DEATH: Individual Thought Patterns Vinyl LP (Tri-Colour Merge with Splatter)

Chuck Schuldiner was already rewriting the rules of death metal when Individual Thought Patterns came out in 1993, and this was the record where the rewrite became undeniable. The brutality was still there, but so was something that sounded almost like jazz logic underneath it, structures that turned corners you didn't see coming.

Steve DiGiorgio's fretless bass, Andy LaRocque trading solos with Schuldiner, Gene Hoglan behind the kit, this lineup was absurd, and they knew it. The result is technical death metal that actually has something to say beyond the technical exercise, tracks like the title cut and Overactive Imagination hit hard and think hard at the same time, which was rarer than it should have been in the genre. Schuldiner died in 2001 and Death's catalogue has only grown in stature since, so a tri-colour merge with splatter pressing of this record is not something you put back on the shelf.

Vinyl LP, tri-colour merge with splatter variant. Genre: technical death metal, progressive death metal. Origin: USA.

Fans of: Cynic, Atheist, Pestilence, Obituary.