Metal --- part 1

A Decade Of Death: 1985-1994

THE RISE OF DEATH METAL

Inspired by Thrash Metal, and the first extreme metal bands like Venom, a new generation of bands – many coming from Florida or California – took Metal to a whole new level in the mid-80's.

Guitars were heavily distorted and tuned very low. Singers started to opt for growling and deformed screaming versus clean vocals. All while the tempo was accelerated to unseen speed.

Just like early Thrash Metal, lyrical themes like politics, occultism, and anti-religion were used. However, the songs often had gore subject matters. Murder, torture, dissection, cannibalism, even necrophilia... These bands cleared had an interest in death. Hence the genre was dubbed Death Metal.

Which was also the title of the closing track of Bay Area's Possessed's debut album, the 1985 classic 'Seven Churches'. That record is considered by many as the first Death Metal album. The jury, however, is still out on which band deserves the credit for that achievement. Possessed's debut – no matter how undoubtedly influential it was – is just as many times called a transformational album on which Thrash Metal became heavier (but not yet Death Metal).

The only other possible choice for the very first Death Metal album, is the 1987 record 'Scream Bloody Gore' by the aptly named Death. On that album, the band created the blueprint of Death Metal for decades to come. The band was centered around their charismatic front man (and guitarist): Chuck Schuldiner. Chuck, who was also known as the Father of Death Metal, sadly passed away in 2001 after losing his battle against cancer. He was only 34.

Not just Possessed and Death, but all the bands on this playlist would become highly influential throughout the 90's and 2000's. The work of these bands in the late 80's and early 90's is regarded as the absolute Golden Age of Death Metal.

During the ten years that this playlist covers, the genre became very popular, very quickly. Although Death Metal lost its prominence in the late 90's, the genre has bounced back in the new century.

Death Metal started to evolve quite a bit in the 90's, and the genre gave birth to several subgenres: Melodic Death Metal, Deathgrind and Goregrind, Death-Doom, Deathcore, and so on. All of those are for later. Right now, we'll take you back to a time when true Death Metal was created and the genre's pioneering icons released classic after classic.

Playlist:

01. Possessed: The Exorcist (1985)

02. Death: Zombie Ritual (1987)

03. Autopsy: Severed Survival (1989)

04. Bolt Thrower: World Eater (1989)

05. Carcass: Exhume To Consume (1989)

06. Morbid Angel: Maze Of Torment (1989)

07. Pestilence: Dehydrated (1989)

08. Death: Pull The Plug (1988)

09. Deicide: Dead By Dawn (1990)

10. Entombed: Left Hand Path (1990)

11. Cannibal Corpse: Hammer Smashed Face (1993)

12. Obituary: Chopped In Half (1990)

13. Deicide: Sacrificial Suicide (1990)

14. Morbid Angel: Chapel Of Ghouls (1989)

15. Death: Lack Of Comprehension (1991)

16. Suffocation: Liege Of Inveracity (1991)

17. God Dethroned: God Dethroned (1992)

18. Cannibal Corpse: Stripped, Raped And Strangled (1994)