pov: death metal albums

that takes me back 17 years or so. I only own the slayer record now.

Black upon the throne forever
Devilish to be
Haunting in the voids
Somewhere only demons breathe

Black upon the throne forever
Demonic to be
With eyes that possesses
Dare you to connect us

Communing with spirits
And souls of the beyond
Cursed in black
Summoned here within

Black upon the throne forever
Never to return
Lurking in the caves
Black than darkness itself
Face us
By the damned in black you fall
Speeding with deaths wind through
gates of the beyond

Red mark us pure and evil...
black spirits haunt from here
The frozen squad descend...
The flame burn withing
Death rides on demonwings...
Black spirits haunt from here
The frozen squad descend...
Demons until the end

Black is the night, metal we fight
Power amps set to explode
Energy screams, magic and dreams
Satan records the first note.
We chime the bell, chaos and hell
Metal for maniacs pure.
Fast melting steel, fortune on wheels
Brain haemorrhage is the cure
For BLACK METAL
lay down your soul to the gods rock `n' roll

Freaking so wild, nobody's mild
Giving it all that you've got.
Wild is so right, metal tonight
Faster than over the top.
Open the door, enter hells core
Black is the code for tonight
Atomic force, feel no remorse
Trunk up the amps now it's night
BLACK METAL
lay down your soul to the gods rock `n' roll
metal ten fold through the deadly black hole
riding hells stallions bareback and free
faking our chances with raw energy

Come ride the night with us
Rock hard and fight
United my legions we stand
Freak hard and wild for us
Give up your souls
Live for the guest satans band

Against the adds, black metal gods
Fight to achieve our goal
Tasting a spell, leather and hell
Black metal gods rock `n' roll
Building up steam, nuclear screams
War-heads are ready to fight
Black leather hounds, faster than sound
Metal our purpose in life.
BLACK METAL
lay down your soul to the gods rock `n' roll
black metal

and honorary mention to the german band poison's into the abyss mini lp, originally a demo from 1987.

Basically the same kind of list a magazine like Entertainment Weekly would give you as a death metal primer, but screw it, they're fine, fine albums. It's a lot easier to do POX though.

autopsy - severed survival (or death - s.b.g., it's a tie)
But neither's as good as "Mental Funeral"!

I didn't realize Ufomammut had done more than one album. I used to have one named The Godlike Snake. Terrible stuff.

Admissal time then: I prefer "Cause of Death" to "Slowly We Rot"

yeah, but severed survival has that horrifyingly churning bass from digiorgio and destroyed my mind when it came out. scream bloody gore destroyed my mind a couple of years earlier. mental funeral is technically better but this is sentimentality, dude.

the snailking is almost intolerably heavy. i've only ever been able to make it through the whole album completely out of my mind on drugs

opeth - morningrise

amon amarth - once sent from the golden hall

morbid angel - altars of madness

anata - the infernal depths of hatred

cryptopsy - none so vile

suffocation - effigy of the forgotten

deicide - legion

entombed - left hand path

discordance axis - the inalienable dreamless

immolation - dawn of possession

dissection - storm of the light's bane

carnage - dark recollections

napalm death - scum

vader - litany

carcass - heartwork

brutal truth - need to control

obituary - slowly we rot

terrorizer - world downfall

death - scream bloody gore

bolt thrower - war master

cryptopsy - none so vile

morbid angel - altars of madness (or, on another day, blessed are the sick)

decapitated - the negation

behemoth - demigod

Anyhoo second-yay for Dissection. It might well be the only melodic death album I -really- like. I do have a weak spot for Afflicted's Prodigal Sun though.

1 - carcass - necroticism: descanting the insalubrious

2 - morbid angel - altars of madness (also the hall of fame album this issue)

3 - at the gates - slaughter of the soul

4 - obituary - cause of death

5 - entombed - left hand path

6 - napalm death - harmony corruption

7 - carcass - heartwork

8 - cryptopsy - none so vile

9 - bolt thrower - realm of chaos

10 - cannibal corpse - the bleeding

11 - death - scream bloody gore

12 - incantation - onward to golgotha

13 - morbid angel - covenant

14 - death - human

15 - carcass - symphonies of sickness

16 - nile - in their darkened shrines

17 - suffocation - pierced from within

18 - dismember - like an ever flowing stream

19 - atheist - unquestionable presence

20 - autopsy - mental funeral

Meh. It's not even Obituary's best.

Nokturnal were a somewhat obscure NJ band, anybody remember them? Their first two demos were brilliant but the magic didn't carry over to their studio album, Nothing But Hatred, unfortunately.

