Greatest death metal albums
Realistically, all four of the band’s early records deserves a spot on this list. From Eaten Back to Life (1990) through The Bleeding (1994), everything CC did was instrumental in establishing death metal’s signature tropes, particularly the cartoonish imagery, lyrics and heaviness that countless BDM bands have emulated since. Newer fans may take issue with my assessment of the Barnes-era, but I find it hard to argue that the four albums he gurgled over aren’t some of the most impactful death metal records in the genre’s history. Even though he fronted the Golden Era of Cannibal Corpse ’s discography, he’s ended up in one of death metal’s worst bands ( Six Feet Under ) while Corpsegrinder -era CC only becomes more popular with each new release and Summer Slaughter headlining gig. You almost have to feel a little bad for Chris Barnes. – Dan Wieten Cannibal Corpse – Tomb of The Mutilated (1992)
All the tropes are here: The Dan Seagrave illustrated cover, the claustrophobic, one fuzzy guitar and one mid range-y guitar Scott Burns production, the trade off solos…and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Effigy of the Forgotten is a snapshot of the golden age of death metal, when the bar was seemingly raised overnight and bands from Florida, New York, and Scandinavia were churning out albums that sent each other back to the rehearsal room to step up their game. Suffocation made it okay for us elitist motherfuckers…the ones in the back crossing our arms the entire show…to have some fun. How many variations of the breakdown in Liege Of Inveracity have made it onto tape and 1’s and 0’s and through countless PA’s all over the world? Too many to comprehend. If you’re not there to mosh, get out of the way.Įffigy of the Forgotten’s impact on the metal world can really be boiled down to One. The growls were deeper, the blast beats were faster, the riffs were more technical, and to top it all off the band injected a venomous dose of hardcore attitude and grooves that still continue to polarize crowds the world over. They harnessed the tools of brutality that bands like Cannibal Corpse, Death, Morbid Angel, and Carcass were toying with at the time and ramped it all up a notch. Brutal Death Metal would simply not exist if it weren’t for this band, and especially this album. There are few bands who can stake the claim of turning an entire subgenre of metal on its head, and Suffocation is among the elite. Suffocation – Effigy of the Forgotten (1991) So without further ado, let’s dive in to what our staff considers to the be the Best Of – Brutal Death Metal! If you’ve ever felt that way-the grooves could be groovier, the riffs could be riffier, the blasts could be blastier, the gutturals could be gutturalier-then brutal death metal is the answer to all your prayers.
To the surprise of absolutely nobody, the ensuing auditory carnage is not for the faint of heart, but it is for anybody that feels like extreme metal just isn’t extreme enough yet.
As far as subgenres go, it doesn’t exactly shake up its progenitor’s foundations by a relatively large amount, choosing instead to just take everything that makes death metal an already pretty brutal genre and crank that bad boy up to 11. The differences one would expect between “regular death metal” and “brutal death metal” are manifold and, by and large, pretty predictable: guitars are more downtuned riffs are chunkier and more visceral vocals are far deeper and even less intelligible the whole nine yards. Brutal death metal has the rare benefit of being exactly what it sounds like.