Epic Riff: All of them, really, but a special shout out goes to the tremolo picked riff from "The Exorcist".
First Installment Wins: Beyond the Gates, The Eyes of Horror and the long-awaited comeback album Revelations of Oblivion are all generally well liked by fans, but are overshadowed heavily by Seven Churches, a work that is generally regarded as one of the greatest and most influential extreme metal albums of all time.
Nightmare Fuel: Even today, Seven Churches can definitely qualify with the lyrical themes, dark and chugging instrumentation and Jeff Becerra's haunting vocals. It was especially this for those listening at the time of its release in the mid 80s, however, as apart from Slayer and a few European thrash bands like Kreator and Sodom, it was unabashedly the absolute heaviest and darkest music around.
Once Original, Now Common: When it was released, Seven Churches was nearly unrivaled in terms of sheer heaviness. Nowadays however, it sounds almost quaint compared to later works from the Death Metal genre it helped invent like Pierced from Within or Obscura
Signature Song: "The Exorcist", generally considered one of the earliest death metal songs. In particular, it has a signature riff - the above-mentioned tremolo picked riff is one of the most instantly recognizable riffs in the genre.
