The music? The title's actually quite apt, as none of it actually flows or fits together. It's a discordant, proggy, jazzy mess, utterly irredeemable. Shit, in other words.

Oh, I thought it was quite good. Not as good as Human obviously, but good. Whereas Scream Bloody Gore is just a load of old tuneless bollocks

Laugh Out Loud.

But I'd agree that ITP isn't as good as Human, obviously. Opposite ends of the scale, of course but very little is as good as Human, in any case.

Actually I might say that Spiritual Healing is better than ITP.

Okay, maybe a little harsh. But it never struck me as very interesting even on vinyl in 1987 or whenever I bought it originally. But then I was never really into zombies and all that kind of thing... Leprosy was so much better, especially the bits that sounded like Slayer.

Um, are you actually listening to the same albums as everyone else?

Certainly... Death only got interesting once Chuck started listening to Fates Warning.

Emmm, no. Death were always fucking brilliant.

I like SBG, but I don't get that claim that it's a masterpiece. That seems too far fetched to me. Very good? yes. Brilliant? No. Death's brilliance came later when they began really rearranging the elements.

If they stopped in 1990 they wouldn't be nearly as revered now.

SBG and Leprosy was Death's peak. They lost their edge when they started with the headless guitars, lyrics about feelings, farty bass and all that shite.

You're both wrong and both right: Leprosy is their absolute peak, death metal distilled to perfection. Human took it in an interesting new direction, something often copied but never even approached (let alone equalled) in terms of execution. It's a phenomenal album, and the new complexity on show took nothing from its impact. How they went from that to ITP is a bizarre twist, now that was when they lost it.

^ Trve words spoken! Leprosy is better but debut albums are always special!

I agree with the exception of the part about being revered.

I said nearly. Their popularity peaked in the early 90s when they became legitimate innovators. If they disbanded in 90 they would still be respected, i just don't believe they would have been nearly as influential as they ended up being.

Despite being one of the innovators of the genre and releasing two definitive albums in the eighties? Nonsense.

Their early stuff was thrash with harsher vocals.

...which is a pretty accurate description of early death metal, yes. Leprosy, however is as death metal as it gets.

Exactly! You can't get much more influential or innovative than basically inventing the whole genre of death metal. Their later "innovations" were just icing (or shit as the case may be) on the cake.