Top Favorite Death Metal Albums ... rank them

[introclaus]

The one for John Frank


Okay, I'm cheating here and dividing mine into three lists: US DM, Euro DM, and prog/tech DM. Feel free to do the same, or if you prefer, keep it all as one genre. Your choice!

1) List only your top 15 albums ... no "bubblers" or "honorary mentions"
2) List only one (1) album per band (ehmm ... unless they magically fit into more than one, like Death who changed "genres").


US Death Metal

1. Death - Spiritual Healing
2. Obituary - Slowly We Rot
3. Ripping Corpse - Dreaming With the Dead
4. Deicide - Deicide
5. Morbid Angel - Domination
6. Possessed - Seven Churches
7. Massacre - From Beyond
8. Incubus (Opprobrium) - Beyond the Unknown
9. Suffocation - Effigy of the Forgotten
10. Autopsy - Severed Survival
11. Immolation - Here in After
12. Six Feet Under - Haunted
13. Terrorizer - World Downfall
14. Cannibal Corpse - Butchered at Birth
15. Malevolent Creation - Retribution


European Death Metal (including "melo-death")

1. Entombed - Left Hand Path
2. Darkthrone - Soulside Journey
3. Sentenced - Amok
4. Dissection - Storm of the Lights Bane
5. Carcass - Heartwork
6. Edge of Sanity - Crimson
7. In Flames - The Jester's Race
8. Amorphis - Tales from 1000 Lakes
9. Dark Tranquility - The Gallery
10. At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul
11. Dominus - The First 9
12. Grave - Soulless
13. Napalm Death - Harmony Corruption
14. Dismember - Like an Everflowing Stream
15. Opeth - Morningrise


Technical Death Metal / Progressive Death Metal

1. Cynic - Focus
2. Atheist - Unquestionable Prescence
3. Death - Individual Thought Patterns
4. Pestilence - Spheres
5. Nocturnus - The Key
6. Confessor - Condemned
7. Archspire - Bleed the Future
8. Beyond Creation - Algorythm
9. Into Eternity - Dead or Dreaming
10. Obscura - Cosmogenesis
11. Necrophagist - Epitaph
12. Equipoise - Demiurgus
13. Persefone - Spiritual Migration
14. Ne Oblivescaris - Urn
15. Sculptured - The Spear of the Lily is Aureoled

[GaetanL]

Technical Death Metal / Progressive Death Metal

1. Into Eternity - Dead Or Dreaming
2. Martyr - Feeding The Abscess

[introclaus]

Technical Death Metal / Progressive Death Metal

1. Into Eternity - Dead Or Dreaming
2. Martyr - Feeding The Abscess

Based on all your lists I'm beginning to wonder if you were ever allowed to listen to music that wasn't from Canada? LOL

[gazinwales]

1. Carcass - Heartwork
2. Amorphis - Elegy
3. Children Of Bodom - Follow The Reaper
4. Dark Tranquillity - Damage Done
5. Opeth - Blackwater Park
6. Eternal Tears Of Sorrow - Before The Bleeding Sun
7. Barren Earth - Curse Of the Red River
8. Wintersun - Wintersun
9. Scar Symmetry - Holographic Universe
10. Kalmah - The Black Waltz
11. Norther - Dreams Of Endless War
12. Ensiferum - Victory Songs

[GaetanL]

Technical Death Metal / Progressive Death Metal

1. Into Eternity - Dead Or Dreaming
2. Martyr - Feeding The Abscess

Based on all your lists I'm beginning to wonder if you were ever allowed to listen to music that wasn't from Canada? LOL

Did you read my "Top Favorite Old-school Prog Metal Albums" list?

[introclaus]

Technical Death Metal / Progressive Death Metal

1. Into Eternity - Dead Or Dreaming
2. Martyr - Feeding The Abscess

Based on all your lists I'm beginning to wonder if you were ever allowed to listen to music that wasn't from Canada? LOL

Did you read my "Top Favorite Old-school Prog Metal Albums" list?

