I fuckin love death metal. I have since I first discovered it when I was 14 years old. I'm 24 now so I've been into it for a decade I guess. Since I've been living in Japan I haven't managed to go to any gigs, and I don't really know many metal fans here. It's festival season now in Europe and I've been feeling like I'm missing out. Normally I go to at least one or two metal festivals every year as well as a load of other shows.
Recently I've been listening to a lot of bands that I hadn't listened to in a while. I could've kept going all day adding songs to this list. Here's some of my favourite death metal songs in no particular order:
I think the album that this song is from, None So Vile, is maybe my favourite death metal album of all time. It's got a bunch of great songs on like Slit Your Guts and Dead and Dripping, but Phobophile is definitely the best one in my opinion. I love Lord Worm's vocals. I don't know a single word of the lyrics in this song but I've definitely memorised all the sounds he makes. I don't hate Cryptosy's newer stuff, but it's definitely not as good as this album.
This one is an obvious choice. I love loads of Cannibal Corpse songs, but I picked this one because it's probably their most famous one. When I was younger, I used to think Cannibal Corpse were a bit mediocre because they weren't quite as technical or quite as something else as some of the other newer bands I was into. My opinion changed completely after I saw them play live the first time; it was amazing. I think my favourite thing about Cannibal Corpse are the mid-paced riffs that they have in a lot of their songs; including this one. Some death metal bands seem to just go as fast as they can all the time, but Cannibal Corpse know how to vary the pace a bit to make more interesting songs.
Nile are really good. The ancient Egypt theme is pretty cool as well.
Also I like their unnecessarily long song titles. Here are the best ones:
- Yezd Desert Ghul Ritual In The Abandoned Towers Of Silence - Chapter Of Obeisance Before Giving Breath To The Inert One In The Presence Of The Crescent Shaped Horns - Papyrus Containing The Spell To Preserve It's Possessor Against Attacks From He Who Is In The Water.*
*according to Spotify, this one was released as a single too. They must have chosen it because of the catchy name.
This was another obvious choice. This is a band and a song every death metal fan should know. Also this is one of my other favourite death metal albums of all time; Nihility. Actually I think I prefer a few of the other songs on this album to Spheres Of Madness, but dat riff is too much:
I don't think this is Dying Fetus' most well known song, but it's my favourite. I really like how Dying Fetus have these fast technical sections mixed in with slower parts (without falling into the fast bit - breakdown tedious deathcore formula); I think it makes both parts stand out more because they're juxtaposed with the other.
This album is Warhammer 40K themed for some reason. World Eaters are a type of Chaos Space Marine. Anyway, I love the main riff in this song. I also love the guitar sound.
Necrophagist were the first death metal band that I really got into. They only released 2 albums, and I think this is their best song, although they're all pretty good. I love the guitar solo in this song.
Here's some crazy guy doing a cover on the clarinet:
I fuckin love Vader. When I first heard them I didn't think they really stood out from any other death metal band, but every time I've listened to them since I've liked them slightly more until I'm at the point now where if I see them on a festival line up they're instantly one of my most anticipated bands of the whole thing.
I could've picked any of their songs really. This one is my favourite I think. I don't really have anything interesting to say about it though. I love blast beats.
I think a lot of Deicide's newer stuff all sounds exactly the same. It's not bad but it's not very interesting either. This album is great though; it sounds more raw and scary than anything they've done since. I think Dead By Dawn and Sacrificial Suicide are the best songs on the album. I chose Dead By Dawn to put here because whenever I think of Deicide, the first thing that comes into my mind is DEAD-BY-DAWN, DEAD-BY-DAWN, DEAD.BY.DAWN.
This song is fuckin intense. I'd never heard of Misery Index until I saw them play a show in London with Necrophagist. They were great and I've been a fan ever since. Also at that gig I discovered Origin who aren't on this list but are also amazing.
Gojira are a bit different from the rest of the bands in this list; I think they have a really unique sound. I love how incredibly heavy they always manage to sound. This is my favourite song; I used to walk home from school listening to this turned up way too loud blasting directly into my ears. Nowadays I'm a boring old man and wear earplugs when I go to gigs. Hopefully I'll still have some hearing left when I'm 40.
Behemoth were originally a black metal band, then they were sort of black/death metal and now their newer stuff is something a bit different again. I think everything they've done is good, but this was one of their most death metally albums. I chose this song because I love Inferno's drumming; it just sounds ridiculously complicated and awesome.
Q: I can't understand anything he's saying! Are there even any words to this song or is he just making stupid noises? A: Yes there are lyrics (usually). Some death metal vocals are easier to understand than others, but in general you won't understand most of what they're saying unless you look it up. It doesn't really matter that much to be honest, the lyrics aren't really that important in my opinion. Often it's just a load of barely coherent stuff about killing people anyway.