But I can see where some could find it pedestrian or generic (dare I say nu-metal?). What is Napalm Death's best post-Scum album?

gorguts - erosion of sanity
death - the sound of perseverance
autopsy - mental funeral
atheist - unquestionable presence
incantation - onward to golgotha

the "erosion of sanity" reissue has convinced me that it's a better album than "obscura."

i don't agree! but i like it a bunch. i actually think their last album - from wisdom to hate - is the slept on gorguts record. i love it.

I like that too actually. I got an attitude problem about obscura anyhow owing to its "death metal for people who don't like straight-up death metal" status.

There's that one song with the piano break on Erosion... that is so cool. (Orphans of Sickness, maybe?)

there needs to be more love for disembowelment, jeez what a great band

Sometimes disembowelment reminds me of that thing dickhead older kids with cars used to do, where'd they slow down to let you in and then speed up once you got there, over and over. And like those older kids, disembowelment are really cool, so I let them get away with it.

Really feelin' Nocturnus's The Key right now.

hey, i just dug out "the key" and have been listening to it, too. i kinda slept on that one, i have to admit.

Ever heard their other stuff? How does it compare? I wouldn't mind having three or four records that sound exactly like this.

The follow-up to The Key was Thresholds and is basically in the same vein. I've heard some of the albums after that one, but those weren't all that great.

I guess I never did this. Anyway, off the top of my head:

Morbid Angel - Domination
Morgoth - Odium
Unleashed - Where No Life Dwells
Immolation - Closer to a World Below
Bolt Thrower - Realms of Chaos

There are lots more though.

Realm of Chaos

five current faves, just for the hell of it...

convulse - world without god
immolation - majesty and decay
ulcerate - everything is fire
grotesque - in the embrace of evil
death - scream bloody gore

I am standing by Pestilence's Consuming Impulse, man. All vicious, thrashy riffs and intelligent, tricky song constructions that have to have been influenced by listening to Master of Puppets. Oh and the chorus of "Suspended Animation" is almost an audio illusion and feels like it's getting faster and faster.

I think it's constantly playing somewhere in my reptile brain.

I am an admitted dilettante re death metal but I've recently found a point of entry: Gorguts 'Obscura' and Death "Individual Thought Patterns'. I love how progggy/groovy they are. Is fretless bass common in dm? What else similar is out there? The only recent stuff that's resonated with me is Morbus Chron and Inculter who I guess would be considered thrash. Anyway, thanks for humoring a noob.

Fretless isn't really that common in most death metal, though it is quite widely used in the more fiddly prog stuff. On that tip Focus by Cynic might be worth a try (CAUTION: vocoder)

As far as Gorguts go, it took a long while for it to happen but there are quite a few bands that are heavily inspired by Obscura; as ever most just sort of ape the source material but some like Pyrrhon and Genevieve take the twisted dm thing and put their own spin on it.

If you're feeling adventurous Ehnahre might also be worth a try.

I'm more into black metal, mind, and have only just started to listen to more death recently so there should be someone out there to give a few more ideas.

Thanks ultros! Reading the thread now and seeing Cynic come up repeatedly. 2 Cynic dudes played on Individual Thought Patterns so that's a slam dunk. I'll check the others. too.

Minor correction: the Cynic members (Reinert and Masvidal) played in Death's Human, not ITP. You should probably also check that one out in addition to Cynic's Focus.

Fretless bass in death metal's new generation would be Stargazer. Check out "The Scream That Tore the Sky" or the "A Merging to the Boundless"!

Immolation - Close to a World Below
Death - Leprosy
Obliteration - Black Death Horizon
Cryptopsy - None So Vile
Nocturnus - The Key

Autopsy - Mental Funeral
Demilich - Nespithe
Incantation - Onward to Golgotha
Gorguts - Obscura
Nihilist - 1987-1989

These are both great lists.

I love how varied these lists can be

today...

Incantation - Dirges of Elysium
Deicide - Once Upon the Cross
Vader - De Profundis
Grave Desecrator - Insult (hey I'm a sucker for Brazilian death metal run thru the Sepultura-izer)
Krisiun - Black Force Domain

Convulse - World Without God
Mare Infinitum - Alien Monolith God
Edge of Sanity - Crimson
Howls of Ebb - Vigils of the 3rd Eye
Opeth - Ghost Reveries

man I love Ghost Reveries, haven't played it in way too long.

well always ride for that Convulse. got to see them in 2013, sick.

alien monolith god is such a fucking keeper. p bold to have it on a pov but I support this boldness

I don't have my record collection at hand so will probably forget something important:

Morbus Chron - Sweven
Phlebotomized - Immense Intense Suspense
!.T.O.O.H.! - Rad A Trest
Gorguts - Obscura

hmmmmm....

