Origin of the species: What began
as the raw energy from both MOTÖRHEAD and VENOM would later fuel the darkest
corners of the Bay Area thrash scene. The aggression of these bands (particularly
SLAYER), in addition to the Teutonic thrash bands like CELTIC FROST and
KREATOR, would cause a bunch of kids in Florida in the mid-late 80’s to
pick up instruments with one goal in mind: to take that brutality and boost
it as far as it can go while still being called music. Write songs in a
conventional, predictable format? Please. Clean, intelligible vocals? Who
needs ‘em?! Play it safe by making friendly music that’s not forbidding
or dangerous? Never! By 1987, DEATH’s “Scream Bloody Gore” helped
define the genre (alongside POSSESSED’s “Seven
Churches” two years earlier, but that’s another article). Soon after that,
some of the mainstays of the genre such as OBITUARY, MORBID ANGEL, DEICIDE
and others showed up making Florida the most happening scene for death metal.
Hell, some of these bands even got the opportunity to release albums on
the major labels. While there were plenty other hotbeds for death metal
at the time, the cycling of common members (like world renowned gun-for-hire
James Murphy) and popular recording studios like Morrisound gave the Florida
scene its own unique sound. Oddly, the Florida bands were some of the most
traditionally metal also—instead of focusing on being just the fastest and
heaviest like CANNIBAL CORPSE and NAPALM DEATH were doing, there’s more
clear reverence paid to their influences. In other words, you get more thrash
beats as opposed to blast beats, and more effort at fine-tuning the riffs
than some of the other scenes.
First, buy: MALEVOLENT CREATION - "The Ten
Commandments", 1991 (Roadrunner) - It's challenging to determine
what makes "The Ten Commandments" the queen mother of all Florida death
metal albums. Perhaps it's drummer Mark Simpson's sparing use of blast beats,
instead favoring an athletic combination of human-sounding double bass and
vicious snare attack. In tandem with MC's slower riffs, the sonic effect
in "Multiple Stab Wounds" and "Malevolent Creation" is actually quite similar
to being pulled from your vehicle and pounded to death by an angry mob.
But most likely, the winning element that makes this album so powerful is
simply riffs. Track after track the album
cycles through spectacular changes ranging from sick
crawling chug to addictive speeding crunch without a single ounce of filler,
best evidenced in the massive "Thou Shall Kill!" The axe attacks of Phil
Fasciana and Jeff Juskiewicz sound like actual guitar solos, not the twisted,
wankerish poot displayed by countless other death metal bands. If you've
ever wondered what "Beyond the Gates" would have sounded like with Scott
Burns at the knobs instead of Carl Canedy, this album could provide the
glimpse you've been searching for. At any rate, it pisses all over most
of the competition.
Then buy: DEATH – “Human”, 1991 (Relativity)
– The greatness of their raw early albums and later technical albums
notwithstanding, this particular album should be singled out for a number
of reasons. First, this album ended the notion of DEATH as a unified band,
thereby making it “Chuck Schuldiner and whoever he feels like playing with
at the time”. The lineup he formed with this one can easily be called a
dream team: longtime friend and SADUS bassist Steve DiGiorgio along with
Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert of CYNIC (perhaps only bested lineup-wise
by “Individual Thought Patterns”, which found Chuck and Steve teamed with
Andy LaRoque of KING DIAMOND and Gene “The Machine”
Hoglan). With “Human”, one sees the birth of a far
more technical and cleaner, tighter sounding DEATH, a trend that would only
continue throughout the remainder of Chuck’s career. Tracks like “Together
as One”, “Suicide Machine” and “Lack of Comprehension” are undisputed metal
classics, and the instrumental “Cosmic Sea” (one of only two instrumentals
DEATH ever did), with its tripped-out synth effects, had a big impact on
more experimental death metal bands to come, like UK’s MITHRAS.
Then buy: MORBID ANGEL – “Blessed Are The Sick”,
1991 (Earache) – Yeah, okay… the tired old battle over which of
the first three MORBID ANGEL albums is best heats up again. However, for
the completely unfamiliar, it would be a hell of a lot easier to familiarize
yourself with the album that started the experimentation of the latter albums
while still maintaining the raw aggression (and a small handful of songs)
of the band’s beginnings. This album really has it all—from the fast as
hell “Brainstorm” and “Unholy Blasphemies” to the first slow, doomy M.A.
songs like the CD’s title track, along with eerie interludes like the outro
“Leading the Rats” and the instrumental “Desolate Ways”.
"Blessed are the Sick" proved it would take more than
just speed and growls to create music that was truly sinister.
