Ahh... Death Metal. Some people think anything with a screaming singer is death metal. But last time I checked screamo scene pussies are NOT Death Metal. Death Metal has changed quite a bit from it's roots in thrash metal but it's still those first classics from bands like Death, Possessed and Cannibal Corpse that bring the pain most deliciously. There are many amazing bands who are not represented here such as Grave, Massacre, Cryptopsy, Atheist, Nile, At The Gates, Unleashed and Dismember etc. There are also albums by the bands on this list that are amazing and are landmarks in the genre, like 'Human' and every other album released by Death, that do not appear on this list. This is due to my personal tastes, as I prefer my death metal to be rawer and thrashier more often than not.
1. DEATH - Scream Bloody Gore
"DRINK FROM THE GOBLET, THE GOBLET OF GORE. TASTE THE ZOMBIE'S DRUG, NOW YOU WANT MORE. DRIFTING FROM THE LIVING, JOINING WITH THE DEAD. ZOMBIE DWELLING MAGGOTS, NOW INFEST YOUR HEAD. ZOMBIE. RITUUUALL!!!"
Chuck Schuldiner was Death Metal personified. While he was really a nice quiet guy with a love for horror movies and extreme music, no single person did as much for the genre as Chuck. Besides possibly inventing the term "Death Metal" (there is debate as to whether Possessed did so first), Chuck and the revolving door of players in Death perfected their art for years with demos and released 7 albums from 1987-98. Every one of these albums were genre masterpieces that never failed to thrill and progress with each new release. Also, through his obsessive tape trading, he not only promoted his own band but many of thrash, death and grindcores founding fathers (at different points he struck up musical partnerships with the members of DRI, Repulsion, Canada's Slaughter and Terrorizer and former members went on to form bands such as Autopsy and Massacre). This album doesn't showcase Chuck's later philosophical side and is firmly rooted in horror and gore lyrics (Especially on my personal favorite, the Bruce Campbell gore-fest worshiping 'Evil Dead') and the music compliments it so very well. Such a brutal and perfect album made by a truly amazing person. RIP Chuck we'll see you on the other side.
DEATH ~ Evil Dead
2. SEPULTURA - Beneath The Remains
"CITIES IN RUINS, BODIES PACKED ON MINEFIELDS, NEUROTIC GAME OF LIFE AND DEATH... WHO HAS WON? WHO HAS DIED? BENEATH THE REMAINS!"
Sepultura was the greatest thing that Brazil has given the world. No joke. While their blackened thrash EP's and their debut full length 'Schizophrenia' were groundbreaking, it was this album that cemented their place in music history. Some classify this as a thrash album and other do not. I never felt comfortable placing this album alongside of Slayer, Dark Angel and Kreator. I've always felt that this album was very rooted in thrash with it's guitar style and political lyrics but was exploring and creating the death metal genre as it went. This album is like Slayer's 'Reign In Blood' in many ways. Other than a slow intro at the beginning of the title track, this album is full throttle, full tilt, full bore and no bullshit. It takes no quarter and is all too often forgotten.
SEPULTURA ~ Beneath The Remains
3. POSSESSED - Seven Churches
"UNLEASHED MEN OF SIN. HATRED HELL WITHIN. SINNER'S HATE WILL DIE. THE EXORCIST!!!"
The album begins with Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells' better known as the theme from the landmark horror film 'The Exorcist'. If that and the album's minimalist and evil artwork haven't clued you in as to what this Bay Area band is about... well, good luck in life with your powers of discernment. One of the things I've never understood about this album is why people haven't cited it as a major influence on Black Metal as well. Everything is here for it. Lyrics about evil, tremolo picked guitars, lo-fi production and reverb out the wazoo, other than the guttural vocals, it seems like a great template for proto-Black Metal. Either way, this is an awesome album that oozes with malevolent atmosphere and should be required listening for all metal heads.
POSSESSED ~ The Exorcist
4. DEICIDE - Deicide
"WE ARE WHAT WAS AND SHALL RULE AGAIN. DEAD BY DAWN, CHANTING DEATH THE ANCIENT HYMN. THIS IS NOT REAL, I AM NOT THE CHOSEN ONE. TRAPPED IN THE SPELL OF THE NECRONOMICON."
From the band Amon (whose collected demos are on the Deicide's CD 'Amon: Feasting The Beast' a really good album for your money.) the band Deicide was formed. This album is made up entirely of songs from Amon songs and the practice behind these songs is evident. Lead vocalist/bassist Glen Benton has been the creative vision and walking PR agent for this band since day one. From burning an upside down cross into his forehead, shooting a squirrel while being interviewed at his home and declaring himself a Satanist (most likely for the publicity), Glen has always managed to keep Deicide in the spotlight. His vocals are so demonic with and WITHOUT the vocal effects on this album that the Religious Right was convinved he was genuinely possessed. Decide for yourselves and see why Deicide is one of the founding fathers of Death Metal.
DEICIDE ~ Dead By Dawn
5. CANNIBAL CORPSE - Eaten Back To Life
"THEY ENTER YOUR TOMB. MAGGOTS!!! BEGINNING TO FEAST. MAGGOTS!!! CRAWLING ON YOU. MAGGOTS!!! NOW THEY EAT YOU. MAGGOTS!!!
