The Batlord

A one album wonder by death metal journeyman guitarist James Murphy of Death and Obituary fame, this is some quality tech death before tech death became a thing to be derided. It's mature but still has the bite and malevolence required of early 90s death metal. It's a shame this band only made the one album, as while I'm not sure James had anything more in the tank, a couple more albums might still have gained this project enough notice for this awesome album to have not languished in obscurity for so long. This **** is just too awesome to be ignored.

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The Batlord

For the longest time I thought Atheist were boring, but for the last two days I've been blasting the **** out of their first two albums. Debut is some awesomely brutal tech/death thrash with crazy riff snakes all over the place. Second album is off-the-wall, jazzy tech death that's so much more fun and whimsical than that sounds, and was probably beamed to Earth from a flying saucer full of stoner aliens in denim jackets. Almost like if Voivod kicked five times as much ass and wasn't lame as ****.

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Blue Hawk

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Eliminate the right, eliminate the wrong, eliminate the weak, eliminate the strong.

Frownland

That's what you get for listening to [insert artist I don't like]: you go around writing off great **** like Atheist.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

The Batlord

So apparently Death once covered KISS. And it was awesome. Who knew?

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Electrophonic Tonic

^^ Death could cover Mamas and Papas B-sides and it would be brutal and ****ing awesome.

A metal affluent friend of mine recommended Lair of the Minotaur to me a year or two ago.

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I was told I wouldn't need a signature...

Anteater

Not quite sure how to categorize these fellas: they've got a potent mixture of melodic progressive metal with some crossover into heavier realms (you can hear elements of both death and black metal at times). Either way, they've got a knack for memorability.

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Anteater's 21 Fav Albums Of 2020

Anteater's Daily Tune Roulette

The Batlord

As with many people I've kind of ignored Spiritual Healing for the longest, and this is bull****. It's actually a pretty unique album in death metal, as there are very few bands creative enough to evolve from primitive, ugly, 80s death metal to full on tech/prog death metal, so you also don't have very many albums so successfully transitioning from one to the other. Spiritual Healing has much of the accessible brutality of Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy, but is mature, accomplished, and slick in a way that isn't boring or sterile. Kinda reminds me of Heartwork tbh, but with less groove and speed, and more of some of the sickest lead guitar on Earth. By the end of the week I'm fully expecting to be a Death fanatic.

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Blue Hawk

Here I come/now you're dead/get your woman/in my bed

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Eliminate the right, eliminate the wrong, eliminate the weak, eliminate the strong.

The Batlord

What little I've heard of djent has not impressed me, but Decapitated do a brilliant job of combining Meshuggah with tech death. Heavy as ****, brutal as ****, but coldly mechanical at the same time. I can't remember the last time I was this into death metal. I like this development.

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