1991, Music

Like an Ever Flowing Stream (1991) by Dismember

Hot take: Florida is better than Sweden.

Okay, I’m kidding! I know so little about either the Swedish scene or the Florida scene. All I know is that I just finished to a Floridian death metal album that was way weirder (and more fun) than this album and so I couldn’t help myself.

This is fast, pummeling death metal that is just unrelenting. If the reason you like death metal is for the all-out sonic assault, than this will probably do it for you. Certainly it seems like one of the reasons people like this record so much is its commitment to its sound. Aside from that one song with the melodic guitar leads – I am listening to this on YouTube and there is no track listing – which almost sounds like death metal Maiden until it breaks out, this album sticks pretty much to its formula. That formula is fast, pummeling riffs, pounding drumming, and growly vocals that sometimes sound like they are being spit.

The riffs aren’t particularly technical and the drumming is a little more primitive than some blast drumming – not that it isn’t well-played. If you’re trying to asses death metal albums on some kind of purity scale, this certainly passes muster.
And given when it was released, it’s totally okay that this is all this record is. It’s relentless in the best way and it’s exactly the kind of thing you can imagine a young person being exposed to for the first time and being utterly blow away. (Especially if all they ever imagined metal was sounded like NWOBHM or something.)

But I like my music (including my metal) more varied than this. Normally, I’d be willing to ignore how samey this is because it’s only a few years (give or take) into the genre. But I know weirder death metal existed at this very time. I just finished listening to an album from the Florida scene released a week earlier. So I know it was possible in 1991 to have a little more fun.

8/10

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