I just did - and none of them Canadian … I’m impressed haha

[John Frank]

Euro (almost all are melodeath)

1. Soilwork - The Chainheart Machine (1999)
2. Carcass - Heartwork (1994)
3. Pestilence - Malleus Maleficarum (1988)
4. Without Grief - Deflower (1997)
5. Arch Enemy - Burning Bridges (1999)
6. Ebony Tears - Tortura Insomniae (1997)
7. Sacrilege - The Fifth Season (1997)
8. Dark Tranquillity - Skydancer (1993)
9. In Flames - The Jester Race (1995)
10. At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul (1995)
11. Insomnium - In the Halls of Awaiting (2002)
12. Omnium Gatherum - Spirits and August Light (2003)
13. Fall of the Leafe - Evansecent, Everfading (1998)
14. Embraced - Amorous Anathema (1998)
15. Destrage - The King Is Fat'n'Old (2010)

US (I am not a big fan of traditional death. Subtract the tech death in the US, and there are not many faves for me.)

1. Arsis - A Celebration of Guilt (2004)
2. Garden of Shadows - Oracle Moon (2000)
3. Disincarnate - Dreams of the Carrion Kind (1993)
4. Death - Leprosy (1988)
5. Hung - s/t (2012)

Tech

1. Cynic - Focus (1993)
2. Into Eternity - Buried in Oblivion (2004)
3. Death - Individual Thought Patterns (1993)
4. Arsis - We Are the Nightmare (2008)
5. Theory in Practice - The Armageddon Theories (1999)
6. Martyr - Warp Zone (2000)
7. Atheist - Unquestionable Presence (1991)
8. Necrophagist - Onset of Putrefaction (1999)
9. Psycroptic - Scepter of the Ancients (2003)
10. Spawn of Possession - Incurso (2012)
11. Gory Blister - Art Bleeds (1999)
12. Sceptic - Blind Existence (1999)
13. Decapitated - Nihility (2002)
14. Algophobia - s/t (1997)
15. Scholomance - The Immortality Murder (2001)

[introclaus]

1. Carcass - Heartwork
2. Amorphis - Elegy
3. Children Of Bodom - Follow The Reaper
4. Dark Tranquillity - Damage Done
5. Opeth - Blackwater Park
6. Eternal Tears Of Sorrow - Before The Bleeding Sun
7. Barren Earth - Curse Of the Red River
8. Wintersun - Wintersun
9. Scar Symmetry - Holographic Universe
10. Kalmah - The Black Waltz
11. Norther - Dreams Of Endless War
12. Ensiferum - Victory Songs

Great list - definitely got a "Finnish" and "Swedish" touch on it haha ... almost all of them has the same basic sound (to my ears at least).

[introclaus]

Euro (almost all are melodeath)

1. Soilwork - The Chainheart Machine (1999)
2. Carcass - Heartwork (1994)
3. Pestilence - Malleus Maleficarum (1988)
4. Without Grief - Deflower (1997)
5. Arch Enemy - Burning Bridges (1999)
6. Ebony Tears - Tortura Insomniae (1997)
7. Sacrilege - The Fifth Season (1997)
8. Dark Tranquillity - Skydancer (1993)
9. In Flames - The Jester Race (1995)
10. At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul (1995)
11. Insomnium - In the Halls of Awaiting (2002)
12. Omnium Gatherum - Spirits and August Light (2003)
13. Fall of the Leafe - Evansecent, Everfading (1998)
14. Embraced - Amorous Anathema (1998)
15. Destrage - The King Is Fat'n'Old (2010)

Great list.
I'm not a fan of Insomnium nor Omnium Gatherum, and I don't know Fall of the Leafe.
Destrage???? I have one of their albums ("Are you kdding me, no" 2014) and that one is proggy metalcore ... are we talking about the same band?

US (I am not a big fan of traditional death. Subtract the tech death in the US, and there are not many faves for me.)

1. Arsis - A Celebration of Guilt (2004)
2. Garden of Shadows - Oracle Moon (2000)
3. Disincarnate - Dreams of the Carrion Kind (1993)
4. Death - Leprosy (1988)
5. Hung - s/t (2012)

Can't go wrong with "Leprosy" and "Dreams of the Carrion Kind" - great albums.
Never got into Arsis (only have "We are the nightmare" 2008, and that was so-so).
Never heard Garden of Shadows and Hung.

