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Heavy Metal Thunder New York Death Metal

Genres Heavy Metal Speed Metal Thrash Metal Death Metal New York Death Metal

New York Death Metal

Hardcore’s bludgeon and death metal’s precision, packed as tightly as the city that made it. Written for the pit, not for headphones.

Active years
1988 – present
Origin
USA (New York)
Family
Death Metal
Bands here
12

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

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

  1. Effigy of the Forgotten Suffocation, 1991 The landmark

    Where the slam breakdown enters the language. Denser and more technical than the Florida records, and the drumming is the most influential thing on it.

    Listen to Effigy of the Forgotten

  2. Close to a World Below Immolation, 2000

    The one that sounds genuinely wrong. Riffs built from intervals that refuse to resolve, and a rhythm section that seems to be falling downstairs on purpose.

    Listen to Close to a World Below

  3. Onward to Golgotha Incantation, 1992

    Half death metal, half funeral doom, recorded in a cave by the sound of it. The tempo drops without warning and stays down, which is where the dread comes from.

    Listen to Onward to Golgotha

What it sounds like

Compressed and airless, with the pit in mind at every moment. The riffs are dense and chromatic, arranged in short percussive blocks rather than long lines, and the drums move between blasts and a half-time chug designed for a room to move to. Vocals are guttural and very low. Hardcore is audible in the structure — breakdowns exist here well before metalcore named them. Compared with Florida it is more technical and less melodic; compared with Stockholm it is drier, tighter and much more precise. Nothing about it is atmospheric. It is engineered to hit. The slam that later spawned its own subgenre starts in these records, and so does most of what deathcore borrowed twenty years afterwards.

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

Where the name came from

A geographic label for the particularly brutal and technical variant of death metal emerging from New York City in the late 1980s. The 'NYDM' scene produced a denser, more claustrophobic sound than the Florida scene, influenced by hardcore punk's aggression and proximity to the grindcore movement. Suffocation's debut Effigy of the Forgotten (1991) is the genre's landmark record.

The bands

Hear these first

  • Suffocation USA
  • Immolation USA
  • Incantation USA
  • Dying Fetus USA
  • Mortician USA

And 7 more

  • Internal Bleeding USA
  • Pyrexia USA
  • Skinless USA
  • Ripping Corpse USA
  • Cryptopsy Canada
  • Malignancy USA
  • Baphomet USA

If you liked this

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