Q: This music is bad and you should feel bad! A: My video response:+ Show Spoiler +
Q: Metal has too many sub-genres. Death metal, black metal, whatever metal it sounds like people just making up stupid names for things when it's all basically the same anyway. A: While bands do sometimes use stupid made up sub-genres as a promotional tool (e.g. Pirate Metal), in general I think sub-genres are useful. It's not like I'm making up these genres by myself; there's tens-of-thousands of other metalheads who have the same understanding of what these words mean as I do.
This means that if I want to describe a new band to someone, I can describe them easily using these sub-genre words and they'll have a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about and what the band sounds like without even having heard them. Of course, not all bands fit neatly into a single sub-genre. That doesn't really matter though; genres should be used for descriptive purposes, not just for nerdy categorisation. You can describe a band in terms of the sub genres which they sound like, without having to argue "this band is X" "no you idiot this band is Y".
Q: Why do all these bands and songs have such stupid names? A: It's best not to take the names of band or song names too seriously. When they talk about smashing someone's face with a hammer, they're not actually planning to go do that, but it's not meant to be just a dumb crude joke either. Think of it more like some gory horror movie, but in music form.
this is a solid list I would add the following Gorod Cattle Decapitation Anaal Nathrakh Enslaved Obscura Alkaloid The Faceless Mitochondrion Allegaeon gorguts
Ah I love Anaal Nathkrakh, they're maybe my favourite band. I've wanted to see Cattle Decapitation play for years now but they always somehow end up pulling out of shows at the last minute.
I'm not really familiar with Alkaloid or Mitochondrion. Will have a listen, thanks.
On July 05 2015 10:22 Coagulation wrote: this is a solid list I would add the following Gorod Cattle Decapitation Anaal Nathrakh Enslaved Obscura Alkaloid The Faceless Mitochondrion Allegaeon gorguts
Best of Death metal without a single Chuck Schuldiner song? Not legit IMO, sorry. Also, Obituary have stuff worth to be mentioned, for sure. Just my two cents though. You can listen to anything that floats your boat, just best of death metal looks weird without the man that created it. Also, Morbid angel, Carcass, Amon amarth (if you're into more melodic death metal). Personally, I think Amon Amarth's Twilight of the thunder god is breathtaking.
Good list, could use more Suffocation. Always good to see some love for Dismember, I have the album "death metal" in my car right now.
Also, I recommend Immolation, Bloodbath, and to a lesser degree Skinless. Skinless is fine but they are pretty one-dimensional.
On July 05 2015 11:01 mooose wrote: Ah I love Anaal Nathkrakh, they're maybe my favourite band. I've wanted to see Cattle Decapitation play for years now but they always somehow end up pulling out of shows at the last minute.
I'm not really familiar with Alkaloid or Mitochondrion. Will have a listen, thanks.
I saw them after they released the harvest floor and it was awesome. It was in this tiny community centre with maybe 250-300 people but the pit was still ridiculous.
On July 06 2015 05:04 hymn wrote: Best of Death metal without a single Chuck Schuldiner song? Not legit IMO, sorry. Also, Obituary have stuff worth to be mentioned, for sure. Just my two cents though. You can listen to anything that floats your boat, just best of death metal looks weird without the man that created it. Also, Morbid angel, Carcass, Amon amarth (if you're into more melodic death metal). Personally, I think Amon Amarth's Twilight of the thunder god is breathtaking.
This was intended to be a "my favourite death metal songs" rather than a more objective "greatest of all time" otherwise I definitely would've included at least one song by Death, Morbid Angel and probably Carcass. Amon Amarth are pretty cool too.
On July 06 2015 07:22 Fecalfeast wrote: Good list, could use more Suffocation. Always good to see some love for Dismember, I have the album "death metal" in my car right now.
Also, I recommend Immolation, Bloodbath, and to a lesser degree Skinless. Skinless is fine but they are pretty one-dimensional.
On July 05 2015 11:01 mooose wrote: Ah I love Anaal Nathkrakh, they're maybe my favourite band. I've wanted to see Cattle Decapitation play for years now but they always somehow end up pulling out of shows at the last minute.
I'm not really familiar with Alkaloid or Mitochondrion. Will have a listen, thanks.
I saw them after they released the harvest floor and it was awesome. It was in this tiny community centre with maybe 250-300 people but the pit was still ridiculous.
Suffocation are great, I was considering putting one of their songs on this list but I couldn't decide. I love their live shows, but I can't really think of a song that stands out to me. I really like Bloodbath too. I've listened to a bunch of Immolation and they seem pretty solid but none of it has really stuck with me yet. Never bothered to give Skinless much time before but might give them a go, thanks.
On July 06 2015 10:52 mooose wrote: This was intended to be a "my favourite death metal songs" rather than a more objective "greatest of all time" otherwise I definitely would've included at least one song by Death, Morbid Angel and probably Carcass. Amon Amarth are pretty cool too.
Yes, yes, I get it. It's just like making a personal Heavy metal favorites list without including a single Iron Maiden or DIO song. It simply looks out of place. Btw, I am grateful you did it because I stumbled upon some nice suggestions to listen to.
