Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Cock-smashing brutality: The best death metal song intros

When I'm not thinking of ways to meet Lauren Conrad or the girls from 90210, I enjoy studying the intricacies of death metal songwriting. The best songs aren't just a bunch of mindless double bass and monotonous blast beats, they're finely crafted opuses that are painstakingly assembled riff by slamming riff, like a brutal ship-in-a-bottle. Perhaps the most important part of such a masterpiece is the intro, and with that in mind, I present several of our favorites...



Cannibal Corpse - Hammer Smashed Face
When we're talking about the best death metal intros of all time, you would be out of your hammer-smashed skull not to put this song at the top of the list. Cannibal Corpse is, without a doubt, one of the most generic, dullest death metal bands, yet this song is the perfect marriage of catchy hooks and cock-smashing brutality! I'll be honest, it's been a long time since I paid much attention to them, but what fucking happened?! Chris Barnes is writing song after ass-rapingly awful song about pot, wearing Jncos and Star Trek shirts, and Corpsegrinder would rather be playing WoW... I mean, I understand that as people get older they lose touch with the trends, and that's fine... but christ, these guys take irrelevant fossils to a whole new level. If there is a god, Chris Barnes will get hit by a meteor and spare the worl of another Six Feet Under performance.



Suffocation - Human Waste
As soon as the song starts, you hear the Hellraiser sample, and you're all "Oh shit, son, this is spooky as fuck... What's coming next?!" The hair on your arms stands up, because you know the song is going to be some super brutal brutality, and it doesn't disappoint!! The intro riff on this song is without a doubt the sickest thing ever recorded at the time, considering that this song is from their 1990 demo (I didn't hear it until 92 or whatever, though, on "Corporate Death"). The rest of the song is pretty slammin' too, but the first minute or so is really what will knock your dick in the dirt with pit riffment. Every time I hear this song, I put on a Trump Plaza shirt and some sweat pants and jump around my room pretending I'm Frank Mullen.



Obituary - The End Complete
Before wigger slam existed, I listened to Obituary when I needed a dose of groove in my death metal. Obituary are a great band because they always emphasized good songwriting over speed or brutality for their own sake, and this is a great example. Aside from having an awesome intro, it also has a super sweet outro- it starts AND finishes strong, like good porn. I am pretty sure I've posted about this video before, but the best part is Alan West's Rollins Band and Red Hot Chili Peppers shirts. There's nothing funnier than when fans are disappointed by how un-brutal a band is, like when you see Glen Benton taking out the trash or whatever. But that sort of thing is Lucho Metales' speciality, so I'll leave it to him to go into more detail.



Devourment - Babykiller
If there is such a thing as a flagship single for wigger slam, it is definitely this song- especially the original version on 1.3.8. The sorely-missed Wayne Knupp's incredible vocal performance started a whole generation of cricket vocals, and it all started with the cock-smashingly brutal intro to this awesome song. It's nearly 5 minutes long, but I can listen to it the whole way through anytime it comes on my iPod. This song showed the death metal world that traditional musical concepts like melody, dynamics, structure, and lyrics were outdated assumptions, that the only thing that really matters is pit riffment. If you think about it, it was very avant garde and postmodern! Hopefully some grad school egghead will write a paper about this song called something like "Operationalizing pit riffment: Contradictions and paradoxes in Texas slam metal."

More marriages of awesome hooks and cock-smashing brutality?
As always, please tell us what we missed. There aren't a ton of great death metal intros on the level of these, but surely the list is longer that this post.

34 comments:

  1. Oh man..how i love this blog; my 'metal' story is pretty similar to that of Lucho Metales. Growing up in a third world country (suriname) and falling in love with metal in my teen years. Playing in shitty bands (toxodeth!! it must be you). And having an unsatisfied hunger for everything heavy/hard/fast. How great i would be if we could hook up; drink to much cheap beers listing to old iron maiden records; and having hysteric laughter attacks, only to go home and realise how much it sucks to grow up and how shitty/boring adult live/the music scene today is. Sure growing up has some benifits (money/car/house/steady sex) but somehow all the 'magic' i gone.

    (is this to depressing? am i really turning into an old grumpy fart?)

    ah fuck it; i'm going to get drunk and put on some DRI

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  2. Is there anything like Devourment or other wigslammin' music w/o the shitty GLURG GLURG voKILLs? That could be ok.

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  3. no! it wouldn't be slam metal without cricket vocals, would it?? then it would just be super brutal hardcore.

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  4. There's also a picture of Frank Watkins wearing an EMF cap (It's unbelievable! (Ok, that's lame))

    Origin have a song where the intro is a sample of Alan Rickman saying "Anyone who isn't dead or from another plane of existence should do well to cover their ears right about now" and then Origin start doing there super technical sweep picking/close harmony grunting thing. Which gets boring pretty quickly. But the intro kicks ass.

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  5. 2 face melting intros you left out
    warpath-gorefare
    (the best of irish death metal)
    december-umbilical

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  6. Impetigo = Kings of the intro! i know they weren't death metal...but come on.

    "you would be out of your hammer-smashed skull not to put this song at the top of the list" my god...i've known Sergeant D for over a decade and he still manages to amaze me with his stupid but insanely well crafted turn of phrase humor. Amazing.

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  7. Entombed -- The Truth Beyond
    Dismember -- Override of the Overture
    Morbid Angel -- Immortal Rites
    Deicide -- Trifixion
    Baphomet -- The Suffering (after the random noise intro)


    There is so much more out there.

