The Mosh Pit 08.27.10: The Rise of Death Metal

Posted by Dan Haggerty on 08.27.2010

This week we look at the underground death metal scenes in Florida and Sweden to check out some of the bands that made heavy metal a darker place. From Death to Dismember, Suffocation to Atheist, and Obituary to Entombed we have best bands for you to check out!

Welcome back everyone to the mosh pit. We are here to kick off your weekend so grab a cold one and enjoy another trip into the history of heavy. After last weeks trip into mainstream music this week we will be joining the dark side of the 80's. While death metal wasn't going full bore until the 90's it did see the light of day with Death's debut in 87 – So it's a good time to jump in.

So jump in we will.


The History Of Metal: The Rise Of Death Metal

Music is a continual evolution of sounds, progressing forward to something new from what came before, or branching out due to being combined with something established. Metal itself was the progression of rock to psychedelic then rock being reintroduced the psych foundation. The good news for metal fans is that you can draw a pretty well established line through 1970 with Black Sabbath and Deep Purple to show the point when hard rock and psych crossed the line. Another solid line can be drawn at points like late 70's Judas Priest, NWOBHM, and '83 for thrash with Metallica and Slayer.

The bad news for metal fans is that not all genres or "moments" are so clear cut. For every Motley Crue launching 80's glam you have something like black metal taking the 80's to progress through its first wave to end up at what we would think of that sound today. It's in the later camp that we primarily find ourselves talking about death metal.

In fact its story is the story of the metal underground and extreme music as a whole.



It's All Extreme To Me!

Back in "The Good Old Days^TM we didn't have all the genre titles we categorize metal with today. We simply didn't need it because it was all just metal to us. Well, at first. This was in part because the scene was that much smaller when you think in terms of proliferation of styles. Sure, metal became big bucks in the 80's but the range those bucks were made was actually quite small. As the 80's wore on you basically had "popular metal" and "underground metal". Those terms being more of an understanding than a case of them being actually used since the lines blurred pretty badly. Accept wasn't popular, but they really weren't underground accept (ahem) to us Americans! Even glam wasn't called glam and the term "hair" didn't get used until the beginning of the 90's actually (and as a derogatory term).

But the division was there. You had popular metal and then you had the non-popular bands, and therein lay the underground extreme bands. Metallica might be popular today but it (with thrash) was all new and part of extreme metal. Basically, after NWOBHM, anything getting more aggressive was now part of the "extreme" end of metal. And even that was a rising bar since Iron Maiden was once controversial!

Bands like Celtic Frost and Venom came out of the gate with a completely different creature than thrash, and were actually more extreme than thrash truth be told, but did help influence those bands. Thrash did hit like an anvil and became the poster child of the underground (for a very good reason) but there were bands that also did learn from Warrior and co. The mighty Mercyful Fate is one of the greatest examples of a band that is not influenced by thrash that projects Venom's vision forward. And man, did they. Bathory would soon follow also without the benefit of leaning on thrash except by implication of influences.

But thrash was NWOBHM with punks aggression reintroduced while not loosing the riff or technical speed. It was only natural that bands would take thrash to the next step as well. Louder, more aggressive, darker, heavier, angrier… Probably the best way to think about music is that it's like any other form of competition in that people are always trying to outdo each other. Metal spent the 80's as an arms race to make the ultimate bloody music weapon, as each new generation had to be even heavier than the last. I'd say it's a guy thing, but Girlschool and Doro could throw down with the best (and evidently the former being able to match drinks with Lemmy on tour).

Thrash might have become the king of the underground metal scene but like all metal it was a template that some bands would add on to. Possessed are easily the most recognizable band that played the first thrash/death metal. Slayer is easily sited as the thrash band that already took it to the next step as well, and one only needs to put Reign in Blood up against any other thrash album of the time to see the continuing revolution. It must also be mentioned that crossover bands like DRI also contributed by taking thrash that much further.

So by hook and crook, metal didn't stop with NWOBHM or thrash, but continued to evolve into something that could swim in even deeper waters.






"We're going to need a bigger boat…"



What Is In A Name?

