List of Death Metal Bands

Here you will find the list of Deathmetal bands, Just click on any of the logos on the wall above to visit that bands site.
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What is death metal?


Death metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal that evolved out of thrash metal during the early 1980s.

Death metal is a subgenre of heavy metal. Growling vocals are the primary identifier for death metal for the newer generation. But this by itself also includes works such as Welcome to Hell from 1981 by British metal group Venom where the vocals may be mostly "growling", but the music is not what is generally meant by "death metal" today. Venom never labelled what they did, but their album Black Metal became the basis for labelling music with 'Satanic' lyrics and growling vocals as "black metal".

Genres are not usually identified solely by aesthetic form, and black or death metal labels are not easy to apply to some bands. One example of this is the American band Slayer, a pioneering thrash metal band. This genre (one that predates death metal) is also characterized by complex rhythmics and heavy guitar riffing. Slayer is not usually classified as a death metal band, and have never labelled themselves as such. Even so, with Reign in Blood from 1986, and subsequent works, they certainly influenced many early death metal bands.

Around 1983, aggressive U.S. bands such as Florida's Death, California's Possessed, and Chicago's Master began to form. If one would call this diffuse genre "early death metal", the first recorded examples of this would be Possessed's album Seven Churches from 1985, Messiah's album Hymn to Abramelin from 1986 and early demotapes by Death, followed by Death's album Scream Bloody Gore from 1987. Morbid Angel is another band that largely influenced the death metal scene, releasing numerous demos and rehearsal since 1983. To their credit, these "early death metal" bands did push the format forward, something that would ultimately pay off in a new form of music that was substantially different from their closest forefather, thrash metal.

The late 1980s saw the rise of death metal in Scandinavia, and in particular in Sweden with bands like Entombed (then Nihilist), God Macabre, Carnage (later Dismember) and Grave. The debut albums of these bands were mostly released in the early 1990s and characterised by a distinct guitar sound, which is heavly inspired by the sound of the UK grindcore act Unseen Terror.

However, other death metal historians maintain that the 1985 brand of "early death metal" is more aptly summarised by the moniker "post-thrash" and that the band Death receives inflated credit partly because of its name. In particular, the music flora around 1985, although fitting the above description of "extreme brutality and speed" for its time, did not create anything significantly new compared to their immediate predecessors, and one would be hard pressed to identify strong and specific musical differences between, say Death's debut album from 1987 and same-period work by thrash metal bands such as the Brazilian Sepultura or even the aforementioned Venom, except perhaps slightly "growlier" vocals.

The alternative standpoint is that the modern concept of "death metal"—the point when it clearly decouples from the origins in heavy metal and thrash metal—can be set to 1989 or 1990. Just as in the original creation of NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) by Iron Maiden and other bands was sparked by the youthful energy of punk rock in the late 1970s, so did cross-fertilisation between metal and punk once more create something new in the late 1980s. The chaotic and often confusing development that took place around this time is well illustrated by the British band Napalm Death, often characterised as a "grindcore" band (see below). This band was simultaneously always part of the hardcore punk scene. However, Napalm Death themselves changed drastically around or before 1990, leaving grindcore (and most of the band members) behind.

To close the circle, the band Death put out the album Human in 1991, certainly an example of modern death metal. The band Death's founder Chuck Schuldiner helped push the boundaries of uncompromising speed and technical virtuosity, mixing in highly technical and intricate rhythm guitar work with complex arrangements and emotive guitar solos. Other examples of this are Carcass's Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious from 1991, Suffocation's debut Human Waste from the same year and Entombed's Clandestine from 1992.

At this point, all the above characteristics are clearly present: abrupt tempo and count changes, on occasion extremely fast drumming, morbid lyrics and growling delivery.

Popular death metal bands include: Atheist, Autopsy, Bolt Thrower, Cannibal Corpse, Carcass, Death, Deicide, Dismember, Entombed, Immolation, Morbid Angel, Napalm Death, Obituary, Possessed, and Suffocation.