00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the heaviest, most dynamic
00:13and enduring examples that could double as death metal national anthems.
00:2310. Infecting the Crypts – Suffocation
00:32The adjective, brutal, gets tossed around often when it comes to the world of death metal.
00:38New York's suffocation, however, helped codify that term when it came to the US sound
00:43of the early 90s.
00:51Infecting the Crypts is taken from Suffo's first classic full-length Effigy of the Forgotten,
00:56having been recorded from the band's pummeling debut a year earlier.
01:01The song starts out blasting, before that lurching suffocation crawl kicks in around the one-minute
01:07mark.
01:15It's an example of death metal that's significantly more complex than the genre's first wave
01:20from the mid to late 80s, but not yet indicative of the tech moniker of contemporary acts.
01:33In other words, it hits that sweet spot that's nostalgic, while also remaining a landmark for
01:39genre creativity.
01:48Number 9. Override of the Overture – Dismember
02:00The legacy of Sweden's death metal scene harkens all the way back to the 1980s with outstanding
02:06demo efforts from the likes of Grave and Dismember.
02:16The latter's debut album, like an ever-flowing stream, exemplified Sweden's chainsaw guitar
02:22sound and stripped-down, punk-rock-infused ethos.
02:26The melodic aspect present within Override of the Overture also speaks to the influence
02:31of Iron Maiden to the Dismember camp.
02:41Harmonized guitars would be something that would be heavily explored within the Swedish
02:46scene, although the overriding theme here on Override is still very much about aggression.
02:51That said, there's no denying this song's catchy riffing and epic anthemic atmosphere.
03:04Number 8. Blinded by Fear – At The Gates
03:16Hear that? That's the sound of America taking notes. Specifically, it was metalcore
03:21acts from the United States that decided to add breakdowns to the melodic death metal
03:26blueprint organized by At The Gates back in 1995. It's impossible to overstate just
03:32how revelatory Slaughter of the Soul was for this Swedish band, a group that emerged
03:44from their country's black and death metal scenes to take over the underground. Blinded
03:49by Fear strips down all of the overly complex riff arrangements that defined Early At The
03:54Gates material, replacing it with a more streamlined and direct approach.
04:06The end results were still fast and heavy, but now catchier and more infectious than before.
04:21Number 7. Heartwork – Carcass
04:31In the sense, Carcass is one of those few bands that's managed to influence multiple genres throughout
04:37its existence. The group's chaotic early years were formative to the grindcore and gore grind subgenres,
04:44thanks to songs like Corporal Jigsaw Quandary. Elsewhere, Carcass' 1993 masterpiece Heartwork would add
04:58further fuel to the fire of melodic death metal, thanks to the traditionally inspired lead work of
05:04ex-carnaged guitarist Mike Amet. The title track of that album exposed the surgical steel of Carcass to
05:19more metalheads than ever before, even as others within the underground lamented the band's progression.
05:33Still, there was no stopping progress and Heartwork still kicks ass all these years later.
05:38Number 6. World Eater – Bolt Thrower
05:57The sound of war and violence exists within the collective DNA of Britain's Bolt Thrower, resounding
06:03via every crushing riff. World Eater may feature one of the best of those riffs, too.
06:17A simple yet oh-so-effective chug that's guaranteed to cause chaos. Actually, make that realm of chaos.
06:25The band's sophomore effort that saw Bolt Thrower dive into heavier realms from their anarcho-punk roots.
06:33The intro to World Eater lasts nearly half of the song's five-minute runtime, before Carl Willits'
06:47harrowing growl begins the first verse. From there, it's all blasting and strangulating solos before
06:54World Eater returns to that iconic intro section once again for the grand finale.
06:59Number 5. Chapel of Ghouls – Morbid Angel
07:18Metal fans love debating which albums from the 1980s could be considered as the first death metal album.
07:24Was it Seven Churches by Possessed? Death's Scream Bloody Gore?