A quick re-read of the last couple of paragraphs will show an interesting fact. In the 80's what we would later call black metal and death metal were lumped together as extreme metal. The lines were blurred at the time even if we can easily look back and point to influences. Bathory is considered one of the foremost fathers of black metal but then they were also considered death metal. Quorthon even claims to have invented the name as well. Venom was highly influential on thrash and yet because of their style are considered the first black metal band and even gave the form it's name there album title.
Further, we can look at Possessed or Slayer and see the death metal growing but the anti-religious nature off the band's material gave them the "black" metal imagery to the general public. Ground Zero would Celtic Frost for this divide as the band can be shown to use early proto-types of both styles.

Names were just tossed about, it all going back to being who just made the most noise and kicked serious ass. When a band was more evil, you just knew it. There was a nig difference between KISS and King Diamond, "Beth" and "Abigail", and we didn't have multiple labels to identify them. Some music was just more extreme than others. So you have band's like Bathory being called death metal as a means to distinguish themselves from the more popular thrash bands, and Slayer was for all intents the recognized as the soundtrack to hell.

As the decade unfolded however, the difference slowly began to be distinguishable. The names might not have been in full use but you could see the extreme camps form. The final line in the sand would come from a new location and one band – It would be Florida and the band was Death.







Death Metal American Style

Metal started life as almost exclusively a Europe affair. From Sabbath to Purple to Uriah Heep to the Scorpions to Judas Priest, and obviously NWOBHM, most of the bands came from across the pond. America did join the fray with a few notable bands but we were easily in the minority. Even outside of KISS and Van Halen, hard rock was dominated by international bands. That changed in the 80's as the Sunset strip modernized Van Halen and fused it to glam, while the West and East Coast music scenes took the British invasion and ramped it up into thrash.

But thrash was also not an exclusive American style. Germany developed thrash as well, and like mainland Europe music as seen as far back as the Scorpions, it was a no-nonsense more aggressive take on the form. South America also had a growing thrash scene with the biggest being Sepultura.

But the monsters of thrash were the American bands and for the first time America had entered the underground metal scene as heavyweights. Nick Anderson from legendary Swedish death metal band Nihilist has commented that even in his country thrash was huge and everyone pick up a guitar wanted to be Metallica. More extreme bands like his were the minority and an oddity… for a while.

American thrash just kept on a rolling however. Slayer upped the style, along with Possessed and Dark Angel. Bands were already forming in the early 80's to take thrash to the next bloody step. Many formed in Florida which would become known as the "Florida Scene", but other cities also hosted this new breed of extreme.

One such band was a project called Mantas, which was founded by Chuck Schuldiner in 1983. The band recorded a demo called Death in ‘83. After much moving about, misfires, and revolving members, Schuldiner would return to Florida (repeatable actually) and reform Mantas with the name of that demo – Death. After two dozen demos (!!!) – Actually most were distributed rehearsal recordings (smart) – Death would finally release Scream Bloody Gore in 1987. this would be the first full death metal album released. While there were other bands working the pub crawl, we only had demos from them. Chuck is considered the "father" of death metal for this reason. And from here and through the 90's to his untimely death, the man was on fire with unending classic death metal albums. Sure, some of the albums went on tangents or became progressive metal later, but all in all the catalog is top notch and the must start point to explore American death metal.

Another band also released an album in 1987, a group called Necrophagia (greek for eating the dead). The band also formed in 83 and ripped through six demos before getting a deal and 1987's monstrous Season Of The Dead released. They would have one more album in 1990 before falling apart and the 98 resurrection (with Phil Anselmo off all people) album Holocausto De La Morte. Obviously, that one polarizes death metal fans. The band itself stands head and shoulders with Death as one of the first death metal bands but never achieved the same notoriety.

One band almost beat Schuldiner to release their album a year earlier. Morbid Angel was formed in 1984, and after four demos recorded their debut Abominations of Desolation for a '86 release. But the band wasn't happy with the final album and had it scuttled. It was finally released in 1991 as their third album after bootleg copies kept popping up. The band did go on to release a debut they were happy with in '89 which was self titled. Good choice as not only is that album a classic, but its success (along with their second album Blessed Are The Sick) would catapult the band to being the first death metal band to get signed to a major label.




