DM revival records after 2012, and the unique inhuman voice that EEEE’d at you throughout.

9. The third of the unholy Swedish trinity, Dismember had this album in 1995 where they subsidized their classic DM sound with some of the same grooves heard on Entombed and Unleashed, also going into melodic DM on a couple of trys.

10. Desultory had two well respected albums and disbanded shortly after doing this – their third, which everybody hated. They returned in 2010 and made two excellent melodic DM records. Back to “Swallow the Snake,” that it is less liked than their first two is strange from today’s perspective. It sounds well connected to their thrashier and groovier first and their melodic and melancholic second.

11. Carcass made their worst received album Swansong in 1996, not too long after making their hugely overrated Heartwork. For the latter they were for some reason branded pioneers of melodic DM – an opinion fueled by Earache drones, disproved by history as Carcass were quite late to the party with that genre. They were so much more interesting on Swansong as they at least made more than one song that sticks to people’s memory.

12. Edge of Sanity made a solitary album without Dan Swano. This is it. Their signature Death Prog turned to a much simpler grungier sound. Far from their best or the revolutionary things they did on every record prior. Interestingly, this particular track “Uncontroll Me” takes one of the leitmotifs off their 1996 epic tale “Crimson.”

13. Napalm Death would not have been in the conversation for Death Metal if they hadn’t recorded a DM album at Morrissound in 1990. Then followed a return to Grind, a slowdown and a brief but wonderful similarity with local townsfolk Godflesh which coincided with a… switch to groove. At the tail end of that was their last record before returning to Grind again. It’s an element that they continue to come back to even to this day.

14. An example from the intro of Obituary‘s comeback in 2005 to prove that Rock was in the air for yet more of the mainstream DM acts.

15. Morbid Angel is the second and last wildcard from outside the 90’s when they returned after 11 years without an album – and everyone hated what came to be. Most people still haven’s listened the album as they are afraid of the common opinions they’ve already heard about it. If you happen to notice that 5 out of the 9 non-intro/outro tracks were actually a return to pure Death Metal in the style of Morbid Angel, you are bound to lose any argument concerning this forbidden record. Of the remaining four Industrial Rock pieces, one is “I Am Morbid” which failed to become an anthem for the band due to the automatic rejection – but did become the name for the revivalist collaboration between David Vincent and Commando Pete performing songs from the first four MA albums.

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