Closer Playbook

How many death metal records today are worth stealing from? Not many, I’d wager; we simply have too many of them to keep track of. Look to the language: the promo writers are bored, “brutal” only has so many synonyms, and hearing that somewhere’s latest upstarts sound like old Deicide is only titillating for so long. But what else can be said? For the average death metal fan, the overabundance of material is a boon and a bane: you’ll never run out of grisly tunes, but you’ll never really dig into a record like older ‘heads did Altars of Madness because a brand new platter o’ splatter is ready and waiting. It’s like perpetually speed-dating, but never taking any of the girls out for a proper date. “Seems good, I like it, what’s next?”