Then buy: NOCTURNUS - "The Key", 1991 (Earache)
- It may be hard to imagine now but back in 1990 it was something
quite unheard of: death metal with keyboards!! Because that's what NOCTURNUS
did on their amazing debut album "The Key", although they preferred to call
their sound 'space metal'. According to some music critics at the time they
were to start a revolution in the death metal genre but somehow that never
happened. In hindsight it's not hard to see why. What's good about it is
they had a pretty unique sound and concept. The keyboards actually make
sense here. Instead of turning the music into a muddled mess (so painfully
often the case these days - see
CRADLE OF FILTH and their countless imitators) they
add a genuinely eerie atmosphere to the mostly great song material. And
on top of that there's some amazing guitar playing. Production-wise it hasn't
dated all that well though. The thin drum sound is especially painful on
the ears by today's standards. And on later albums they failed to deliver
on the high expectations. Still, despite its shortcomings I personally still
consider "The Key" a minor classic. Hope it gets a slightly remastered reissue
someday.
Live pick: OBITUARY – “Dead”, 1998 (Roadrunner)
– You can’t help but love a band like OBITUARY. Their formula is
extremely simple but oh-so-effective. They mix dirty, driving riffs with
Allen West’s signature guitar wails and a “less is more” philosophy when
it comes to speed and, well, just about everything else. Plus, no one else
in death metal sounds even remotely like John Tardy—absolutely unintelligible
and evil sounding as Hell. Their live album “Dead” (awesome title) is everything
you want in a live album: not only does it showcase how well the band translates
on stage but it’s also a very effective retrospection on the band’s catalog,
from classics like “Chopped in Half” and “Till Death”
to newer heavy hitters like “Threatening Skies”. If
that wasn’t enough, John Tardy addressing the crowd with his subhuman growl
is just priceless
Rare pick: "SOLSTICE - "Solstice" 1992 (Steamhammer)
- SOLSTICE's who's-who-in-Florida lineup included current and future
members of MONSTROSITY, MALEVOLENT CREATION, and CYNIC. But those expecting
the ultimate bowel-rattling experience were surprised at SOLSTICE's frequent
nods to classic thrash metal a la TESTAMENT. Of course, this out-of-print
gem sets off cannonloads of ear-smashing Floridian percussive blasts and
sinister gargles. But the band straddles the line with a cover of CARNIVORE's
classic "SMD", and lots of crunch-tacular madness for the 'Thrash 'til Death'
crowd (take 'Plasticized' for example). Sadly the band broke up after 1995's
excellent follow-up disc 'Pray". By the way, James Murphy also lends solos to
two tracks on "Solstice" for those who need more convincing.
Avoid: DEICIDE – “In Torment In Hell”, 2001
(Roadrunner) –Now this is taking nothing away from the other great
work that Glen Benton and the boys have made prior and since—they’re the
thrash fanatic’s death metal band to be sure. DEICIDE took far more influence
from the Teutonic bands than anyone else in the scene. Still, by 2001 most
people didn’t even know that Roadrunner had any more death metal bands on
their roster, largely due to their love affair with shitty mainstream rock
acts like NICKELBACK. This was precisely DEICIDE’s dilemma, and why they
felt forced to rush this album to get the hell out of their contract. The
end result is pretty uninspired and falls into both the
“been there, done that” and “only for the completist”
categories. This story does have a happy ending though: DEICIDE found themselves
on an appropriate and supportive label (Earache) and recorded one of their
best albums ever, 2004’s “Scars of the Crucifix”. For that matter, Roadrunner
has since taken steps to become metal again, adding to their roster bands
like OPETH and 3 INCHES OF BLOOD.
Closing tidbits: Obviously, an encyclopedia
could be written on the countless death metal bands that popped out of New
York (CANNIBAL CORPSE, IMMOLATION, etc.), California (POSSESSED, AUTOPSY,
etc.), Sweden (too damn many to list), and elsewhere—but the Florida bands
were some of the most successful for good reason. This was not only the
breeding ground for what today’s bands would emulate, but also a showcase
for how varied the genre could be as more and more bands popped up, adding
their own spin to the style. Florida bands demonstrated musicianship ranging
from bare-bones and raunchy as hell (OBITUARY) to jazz-like experimentation
(ATHEIST and
CYNIC), and lyrics ranging from the obscurely arcane (MORBID
ANGEL) to the philosophical (DEATH) to the just plain evil (DEICIDE). Bottom
line, if you’re even remotely into metal, you can (though I’m sure already
did) find something you dig in the Florida death scene.
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