Skip to main content
Heavy Metal Thunder Death Metal

Genres Heavy Metal Speed Metal Thrash Metal Death Metal

Death Metal

Metal taken to its logical conclusion: tuned down, sped up and sung from somewhere below the throat. Far more musical than it first sounds.

Active years
1984 – present
Origin
USA (Florida)
Family
Death Metal
Bands here
63

Before you press play

Explicit content

Graphic lyrics and artwork are a defining feature of this genre rather than an occasional accident — which of violence, gore or sex depends on the band. Worth knowing before you put it on in a room with other people in it.

Start here

Five records in order of how easy they are to get into — which is not the same as best first.

  1. Leprosy Death, 1988 The landmark

    Chuck Schuldiner's second album and the one where death metal stops being fast thrash and becomes a genre with its own rules. The riffs are still hummable, which is why this is a better first listen than what came after.

    Listen to Leprosy

  2. Realm of Chaos Bolt Thrower, 1989

    British death metal at its most grinding. Jo Bench's bass is doing a lot of the work and the sleeve was drawn by Games Workshop. Full title: Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness.

    Listen to Realm of Chaos

  3. Altars of Madness Morbid Angel, 1989

    Faster and stranger than anything before it, with riffs that seem to arrive from the wrong direction. Trey Azagthoth plays like he is being electrocuted.

    Listen to Altars of Madness

  4. Cause of Death Obituary, 1990

    The slowest and thickest of the Florida records, and the one with the best vocalist — John Tardy sounds genuinely distressed rather than theatrical.

    Listen to Cause of Death

  5. Mental Funeral Autopsy, 1991

    Filthy, lurching and half-collapsed on purpose. Where death metal stops being athletic and starts being unpleasant.

    Listen to Mental Funeral

What it sounds like

Tuned down, and sung from somewhere below the throat. The guitars are detuned until the riffs lose their pitch definition and become texture, the drums move between blast beats and lurching half-time, and the vocal is a low growl with the words largely unrecoverable. None of it is melodic and none of it is trying to be. What surprises people is how ARRANGED it is — the riffs change constantly, the tempos shift without warning, and there is far more going on than the wall of noise suggests on a first listen. Compared with thrash it is slower, thicker and much lower; compared with black metal it is physical rather than atmospheric. It wants to crush rather than to haunt.

  • Heaviness 5 out of 5
  • Speed 4 out of 5
  • Aggression 5 out of 5
  • Technicality 3 out of 5
  • Darkness 4 out of 5
  • Melody 1 out of 5

Where the name came from

Most directly traced to Possessed's 1984 demo tape titled Death Metal — guitarist Jeff Becerra later claimed he coined the phrase. Chuck Schuldiner's band Death, formed in 1983–84, gave the genre its canonical name as they became its most influential act from 1987 onward.

The bands

Hear these first

  • Death USA
  • Morbid Angel USA
  • Obituary USA
  • Cannibal Corpse USA
  • Autopsy USA

And 58 more

  • Deicide USA
  • Possessed USA
  • Pestilence Netherlands
  • Asphyx Netherlands
  • Massacra France
  • Gorefest Netherlands
  • Monstrosity USA
  • Brutality USA
  • Malevolent Creation USA
  • Broken Hope USA
  • Atheist USA
  • Nocturnus USA
  • Resurrection USA
  • Denouncement Pyre Australia
  • Vader Poland
  • Decapitated Poland
  • Hate Poland
  • Lost Soul Poland
  • Trauma Poland
  • Transmetal Mexico
  • Cenotaph Mexico
  • Shub Niggurath Mexico
  • Hacavitz Mexico
  • Disgorge (MEX) Mexico
  • Ravager Mexico
  • Profanator Mexico
  • Infinitum Obscure Mexico
  • Katalepsy Russia
  • Mechanical Poet Russia
  • Stigmata Russia
  • Abducted Russia
  • Loathing South Africa
  • Infectomy Turkey
  • Burial Invocation Turkey
  • Engulfed Turkey
  • Kronos Turkey
  • Acheronte Turkey
  • Krabathor Czechia
  • Noctiferia Slovenia
  • Rudra Singapore
  • Suffocated China
  • Sil Khannaz Malaysia
  • Silent Death Malaysia
  • Masacre Colombia
  • Mortem Peru
  • Hadez Peru
  • Malefic Order Venezuela
  • Agonizer Cuba
  • Arsames Iran
  • Ugra Karma Nepal
  • Dying Out Flame Nepal
  • Corpse Garden Costa Rica
  • Catarsis Incarne Costa Rica
  • Combat Noise Cuba
  • Old Funeral Norway
  • The Chasm Mexico
  • Bolt Thrower UK
  • Crypta Brazil

Where it happened

Counting this genre and everything descended from it.

  • Gothenburg Gothenburg Melodic Death Metal 5 bands
  • Mexico City Mexican Death Metal 5 bands
  • Stockholm Stockholm Death Metal 5 bands
  • Tampa, Florida Florida Death Metal 5 bands
  • Bradford The Peaceville Three — UK Gothic Doom 3 bands
  • Mexico Mexican Thrash & Death Metal 9 bands
  • Finland Finnish Metal — Folk, Symphonic & Extreme 5 bands
  • Indonesia Indonesian Metal 5 bands

What it led to

If you liked this

Closest in sound outside this family, leaning towards the similar or the gentler rather than straight into the deep end.