Adramelech - Psychostasia

Also I like how the OP lists 3 bm albums, followed by doom and thrash

Actually scratch Adramelech and replace it with

Dark Millennium - Ashore the Celestial Burden

p bold to have it on a pov but I support this boldness

On a different day, I could have gone a bit more canonical and included some Death and Autopsy. Very much a POV in the moment.

Suffocation - Effigy of the Forgotten
Cannibal Corpse - Tomb of the Mutilated
Death - Human
Dying Fetus - Killing on Adrenaline
Immolation - Failures for Gods

Picking a new 5 only from things I've discovered in the three years since my last list:

Asphyx - Last One on Earth
Coffin Rot - A Monument to the Dead
Imprecation - Damnatio Ad Bestias
Khanus - Flammarion
Undergang - Misantropologi

Off the top of my head:

Gorguts - Obscura
Death - Human
At the Gates - With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness
My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans (death doom counts, right?)
Tomb Mold - Planetary Clairvoyance (still early, but whatevs)

Mine would all be classic era:

Entombed - Clandestine
Death - Human
Carcass - Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious
Morbid Angel - Blessed Are the Sick
Pestilence - Testimony of the Ancients

xpost Tomb Mold looking like a Best of Decade for me.

Nocturnus - The Key
Autopsy- Mental Funeral
Demilich - Nespithe
Cadaver - Hallucinating Anxiety
Carcass - Necrotism - Descanting the Insalubrious

I know all of those except the Cadaver. though that might be one I bought and forgot about.

good choices!

I know very little dm. Must take notes.

how have i never replied to this thread before

morbus chron: sweven
obituary: cause of death
gorement: the ending quest
aeternus: ... and the seventh his soul detesteth
unleashed: odalheim

Damn now that's variety!

been revisiting a bunch of stuff from the last decade that i think still holds up. plus obituary and gorement

I am unwell so won't compile a five yet but I have to mention Corpse Garden here, that album of theirs was so truly sick

Carcass – Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious
Sepultura – Beneath The Remains
Death – Human
Morbid Angel – Blessed Are The Sick
Obituary – Cause Of Death

Cryptopsy - None So Vile
Convulse - World Without God
Terrorizer - World Downfall
Autopsy - Mental Funeral
Assück - Anticapital / Blindspot / +3

Cynic really getting the shaft here

that Convulse fucking rules.

I just got Mental Funeral on vinyl.

NSV is in my top 5.

Terrorizer!!

good list

yes fuckin terrorizer!

still getting used to Sandoval having dreds

ok resisting the temptation to google Pete Sandoval dreads

He apparently did it for his girlfriend.

terrorizer is THE GREATEST

riff they ride out at the end of "world downfall" is a personal fav

did they invent the 'horrors of war/modern society' collage album cover with that record?

granted Terrorizer at this point is Pete and the dudes from Monstrosity, but their new alb was good, and they do such a good job of recreating the WD album live....but I saw them live last year and it was just an endless barrage of grind, people going nuts, my friend Kelly standing next to me just being enthralled (she had never heard them before).

so many ppl air drumming...

also, another monstrosity is hardly the worst thing I can think of

I got to see them a few years ago, one of their first shows after they reformed. it was a lot of fun.

bought myself a terribly printed Monstrosity shirt that doesn't fit anymore.

then i went home and bought what I thought was an EP of new stuff they released but it turned out to be a hip hop act. then the album dropped a few years later (2018?)

yea, I saw em touring that last record. fun show. sick leads.

hell yeah. gotta pull that one out again

these are just the ones I'm listening to now and enjoying tf out of, not my favs

Brutality - When the Sky Turns Black
Morpheus Descends- Ritual of Infinity
Blood Red Throne - Altered Genesis
Undeath - Lesions of a Different Kind
Benediction - Scriptures

Digging this Morpheus Descends. The kind of raw old-school DM I can get behind.

yeah, I literally just finished spinning again. even by 90s standards they weren't bringing 'new' ideas to the table, just doing the ideas very well and gritty, earthy style.

blood red throne is great. tchort is great

yeah, my metal cruise friends got me into them. they actually waged a multi-year campaign to get them booked on the boat and succeeded many years later.

this album is especially dope. i was playing it on a 9 am drive and wanted to leap out of my car and jump on someone. I waited until I got to a red light.

Cadaver - Hallucinating Anxiety

btw methanietanner I checked this out and enjoyed it a lot, kind of funny how different it was to what came later. it feels like the musical expression of a video nasty, the feeling of being in a basement surrounded by people you don't trust and no idea how to escape.