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  8. good call on Dismember and Baphomet! by the way, everybody hates on Baphomet, but i think that album is pretty sweet. not quite as good as Pyrexia or anything, but quality 90s NYDM

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  9. Baphomet (NY)...great album, great bass playing!

    And I agree...if there's a "one hit wonder" of death metal, that's Cannibal Corpse "Hammer smashed face"!

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  10. Do you want a good intro? You find it: Molested, song: "A Strife Won At Wraith". What a fucking devastating way to start and album. And they are able to keep it that way until the end, and this is not one of the thousands brutal death metal bands. This is just extremely good death metal.

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  11. Re: Cannibal Corpse.
    1) While I like "Hammer Smashed Face", I thought the intro to "Striped, Rapped, and Strangled" was much better. Barnes' vocals, though never good, were really in the shitter by then.

    2) Seeing Cannibal Corpse play "Hammer-Smashed Face" in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective remains the highlight of my death metal experience. Sad, I know, but I grew up in Ohio.

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  12. Well, I didn't manage to fuck up that song title. Time for more coffee.

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  13. Death has tons of great intros.

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  14. to Anonymous
    don't worry man, you're not alone and it's true the magic is gone for the most part, no more exciting bands to discover or go see on tour it's all crap out there, but if every once in awhile you get enough liquor in you without causing irreparable liver damage you can almost transport the few brain cells you have left back to the 80s, and thanks to utube you can watch ur very own headbangers ball all night till you pass the fuck out and wake up only to vomit on your keyboard. Good times! Stay metal no matter what adult life throws at you man! cheers!

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  15. i'd just like to add: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aoD2cXM3Dc
    +
    maybe not DM, but Repulsion's 'the stench of burning death' + 'black breath' have great intros as well.

    good call on the Morbid Angel intro as well, whomever said it...

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  16. Bang on with Immortal rites,
    my contribution

    Entombed - Left hand path

    Immolation - Father, you're not a father

    Gorguts - With their flesh, he'll create

    Also anyone know the Factoria De Miedo track from the Cry now, cry later compilations i fuckin loved that track, shame it turned out to be fear factory takin the piss cos it was the best thing they ever did!

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  17. How could you possibly leave out Pestilence's "Out of the Body"? That incredibly simple, catchy hook under Martin Van Drunen's madman roar? So fucking good.

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  18. that "Factoria De Miedo" track is from their demo, according to chris elder (who put out that comp). i have never been able to track it down, though, so i don't know what the deal is. that song is fucking great though.

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  19. Bathory - A fine day to die
    Carcass - Genital Grinder
    Carnivore - Predator
    Invisible - Dio (kinda gay but oh well)
    voivod - korgull the exterminator

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  20. Putrid Pile's 'Food for the Maggots' is an excellent intro. Regarding the old skool stuff though, I'd sa Morbid Angel's 'Chapel of Ghouls'. It's not as awesome as 'Hammer Smashed Face' but it's a worthy mention.

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  21. there are definetly better obituary intros.


    turned inside out?

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  22. God i would give my left nut for that demo. Loved how loose that track sounded its how i wish brujeria sounded

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  23. A severe lack of Autopsy's "Destined To Fester" here.

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  24. Carcass - Impropagtion intro, crushes the cock-smashing brutality of any of these tracks.
    But thats a poser album right?

    Nocturnus - Lake of Fire intro is totally class and not a geetar, grunt, or drum to be heard..

    Chapel of ghouls is a fave as well, for the lovecraftian invocations..

    and aside from Death Metal, the into to Darkthrones Katharian Life Code is brilliant. But I would say that as I'm a poser.

    Keep up the good work, love the blog.

    Love Captain Herman Peterson Ballcrusher the 3rd x

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  25. That one kicks some christian ass for sure ! I cried laughing :

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbjadEcu3MI

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  26. Here's my favorite intros:

    Suffocation-Funeral Inception
    Skinless-Foreshadowing Orr Demise
    Cephalic Carnage-Lucid Interval

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  27. fucking Funeral Inception!! how could i forget?! that is totally cock-smashing.

    also Cephalic Carnage - Jihad

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  28. Totally agree on Cephalic Carnage there. That riff is so simple and so devastating before that all out grind frenzy.

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  29. Cold Demons by Vader.
    Absolutely!!
    ..Oh and Marduk had cool intros...but only the intros were cool.

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  30. dudes, seriously, this is the best intro:

    Napalm Death "if the truth be known" off of Harmony Corruption.

    if you are skeptical go listen to it right now. it will lay waste to you. i guess technically it is grindcore though and not death metal so perhaps it is disqualified.

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  31. Who could forget the intro to "None So Vile"?

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  32. wow...

    pandoras box has been opened.


    ambrameln - Transgression from Acheron

    and the classic clint eastwood sample "you have a ren de vous with my ass mutha fucker!"
    from gorgasm - copropheliac

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  33. i just love the intro to obituary's "infected". that is an amazing opening to an album that really scared the shit out of me when i first heard it at 13.

    also, "immortal rites" by morbid angel made a big impression on me.

    lastly, cannibal corpse ARE a one-hit wonder in the world of death metal. i think they're awful and i blame chris barnes for the eventual onslaught of shitty vocals in the current world of death metal, but man, "hammer smashed face" is a masterpiece. it's so catchy that i find myself humming it throughout the day, along with bathory's "equimanthorn".

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  34. My 2 cents: Suffocation's Depths of Depravity & Gorefest's From Ignorance To Oblivion.

    War.

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