More bullshit music: "tech death"

[analrapist]

After I got out of high school I lost track of what is cool. First because the degree I am studying is not easy, and second because I met new people who are free from the worry about what is current or hip. The idea is that we're adults now, so we study hard and get good jbos, and then the people who spent all their time worrying about what was hip can tell us about it while they clean our floors. I graduated and have not looked back. When I came back to visit over Christmas I was at the diner and the little brother of my best friend was there, he had something he called technical death metal so I docked my phone and got some dubs but this "tech death" was a real disappointment.

It's not death metal at all. There are only about four riffs per song, there are two solos per song, a lot of sweeps, but it's major key and sounds happy, then there's a lot of jazz breaks and rhythms, and while the individual notes are really fast the songs are slow. I was struck by how stupid this music is and how you would have to be a normal stupid asshole to think this is good, it has no real content, but it's technical so people are afraid to criticize it because they are afraid people will say they are stupid, yet the music is really boring.

[Bandh]

What band(s) do you have in mind? Brain Drill? Necrophagist?

[ChapelOfTorment]

Sounds like you may have been exposed to some Spawn of Possession. There's some good tech death out there (Timeghoul, Violent Dirge, Atheist, Nile, Gorguts, Pavor, Suffocation, Decrepit Birth, Liers in Wait, etc.), but good tech death bands use the technicality as a means to an end (more interesting structure/composition) instead of just showing off.

[Iron]

Funny, most of those bands I never would have thought of as being "tech death". The fact that they were technical seems incidental to the fact that they (mostly) were shining examples of death metal in general.

[Parasite]

Technical Death Metal has been hard for me to get into, maybe im listening to the wrong stuff, or maybe my brain cant handle the "sophistication" of the music.  Deeds of Flesh comes to mind.  I have had times where I really enjoyed Inbreeding the Anthropophagi and other times It just gets on my fucking nerves, I always say to myself "Where are they going with this?".  I got super high one time and listened to Mark of the Legion and it scared the shit out of me , a feeling that is rare to come by, it just sounded monstrous. Sober however it just sounds like a bunch of bullshit wanking.  Bands like Suffocation, Cryptopsy and Gorguts kind of hide their technicality rather well in their songs though, i wouldn't even think of them as being technical.

[Cargést]

On a related note, I've been learning Battles in the North and Blizzard Beasts recently, and those are relatively "technical" albums (especially Blizzard Beasts - those riffs are so stupid on their own, but so cool within the context of the album).  It's funny that everyone goes on about how Black Metal requires no musicianship, while Death Metal is uber-technical (etc.); clearly none of these people has ever sat down with mid-era Immortal before.

[Forza Romana]

How true! Black metal does not get the mention it deserves because most are lead to believe that technicality means many notes, but instead you can have riffs that seem simple but in reality are technical in nature. I am trying to think of a example at the moment.

[Iron]

(especially Blizzard Beasts - those riffs are so stupid on their own, but so cool within the context of the album).

Not a single stupid riff on Mountains of Might.

[Cargést]

When Abbath starts singing, that "verse" riff is slightly stupid, out of context, but it's nowhere near as retarded as the first three riffs of the album (which suddenly make sense [and are fucking awesome] when they're reintroduced halfway through the song).

[holy ghost]

I wouldn't say tech death is anywhere on my radar in terms of a favorite genre, but later Pestilence, Gorguts, Atheist, Necrophagist are worth checking out, as are a few newer bands, I stumbled upon Decrepit Birth as the result of someone abdolutely hating on them and found that Diminishing Between Worlds is great. Wasn't too into the last one as much but DBW really has some fucked up weirdness to it. Basically I just lile really strong technical leads and when they can pull that off well? I mean this a genre that when it's good it's good and when it's bad it's REALLY fuckin' bad.

Obscura have some amazing guitar work, the records are interesting but I would be just as happy to listen to that dude shred away on a solo record (which in fact he made, and is excellent if you like unrequited musical wanking for 60 minutes).

[Conservationist]

Tech-death is what they call the new age indie metal like Ulcerate, Obscura, Synthesis, etc.

It's all fucking douchebag stuff -- Fugazi done by a Nile clone.

[Gefechtsgruppe10]

On a related note, I've been learning Battles in the North and Blizzard Beasts recently, and those are relatively "technical" albums (especially Blizzard Beasts - those riffs are so stupid on their own, but so cool within the context of the album).  It's funny that everyone goes on about how Black Metal requires no musicianship, while Death Metal is uber-technical (etc.); clearly none of these people has ever sat down with mid-era Immortal before.

Immortal always seemed like a death metal band trapped in a black metal band's body.  And maybe the genre-change operation didn't quite take for a while but in the end they were able to accept themselves for who they were despite the ravages of repeated invasive surgeries.  Listen to Storming through Red Clouds and Holocaust Winds and tell me that isn't a death metal song recorded in Grieghall?
Another chink in the armour of the 'black metallers need no ability' idea is the fact that Darkthrone put out an excellent technical death metal album before they started playing in the 'simple' black metal style.  Even the album Blaze... is pretty technical at times, IIRC.  Even the very simple album Under a Funeral Moon has plenty of moments of 'technicality' in that Fenriz is making consious musical decisions to add depth and meaning to the music.  Listen to Walk the Infernal Fields.  The restrained drumming highlights the brilliant interplay of the vocals, guitars, and bass as they move in parallel and diverge into 'counterpoint' only to connect again tangentially and then run parallel again, etc.  Its really a brilliant piece of music executed by inspired musicians who knew exactly what they were doing.
Another good example is Mayhem's song Life Eternal.  The vocal melody is quite haunting against the unified bass/guitar line until Atilla screams 'you pray for death!' (at least, that is what I assume he is saying) before the bass guitar recapitulates (more or less) the initial vocal melody.  See how the basic 'verse' guitar riff is recapitulated in different forms by both the bass and the guitar itself in different voicings.  This leads to the argument that the musicians had a specific idea and were presenting it in as many relevant ways as possible so as to elucidate/reinforce the idea.  And so forth.  The point is, these were inspired musicians who knew exactly what they were doing.
Listen to a recent Meshuggah song.  Listen to how terrible it is.  It sounds all complex-y but really is pretty predictable... notice how it comes back to the 4/4 beat?  Notice how the 4/4 beat is really the basis of all of their songs?  And how the solos sounds all crazy and technical but you forget about them even as they are being played?  The point is, these guys are not inspired musicians but they do know exactly what they are doing. 

[aquarius]

Form and intent. The musical language needs to support the ideas being communicated.

[Humanicide]

Form and intent. The musical language needs to support the ideas being communicated.

Precisely.

Most of these so called "tech death" bands are using technicality as the basis of their songs; as an end. This is incredibly faulted - we all know that technicality is merely a means.