Glad you dug it and that's a good description of its uh unique appeal.

yea, few death metal albums I've heard that are truly that filthy sounding....

putting this shit here cos i'm lazy and this is a thread that becomes active when one of us posts in it.

so I've decided to give Therion another shot. literally my only experience with them was Theli 15 years ago, and it didn't gel with me at all, so I destroyed the cd and actually killed some of the people in the band.

anyway, years later, I'm starting back over, and started with Beyond Sanctorum, which is totally my shit. good old school death metal with atmosphere.

also got Lepaca Kliffoth to get something in the transition period, and am digging this, almost on the same level I dig Sentenced's North from Here.

what albums of theirs are the best? I am totally cool with the more orchestral stuff, actually very curious about it, also wondering if there's any other 'old' stuff worth a shit in their catalog similar t Beyond Sanctorum.

I don't have time to listen to it all myself so don't tell me to do that or I will be forced to ask you politely to leave.

ok i cheated and picked up Vovin and this is some good shit

The debut is good too if you like Beyond Sanctorum.

morbus chron: sweven
obituary: cause of death
gorement: the ending quest
aeternus: ... and the seventh his soul detesteth
unleashed: odalheim

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, September 14, 2020 9:15 PM bookmarkflaglink

that Unleashed is not fuckin' around at all, holy shiiit

i looove that album

i've heard all eras of Unleashed, but never this album. hot fuckin' damn.

correct answer is probably five immolation albums tbh

^hi-five

man have I discovered so much lately, here's a brand new 5

Adramelech - Psychostasia
Necrophagia - Ready for Death
Rottrevore - Iniquitous
Pessimist - Slaughtering the Faithful
Killing Addition - Omega Factor

Adramelech is good for people that like artier death metal that still sounds like death metal, i.e. Demilich. Necrophagia isn't really a standout in the catalog, it was just their 'lost' album and I dig how raw it is.

Rottrevore album almost seems like a much more aggressive Obituary, but one that wasn't as into worshipping Celtic Frost. Pessimist sounds like other Pessimist and they seem like douchey people but I was really into their sound and this was the only one of theirs I hadn't heard.

Killing Addiction are Florida legends that only had one album that's really floor-punchy 90s aggressive, and have a new one due out soon.

I love Adramelech and Rottrevore. Need to check out that Necrophagia.

Oh there's a newish Adramelech demo comp for anyone who needs that.

that adramelech is a stone cold classic. but weirdly, I never checked out anything else they put out. I was satisfied. but a demo comp does sound intriguing...

Killing Addiction are awesome, great to have a new album after a 28 year wait.

Main dude Chris Wicklein was also in Druid Lord not so long ago, doom a la Winter/Gorement. Cool stuff.

I love Druid Lord. they're based 20 minutes from where I live, so I get to see them a lot (or did, prior to the pandemic). sometimes they outdraw the national act (for instance they opened for Deceased once and after their set, there were like ten people left for Deceased lol).

they're so popular here that pretty much few other local acts have really emerged cos it's a heavy shadow to be in. Intoxicated is the other band that's blown up here, but they're actually an older band that went dormant for a while. since they've been back, they've gotten almost as many bookings as Teh Lord.

Cancer - To the Gory End
Embalmed - Boiling Humans
Dying Fetus - Killing on Adrenaline
Regurgitation - Tales of Necrophilia
Wombbath - Internal Caustic Torments

Purtenance - Member of Immortal Damnation
Funebrarum - Beneath the Columns of Abandoned Gods
Fluids - Ignorance Exalted
Putrid Pile - Collection of Butchery
Fulci - Tropical Sun

I really enjoyed Grave’s dominion viii recently, I think the consensus is that they long stopped mattering by this point, but it fucking rips imo, maybe it’s the remaster?

I don't know that one specifically, but most all Grave is pretty damn good.

also spawned one of the more hilarious Jeff Gilbert album reviews in Guitar World history, of their Extremely Rotten Live album, to which his review was merely "Yes, it is"

write-in vote for Malignancy - Intrauterine Cannibalism, which was one of a few albums I bought in college just from the album cover.

they're more known for their more tech-deathy later stuff, but this one is just raw dumb shit with good riffs.

funebrarum are some kinda direct hit right into my brain’s idiotic pleasure zone, i can’t even be critical about any of it, really

that said, the sleep of morbid dreams is ridiculously great stuff

5 recent-ish ones of crushing brutality:

Angel Morgue - In the Morgue of Angels
Coffin Rot - A Monument to the Dead
Imprecation - Damnatio ad Bestias
Sněť - Mokvání v Okovech
Vastum - Orificial Purge

yeah that Imprecation is great

really liked their last one too. i mean, they’re all great to some degree or other (of what i’ve heard)