Best Death Metal/ Grind records by era ("big 4" not included)

karljant

karljant

Ancient Mariner
Well... I did the same Hard n'Heavy/ Power Metal and Thrash/ Speed Metal. So it's only fair to do the same for Death Metal. Metalsucks made a poll regarding "Death Metal's big 4" and the results were Death, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel and Obituary. You can also include Mellow Scandinavian Death Metal or Blackened Death metal as well as other variations (though I avoided them since I'm preparing another variation on these lists). So here are my picks on a 5 year span (starting from 1985 when Seven Churches came out, arguably the 1st Death Metal album) without featuring the aforementioned four bands:

1985 to 1989:
Atheist - Piece Of Time
Bolt Thrower - Realm Of Chaos (Slaves To Darkness)
Bolt Thrower - In Battle There Is No Law
Extreme Noise Terror - A Holocaust In Your Head
Napalm Death - Scum
Nihilist - Only Shreds Remain
Repulsion - Horrified
Sepultura - Schizophrenia
Sepultura - Beneath The Remains
Terrorizer - World Downfall

1990 to 1994:
Bolt Thrower - The IVth Crusade
Carcass - Necroticism ... Descanting The Insalubrious
Carcass - Heartwork
Cynic - Focus
Entombed - Clandestine
Entombed - Wolverine Blues
Gorefest - False
Napalm Death - Harmony Corruption
Napalm Death - Utopia banished
Sacred Sin - Darkside
Sepultura - Arise

1995 to 1999:
Brutal Truth - Need To Control
Carcass - Swansong
Extreme Noise Terror - Retro-Bution
Napalm Death - Fear, Emptiness, Despair
Napalm Death - Diatribes
Opeth - Still Life
Rotten Sound - Under Pressure
Sadist - Tribe
Testament - Demonic
Thormenthor - Abstract Divinity

2000 to 2004:
Bolt Thrower - Honor Valor Pride
Entombed - Uprising
Entombed - Morning Star
Gojira - Terra Incognita
Napalm Death - Enemy Of The Music Business
Napalm Death - Order Of The Leach
Napalm Death - Leaders Not Followers II
Nasum - Helvete
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Vader - Litany

2005 to 2009:
Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal
Extreme Noise Terror - Laws Of Retaliation
Gorefest - Rise To Ruin
Napalm Death - The Code Is Red... Long Live The Code
Napalm Death - Smear Campaign
Ratos De Porao - Homem Inimigo Do Homem
Sadus - Elements Of Anger
Terrorizer - Darker Days Ahead
Vader - The Art Of War
Vader - XXV

2010 to 2014:
Atheist - Jupiter
Carcass - Surgical Steel
Carcass - Surgical Remission/ Surplus Steel
Crescent - Pyramid Slaves
Creative Waste - Slaves To Conformity
Disaffected - Rebirth
Gridlink - Orphan
Gridlink - Longhena
Progress Of Inhumanity - Escalating Decay
Sepultura - The Mediator....

2015 to today:
Carcass - Despicable
Disaffected - The Trinity Of Threshold
Entombed AD - Dead Dawn
Extreme Noise Terror - Extreme Noise Terror
Horrendous - Idol
Memoriam - Requiem For Mankind
Napalm Death - Apex Predator... Easy Meat
Napalm Death - Throes of Joy In the Jaws Of Defeatism
Sadist - Hyaena
Terrorizer - Caustic Attack
 
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Man I am not even done with the previous category. Where do you get all the time.

No At the Gates, Swedish Gothenburg to be seen here, but I assume these are allowed @karljant ?
 
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Forostar said:
Man I am not even done with the previous category. Where do you get all the time.
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Let's just say my costumers take a shit load of time to send material when I'm making Websites. Procrastination and bureaucracy is a plague almost as dire as COVID for us free lancers at Portugal (and don't forget 3 weeks ago we were the worst country in the world regarding number of infections by 100k citizens so we're still in absolute quarantine). Other reason is I know how to pinpoint the records that I like the most with relative ease in time (normally I even waste more time scratching out good records in really stacked eras).
Forostar said:
No At the Gates, Swedish Gothenburg to be seen here, but I assume these are allowed @karljant ?
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As I said before:
karljant said:
You can also include Mellow Scandinavian Death Metal or Blackened Death metal as well as other variations (though I avoided them since I'm preparing another variation on these lists).
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So there you have it... the next list will be Nordic metal that includes Black Metal, Viking Metal and of course Gothenburg Style Mellow Death Metal (In Flames, at The Gates, Dark Tranquillity, Arch Enemy, Night In Gales, etc...). So If you wish so, yeah... you can use them here repeat them in the next list.
 
