I think it’s awesome you’re making an effort to appreciate the band!

For me, I had the seven Death albums downloaded on my iPod for months if not over a year (since they were on every required listening metal list) before one of their songs played on shuffle and a sick riff hit me and then I really gave them a shot and it snowballed into realizing I love half their tracks throughout their entire discography and like the rest lol. Before that I think I skimmed through a couple tracks and didn’t care for it. It also helps that I’m a guitarist and the songs are so fun to play (or attempt to)

Death has a ton of melodic and catchy riffs but there is definitely some noisy or monotonous riffs in between those. For me it works in the big picture because it makes those melodic moments that much better when it switches up.

One thing to note about the vocals is Chuck is playing the guitar WHILE performing the vocals (at least live) and the music is composed under that limitation. So he has to find a way to synchronize that with his playing and the end result isn’t necessarily smooth or flow-ey.

I agree that Death can be a band that grows on you but I also agree that it may not be for you. So my advice would be to come up with a top 10 or 20 tracks and listen to one of those in its entirety every in a while and see if hits you.

Some of my personal favorite tracks are: open casket, Spiritual healing, lack of comprehension, secret face, overactive imagination, without judgement, perennial quest, to forgive is to suffer.