Decibel Magazine Top 100 Death Metal Albums of All Time

I thought it might be a fun writing exercise to try and review what Decibel magazine deemed the top 100 death metal albums of all time in order starting with #1. This idea is totally based on my friend who is doing a similar thing with This List.

Starting off we have...

Altars of Madness is Morbid Angel's first Official Album since their original first album : Abominations of Desolation" was deemed by the band to be not good enough. One of the first things that I started noticing by beginning this challenge is that the early death metal bands all have a very strong Hardcore/ punk influence. This is audible in terms of attitude, production and frankly the riffs themselves. At this particular point in time, speed was such a big priority that it basically didn't matter if it sounded death metal or punk just as long as it was EXTREME!!

"Immortal Rites" was actually one of the very first death metal songs I ever heard. The ethereal vocals and evil seance atmosphere really piqued the interest of my high school self.  Even still I think the "spooky" is a big part of the draw to Altars of Madness, with a lot of songs heavily using flanger/phaser effects and also the solos which although very rooted in the slayer tradition(Speed>everything), have a unique sound that makes them sound like spirits trying to cross over into this realm...or something. Let's not forget how into H.P. Lovecraft/ the Necronomicon these dudes were... See the name "Trey Azagthoth"

I would not consider Morbid Angel Techdeath, however the influence of their music, inluding this album is undeniable when you consider the labyrinthine guitar riffs, fast double bass and even certain moments of headiness such as the polyphonic guitar harmonies on "Visions From The Darkside"

David Vincent's bass is satisfactory if nothing too special and you can really hear that evil fuzzy pick tone he has during the little bass break on "Suffocation"

#BasilReviews #TechClassics

Introduction!

Welcome one and all to #BasilReviews The Blog. This started as something I did for fun on Facebook, but several of my freinds urged me to actually start writing a blog. The name #BasilReviews started as a joke that someone wrote as a comment on a couple random topics I gave an opinion on.  I may continue to post reviews for random shit such as toilet paper, bic brand pens, papermate pens etc but I think for the sake of this blog I will mostly stick to music reviews.

In keeping with the style of my FB posts, I will try and keep my blog posts brief and to the point because I feel that if I don't feel like writing about it, you don't feel like reading about it, so I would call these digest style but that doesn't mean I won't ramble from time to time.

A detailed list of my credentials can be found here from the last time I tried to start a blog, but basically what you need to know about me is that I am a bass player and I will always make an effort to specifically talk about the bass guitar, synth bass, tuba, upright bass, washtub bass or any other type of instrument that makes its sounds on the low end of the spectrum in my reviews.

 I may update this intro down the line but I think it outlines what this blog will be about