Stooge Another album, another lineup overhaul, no surprises. As long as Chuck Schuldiner is there, you’ll get some solid metal. His writing style really hasn’t changed a lot from the early years, but a higher caliber of musicians can turn good songs into great ones. That was the case with Human, and the trend continues on Individual Thought Patterns.

Chuck, being quite the King Diamond fan, calls on Andy LaRocque to take on the second guitar slot for the studio sessions. I’m more used to hearing his leads accompanied by King’s wailing, high-pitched vocals, but LaRocque’s solos work well on this album. Many of Individual Thought Pattern’s most memorable solos can be traced to his fret board.

Aside from Chuck, the only returning player from Human is bassist Steve Digiorgio, who receives a generous boost in volume on this album. Sometimes he sounds a bit to high in the mix, but fretless bass playing on a metal album was still something of a rarity in 1993, so I don’t mind it. His playing stands out strongly in “Nothing Is Everything”, “Jealousy”, and the dueling solo outro (with Chuck) on “The Philosopher”. His rhythm section partner, Gene Hoglan, is just as impressive throughout the album.

Many of the songs are great cuts, but I’d describe the title track and “Out of Touch” (intro aside) as being less memorable than the others. The strongest tracks on this album are “Trapped In A Corner”, which features my favorite solo section on the album, “The Philosopher” (the song that made me a Death fan), and “In Human Form”.

Overall, this is an excellent album by Death, but is sandwiched between two even better albums in their discography. This is sure to please most fans of death metal, and possibly thrash and prog metal fans as well.

The Angry Scotsman I have always been a fan of Death, and like all of their albums from first to last. However, "Individual Thought Patterns" is my personal favorite. While it may not be Death's most progressive album, it is their most technical. However, they do it well. One fatal flaw I have noticed with technical metal albums is that they became slaves to it. They seemingly go out of their way to show it until they almost become too technical for their own good. However, this album keeps its technicality while still progressing.

I personally think this is Death's best lineup. As always Chuck Schuldiner is on guitar and vocals. While still maintaining his death growl, he starts to take a higher pitched screaming on this album. His guitar work is amazing as usual. Chuck still plays his death metal riffs, but also shows off his technicality. Some of his most technical riffs are "In Human Form", "Trapped in a Corner" and "Overactive Imagination". Chuck's solos are just superb on this album.

Andy LaRocque may take the role of rhythm guitar on this album, but he lays down some very nice ones. He is a great compliment to Chuck and they make some great dual guitar harmonies. Andy does get some solo's on the album, and they are good ones at that! Steve DiGiorgio, playing a fretless bass, really adds another dimension to this album. His jazzy bass lines are heard under the crushing riffs, and besides being superb bass lines it just sounds so cool! "Out of Touch" is a great example as well as, "Mentally Blind".

That brings us to Gene Hoglan, "the Atomic Clock". This is a perfect nick name. His technical drumming, at such high speeds, and accuracy are only achieved by a select few. Even his blast beats show some technicality, (he often uses alternating single and double bass hits). His use of double bass is excellent, Hoglan uses it in the actual beat of the song, giving it a great feel. He shows the ability to play technical/complex beats and has a great range of musical styles. Gene can also throw down some mean double bass. Every song for him is gold, but a few prime examples are "Individual Thought Patterns" and "Trapped in a Corner"

The standout song on this album is "The Philosopher" their most famous song. There is no weak song, no weak sections, displays brilliant musicianship and songwriting. This album is a perfect blend of intensity, technicality, musicianship and is brilliantly composed. The best Death album (and that should really be saying something).

Five Stars

Time Signature In super-human form...

Genre: progressive death metal

While "Human" certainly was innovative and contained a lot of progressive elements, "Individual Thought Patterns" pushes the bar a whole lot further - and, fortunately, now the fretless bass is audible.

The song structures are at times insanely complex with several changes in time and tempo, key and scales, and both captivating and weird melody and a lot of brutality and speedy riffage. There are also plenty of odd time signatures and generally insane drumming from "mean Gene Hoglan, the caffeine machine".

The album is progressive and experimental, to be sure; yet it is more accessible to the general death metal audience than, say Cynic and Atheist, which is probably one of the reasons why Death became generally more popular than other progressive death metal acts back in the day.

Every song is a masterpiece in itself, but especially "Overactive Imagination", "Jealousy", the title track, and "The Philospher" are worth mentioning as is the quirky "Destiny".

Sleepwalker Death, often said to be the pioneers of death metal, released their fifth studio album Individual Thought Patterns in 1993. The album was released in the part of Death’s career that’s said by many to feature their best albums. It struck me on first listen what an unique album Individual Thought Patterns is. Chuck Schuldiner’s unique growling style obviously is very important for the sound of Death, so is Gene Hoglans highly regarded drumming. What I might even love most about this album, is the addition of fretless bass by Steve DiGiorgio. Death metal combined with the elegance of the fretless bass, what a combination!

The album opens in the best way possible, with the astounding “Overactive Imagination”. The song takes the listener through various mezmerizing rythms and riffs, that never tend to get dull or uninteresting in any way. I don’t think any of the other pieces on the album reaches the brilliance of this track, though some get very close. “Jealousy” is one of those songs. On this particular track the fretless bass makes the music sound very curvy. Also the following track “Trapped In A Corner” is among the very best of this album. The title track deserves a mention as well. “Individual Thought Patterns” must be one of the most aggresive songs on the album, with it’s ominous intro and aggresive drumming.

The only track that I think brings this album down is “Out Of Touch”. The track is pretty complicated like many pieces on the album. Unlike those, this one sounds somewhat messy and therefore perhaps even out of place. Fortunately, I can’t think of any other songs on Individual Thought Patterns that aren’t good at all. The tracks I didn’t mention in this review all are great songs, like the vast majority of music on the album. One more thing that has to be said is that the song Death probably is best known for is featured on this album. “The Philosopher” closes the album in a great way. It proves what the fretless bass is worth for the final time on this album, with an intense ending featuring variated guitar and bass solos.

Individual Thought Patterns is a brilliant album. I’d reccomend it to anyone who is interested in a fantastic death metal album and to anyone who might agree with me that fretless bass and death metal are a great combination.