Death Metal

There are like 40 000 death metal bands on Metal-Archives. So there are easily more than 10 000 death metal albums in existence! If only a quarter of those have 2-3 releases, that’s already more.
 
I knew as soon as I said that, someone was gonna go "BUT METAL ARCHIVES SAYS!!!!!!!!!" Metal Archives definitions mean nothing to me. A majority of those bands probably aren't actually death metal (since MA is going to include every single entry that has ever had the word "death" in the genre descriptor), a large majority of the subset that are death metal have probably never released a full length, and only about 20% of that much smaller number is worth hearing, the rest is shitty local bands or something, garbage that should never see the light of day, like this: https://www.metal-archives.com/albu...ZF7pkUuF2q2AW72Uv78DGt40stcxMped_Ra8POhymsWlo

Let me clarify and say there's no fucking way on earth that there are 10K purely death metal albums that are even remotely worth listening to. I keep personal archives, an Excel document with bands I listen to, as my own strictly-death-metal database, to exclude the no-name crap that MA includes. Not to say it's anywhere close to completely exhaustive, or ever will be, but it's pretty extensive, sitting just shy of 3000 bands currently.

I also keep a folder on my PC of death metal releases by year, again, to have my personal database. I try to only get main releases, so if a band has full lengths, I don't put every demo in, but if a band only has demos, obviously that's included. This database is sourced from the Excel document, so every band on there is included in this portion. Right now it's got about 6500 entries.

So yeah, TECHNICALLY, there might be 10k full length albums on earth that are actually death metal, not some murky gray area genre like war metal or something, but I promise you that only a fraction of that is anything legitimate. Maybe that's just my weird logic, but you get the idea.
 
Well I never said they were worth listening to did I. I don't think 10 000 releases in the 30 years the genre has existed is all that many really and I don't know why you're making out that it is. I'm including demos and EPs in this.
 
I was just explaining how I reached the conclusion I did. For someone to listen to 10000 albums, they would have to listen to every single piece of trash that's ever been recorded.
 
I knew as soon as I said that, someone was gonna go "BUT METAL ARCHIVES SAYS!!!!!!!!!

This meme fr:

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I wasn’t always convinced he was as old as he said he was, although I got the vibe he was definitely older than the average person here.

he definitely wasnt old(he's in his 30's). I actually know exactly who he is haha. He used another username on this forum before which he admitted to me once i caught him, lol. but yeah, he was a pretty cool guy.

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there was that batlord guy, and mrtagomago, and that dipshit who went on about how harsh vocals are a pox on metal, guiltyspawn or something? not to mention that uneasy_conscience/pitiless wanderer guy who quit and slagged us off on MA 'cause we laughed at him for making judgements on graveland after 'fastforwarding' through their albums or something lol. and sloughfegkillers/jontrevolting who had good taste in my book but had a chip on his shoulder about the fake ass know nothing downloaders of GMD.

i wonder if vilden will ever come back.
lets not forget about End of Glory, Nephilim and Prophet of Hatred.
 
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Was prophet of hatred that weird Italian guy that used Taake as his avatar most of the time here? (Maybe changed it to
Necrodeath towards the end) I remember he sent me some long broken English message about something he thought I said about him once and got a good laugh out of it. Had no fucking clue what he was talking about.
 
Was prophet of hatred that weird Italian guy that used Taake as his avatar most of the time here? (Maybe changed it to
Necrodeath towards the end) I remember he sent me some long broken English message about something he thought I said about him once and got a good laugh out of it. Had no fucking clue what he was talking about.
nah, that was probably End of Glory. Prophet wasn't a foreigner. Had a Deathstroke avatar.
 
Highlighting my favourite death metal demos from 1997, sans Ferocity because they've been mentioned in this thread more than once. Everybody should listen to Ferocity though.



Besides the Ferocity demo, this is the penultimate best death metal demo of '97 and overall one of my favourite demos of any era. Crushing and mechanical brutal/technical death metal from Italy with some very wild bass work and utterly low, sick vocals.




Story goes that Biolich started off as an explicit Demilich-worship band and you can hear it even though they went in a different direction in many respects. This is their debut demo tape and it's utterly demented! I think morguelord showed me this one.