Another band from Florida that did well sales wise started as a group called Xecutioner. They formed in 1985. Xecutioner released a demo and spit album in '86 and another demo in '87. They finally scored a contract with Roadrunner and after changing their name to Obituary they released Slowly We Rot in 1989. They would go on to tear up the 90's, and depending on who you ask post reunion as well.





Not all bands had struck gold however. Chicago's Master scored a deal with Combat Records and recorded an album that should have been released in 85. Because the album was recorded and heavily bootlegged to become very popular in the underground, Master's manager made demands from Combat Records, who in tern tore up the contract and left the band with no deal or means to mass produce their album. It actually didn't see the light of day until 2003 (!) as Unreleased 1985 Album. After several years of limbo the band finally scored a new deal with Nuclear Blast and released Master in 1990.

San Francisco and the west coast finally got into the game with Autopsy. They formed in 87, and after two demos cranked out the devastating Severed Survival. the band would make two more great albums into the 90's, and then a fourth called Shitfun which was a more hardcore punk crossover album. It marked the end of Autopsy as the band disbanded so some of the members could launch their new project – Abscess. The good news is that they have a reunion going on now and supposedly we'll be getting some new music next year.

Death metal was a faster and more furious kind of metal, but it was also more technically proficient. In fact, you had to be pretty damn good to play those structures at that pace. This was never highlighted better than by one of the most technically proficient bands of the time – Atheist. Starting life first as Oblivion in 1984 and then R.A.V.A.G.E before shorting that to Atheist, the band went beyond death metal in its early forms to introduce progressive elements and jazz no less. They are considered the first technical death metal band and over three albums the band kicked some serious ass. 1989's debut Piece Of Time is a smoker and sophomore album Unquestionable Presence (1991) is a beast of complex circuitry.

Death metal today is also broken into technical and brutal sub-categories (for those at home keeping score), and those forms actually god started right away. In addition to Atheist being technical death, 1989 saw the formation of Suffocation that would become a major influence on technical and brutal death metal. Effigy of the Forgotten was their '91 debut and it became an instant classic. Somewhere in Long Island hundreds of lesser bands were sacrificed to appease the metal gods fort hat one. Simply put it's a heavy piece off destruction. Between the guitar tone and those riffs it's like hammer blows.

Finally, before getting out of American 80's death metal such as it was, I need to talk about America's number one selling death metal band (of all time) and second world wide – Cannibal Corpse. The band formed in Florida in 1988 (what is it about Florida with death metal?), and after one demo released Eaten Back To Life in 1990. The following year the band would release Butchered At Birth, and despite cries from the underground of "Sell out!" that has gone on to go gold in the States and push over a million copies world wide – no small feat for death metal. Oddly enough, for an American act they arrived a little later and were influenced by the German thrash scene (particularly the unholy trinity), combined with an American sense of melody as well as bucket loads of gore as if John Carpenter went horribly wrong. I'll be getting to these guys in a few years as there needs to be some dissection (ahem) of the releases for the good and bad, but needless to say I think they are a worthy death band and people should ignore the hype on both sides of the argument.

And speaking of German thrash…



Swedish Death Metal Rides Out Of the Frozen Night

America was decidedly ahead of the death metal scene when it came to releases, but Sweden had a growing underground scene as well during this time. The underground was in fact dominated by thrash as Sweden was full on developing a metal scene that would be huge to this day. That is why Metallica was touring the country on that fateful trip Cliff died – The band was huge there. Thrash was huge and Sweden had bands like Destiny, Virgin Sin, Agony, Ice Age (all chick thrash band), Pentagram (thrash with some death), and Exile – to name the ones I know. There is more. Needless to say Sweden had a solid thrash scene going.

But metal is metal, and kids were looking to take it to the next level. Sweden didn't have the kind of crossover bands like America had, but they cam close in close neighbors from Germany who gave us Kreator, Sodom, and Destruction. German thrash was already a double bass case of corrosive anger. Combined with that German engineered machine like riff structure that was efficient and aggressive, extreme metal was developing in a different way. It was still death metal, only it was a little more brutal and the tone was deeper.

That was because the climate and influences were that much different than their counterparts overseas. Take a land of longer nights then put Bathory within your borders, Mercyful Fate next door, and well the music is just going to be darker!