Damn fine list! And since we're throwing other great bands around, let me add few in here: Exmortus [they're kinda mix of styles, but damn they're good] Sodamned Jungle Rot [I might have weak spot for Dead and Buried] Revenge [raw as fuck] Spearhead [check out Decrowning The Irenarch!] Vallenfyre Edge of Sanity [come on, how nobody mentioned the classic?] Ares Kingdom Arghoslent Nephasth Grave Infernal War Sarpanitum Trauma Nahemah Deeds of Flesh
and many many more.
There's a fuckton of good death metal our there, even in region of the world one would not expect it. Japan for example have some cool metal scene.
Also, mooose: I hate you! I'm trying to find job in Japan for a while now and just can't even find anything that could sponsor a visa
Cool, I haven't heard of some of those. Always good to have new bands to check out!
Actually I'm going to be running into visa problems soon too. I'm currently on a student visa but that will expire in about 4 months as I won't be studying any more. After that I'll need a work visa or some other kind of visa. How easy it is to get a work visa seems to depend on your area of expertise, luckily mine (computer science/software development) seems to be quite desirable so there are companies that would potentially sponsor my work visa, although I might need to get better at Japanese for most of them.
Otherwise there's always English teaching if your English is good enough. Lots of places say they want 'Native' English teachers, but I've also seen lots that are willing to accept 'Native Level', so if you speak English well you can still get a job there. English teaching seems the easiest route for foreigners to get a work visa.
It's also worth checking out if your country does a Working Holiday visa with Japan. It will let you come to Japan for up to a year and work part time (then you can change to a full work visa if you find something). It's definitely easier to find jobs while you're here than looking online. Unless you're here already I guess.
Hope you find some of these unknowns as enjoyable as I do
I'm IT guy myself with a wide field of knowledge and experience, so I guess I'm also not in that bad position. From this year I believe Polish citizens can get a working holiday visa, so maybe I should just go and try to figure out how to survive and stay there?
As for english teaching, well, most offers I see prefer native speakers - other nationalities are considered "less worthy", even if you're fluent and better at grammar than some "natives" not my most desired job, but obviously that would be a start in Japan.
Yeah working holiday is a possibility, but it really depends on your savings and how likely you are going to be able to find work. Most jobs in Japan obviously require you to speak some Japanese, so if you don't your options are fairly limited. This is why most foreigners end up teaching English (it pays better than other unskilled work in Japan too). I guess the options are basically:
- Work visa: secure a job before you get here and arrive here with no money or visa worries at all. The ideal option, but not easy. The easiest way is to go the English teaching route, although I suppose that might only be true for native speakers (although, for example I applied to this company: http://teaching-in-japan.gaba.co.jp/ In their interview process they said that they accept any 'native level' English speakers. I suppose some of the others might be similar. (I didn't get the job btw)).
- Working holiday visa: Arrive in Japan and start looking for work. Probably gives you a higher chance of finding something in your chosen field than applying from Poland, but the same restrictions on work for people who don't speak Japanese apply. I'm not sure what the work hours restriction is on working holiday, but iirc it might be similar to the student visa which is 28 hours per week. There's no guarantee of finding work, so you'll need to have savings to last at least the first few months probably.
- Student visa: If you're planning to stay in Japan for a while then you'll probably want to learn Japanese anyway. Also gives you a student visa which will let you stay up to 2 years and work 28 hours per week. More expensive though. Japanese language schools aren't cheap, and like working holiday you have no guarantee of finding work so you'll definitely need some savings before starting.
- Spouse/dependent visa: Find a nice Japanese girl and marry her. You can stay as long as you want!
From what I've heard, in IT related stuff, there are companies that will hire foreigners, sometimes who aren't fluent in Japanese. Your best bet might be an international company who has an office in Tokyo, rather than a traditional Japanese company. Traditional Japanese companies aren't very foreigner friendly.
I've started teaching private English classes (although I only have 1 student so far) and also doing some testing type thing for an app startup. I'm not really making much money, but it's better than nothing.
Yeah, I know all of this I'm tracking this topic for over a year and at some points I was close to saying "fuck it, let's just go there". But then I look at my savings and cry a little. Going there, even with holiday working visa, is risky without quite good amount of money (especially when I'm not from any rich country. In here average pay is 1/3 of average salary in Germany~~). So far I've been looking at few sites, like GaijinPot, craiglist for Tokyo jobs and few others, but it's really a rarity to see offers from companies offering both visa sponsorship and not requesting that candidate is already in Japan. It's hard.
I was kinda close with the spouse visa tho...;_;
For now I guess I need to get more moneyz and go back to learning Japanese. Ever since I got another job I just can't find time to learn - 1 "stationary" job + two separate editorial staff thingies + some occasional freelancing are sucking me dry from time and even when I'm done I just don't have the strength to do anything else beside playing games.
EPT
not my most desired job, but obviously that would be a start in Japan. 