Their 4th demo tape and only 2 years away from dropping their debut album. Huge fan of this band, been on a rediscovery kick as of late with all the brutal/technical death metal bands I liked when I first got into metal. The cymbal smashing on this demo does so much for me.




Their debut demo is so fucking good! Their sound was already so developed, with the maze-like drumming patterns and super low guttural sickness of the vocals, even the slam parts are there. Monstrous.




Swedish technical death metal, this one was new to me. I know of the band but never checked anything out, this is their second demo tape and I liked it a lot. Reminds me of classic melodeath meets a more tame version of The Luster of Pandemonium, or something. Bit of a cool oddity.




Dark, swampy gore-soaked Italian death metal with hints of brutal and technical leanings. I love the blasting.
 
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I've had 1997 albums on rotation lately because we're doing the '97 game, so I'm wondering what death metal from that year people in here might like. I only know so much.

Is anybody in here a fan of Wayd? It's pretty goofy and bizarre but for me it works. The mixture of death metal, experimental rock and jazz fusion is pretty original. I love the bass playing and the use of clean strings, it has some problems that hold it back even within the context of already being quite weird and unpalatable, like the vocals which I think are pretty weak. The thrashy shout robs it of some heaviness, when even a generic death metal vocal style would be an improvement, and it can't afford to be robbed of that heaviness because it already has many un-heavy parts as it is. That's how I feel anyway.

It could have had Ferocity-tier potential in my opinion, but for a few wrong moves.




Surprised that nobody here seems to like Serpents of the Light though. It's a monstrous album with some truly brutal drumming and vicious riffs. Maybe the vocals are a bit high in the mix, which obscures the musicianship and is a sign of a band starting to go mainstream, but every single song is so catchy and the album overall is just relentlessly heavy.




If Wayd's weirdness didn't impress me so much, this album would have been my 1997 AOTY. Cold alien technicality with some synths weaved throughout and a knack for songwriting that I really appreciate. Makes me want to watch some X-Files.




Algophobia definitely lean heavily towards progressive metal but there are smatterings of technical death metal going on throughout the record too. The drummer on this album is fucking sick.




Vicious and ripping as fuck melodic death metal! Probably my absolute favourite Centinex album, everything is just firing full blast with this one, with riffing that works its way into your mind like a needle.




Lovecraftian death metal mastery from Mexico, with some fucked up labyrinthian tempo changes and twisted riffs. Very classic sounding shit. These dudes were building up since the early 90's and after demos and EPs you can tell that they were just ready to unleash this shit on metalheads in 1997!




Throw some '97 death metal at me.
 
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Here's some 97 shit, man. Some you'll probably know, some hopefully not. If you want a full list of '97 DM releases, let me know.













Probably one of my favorites, has Tomas Corn of Lykathea Aflame renown on drums.


Y'all ever hear Gojira before they were Gojira? Actually pretty sick.






I'm leaving work in just a few minutes or I'd continue, but here's a few I dig. Maybe more later.
 
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Honestly not a particularly great year for death metal for me. But that Shub Niggurath rules.

Here is some other stuff I like/have liked in the past:

Melodic death:
Crown of Thorns - Eternal Death
Eucharist - Mirrorworlds
The Moaning - Blood From Stone
Intestine Baalism - An Anatomy of the Beast
Sacramentum - The Coming of Chaos (just started coming round to this.)
Maze of Torment - The Force

Death metal:
Sadistic Intent - Ancient Black Earth
Molested - Stormvold
Caducity - Whirler of Fate
Vore - Dead Kings Eyes

Stuff I haven’t heard but is on my list to listen to:
Blood Ritual - At the Mountains of Madness
Diabolic - City of the Dead
Abominator - The Conqueror Possessed
Promisqes - Monarchy of Evil
 
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That track by Brick crushes! Never heard of these guys before. Never heard pre-Gojira either but I'm liking this EP a lot.

Massive fan of Capharnaum but somehow I totally forgot to add it to my '97 Top 10, remedied that. One of the coldest and most alien death metal albums from the 90's, very similar to Mordeth if anybody is interested in checking it out.

Listening to Garbage Disposal right now and this is very sick and bassy. Squeezing this one in before work because it's so nasty.