Magnus said:
Needs more Morgoth and (early) Tiamat.
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Cursed and especially Odium are among my favorite DM records. There's only one problem: they were released during Death Metal's best era IMO. As for early Tiamat I consider Clouds to be more Death/ Doom/ Goth. Sumerian Cry is ok and The Astral Sleep is really great but they also have the same "problem" than Morgoth's records: that 5 year span is simply stacked! Just check some of the albums left out:

Entombed - Left Hand Path
Malevolent Creation - The Ten Commandments
Carnage - Dark Recollections
Unleashed - Where No Life Dwells
Atrocity - Hallucinations
Napalm Death - Utopia Banished
Napalm Death - Fear Emptiness Despair
Pestilence - Testimony Of The Ancients
Pestilence - Spheres
Bolt Thrower - War Master
Bolt Thrower - For Victory
Dismember - Like An Ever Flowing Stream
Benediction - Transcend The Rubicon
Brutal Truth - Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses
Genocide - Genocide
Disincarnate - Dreams Of The Carrion Kind
 
karljant said:
Let's just say my costumers take a shit load of time to send material when I'm making Websites. Procrastination and bureaucracy is a plague almost as dire as COVID for us free lancers at Portugal (and don't forget 3 weeks ago we were the worst country in the world regarding number of infections by 100k citizens so we're still in absolute quarantine). Other reason is I know how to pinpoint the records that I like the most with relative ease in time (normally I even waste more time scratching out good records in really stacked eras).

As I said before:

So there you have it... the next list will be Nordic metal that includes Black Metal, Viking Metal and of course Gothenburg Style Mellow Death Metal (In Flames, at The Gates, Dark Tranquillity, Arch Enemy, Night In Gales, etc...). So If you wish so, yeah... you can use them here repeat them in the next list.
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Thanks. I will because I certainly believe they have to be in both. Death metal is death metal and if it is good it deserves to be in the main branch, the overlapping genre.
 
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karljant said:
Let's just say my costumers take a shit load of time to send material when I'm making Websites. Procrastination and bureaucracy is a plague almost as dire as COVID for us free lancers at Portugal (and don't forget 3 weeks ago we were the worst country in the world regarding number of infections by 100k citizens so we're still in absolute quarantine). Other reason is I know how to pinpoint the records that I like the most with relative ease in time (normally I even waste more time scratching out good records in really stacked eras).
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I am not a bad pinpointer myself but have family, a job, try to go outside, well, just not as much time.
I like these topics man. I am into lists, so.

But I do wonder if it is better if black metal is separated from death metal. Nordic metal is imo a dumb and not practical term.

There is black and death metal in different regions. Where am I going to put a Greek or Hungarian black metal record?

In Flames is much further from Immortal (black metal) than from death metal. As are At the Gates.
Ancient has nothing to do with (melodic) death metal. A bit odd to throw them together because they are "Nordic".

Yes there are a crossover bands but are there so many that they cannot be put in one or two of these categories (plain death metal and black metal?

Just my 2 cents!
 
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Forostar said:
I am not a bad pinpointer myself but have family, a job, try to go outside, well, just not as much time.
I like these topics man. I am into lists, so.
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Yup I understand. I'm single, no family and am not allowed to leave my house to do little more than shopping, pay bills, have a stroll with my dog and pick up the trash. Other than that I can't even leave my parish (only good thing is I don't waste money on fuel), my major hobby is forbidden (basketball - you can't even shoot some hoops on your own... if the cops spot you up they'll fine you 200€ up to 1000€ depending on the situation). So as a freelancer I have tons of spare time right now. Would have a little less if my costumers would be faster sending text, photos, etc... for me to complete the 2 websites I'm doing but anyway... such is the way the majority of business right here works.
Forostar said:
But I do wonder if it is better if black metal is separated from death metal. Nordic metal is imo a dumb and not practical term.