Tech

1. Cynic - Focus (1993)
2. Into Eternity - Buried in Oblivion (2004)
3. Death - Individual Thought Patterns (1993)
4. Arsis - We Are the Nightmare (2008)
5. Theory in Practice - The Armageddon Theories (1999)
6. Martyr - Warp Zone (2000)
7. Atheist - Unquestionable Presence (1991)
8. Necrophagist - Onset of Putrefaction (1999)
9. Psycroptic - Scepter of the Ancients (2003)
10. Spawn of Possession - Incurso (2012)
11. Gory Blister - Art Bleeds (1999)
12. Sceptic - Blind Existence (1999)
13. Decapitated - Nihility (2002)
14. Algophobia - s/t (1997)
15. Scholomance - The Immortality Murder (2001)

Love most of these ...
Scholomance: I always go back to "A treatise of love" 1998
Necrophagist: "Epitaph" is way better - it has real drums
Martyr: this might be "tech death heresy" saying this, but I never got into them. I do ove Mongrain in Voivod, so I guess I need to give them another shot.
Gory Blister: stupid band name, never listened to them haha.
Algophobia: never heard of them - will check them out.

[Omar]

Any room for Spiral Architect - A Sceptic's Universe or Ansur - Waring Factions on your Tech Death lists?

[introclaus]

Any room for Spiral Architect - A Sceptic's Universe or Ansur - Waring Factions on your Tech Death lists?

Ansur is a good album but wouldn’t make my top 30.

Spiral architect as “death metal”? That’s a first … I don’t hear anything in their music that makes me think of death metal.

[Scott B]

Yeah, I'm not going to do lists. I'm just going to say that Lorna Shore's "Pain Remains" is the best album I've heard in years, and as far as the death/extreme/Prog mix go, it is a masterpiece.

[introclaus]

Yeah, I'm not going to do lists. I'm just going to say that Lorna Shore's "Pain Remains" is the best album I've heard in years, and as far as the death/extreme/Prog mix go, it is a masterpiece.

I'll have to check it out. What I've heard from the singles wasn't very good (my opinion), but perhaps I just need to spend some time with it. To be honest, Fit for an Autopsy is really the only "deathcore" band I like, but we'll see. Something about how "hipster-popular" they've gotten also holds me back, even though I know that's a ridiculous criteria, haha.

[Scott B]

I'll have to check it out. What I've heard from the singles wasn't very good (my opinion), but perhaps I just need to spend some time with it. To be honest, Fit for an Autopsy is really the only "deathcore" band I like, but we'll see. Something about how "hipster-popular" they've gotten also holds me back, even though I know that's a ridiculous criteria, haha.

Yeah, the uptick in popularity is pretty crazy, and really seems to center around the arrival of vocalist Will Ramos. "Pain Remains" is the first full-length album he's done with the band. I'm going to see them tomorrow night. The gig has been sold out for months, and the entire tour is old out as well.

The album definitely warrants additional spins, especially the trilogy of songs that closes the album. I

[introclaus]

I'll have to check it out. What I've heard from the singles wasn't very good (my opinion), but perhaps I just need to spend some time with it. To be honest, Fit for an Autopsy is really the only "deathcore" band I like, but we'll see. Something about how "hipster-popular" they've gotten also holds me back, even though I know that's a ridiculous criteria, haha.

Yeah, the uptick in popularity is pretty crazy, and really seems to center around the arrival of vocalist Will Ramos. "Pain Remains" is the first full-length album he's done with the band. I'm going to see them tomorrow night. The gig has been sold out for months, and the entire tour is old out as well.

The album definitely warrants additional spins, especially the trilogy of songs that closes the album. I

Based on your glowing comments here and a high recommendation from Glenn, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase. Gave it one spin last night and two today. It’s good .. actually … it’s great! I don’t know what I was imagining, but this beats all my expectations. I’ll be honest though, if it wasn’t for the occasional “core-screams” and the ultra-heavy breakdowns, to me this doesn’t really qualify as deathcore. In my opinion it borrows equal parts Fleshgod Apocalypse, Behemoth, Cradle of Filth and Archspire (I guess that would make it “tech/prog symphonic blackened death metal with core elements”). Either way you chose to describe it, it’s very good. Can’t wait to spend much more time with it.

[Scott B]

I'll have to check it out. What I've heard from the singles wasn't very good (my opinion), but perhaps I just need to spend some time with it. To be honest, Fit for an Autopsy is really the only "deathcore" band I like, but we'll see. Something about how "hipster-popular" they've gotten also holds me back, even though I know that's a ridiculous criteria, haha.

