Opeth17's Cool and Fun Death Metal Reco Exchange

SonOfNun

Bill Ward's Red Pants
Oct 21, 2003
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The Southland
sonofnun7.wordpress.com
Thread two in the series.

Same format and rules apply. I'll make a bunch of recommendations of Christian oriented Death Metal bands that may be lesser known and ask in return for Death Metal recommendations that avoid blasphemous, anti-Christian, occult, or extremely lewd/gory stuff (I know that's gonna be harder this time). I prefer albums, but if there are albums I should hear that don't fit the criteria, I'd also appreciate song recommendations from those albums.

It might be easier to break this down into categories so here they are with the stuff I already have listed:

Death Metal:

Bolt Thrower - War Master
Nile - Annihilation of the Wicked
Obituary - Slowly We Rot

Melodic Death Metal:

Amon Amarth - Fate of Norns
Edge of Sanity - Crimson
House of Atreus - The Spear and the Ichor That Follows, From the Madness of Ixion
In Flames - Lunar Strain/Subterranean, The Jester Race/Black Ash Inheritance, Whoracle, Colony, Clayman
Wintersun - S/T, Time I, The Forest Seasons

Progressive Death Metal:

Death - Symbolic, The Sound of Perseverance, Live in L.A.
Opeth - All through Damnation

Death/Doom Metal:

Amorphis - Tales From the Thousand Lakes
November's Doom - The Pale Haunt Departure

Death/Thrash Metal:

Ares Kingdom - Return to Dust, Incendiary, The Unburiable Dead, By the Light of Their Destruction
Sacriphyx - The Western Front
Sepultura - Beneath the Remains

There are probably others like Blackened Death Metal or Symphonic Death Metal, but I don't really have any secular stuff in those categories.

I'll begin by doing my part and providing some Death Metal recommendations of my own in the same categories.

Death Metal:

Mortification
- One of the most renowned Christian DM bands. They started with a Death/Thrash sound, went full DM, then started to move in other directions. Their second album Scrolls of the Megilloth is widely regarded as a classic both within and outside the Christian scene.

Scrolls of the Megilloth - 1992



An almost 12 minute bone crusher:



Crimson Thorn - The perfect mixture of brutality and groove. This is the record I was always looking for back in my obsessive DM days. It may be my favorite DM record.

Unearthed - 1994





Sympathy - A one-man Technical Death Metal act from Canada. This guy is a really impressive musician and songwriter.

Arcane Path - 2004





Necroblation - Brutal and groove focused young band out of Switzerland. Outstanding stuff.

Ablation of Death - 2013





Implement - Groove-laden mid-paced DM reminiscent of Blood Red Throne. Brazilian.

Bleeding Alone - 2019





Feast Eternal - Very heavy Death Metal with melodious riffs and lead work reminiscent of Vital Remains.

Prisons of Flesh - 1999


Corpse - Simple, slow DM that I thought was boring and then grew to like. But hey, I like SFU. A bunch of people on MA voted Cannibal Corpse as the top similar artist but I dunno.

From the Grave - 1997




Deracination - Old school DM from Australia.

Times of Atrocity - 1992
Go to 9:58 and shout DEAATHH BY FIRREEE


Disencumbrance - Brutal DM from Texas.

The Betrayal - 1995
Absolute crusher.


Obliteration - Old School DM from Oklahoma.

Dying Age - 1997


Sacrificium - German Death Metal band with roots in the early 90s.

Cold Black Piece of Flesh - 2002



Revulsed - Not really a Christian band, but Jayson Sherlock is the drummer. Excellent Brutal Death Metal.

Infernal Atrocity - 2015



Melodic Death Metal:

Schaliach - Top-tier stuff from Ole Borud (the mastermind behind Extol) and Peter Dalbakk. Early Opeth and Edge of Sanity vibes. A truly great album.

Sonrise - 1996


Immortal Souls - Well-known Finnish melodeath band with a sound more in the Gothenburg vein.

The Cleansing - 2000


Sacrifice (from Ice Upon the Night - 2003)


Lament - Mexican Death Metal band with a lot of acoustic passages, occasional clean vocals, and a ton of melody. I prefer the guttural vocals of the first album over the shouts of the second, but the music is top notch on both and probably better on the second.

Tears of a Leper - 1997

Through the Reflection - 1998



Progressive Death Metal:

Extol - One of the most famous Christian Metal bands. Great musicians and a wide variety of musical elements and styles.

Burial - 1998

Undeceived - 2000

Self-Titled - 2013


See also: Flesh Killer - an Ole Borud project that picks up where Extol left off.

Pantokrator - Long-running Christian Death Metal act. Very technically proficient musicians. Combination of regular Death Metal with Melodic DM, and Progressive DM.

Aurum - 2007

Incarnate - 2014

Marching Out of Babylon - 2021




Death/Doom Metal:

Paramaecium - Legendary Death/Doom act with Jayson Sherlock of Mortification and Horde. The first album is a widely beloved classic that mixes Funeral Doom and traditional Death Metal with some clean male/female vocals, flute, violin, etc. Those latter elements are more pronounced on the second album which I personally prefer for it's variety and melody. The last album returns to a more traditional sound but more streamlined and approachable than the debut.

Exhumed of the Earth - 1993




Within the Ancient Forest - 1996



Echoes From the Ground - 2004) Check out tracks 2 and 3.


