Darklife Death’s Dynamic Shroud

Words cannot do this album enough justice. This is a truly glorious metal release, certainly Death's finest hour, and easily one of the top metal albums of all time. The sheer ferocity and emotion that channels through each of the intricate, progressive guitar melodies shatters every low opinion of the American metal scene. When you combine Chuck Schuldiner's shrieking vocals (his eeriest performance ever) with the most talented, cohesive lineup yet, you get the definitive Death album. This album delicately mixes the best aspects of past albums Human, Individual Thought Patterns, and Symbolic and takes them one step further. The album is more aggressive, more progressive, and certainly more melodic…

Throughout the 1990s, Cuneiform Records has released essential Happy the Man material that had been overlooked by the band's label Arista in the mid-'70s. Death's Crown presents three archival recordings made in 1974 and 1976 in Happy the Man's rehearsal room. The sound quality is rather poor (the voice is particularly lost in the background), but it is still enjoyable and the beauty of the music makes up for the inconvenience. The record opens with the title track, "Death's Crown," an 11-part suite of 38 minutes. Composed in 1974, "Death's Crown" was originally a multimedia performance including dancers, actors, and a light and slide show. The piece has been performed on numerous occasions, and the band later integrated some parts into its live show (as an example, part five appears on the Live CD as the track "Open Book"). It is the tale of a man's journey into the other side of life, sung in the most emotional way by Frank Wyatt…

1990's Spiritual Healing wrapped up a trilogy of Death LPs delineating the birth of a genre and featuring the childishly provocative splatter-gore cover art of the ever-popular Ed Repka; artwork that, as the years wear on, has increasingly undermined the revolutionary musical accomplishments contained within all three of the legendary Floridian death metal band's first studio efforts…

There's no point judging music artifacts on the merit of audile quality, not when the artifact in question represents the birth of one of the greatest metal bands in history, DEATH. Instead, we should embrace the buzzbombing, ratchety and frankly horrid cassette-era transfer of basement tapes comprising MANTAS' "Death by Metal" as a peek into the origins of future genius…

The band named Death contained so many different musicians (almost 20) under the volatile stewardship of obstinate frontman Chuck Schuldiner, that it's remarkable any lineup ever held together long enough to go out on tour. But, in fact, Death was one of the hardest touring metal bands of their ilk, even though testimonials of the band's live prowess were anything but legion, and Schuldiner himself decided to go AWOL on one infamous occasion (nearly scuttling a high-profile European tour with Kreator, completed by his soon-to-be henchmen and a few hired guns). Perhaps it was the sour taste left by that experience, perhaps not, but this may explain why Death's entire career through to final studio album, The Sound of Perseverance, in 1998, was never interrupted by an official in-concert release…

NAPALM DEATH has nothing to prove. The British band is the pioneering crew that has carried the torch from the inception of grindcore through to today. It's been kicking out the jams for over 30 years, and the group's music offers enough that can appeal to a crust punk or death metal fanatic as well as a LAMB OF GOD fan or someone just discovering heavy music…

In a way, Napalm Death's Peel Sessions better represent the group's extreme classic sound than any of their '80s albums. Albums such as Scum and From Enslavement to Obliteration still stand as testaments to the group's innovative approach to prototypical grindcore, but as historically important as these albums are, they're awfully lo-fi. The pristine clarity and live aggression of the group's sessions on John Peel's influential BBC radio show make for a better sample of exactly how amazing this storied group was during its fabled era with vocalist Lee Dorrian, guitarist Bill Steer, drummer Mick Harris, and drummer Shane Embury…

A seminal album that helped establish the death metal subgenre, Scream Bloody Gore may be slightly musically amateurish next to Death's subsequent albums, but it trades polish for savage, gut-wrenching force and speed…

In the wake of Napalm Death's long, decade-plus relationship with Earache Records, the legendary band and likewise legendary label partnered once more for Noise for Music's Sake, a double-disc collection of career highlights and miscellany topped off by some informative packaging…

Napalm Death's second full effort, From Enslavement to Obliteration in ways put the seal on what the band had done, with most of its members going off to pursue their own individual efforts soon thereafter, and as such is the perfect complement to Scum, showing the quartet both straining at the bit and honing its original approach to a T. Like Scum, it starts on a more deliberate pace, with "Evolved as One" hitting a slow, careful trudge – everything is quite discernible, even Lee Dorrian's sore-throat roar style of singing – which is all the better to build up the listener for whatever happens next…