07:34Maybe Morbid Tales by Celtic Frost?
07:43The truth is that a lot of bands from a lot of different countries were having similar ideas
07:48around the same time, including Florida's Morbid Angel.
07:59The latter didn't predate mantas or death, of course, but their bleed for the devil demo from 86 contained
08:06Chapel of Ghouls, a frenzied and chaotic slice of unholy metal.
08:11Morbid Angel would eventually cross over into the mainstream with songs like God of Emptiness,
08:23but Chapel of Ghouls proved the band's songwriting prowess even at this embryonic stage.
08:30Number 4. Dead by Dawn – Deicide
08:41Can you remember the last time you were truly scared by an album? It may seem silly to some,
08:47but there was a genuine air of malevolence and evil surrounding those early efforts by Florida's
08:53deicide. This satanic death metal band sounded genuinely sincere in their desire to annihilate
09:04all in their path, and their self-titled debut was a towering statement of this intent.
09:09Dead by Dawn was inspired lyrically by Sam Raimi's classic horror film The Evil Dead and executes
09:24this influence to near perfection. Glenn Benton's vocals sound possessed by the Necronomicon ex
09:30mortis itself, while the guitars of Eric and Brian Hoffman slice and dice the song to pieces.
09:36It's difficult to ascertain which song would wind up being the national anthem for an imaginary United
10:02States of death metal. What we do know is that Hammer Smashed Face by Cannibal Corpse would almost
10:14definitely be in the running. It's been one of the most consistently popular and enduring examples of
10:20the genre, even since it first debuted on the band's Tomb of the Mutilated LP from 1992.
10:33Virtually all the traces of Cannibal Corpse's thrash roots had been stripped away,
10:38pun intended, by this point, leaving behind a death metal sound that felt decayed and rotten to the core.
10:44Hammer Smashed Face is technical, but not unapproachable. Brutal, yet memorable. Simply said,
10:51it's a death metal classic.
10:52The consistent and varied discography of death means a lot of different things to a lot of different
11:13people. Chuck Schuldner's creative legacy reached melodic and progressive peaks with songs like
11:20Crystal Mountain. Although many death metal stalwarts also point the uncompromising heaviness of Pull
11:33the Plug as an early highlight. Schuldner was a pioneer for this genre with both Death and its
11:39forebear, Mantis. And there's no denying the colossal smashing machine that is the opening riff to Pull
11:46the Plug. There's also the matter of that memorable chorus, a shout-alongable section with lyrics that
12:00proved, even at this early stage, the growth of Schuldner's vision.
12:13Before we unveil our unholy top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. Out of the Body, Pestilence,
12:20Thrashing Dutch Death. December Flower, In Flames. Philotic death metal with one of the most
12:34spectacular solos ever. Twisted mass of burnt decay. Autopsy, destructive and doom-laden death.
12:50For all my love. And nothing. Don't hurt my skin.
12:57Entrantment of Evil. Incantation. Thick, viscous, dark, and evil.
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13:29Number 1. Left Hand Path
13:31Entomb
13:40Dead Heavy, Dead Evil, Death Metal. This was the iconic tagline utilized by
13:46Earache Records for their advertising of Left Hand Path by Entomb.
13:59It's fitting, too, since it was here where all the demos Entomb'd had recorded under the moniker
14:05of Nihilist came to a head. This truly was an apex of Death Metal's creative journey up to this point.
14:11A mountain town where Entomb'd songs such as this one and Sinner's Bleed from 1991 were changing the game.
14:18The influence of horror movies was also felt in a big way with the song's ending coda,
14:31an interpolation of the phantasm theme that may not have been expected at the time,
14:37but which now has gone down as a stroke of creative genius.
14:41What sort of sounds, to you, define Death Metal? What's the earliest,
14:54most authentic album from the genre? Shout out your favorites to the Devil, and also in the comments.
15:00I see the world, old, old. I see the world, dead.
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