Necrophagist

[RedReign]

I'm sure a lot of people probably look down on this band for a number of reasons.

I did too for a while.  But I hadn't really listened to them.  Now I think they're amazing.  They're head and shoulders above most of the random, disorganized "technical" death metal.  There's a lot of thought in there to go along with the BROOTAL.

[JewishPhysics]

I hate this band for one very simple reason; I think their riffing sucks.  They put so much effort into their neoclassical noodling, and yet the riffs are about as mediocre and generic as I've ever heard (which they generally try to cover up by simply fucking up the rhythm).  The only good technical metal I've heard has come from Canada, namely Gorguts, Martyr, Obliveon, and Voivod.

[Humanicide]

No, they are the PURVEYORS of random, technical death metal.

Their tone is hollow, their "riffing" noodly and without purpose, and they even threw in a part of a Beethoven symphony into one of their songs, simply because he goes so well with gory topics.

They are one of the bands to be criticized for what they do. I do not have a "hatred" towards most bands, just a dislike. Necrophagist has earned the dubious honor of being one of the bands that I hate. Complete garbage.

If you really wish to experience modern technical death metal, I'd suggest Kronos instead. Nothing outstanding, but a much better sense of riffing and much less noodling.

[RedReign]

That's strange that you would say that.  It sounds to me like it flows pretty well and the songs sound really constructed to me. 

Ordinarily I hate this kind of stuff too.  It's the only non-Scandinavian death metal I've heard in years that I liked at all.

Necrophagist do commit the Sin of the Inscrutable Beat, where the steady beat of the music becomes abstracted and obscured in the midst of hundreds of breaks and fills.  This is perhaps the biggest flaw of all technical death metal that I've heard. 

If you look at Slayer songs, the arrangements and riffs are very simple.  The beats are straightforward, but many of the songs contain a constant unbroken thread of rhythm.  I think forgetting this is a giant mistake that bands make.  Once they start making music that can only be appreciated by technical deathmetallers, it becomes self referential and increasingly useless.  Frankly I'm amazed that such a complex style has reached the popularity it has.

But I do find much of the Necrophagist riffing original and interesting.  I'm particularly interested in the way he gets in and out of fill solos, and I love the solos themselves-- they provide much-needed beauty and organization in contrast to the arguably chaotic, choppy rhythm changes.

We'll see if I'm still listening in five years.  I doubt it.  But even so, it's the only tech-death I've listened to much since the Legion era.

[heather]

This band is probably as far into technical dm I will choose to go. There's too many bands out there now that are taking that style and making it.. just lame.

[Transilvania]

Although guitarists like Suicmez are awfully dextrous, they can't write music. They think that the disorganized sound will somehow organize itself in their own minds. It doesn't.

Same think happened with Cryptopsy as soon as Salvo entered the picture. 2 problems there. They became an overly technical piece of crap, no real direction I could detect. 2nd, they lost Lord Worm.

Anyways, Necrophagist just seems to spew out incredible material, but it never takes me anywhere. It never develops, because disorganization prevents any of the riffs from creating a mood.

There is no emotion or power in those chords. Just the band's overwhelming technicality.

[Murdercorpse]

I am a much bigger fan of Obscura. (When you get down to it, Obscura is basically Necrophagist + Songwriting, which makes sense considering they share a guitarist an a drummer)

[Stranger]

I am a much bigger fan of Obscura. (When you get down to it, Obscura is basically Necrophagist + Songwriting, which makes sense considering they share a guitarist an a drummer)

If you mean Obscura the album, then I have to disagree a bit.

The Obscura album is incredibly technical, more technical than any death metal album. But what I'd like to say is that the sound of Obscura is organic. There are feelings that explode from that album. Necrophagist sounds like they inserted data into a program and burned it on a disk. It's so fucking bland and pointless that I can't see why anyone enjoys it.

To each their own I suppose. I'm certainly not a fan.

[kontinual]

I am a much bigger fan of Obscura. (When you get down to it, Obscura is basically Necrophagist + Songwriting, which makes sense considering they share a guitarist an a drummer)

If you mean Obscura the album, then I have to disagree a bit.

The Obscura album is incredibly technical, more technical than any death metal album. But what I'd like to say is that the sound of Obscura is organic. There are feelings that explode from that album. Necrophagist sounds like they inserted data into a program and burned it on a disk. It's so fucking bland and pointless that I can't see why anyone enjoys it.

To each their own I suppose. I'm certainly not a fan.

I think the reference is to the band OBSCURA.

[Antithesis]

[Necrophagist sounds like they inserted data into a program and burned it on a disk. It's so fucking bland and pointless that I can't see why anyone enjoys it.

To each their own I suppose. I'm certainly not a fan.

That's basically how at least some of their songs were written. I read somewhere that Muhammed wrote riffs with Powertab first and then learnt how to play them on guitar; might explain their clinical sound to some extent.

The band Obscura, are essentially plagiarising parts from techy bands like Cynic, Necrophagist, Gorguts and then mish mashing them together; I wouldn't say their song writing is particularly great at all.

[flayedandskinned]

i can't stand Necrophagist. they sound like a pinball machine90% of the time. just soulless wank to my ears.

[ImpureEhiyeh]

Technical deathmetal as a term, seems to be an excuse to spill random chromatic notepattenrs in ultrahighspeeds, in a pool of random and stupid rhythmicpatters, and call that "technical" instead of just random crap who teenager guitarists buy cause "the guy can sweep random chromatic arpeggiopatterns at 400bpm".
I'm not saying that every technical deathmetal band is like this, but most of what i've heard is.

[maeve.binchy]

This band is without grace, or any sublime dimension. It is technique-heavy without seeming to have a direction for that technique to go. As a result, it sounds like a guitar lesson interpreting supply-side economics.

[satans_underwear]

The whole "Technical" Death metal thing is basically just a reworking of the 80's guitar hero wank, albeit to the tune of DM rather than glam rock/metal.
Muhammed Suiçmez is a modern day Nuno Bettencourt.