DEATH — Individual Thought Patterns (review)

DEATH — Individual Thought Patterns album cover

Album · 1993 · Technical Death Metal

4/5 · 2021-06-28
siLLy puPPy

By the early 90s death metal was in full extreme metal swing and wreaking havoc on the metal underground. Pioneering artist Chuck Schuldiner had incrementally participated in launching the entire scene and was fairly keen to keep a few steps ahead of the imitators however with four albums under his belt, the fifth album INDIVIDUAL THOUGHT PATTERNS in many ways seems to be the only spot in the DEATH canon where Schuldiner felt it was OK to rest on his laurels and let the pot simmer for awhile although album #5 is a bit heavier and more immediate than its predecessor.

This was yet another occasion for a lineup change with guitarist Andy LaRoque replacing Paul Masdival for a one album appearance and drummer Sean Reinert jumping ship to work on the Cynic project. He was replaced by Gene Hoglan from Dark Angel. Steve Di Giorgio stuck around to play bass but switched over to the fretless variety which gave INDIVIDUAL THOUGHT PATTERNS a bit more of a “techy” feel than DEATH’s previous releases. While still firmly perched in the extreme metal underground, the band released a video for “The Philospher” most famously appearing on Beavis & Butthead which found them ridiculed for the extreme nature of the vocal style which hadn’t quite caught on with mainstream metal fans stuck in the 80s.

For those not paying too close attention, INDIVIDUAL THOUGHT PATTERNS very much comes across as a business as usual followup to “Human” and in many ways it is just that. Sure the fretless bass and slightly amped up aggression set it apart in subtle ways but for the most part the progressive and technical challenges that emerged on the “Human” album remained firmly parked at a certain juncture on the DEATH highway and wouldn’t be fully realized until the following “Symbolic” and “The Sound of Perseverance” ended the exhilarating saga of the DEATH experience. Also while death metal had all but splintered off from its parent thrash roots, DEATH still managed to keep some of those thrashy elements alive and kicking thus making DEATH a unique act that continued to straddle both the thrash and death metal worlds while continuing to add more progressive boldness to its sound.

While perhaps a bit of a stop in the road, any given DEATH album juncture actually more than deserved an accompanying album or two and Schuldiner certainly could have milked it for more than he did but the fact that he was so restless and eager to progress to the next level is one of the primary reasons he is so revered by modern standards but of course having passed on at a young age in order to attain legendary status hasn’t been a hinderance either. INDIVIDUAL THOUGHT PATTERNS continues right where “Human” left off with the immediacy of in-yer-face death metal tracks that were succinct with atavistic thrash metal attributes. In other words, brilliant guitar riffing that builds passages and then hairpin turns into seemingly unrelated segments that in lesser hands would derail into oblivion but at this point Schuldiner was a master of navigating crazy time signatures changes, bold compositional passages without missing a beat.

Perhaps the biggest drawback of INDIVIDUAL THOUGHT PATTERNS is that is sandwiched between two superior albums IMHO. The revolutionary advances of “Human” and the metal god perfection of “Symbolic” sort of make this one sound less dynamic than it really is. For me it takes some serious focus to ignore those other albums and simply concentrate on this one which when i do results in a most satisfying experience that while not living up to the standards of what came next or the wow factor of what came before, still resonates quite high in its own right. If you listen closely and attentively this one does present a slight advancement over “Human” although it’s a bit imperceptible upon first contact. The tracks are very similar in structure and the diverse dynamics that would be adopted later hadn’t quite manifested yet but for a solid kick ass early tech death metal album it doesn’t really get much better than this except for DEATH’s other albums. Seriously, no DEATH fan will find many faults with this although if you’re like me you won’t find it to be the absolute pinnacle of the band’s prowess either.