•
Rating:
June 22, 1993 - June 22, 2018
Exactly twenty-five years have passed since the release of the fifth "stormy" album by the band of the brilliant Chuck Schuldiner. I used the term "stormy" because we are truly faced with something astonishing; complex musical plots, with surprisingly effective melodic openings. One of the greatest examples of pure, devastating, uncompromising Death Metal. Released on the same day as another cornerstone of the genre, namely Covenant by Morbid Angel.
Individual Thought Patterns is the only Death album I own in the original vinyl version, with that sound that is even richer, rawer, more reliable, and that overwhelms and crushes you.
Now, some might wrinkle their noses, and not only that, arguing that there are already three reviews of the album in question. But have you read them? Besides, one was removed by the high hierarchical ranks of Debaser because it was "copied" from another music site. And the other two don't seem particularly inspired to me. Having written this obligatory preamble, I begin my page by quoting myself to give immediate consistency to my ramblings on this very hot evening.
"It is Chuck Schuldiner's fifth album, accompanied by a stellar lineup, the best the Florida group has ever had: Gene Hoglan on drums (inhuman), Steve DiGiorgio on bass (I can't find suitable terms) and Andy LaRocque on guitar (Mr. Heavy Metal riff). And it is precisely the presence of the latter that makes the fierce and compact sound much more "heavy," although it does not lack the typical brutal accelerations that have accompanied Death from the start."
Chuck has always been the sole undisputed father-master of the band he created; always demanding the best from his collaborators and changing the lineup with each album released. This time, he manages to assemble a powerful, cohesive formation, technically unparalleled by any other band of the period. No offense to Carcass, Entombed, Morbid Angel, Dismember, Sepultura, but in my opinion, the title of best Death Metal album of 1993 should be awarded, by a wide margin, to Death.
Ten tracks for forty minutes and a few seconds; a fearsome rhythm section with Gene's gigantic human octopus managing to dictate vertiginous rhythms without ever yielding, thanks to stormy drumming. Supported by Steve's bass, which this time, unlike the previous Human two years earlier, is audible and in the foreground throughout the work. The prodigious auditory maze is completed by the binary work of Chuck and Andy's guitars; the violent brutality of Chuck's six-string sound and Andy's classic Heavy Metal riff shoes balance each other, clash, unite. A new way of understanding extreme music is born, with digressions that even touch on Progressive.
A constant vertiginous musical hurricane, always under the band's control; not a single note is out of place. Everything is aimed at giving the best, to create a stunning and obsessive sound wall. As happens in the sublime opening of the first track of the collection "Overactive Imagination": time changes follow one another between continuous accelerations and decelerations. Chuck's murderous and growling voice closes the circle of perfection.
Because this is a perfect, disarming, annihilating album.
And with each new listen, emotion takes hold of the present DeMa: too soon we had to give up the boundless creativity of the Florida boy... THE PHILOSOPHER...
Ad Maiora.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Overactive Imagination (03:30)
Your existence is a script
Life for you is a perfomance
Play out the leading role
Directing and premeditating every move
That creates the act of manipulation
Mastering the art of deception
That increases your sick addiction
It's an overactive imagination
That enslaves your empty shell
Existing in dimensions of addictive obsession
Your script will run short of ideas
The story will soon end itself
People to trust come short in number
Like a plague your lies spread
Fast across the world
Mastering the art of deception
That increases your sick addition
It's an overactive imagination
That enslaves your empty shell
04 Trapped in a Corner (04:13)
I want to watch you drown in your lies
The end of your masquerade, A matter of time
Interwining lies, Domination, control
Feed his twisted nature
It is sickening to see dreams die
A word of advice, Fate's patience is growning short
Fake down to your mind and appearance
You will fall short of the dreams to destroy
In time you will find yourself trapped in a corner
These four words my friend, I promise you will not forget
I am one of many that see through your lies
Hiding will do you no good, many seek revenge
Soon to become a victim of what you live to create, And cannot have
It is sickening to see dreams die
A word of advice, Fate's patience is growning short
Fake down to your mind and appearance
You will fall short of the dreams to destroy
05 Nothing Is Everything (03:18)
Living like us and sharing our day
In another world very far away
A different existence, Yet virtually the same
Aggression is sadness and laughter is pain
Look deep into their eyes for what they have to say
Emotions take control of life everyday
Unpredictable variations of behavior
Hold the key to the mental door
Where nothing is everything, And everything is nothing
Staring beyond the wall a thousand times over
Seeing a part of them that is real
Just imagine how it might feel
To be denied of what life has to give
Behind mental shadows they must live
Look deep into their eyes for what they have to say
Emotions take control of life everyday
07 Individual Thought Patterns (04:00)
So quick to judge, so easily we forget,
What it's like to be dissected
Where feelings are tossed aside
Like a drug it feeds the imagination of minds that go Unparalyzed
Followers to the leaders of mass hypnotic corruption
That live their lives only to criticize
Where is the invisible line that we must draw to create Individual thought
Patterns
Prisoners of mental deception be free within singular Judgement
Twisting words to control the masses
To cover up one's self insecurities
Like a drug it feeds the imagination of minds that go Unparalyzed
Followers to the leaders of mass hypnotic corruption
That live their lives only to criticize
Where is the invisible line that we must draw to create Individual thought
10 The Philosopher (04:10)
Do you feel what I feel, see what I see, hear what I hear
There is a line you must draw between your dream world and Reality
Do you live my life or share the breath I breathe
Lies feed your judgement of others
Behold how the blind lead each other
The philosopher
You know so much about nothing at all
Ideas that fall under shadows of theories that stand tall
Thoughts that grow narrow upon being verbally released
Your mind is not your own
What sounds more mentally stimulating is how you make your Choice
So you preach about how I'm supposed to be, Yet you don't You know your own
Sexuality
Lies feed your judgement of others
Behold how the blind lead each other
The philosopher
You know so much about nothing at all
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By The_Bassist
The best compositions, the best lyrics, the best musicians, the best mediation between classic and experimental... the best work of Death.
I've never heard such a realistic and raw take on the crap that is human hypocrisy.
By Tompa
Uh-oh! We've been informed that this review also appears (in whole or in part) on truemetal.it and we have been asked to remove it.
By jazzman
The bass and drums rhythm section is literally terrifying!!!
A completely must-have album for all fans of technical death metal... amazing!!!