Yeah, the uptick in popularity is pretty crazy, and really seems to center around the arrival of vocalist Will Ramos. "Pain Remains" is the first full-length album he's done with the band. I'm going to see them tomorrow night. The gig has been sold out for months, and the entire tour is old out as well.

The album definitely warrants additional spins, especially the trilogy of songs that closes the album. I

Based on your glowing comments here and a high recommendation from Glenn, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase. Gave it one spin last night and two today. It’s good .. actually … it’s great! I don’t know what I was imagining, but this beats all my expectations. I’ll be honest though, if it wasn’t for the occasional “core-screams” and the ultra-heavy breakdowns, to me this doesn’t really qualify as deathcore. In my opinion it borrows equal parts Fleshgod Apocalypse, Behemoth, Cradle of Filth and Archspire (I guess that would make it “tech/prog symphonic blackened death metal with core elements”). Either way you chose to describe it, it’s very good. Can’t wait to spend much more time with it.

Very glad you are enjoying this. It occurred to me that if this album was remixed with a clean vocalist, it would be a real hit with prog metal fans who fear the growly vocals.

As for the live experience, they were spot on. It is amazing to hear a vocalist switch between these extreme stylings instantaneously. The audience had a very, very large segment of young women in attendance. I'm talking a higher percentage female audience than more mainstream bands I've seen recently, and this is a tour with Aborted, Ingested, Angelmaker, and OV Sulfur, so there is no reprieve for the ears!

[introclaus]

Yeah, the uptick in popularity is pretty crazy, and really seems to center around the arrival of vocalist Will Ramos. "Pain Remains" is the first full-length album he's done with the band. I'm going to see them tomorrow night. The gig has been sold out for months, and the entire tour is old out as well.

The album definitely warrants additional spins, especially the trilogy of songs that closes the album. I

Based on your glowing comments here and a high recommendation from Glenn, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase. Gave it one spin last night and two today. It’s good .. actually … it’s great! I don’t know what I was imagining, but this beats all my expectations. I’ll be honest though, if it wasn’t for the occasional “core-screams” and the ultra-heavy breakdowns, to me this doesn’t really qualify as deathcore. In my opinion it borrows equal parts Fleshgod Apocalypse, Behemoth, Cradle of Filth and Archspire (I guess that would make it “tech/prog symphonic blackened death metal with core elements”). Either way you chose to describe it, it’s very good. Can’t wait to spend much more time with it.

Very glad you are enjoying this. It occurred to me that if this album was remixed with a clean vocalist, it would be a real hit with prog metal fans who fear the growly vocals.

As for the live experience, they were spot on. It is amazing to hear a vocalist switch between these extreme stylings instantaneously. The audience had a very, very large segment of young women in attendance. I'm talking a higher percentage female audience than more mainstream bands I've seen recently, and this is a tour with Aborted, Ingested, Angelmaker, and OV Sulfur, so there is no reprieve for the ears!

To a certain extent, the rise in popularity outside of the metal crowd, and also the over-the-top music (and videos), reminds me a lot of Dragonforce when they suddenly exploded onto the scene. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing

[Scott B]

To a certain extent, the rise in popularity outside of the metal crowd, and also the over-the-top music (and videos), reminds me a lot of Dragonforce when they suddenly exploded onto the scene. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing

I went to a few shows that had Dragonforce on the bill and they were quite unenjoyable. Too much hyper-speed widdly-diddly, nonstop, every song. No dynamic diversity. Lorna Shore is really hitting me as being into the progressive side.

[introclaus]

To a certain extent, the rise in popularity outside of the metal crowd, and also the over-the-top music (and videos), reminds me a lot of Dragonforce when they suddenly exploded onto the scene. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing

I went to a few shows that had Dragonforce on the bill and they were quite unenjoyable. Too much hyper-speed widdly-diddly, nonstop, every song. No dynamic diversity. Lorna Shore is really hitting me as being into the progressive side.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they sound the same. But there’s a similarity in the over-the-top ridiculousness that feels a little bit calculated rather than being completely honest. Then again, I get the same feeling from Behemoth these days, but that doesn’t make me love them less.