There is black and death metal in different regions. Where am I going to put a Greek or Hungarian black metal record?
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Yup you're right. My intent was to put together in the same ballot stuff like early In Flames, Dark Tranquillity and At The Gates with Black Metal since I think they're truly closer to acts like Dissection, Dimmu Borgir, Sacramentum, Naglfar or Borknagar than square Death Metal itself. But on the other hand you're right: there are top tier Black Metal bands that aren't Nordic. Samael is easily the first name that comes to my mind. Then threr's Melechesh from Israel, Negura Bunget from Romania, Deafheaven from Belgium or Blut Aus Nord from France etc etc etc... So yeah it's kind of a weak common bond and I'll have to rethink it. So I believe it's more fitting to leave the Black/ Viking Metal on a list of their own.
Perhaps pairing Mellow Death Metal with Death Doom/ Goth metal, such as My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, Cemetery, Draconian, Sentenced, Amorphis, Draconian, Katatonia or Moonspell would be a far better idea, since once again there are truly common ground both these genres thread, don't you think so?
Nevertheless I reiterate: if you want to feature some on this Death/ Grind list go ahead... it sounds fine to me.
 
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On the other hand we could see Southern/Western/Eastren European and North American (and wherever) black metal as Nordic if we reason that the style started out / was developed over time, out there, up north, no matter where someone is playing it. The Greek had their own scene around the same time, and one of my favourite black metal bands is Sear Bliss. But Mayhem and Bathory, if we see such guys as early examples, they came from the north.

I think I'm not into Viking Metal, bar Mithotyn, if that is Viking metal? I can see them as Black Metal.
karljant said:
Perhaps pairing Mellow Death Metal with Death Doom/ Goth metal, such as My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, Cemetery, Draconian, Sentenced, Amorphis, Draconian, Katatonia or Moonspell would be a far better idea, since once again there are truly common ground both these genres thread, don't you think so?
Nevertheless I reiterate: if you want to feature some on this Death/ Grind list go ahead... it sounds fine to me.
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Hmm, I'd put MDB and Draconian in Doom Metal (a category in which I can also put bands like Candlemass). Katatonia and Moonspell are difficult matters, since they changed so much, didn't they? But the others I could put in Death Metal. Maybe my suggestion was not less complicated hehe. I'll gladly leave it to you and will join, no prob!


karljant said:
Yup I understand. I'm single, no family and am not allowed to leave my house to do little more than shopping, pay bills, have a stroll with my dog and pick up the trash. Other than that I can't even leave my parish (only good thing is I don't waste money on fuel), my major hobby is forbidden (basketball - you can't even shoot some hoops on your own... if the cops spot you up they'll fine you 200€ up to 1000€ depending on the situation). So as a freelancer I have tons of spare time right now. Would have a little less if my costumers would be faster sending text, photos, etc... for me to complete the 2 websites I'm doing but anyway... such is the way the majority of business right here works.
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Alright, the restrictions are not cool but it indeed gives time. We are not allowed to get out after 9 pm.
I hope things will get better for you!
 
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Forostar said:
Hmm, I'd put MDB and Draconian in Doom Metal (a category in which I can also put bands like Candlemass).
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Both bands first works are definitively Death Doom. Especially My Dying Bride. Along with Paradise Lost, Cathedral and Anathema they simply defined the genre. Their first album as well as their first three Eps - Symphonaire Infernus, Thrash Of The Naked Limbs and I Am The Bloody Earth - (you can find them compiled in the record Trinity) are simply put the gospel of Death Doom. Turn Lose The Swans still had a some Death Doom but mixed it with other influences.

Nevertheless these records along with Paradise Lost's first 3 releases (Lost Paradise, Gothic and Shades Of God), Anathema's first 3 discs(Crestfallen, Serenades and Pentecoste III) and Cathedral's first records (In Memorium, Forest Of Equilibrium and Soul Sacrifice) are the 4 pillars up which Death Doom Metal was basically built. There were some outsiders that released similar iconic albums by that time (like Winter and Asphyx) but these 4 north England bands are to Death Doom in the late 80's/ early 90's even more than what the Bay area bands were to Thrash during the early 80's.

Forostar said:
Katatonia and Moonspell are difficult matters, since they changed so much, didn't they?
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Almost every band I mentioned wandered through several genres, some of them a lot of times. Katatonia are 100% Death Doom on their debut, in Brave Murder Day they start to bring more uptempo riffs and on their third record they're already 100% Gothic Metal. Moonspell's first record is Ethnic/ Symphonic Black Metal, Wolfheart is a mix of Black, Folk and Goth Metal, their third (Irreligeous) is pure Goth Metal and the following is kinda in the same Goth Metal meets Electro that Paradise Lost pulled with One Second.
But Perhaps the most chameleonic are precisely Paradise Lost, Anathema and My Dying Bride. Just check this out:
  • By 1991 all of them were releasing Death Doom records.
  • By 1996 Paradise Lost had already changed their style absolutely defining themselves as THE Gothic Metal band, Anathema turned into a heavier version of Pink Floyd and My Dying Bride were doing a mesh os Goth and Doom.
  • By 1999 Paradise Lost were sort of Alternative Electronic Rock band with Goth undertones, Anathema was already an Alternative/ Prog Rock act and My Dying Bride were doing what the hell of a psychedelic mixture they want to call to 34.788% Complete.
So more than Bands I guess we have to go with albums. Even In Flames and Dark Tranquillity: albums like ate least the last 6 In Flames records or Dark Tranquillity's Haven are far from being considered Melodic Death Metal IMO.
 
