Top 10 Greatest Death Metal Songs

WatchMojo

Prepare for sonic brutality of the highest order! Join us as we count down the most bone-crushing, face-melting anthems that define death metal's crushing legacy. From Swedish chainsaw guitars to Florida's unholy growls, these songs represent the pinnacle of extreme music's most uncompromising subgenre. Which demonic track still haunts your nightmares?

Transcript

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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