A Top 100 Death Metal Albums List by Rexorcist
Likes: 1
Genre: Death Metal
This list is based on my personal genre tree
* Death Metal
** Black Death Metal
** Brutal Death Metal
*** Slam Death Metal
** Deathcore
** Deathgrind
** Death 'N' Roll
** Melodic Death Metal
** Prog Death Metal
** Symphonic Death Metal
** Tech Death Metal
*** Dissonant Death Metal
NOT COUNTED BUT POSSIBLY FEATURED: Death Doom Metal
100 / Greece
Symphonic DM
Septicflesh continue their obsessive journey into the incurably diverse world of metal by strengthening their brutality, scariness and heaviness while incorporating a stronger sense of genre-balance. There's much of what we found on previous albums like Mystic Places of Dawn and Communion in surprising places, and once again this keeps the band's presence strong as it did with their debut. The growth can be seen, and as a result I consider this the greatest death metal album I've ever heard.
100 / USA
DM
Morbid Angel finally broke the boundaries of the genre they helped pioneer without faltering. The weirdness of F in this album might turn off those who like the general brutality of A and C, but this is the album where that experimentation on D was seriously fleshed out without sacrificing any of the heaviness of earlier albums.
100 / Greece
Symphonic DM, DM
Septicflesh's most famous album boasts both a return to the form of the ever diverse debut, Mystic Places at Dawn, while forging what would become their signature style. The pioneers of symphonic death metal take their sound into new worlds with a stronger sense of balance and a recalling of their incredibly diverse presence. This would only later be dethroned in this vein by their next album, The Great Mass.
100 / USA
Brutal DM, Tech DM
This is more than just a brutal death album. Most brutal bands just want to thrash their way through a whole album with some techical stuff to feel accomplished. This is a ghostly, complex, doomy and consistent journey with a vibe that feels more ghostly than deathly, one that recreates the horror of ghosts of ancient spirits haunting for thousands of years.
100 / ENG
Deathgrind
This is Napalm Death's most diverse and catchiest album so far. After so many repetitive albums focusing on brutality, they finally made an album that covers the various types of albums they've done in the past, be it grind, deathgrind or death metal, with some weirder genres like industrial or metalcore attached. Because of this, this fast and furious album keeps the listener guessing.
100 / USA
Tech DM
The creators of the genre finally focus on mature songwriting and diversity, bring out out the best of all of Death's multiple sides, incorporating a little thrash into the influence and justifying the lighter sound in comparison to earlier blast albums.
100 / Sweden
Melodic DM, Prog DM
The first Crimson was a very cool album with some excellent riffs and a crazy and weird story, but this ups the ante on the melody and weirdness.
100 / Canada
Tech DM, Dissonant DM
More consistant and dissonant than Obscura, Gorguts finally tames their love of the avant-garde and utilizes it in a very heavy and emotional way, drowning the listener deep into the bowels of a sandstorm of dissonance and unpredictability.
100 / USA
Deathcore, Melodic DM
In their Halo-inspired years, Shadow of Intent had a stronger taste for the neoclassical and thematic approach, and it shows with a perfect flow as the epic moments and the death moments work together flawlessly.
100
Black DM, Bestial Black Metal
Cabinet perfected the art of bestial black metal by switching it up from the black and death that combine for the genre while keeping weird sound effects intact, justifying the near-complete lack of melody as a monotone symbol broken by a perfect flow of weirdness and atmosphere.
100 / USA
Slam DM
This brostep artist recreated slam by giving into Lovecraftian vibes, combining various outsider genres with a perfect flow to create something modern and celebratory of horror and metal in general.
100 / ENG
Tech DM, Prog DM
Unqestionable Presence is extremely unpredictable and maniacal, incorporating previously unwelcome jazz elements to heavy effect. This album is unlike anything I've ever heard.
99 / France
Black DM, Black Metal
Eternity of Shaog is yet another celebration of the capabilities of extreme metal, going over a number of extreme genres with a beautiful balance of atmosphere and melody, and an almost perfect flow.
98.5 / Greece
DM
Septicflesh's debut is a challenge to consistency and conventionality. It's constantly testing the flow of the album with genre after genre while delivering a magical exploration of everything that makes metal great. Exceptional delivery and a perfectly guttural vocalist make this a death essential.
98 / USA
Tech DM, DM
Take every compliment I have for Coroner's No More Color and apply it to death metal, and you get Human, an album that really does bear the themes of its name in a lyrical and technical way. Once their simpler songs were failing, they needed to change things around. Instead of gory shit and religious commentary, they took their lyrical and music skills forward into the experimental and the introspective, keeping their sense of madness strong at the same time.
100 / USA
DM
This is the first album where Morbid Angel really begin thinking wild. This album fixes the lack of heaviness and slowness of Blessed Are the Sick and even untilizes those aspects while molding it with A's brutality and some otherworldly psych guitars.
98 / USA
Slam DM, Brutal DM
Quite possibly the heaviest album I've ever heard, this rerecording of the 2005 album is like the polar opposite of it at the same time. It's constantly surprising, displays constant new tricks from each member of the band, including the singer, and perfectly polished in its heaviness to the point that you can hear everything that's going on.
98 / USA
Tech DM, Prog DM
Death cranked up the progginess, technicality, heaviness and lyrical themes of Human, so this album beats Human in a number of ways. Unfortunately, they completely forgot the diversity aspect, so while each song is briulliant in their own ways, this album is more repetitive and less inventive than Human as a whole. So, brilliant, but slightly worse than Human.
98 / USA
DEATH METAL
Morbid Angel's debut beats Death's first three albums at literally everything, especially the raw and maniacal riffage. Becuase of this, Morbid Angel proved early on that they could out-death Death themselves. This is probably their most brutal album, which is why its their most beloved.
