Live Death - Death Metal Compilation

During the years when CDs were expensive and no internet made finding mp3s easy, compilations introduced fans to handfuls of bands at a (generally reduced-price) purchase. The Milwaukee Metalfest rose to domination among metal concerts because it was one of the few American events to emulate the popular Wacken-style festivals where the leading bands presented themselves each year. The gave wide-flung audiences a chance to have a community and until the avarice and tax cheating of the Milwaukee Metalfest brought it down, gave metalheads from North America a similar event.

Live Death

Restless

1994

Production: On the whole, loud enough and clear enough although moments of instrumental intensity produce some distortion on the low end.

Review: Suffocation - These two tracks reveal slight cracks in the legendary precision of this percussive cryptogram whose lengthy songs narrative between textures and phrases through a recombining sequence of protean riffs. Overall the performance is solid but perhaps not the best from Suffocation.

Malevolent Creation - From the early years of this band when it was content to combine Floridian infective rhythm with the explosive emphatic rigidity of New York bands, Malevolent Creation record three tracks that are faster in tempo and tremolo speed than on record and thus, more convincing. It is the benefit of some years of on the road guitar practice applied to the inspirations of early career songwriting.

Tracklist:

Suffocation:
1. Jesus Wept
2. Infecting The Crypts
Malevolent Creation:
3. Premature Burial
4. Slaughter Of Innocence
5. Decadence Within
Exhorder: 6. The Law
7. (Cadence Of) The Dirge
8. Desecrator
Cancer: 9. Hung, Drawn and Quartered
10. Blood Bath
Length: 44:59

Live Death - Death Metal Compilation Restless 1994

Exhorder - It is difficult to believe that Pantera was able to get away with emulating this band and become more popular, but the answer can be found here: Pantera adopted more traditional rock in its format, while Exhorder is close to the chromatic-based modal harmonic structure of death metal. These are convincingly performed but the dependence on rhythmic expectation makes these compositions tedious to longtime death metal listeners.

Cancer - This British band have steadfastly clung to a straightforward approach that uses vocal rhythm and hook to carry along a series of slightly updated heavy metal riffs and then sling the listeners into a bouncy and catchy choruses with the intelligence of a sandwich. As such these tracks come across as listless and out of place, like Bon Jovi trying to play a punk festival.