The other distinguishing characteristic is that some of the first bands never got out of the demo phase. Corpse, Obscurity, Morbid (there three demos would go on to a Best-of release in 95), and Putrefaction all had solid dark death metal bands but never got out of the gate. thankfully there is a compilation called Swedish Death Metal that captures many of these forgotten demos and is a great collectors item for you death metal fans.

One band did do only demos but ended up becoming famous however – Nihilist also released demos and became huge in Sweden's underground for really developing the Swedish style of chainsaw buzzing axe tone. Thankfully the works of these great early pioneers did receive a release in 2005 with all their demos going on a Best-of as well. It's easy to hunt down at worth it. More importantly, Nihilist would reform in 1989 as Entombed who would storm the world with the mighty Left Hand Path in 1990. Seriously, that album is just sick in so many good ways. The band would go on to release more devastating death metal before polarizing metal fans later in the 90's by embracing hardcore punk in a style now called "death ‘n' roll".

Another group born from the ashes of Nihilist (these guys influenced f'n everything) was ex-member Johnny Hedlund (nihilist partial broke up to avoid firing the man) who moved on to form Unleashed in '89. After several demos and an EP they released a kick to the skull called Where no Life Dwells. Unleash would kick some serious ass for several albums before kicking back with albums that stayed solid Swedish death all the way into this decade.

One of the earliest formed bands from 1985 was a little outfit called Filthy Christians that played a combination of death and thrash, but also introduced death metal to grind. There were a wild bunch of tunes that touched upon hardcore punk as well as thrash gone nuclear. After a mean splash in the underground, they finally got a debut album of the same title released in 1990 before calling it a day.

Therion, the symphonic metal legends who make you think of goth or power today actually started off life as a Swedish death band in 1987. There early demos and first releases were actually outright evil stuff. Primitive go for the throat material that Johnsson only hints at today. About the only clue is that Therion actually introduced (as far as I can tell) the synth to death metal on these early releases. But don't let that fool you, the early stuff is tough. 1991's debut Of Darkness… is a must for death metal fans.







Michael Amott and Johan Liiva formed Carnage in 1988. They would only release one full length in 1990's Dark Reflections. Carnage would be more famous for its members going on to become Dismember and Arch Enemy. Dismember would go on to develop what is considered the a-typical sick Swedish death metal sound. Officially formed in 1988, the band would release four demos before the classic line-up would release 1991's Like An Ever Flowing Stream , and album that ended up getting Nuclear Blast packages inspected in Britain under obscenity laws that were just pass. Dismember ended up at the center of a court case challenging that law. On the music front, Dismember has just a killer guitar tone that screams bloody gore. Still my personal fav Swedish death metal band.






Also formed in 1988, Sorcery is a fun band that unfortunately released one EP in 1990 and full length Bloodchilling Tales in '91. For a death band, they pack some nice hooks underneath the hood of those riffs.

Grave also formed in 1988 and after six demos and two splits they released Into The Grave in '91. Grave has had a pretty up and down career, and another polarizing figure for death fans. But there is no denying that the early Grave material is bad ass and worth a hard look.

Swedish death was on the move, and it combined with American metal highlighted by the Florida scene to take metal to deeper and darker territory. And metal was ready, for it already was the bigger boat!


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Finally, one band from England is also worth tossing in at this point. England's Carcass formed in '8d as Disattack then reformed in '86 as Carcass. The band seemed to evolve metal with each release actually, but there in the 80's they brought grindcore to prominence as a monster mash of nech breaking punk and metal weapons of massacre. The horrify imagery of their first albums also got the label "goregrind" tossed at them as well. 1988's debut Reek of Putrefaction has 22 songs each a minute or two long, and it's nothing but quick piles of anger management. Which can be quite fun after a shitty day at work in my opinion.

But from there the band would evolve their sound and go on to influence melodic death metal as well. But for now, really, for the 80's this was some really sick stuff going down.


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And in the middle of this, progressive music was making a comeback in the metal scene. Not only did thrash bands see the need to prove their chops but five guys from Washington would release the greatest concept album heavy metal would ever see.

But that is a story for next year when we get to 1988…