Early Antestor - Although Antestor is primarily known as an Unblack Metal band (which they became by 1997), their earlier material was Death/Doom.

Despair - 1993
The beginning of this song sends chills down my spine.


Martyrium - 1994
There's something transcendental about the clean vocal break in this song.


GROMS - Another early Christian Death/Doom band. These guys play more mid-paced music with a little more emphasis on the Death Metal side. Really great stuff.

Ascension - 1994



Crowned in Sorrow - A new band that is making waves with their debut release this year. High quality material.

In Memoriam - 2021


Death/Thrash Metal:


Mortification - The debut album is ripping, rollicking Death/Thrash. One of my favorite albums ever.

Mortification - 1991




Opprobrium (Incubus) - I'll keep sharing these guys because these bros are one of the most underrated acts in Extreme Metal. I included them in the Thrash thread, but they also belong here. Not usually considered a Christian band though the brothers appear to be Christians and include Christian-themed lyrics. Cult following both within and outside the Christian scene.

Beyond the Unknown - 1990

Discerning Forces - 2000

The Fallen Entities - 2019


Azorrague - Brazilian Death with technicality and Thrash elements. This is a band known by almost no one, yet they are very talented and write great music. Reminds me a little of Anata.

Bringer of Terror - 2015


Scourged Flesh - Australian act that isn't that original but writes great riffs that are fun to listen to.

Bury the Lies - 2007


Other:

A Hill to Die Upon - This band has drawn comparisons to Behemoth although I think there is much more to their sound. Innovative and well-crafted Blackened Death Metal with highly intelligent lyrics about history, philosophy, and literature.

Infinite Titanic Immortal - 2009

Omens - 2011


Renascent - Symphonic Death Metal from Finland. Seamless integration of keyboards and guitar into a fairly unique sound with a lot of groove and great riffs.

Praise of the Lord God Almighty - 2016


@Reign in Acai

@Henrik Main @Krigloch the Furious Y'all Death Metal guys get in here and listen to some of these bands and help me out. You two like the really brutal stuff so try Crimson Thorn, Necroblation, Revulsed, and Disencumbrance. Listen to Mortification - Scrolls of the Megilloth because I think it's one of those records every Death Metal guy should hear.
 
I'll check out a few of these, and I'll try to come up with some DM that fits your criteria. Origin - Antithesis and Omnipresent might, I don't really know since I've never checked out their lyrics in detail, but the song titles are at least very PG13

Edit: I'm semifamiliar with that Revulsed joint, pretty cool record!
 
Sounds good. I'll check those out. I don't have the Revulsed CD yet and I'm only hesitating because shipping from Australia. It rules pretty hard.

I think Psycroptic might fit in here. I used to have one of their records and it was cool.
 
I'll check out a few of these, and I'll try to come up with some DM that fits your criteria. Origin - Antithesis and Omnipresent might, I don't really know since I've never checked out their lyrics in detail, but the song titles are at least very PG13

Edit: I'm semifamiliar with that Revulsed joint, pretty cool record!

Origin: Antithesis was pretty meh, but I liked Omnipresent quite a bit. Lyrics were mostly pretentious science talk ala Vintersorg c. 2004.

This song rules pretty hard:

 
Immolation has released a ton of great albums if you haven't given them a shot. Some of them (Close to a World Below, Unholy Cult) may or may not fill your criteria for anti-christian, but overall I'd say they just sing about human hypocrisy, be it in war/religion/politics or otherwise. I'd suggest Majesty and Decay!
 
Immolation has released a ton of great albums if you haven't given them a shot. Some of them (Close to a World Below, Unholy Cult) may or may not fill your criteria for anti-christian, but overall I'd say they just sing about human hypocrisy, be it in war/religion/politics or otherwise. I'd suggest Majesty and Decay!

Thanks, their early stuff is pretty anti-Christian but maybe the later stuff. I'm looking into Malevolent Creation and Monstrosity as potential options.
 
Listening to In Flames - Lunar Strain right now. What an album. I got into them with Clayman and didn't go further back than Jester Race before moving on. That was a mistake.

I still need to buy some Dark Tranquillity.
 
Get Nile. It's all pro Pharoahs and they were cool. Except for the enslavement of Israelites I guess.

Hypocrisy is pro aliens. Not illegal aliens like in Haitians and south americans, but in UFOs

old school Carcass and Autopsy are good choices too
 
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Get Nile. It's all pro Pharoahs and they were cool. Except for the enslavement of Israelites I guess.

Hypocrisy is pro aliens. Not illegal aliens like in Haitians and south americans, but in UFOs

old school Carcass and Autopsy are good choices too

I have Annihilation of the Wicked which I've always loved. I saw them on that tour. I need to look at some of their other stuff.

When did Hypocrisy start talking about aliens? There isn't any lyrics on MA for their albums until The Arrival. Do the booklets for the few albums before that have any lyrics in them?
 
Abducted, and they've been on aliens and sci fi since.

This is their best known song

 
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Listening to In Flames - Lunar Strain right now. What an album. I got into them with Clayman and didn't go further back than Jester Race before moving on. That was a mistake.

I still need to buy some Dark Tranquillity.

Lunar Strain is their most enduring album for me. Some Norweigan guy I used to chat to on AIM sent me subterranean.mp3 (the track, obviously from the EP not this album) when I was like 16/17 and I'd never really heard anything like it. I definitely listen to this album more regularly than anything else in their back catalogue.

Yes you should probably buy some Dark Tranquillity.