97 / New Zealand
Tech DM, Dissonant DM
Not brutal, but just as terrifying and soul crushing as a brutal album, Ulcerate's best album takes the horror sand technicality of death metal to impressive levels without ever faltering.
97 / USA
DM
Immolation's style evolves into a hellish and monstrous display of both terror and despair. Monotonous but clever and atmospheric.
97 / USA
Brutal DM, Tech DM, DM
This short and sweet album is the band's loudest and one of their most technical. And because it's so short, the album rarely runs the risk of monotony.
97 / USA
Deathcore, Prog DM, Progcore
This is a finely tuned blend of death, prog and punk. Any maniacal traits stemming from all three genres work together perfectly.
97 / Canada
Avant-Garde Metal, Tech DM, Dissonant DM
More than proud to be weird, Obscura skillfully handled the art of the avant-garde on the first try, although it's a little much.
97 / USA
DM
Unholy Cult sees the band steering into grittier and darker sounds with less reverb and despair, and more fear and horror. As such, this album almost rivals Close to a World Below.
97 / Germany
Tech DM, Brutal DM
Although all the songs sound the same, the album constantly gets better thanks to its special and masterful trait of unpredictability and craziness.
97 / Canada
Brutal DM, Tech DM
Thanks to their own special personality and love of deathly vibes and technicality, Cryptopsy set a name for themselves apart from the pioneers of the subgenre, creating a classic that's heavier than most albums on Earth.
95 / Greece
Symphonic DM
Codex Omega might not boast Septicflesh's explorative capacity to its fullest extent, but the rhythmic and symphonic approaches are still at full force. We have a more even flow here that focuses on Septicflesh's compositional skills and proves they're just as good at that as ever.
97 / ENG
DM
Although not very unique stylistically, Bolt Thrower improve their technical prowess to deliver their strongest sense of themes, melody and anger.
99 / USA
DM
This doomier and somewhat psychedelic death album proves that Morbid Angel can master the art of slow-crushing slowness by mingling it with the speed of previous albums and maintaining the influence, and the album gets weirder and more psychedelic in the second half which makes up for a slight lack of variety in side A.
96 / USA
Deathgrind
Very diverse and waild for a deathgrind album, this album displays 90's badassery with total seriousness and perfectly delivers its political anger through excellent musicianship and a perfect sonic recreation of anger.
96 / Sweden
Melodic DM, Prog DM
This freaky story boasts amazing riffs and melodies and a unique vibe which continues a string of improvements over EoS works.
96 / Sweden
Melodic DM
The Jester Race is one of the catchiest and most intriguing melodeath albums out there.
96 / Finland
Prog Metal, Melodic DM
Even though it needs to be heavier, Elegy perfects the skills Amorphis showed on Tales from the Thousand Lakes and displays everything with one of the best balances between flow and diversity I've ever heard.
96 / USA
Brutal DM, Tech DM
Suffocation once again redefines heaviness by blasting at full force with increased technicality as well.
96 / USA
Deathcore
Melancholy sees the band taking a more common route towards deathcore, but their technical prowess and their songwriting abilities still outmatch the majority of the bands in the scene.
95 / USA
Tech DM, Brutal DM
Annihilation of the wicked trades their Egyptian identity for an excess of brutality and technicality that's fresh and frighteningly powerful.
95 / Sweden
Melodic DM
Whoracle is a continuation of everything that made The Jester Race so great with only the slightest drop in quality.
95 / Mexico
DM
The Chasm is a celebration of metal for its mostly consistent way of handling a number of extreme genres all at once.
95 / Canada
DM
95 / Sweden
Melodic DM
95 / Canada
Tech DM, Dissonant DM
95 / Canada
Deathcore
95 / New Zealand
Tech DM, Dissonant DM
95 / USA
Prog DM, Deathcore, Progcore
95 / USA
Slam DM
95 / USA
Bestial Black Metal, Black DM
95 / ENG
DM
95 / ENG
Deathgrind, Grindcore, DM
95 / Netherlands
DM
95 / Canada
Tech DM
93 / USA
Brutal DM, Tech DM
93 / ENG
Deathgrind, Grindcore, DM
93 / USA
Brutal DM
93 / USA
Deathgrind
93 / Sweden
Melodic DM
93 / Netherlands
Tech DM
93 / Finland
Melodic DM
92.5 / Norway
Prog Metal, Prog DM
92.5 / ENG
Deathgrind, Grindcore
92.5 / Russia
Brutal DM
92.5 / France
DM, Prog DM
92 / Canada
Tech DM, Dissonant DM
92 / New Zealand
Tech DM, Atmo-Sludge Metal, Dissonant DM
92.5 / Greece
Symphonic DM, DM
92 / ENG
Deathgrind
92 / USA
Tech DM, Prog DM
92 / USA
Deathcore, Melodic DM
92 / USA
DM
92 / Mexico
Tech DM, Brutal DM
92 / USA
Black DM
92 / Russia
Brutal DM, Avant-Garde Metal
92 / Finland
Melodic DM
92 / USA
Slam DM
92 / Australia
Black DM, Dissonant DM
91 / USA
Deathcore
91 / USA
Deathgrind, Grindcore
91 / Germany
Brutal DM, Tech DM
91 / Russia
Brutal DM
91 / Italy
Tech DM, Avant-Garde Metal, Dissonant DM
91 / Netherlands
DM, Thrash Metal
91 / Canada
Brutal DM, Tech DM
95 / Canada
DM
90 / USA
Deathgrind
90 / Sweden
DM, Death 'N' Roll
90 / USA
Prog DM, Tech DM