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Forostar said:
Alright, the restrictions are not cool but it indeed gives time. We are not allowed to get out after 9 pm.
I hope things will get better for you!
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Thanks. Things are way better and the numbers dropped a lot due to strict confinement. It seems Monday the restrictions will be slightly diminished (namely regarding sport practicing). But it seems people still won't be able to leave their parish for other reasons than work (they have to have a draft by the employers) or emergencies (like health). Let's hope for the best.
 
Forostar said:
I think I'm not into Viking Metal, bar Mithotyn, if that is Viking metal? I can see them as Black Metal.
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Didn't knew about these guys. Yup that's quite the thing. Here are some other examples:
  • Bathory (later records like Hammerheart, Twilight Of The Gods, Blood On Ice)
  • Enslaved (before they became Prog Black Metal)
  • Amon Ammarth (more due to the lyrics and imagery than sound IMO)
  • Ensiferum
  • Moonsorrow
  • Borknagar
  • Tyr
  • Gwydion
 
I strongly agree with Foro. If we are going to segregate Nordic death metal, we should also give Florida death metal its own category as Atheist, Cynic, et al. are very different from the bands out of Europe or even the Bay Area of CA.

Also, I don’t know if this is a language barrier thing, but I’ve heard “Melodeath” but not “Mellow Death” and they mean different things. Melodeath means melodic death metal, as in lots of guitar harmonies and sometimes melodic singing/growling. Mellow would imply softer, and is somewhat of an oxymoron. You could argue bands like In Flames are softer than other bands, but it is not a good descriptor imo.

Just my 2 cents, I think this list is a really nice resource otherwise.
 
Mosh said:
we should also give Florida death metal its own category as Atheist, Cynic, et al. are very different from the bands out of Europe
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Morbid Angel, Obituary (2 of the voted "big 4"), Deicide, Monstrosity, Malevolent Creation, Disincarnate and Brutality are all from Florida. I think that there's not much of a difference between these bands and let's say Morgoth, Vader, Grave, Gorefest, Benediction or early Atrocity. As for Death (another one of that group), Cynic, Nocturnus and Atheist just check Pestilence, Thormenthor, Sadist and Disaffected, But if you do not want to include them here fine. It's up to you.
Mosh said:
Also, I don’t know if this is a language barrier thing, but I’ve heard “Melodeath” but not “Mellow Death” and they mean different things. Melodeath means melodic death metal, as in lots of guitar harmonies and sometimes melodic singing/growling. Mellow would imply softer, and is somewhat of an oxymoron. You could argue bands like In Flames are softer than other bands, but it is not a good descriptor imo.
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Mellow Death or Melodeath... whatever works better for you... you get the point. Bands like Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, At The Gates, Arch Enemy etc... And no, I didn't use it in a derogatory way. As matter of fact I own all At The Gates records up till Slaughter Of The Soul, 7 records from Dark Tranquillity (Skydancer, The Gallery, The Mind's I, Haven, Damage Done, Character and We Are The Void) and 9 In Flames records (The Jester Race, Whoracle, Colony, Clayman, Tokyo Showdown - Live In Japan, Reroute To Remain, Soundtrack To Your Escape, A Sense Of Purpose and The Mirror's Truth EP) plus the Used And Abused DVDs/ CDs set. So as you can easily understand I'm a big fan of those bands and there's no derogatory intent in the words I used.
 
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Napalm death - Scum
Entombed - Left hand path
Possessed - Seven churches
Atheist - Piece of time
Cynic - Focus
Pestilence - Malleus maleficarum
Deicide - Deicide
Gorefest - False
Mayhem - Deathcrush
Darkthrone - Soulside journey
 
I rather make as least separations as possible but that is just me, I like a minor number of some sub sub category albums and find it nicer to see them all together in death or black. If we make more categories, no prob, the lists could turn out smaller, but no big deal.
 
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