If there is one Death Metal band EVERYONE knows of, it is Cannibal Corpse. The biggest reason for this is their name, their unprecedentedly gory artwork and their unbelievably inhumane lyrics. Coming from Buffalo, NY (and not the Death Metal havens of Florida and California) Cannibal Corpse quickly became the face of death metal for mainstream media and the face of Satan for the Religious Right. They also were along with Massacre a major part of the shift to what is now considered typical death metal vocal styling (or "cookie monster" vocals). While many do not agree, I find 'Eaten Back To Life' to be their most fun, enjoyable and rocking album for a few reasons. 1. Their sound was still tied to thrash metal in the best way 2. Chris Barnes was still their vocalist and 3. This was when they were just out to have some gory fun and didn't take themselves too seriously and become a parody of themselves and the genre. Like a good cheesy B-horror film, it delivers the thrills, chills and laughs that we all crave.
CANNIBAL CORPSE ~ A Skull Full Of Maggots
6. AUTOPSY - Severed Survival
"STRICKEN WITH A HORRIBLE DISEASE, MANKIND FALLS VICTIM TO DOOM. A FESTERING PLAGUE SWEEPS ACROSS THE EARTH. ROTTING DEATH... MORBID CURSE."
Autopsy is one of those unique sort of first wave bands that straddles the line between Grindcore and Death Metal. Very much like Terrorizer. Except it has some truly blistering guitar solos that place it in the death metal category annnnnd it just feels more Death than Grind to me. So there. Arbitrary decision making up your ass, bitch! Sorry about that. Anyways, while the "genre" or whatever may be ambiguous (Hell, these genres didn't even exist they were just making noise and people started calling it stuff.) what is not ambiguous is that this album is heavy as osmium (consult your periodic table of elements). Gore obsessed with great dynamics switching from a grinding mid-paced drive to a hardcore paced blitzkrieg. It's like Glenn Danzig said, "All murder, all guts, all fun."
AUTOPSY ~ Charred Remains
7. ENTOMBED - Left Hand Path
"DEAD. DECEASED. BUT LIFE GOES ON. I WILL BE THE ONE WHO WON. MY CHARRED BODY WILL DECAY BUT MY SOUL WILL BE FLOATING ANYWAY."
Just like Amon changed their name to Deicide and revamped their legendary demos for their first album, Sweden's Death Metal pioneers Nihilist broke up after releasing some well received demos (which can be found with the first Entombed demo 'But Life Goes On' on the CD 'Nihilist 1987-1989') and reformed and rerecorded many of their works as Entombed. Sweden is renowned for it's development of melodic death metal or "The Gothenburg Sound" but this is not that. This is unhindered guttural brutality. While much death metal sounds the same, I can always tell when this album comes on just by the grimy and heavy as hell guitar tone and Lars Petrov's vocals that seem like listening to Repulsion's Scott Carlson from inside his throat. The single best Swedish death metal release from the most important Swedish metal act aside from Bathory.
ENTOMBED ~ But Life Goes On
8. SUFFOCATION - Pierced From Within
"I AM YOUR SAVIOUR. SHAPELESS TO YOUR PERCEPTION. FOR I AM YOU. PIERCED FROM WITHIN."
I don't usually get into technical death metal. I usually find myself listening to brutal or classic death metal. However, like everything else there is always an exception to the rule. New York City's Suffocation is that exception. While many technical death metal bands just spend their time wanking about and showing off how talented they are (or how eclectic they are ala Atheist's second album 'Unquestionable Presence') Suffocation shows off their chops and complex song structures but also tempers that display with unrelenting brutality in their performance. There are many tempo changes from blitzkrieg death metal assaults to slow or mid pace lapses that build tension but never fall into the lame "hardcore breakdown" territory so prevalent in heavy music today. Complete with cookie monster vocals, it is easy to see how Suffocation was truly a game changer in the world of extreme metal.
SUFFOCATION ~ Pierced From Within
9. OBITUARY - Cause of Death
"THE KILLING GENTLY: DISSECTION OF THE LIGHT. THE ROTTING OF THE SOUL."
Obituary is, along with Death, Massacre, Deicide and Morbid Angel, one of the Florida Death Metal originals. Their first 3 albums, 'Slowly We Rot', 'Cause Of Death' and 'The End Complete' are all death metal classics. Obituary differed from their Florida peers in one key regard however, Obituary was not interested in being heavier and faster than everyone else, they just wanted to be heavier. This is due to a great amount of influence from Switzerland's Celtic Frost who were a thrash band but weren't greatly concerned with speed as they were with menacing presence and heaviness. In fact, their reverence of the Swiss metal gods was so great that they include a cover of Celtic Frost's classic song 'Circle of the Tyrants'. While this cover certainly illustrates the creative influences owed to Thomas Gabriel and company it also showcases their unique brand of death metal and John Tardy's inimitable growling style.
OBITUARY ~ Circle Of The Tyrants
10. MORBID ANGEL - Altars Of Madness
"GATHERED FOR A SACRED RITE. SUBCONSCIOUS MINDS ALLIED. CALL UPON THE IMMORTALS. CALL UPON THE OLDEST ONE TO INTERCEDE."
Last but certainly not least is the debut of one of Florida's finest, Morbid Angel.Led by lyrical stylings of David Vincent (Bass) and Trey Azagthoth (Guitar), Morbid Angel is a band that was obsessed with being extreme as possible and as evil as possible. Their lyrics about Satan, Hell, Occultism and ancient immortals (in true H.P. Lovecraft fashion) can give the best of Norway's Black Metal inner circle a run for their money, and the hoarse and deathly vocals of Vincent and Azagthoth make this a perennial winner. Morbid Angel released a few more classics such as "Covenant" and "Blessed Are The Sick" but this remains their master work.
MORBID ANGEL ~ Chapel Of Ghouls
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