Violent Dirge - 1993 - Elapse

What we have here is some pretty technical death metal. But don't let the term "technical" scare you away because this is far from the modern day "tech. death" bullshit from utterly terrible bands like Cephilac Carnage and Beneath the Breakdowns (aka Beneath the Massacre). The death metal on this recording is unadulterated and raw technical death metal full of outstanding riffs, flailing solos and Luc Lemay-esque vocals. The drums are also great because they manage to come off as sounding less intricate then the riffing, but without undermining the music and technicality at all.

The production is pretty dirty, which I like a lot. If I had to make a stylistic comparison, it would be more to bands like Insanity that blended eccentric, technical riffing with more straight forward old school death metal sections rather than Atheist, Hellwitch or later Gorguts. Those bands had more complex arrangements and would stay in the "technical" vein throughout whole songs (not that that's bad. I love those bands).

Here it is. Enjoy.