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100 Greatest Death Metal Albums

Album covers Altars Of Madness by Morbid Angel and Human by Death
Background: Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal known for its aggressive sound, guttural vocals, distorted guitars, and fast, complex rhythms. Featuring intricate riffs, blast beats, and unconventional song structures, it creates a dark, chaotic ambiance. Themes often explore mortality, violence, and horror, often with graphic imagery. Emerging in the mid-1980s with pioneers like Death and Possessed, it has since branched into diverse substyles such as technical, melodic, brutal, and progressive death metal. Despite its intensity, the genre is admired for its energy, technical skill, and creativity.

Criteria: These Death Metal Albums were chosen for their musical and lyrical creativity, originality, technical skill, influence, and popularity within the genre.
  1. Covenant
    (1993) Morbid Angel
  2. Symbolic
    (1995) Death
  3. Seven Churches
    (1985) Possessed
  4. My Arms, Your Hearse
    (1998) Opeth
  5. Scream Bloody Gore
    (1987) Death
  6. Individual Thought Patterns
    (1993) Death
  7. None So Vile
    (1996) Cryptopsy
  8. Annihilation of the Wicked
    (2005) Nile
  9. Slaughter Of The Soul
    (1995) At The Gates
  10. Heartwork
    (1993) Carcass
  11. Human
    (1991) Death
  12. Jester Race
    (1996) In Flames
  13. Altars Of Madness
    (1989) Morbid Angel
  14. Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious
    (1991) Carcass
  15. Focus
    (1993) Cynic
  16. Deicide
    (1990) Deicide
  17. Revelations of Oblivion
    (2019) Possessed
  18. Unquestionable Presence
    (1991) Atheist
  19. Blessed Are The Sick
    (1991) Morbid Angel
  20. The Bleeding
    (1994) Cannibal Corpse
  21. The Gallery
    (1995) Dark Tranquility
  22. Effigy of the Forgotten
    (1991) Suffocation
  23. Close To A World Below
    (2000) Immolation
  24. Obscura
    (1998) Gorguts
  25. Like An Ever Flowing Stream
    (1991) Dismember
  26. Nespithe
    (1993) Demilich
  27. Pierced From Within
    (1995) Suffocation
  28. Left Hand Path
    (1990) Entombed
  29. The Stench of Redemption
    (2006) Deicide
  30. Clandestine
    (1991) Entombed
  31. World Downfall
    (1989) Terrorizer
  32. Slowly We Rot
    (1989) Obituary
  33. Symphonies of Sickness
    (1989) Carcass
  34. Here In After
    (1995) Immolation
  35. Severed Survival
    (1989) Autopsy
  36. Tales from A Thousand Lakes
    (1994) Amorphis
  37. Consuming Impulse
    (1989) Pestilence
  38. Horrified
    (1989) Repulsion
  39. Hidden History of the Human Race
    (2019) Blood Incantation
  40. Piece of Time
    (1990) Athiest
  41. Crimson
    (1996) Edge of Sanity
  42. Tomb of the Mutilated
    (1992) Cannibal Corpse
  43. Stare Into Death And Be Still
    (2020) Ulcerate
  44. The End Complete
    (1992) Obituary
  45. The Satanist
    (2014) Behemoth
  46. Colored Sands
    (2013) Gorguts
  47. Leprosy
    (1988) Death
  48. Demigod
    (2004) Behemoth
  49. Cause of Death
    (1990) Obituary
  50. Legion
    (1992) Deicide
  51. Imperative Imperceptible Impulse
    (2021) Ad Nauseam
  52. Mental Funeral
    (1991) Autopsy
  53. Morbid Visions
    (1986) Sepultura
  54. Cancer Culture
    (2022) Decapitated
  55. Onward to Golgotha
    (1992) Incantation
  56. Dark Recollections
    (1990) Carnage
  57. Damage Done
    (2002) Dark Tranquillity
  58. Ascetic Reflection
    (2022)Altars
  59. L'Enfant Sauvage
    (2012) Gojira
  60. The Apostasy
    (2007) Behemoth
  61. Codex Omega
    (2017) Septicflesh
  62. In Their Darkened Shrines
    (2002) Nile
  63. The Scythe Of Cosmic Chaos
    (2018) Sulphur Aeon
  64. Fiction
    (2007) Dark Tranquillity
  65. Decline
    (2016) Vermin Womb
  66. The Way of All Flesh
    (2008) Gojira
  67. Nihil quam vacuitas ordinatum est
    (2015) Ad Nauseam
  68. Swampsong
    (2003) Kalmah
  69. The Malkuth Grimoire
    (2015) Alkaloid
  70. Heirs to Thievery
    (2010) Misery Index
  71. A Monument to Silence
    (2021) Alustrium
  72. The Great Mass
    (2011) Septicflesh
  73. Torn Arteries
    (2021) Carcass
  74. Nightbringers
    (2017) The Black Dahlia Murder
  75. Everything Is Fire
    (2009) Ulcerate
  76. Epitaph
    (2004) Necrophagist
  77. A Perfect Absolution
    (2012) GOROD
  78. Alphaville
    (2020) Imperial Triumphant
  79. Atonement
    (2017) Immolation
  80. Trance of Death
    (2017) Venenum
  81. Dasein
    (2016) First Fragment
  82. Acts of God
    (2022) Immolation
  83. With Oden on Our Side
    (2006) Amon Amarth
  84. Retrogore
    (2016) Aborted
  85. Abyssal Gods
    (2015) Imperial Triumphant
  86. Visitations From Enceladus
    (2020) Cryptic Shift
  87. Exodromos
    (2013) Wormed
  88. Anomalies
    (2005) Cephalic Carnage
  89. Pleiades' Dust
    Gorguts
  90. Harmony Corruption
    (1990) Napalm Death
  91. Stone's Reach
    (2009) Be'lakor
  92. The Empire
    (2016) Vader
  93. The Enduring Spirit
    (2023) Tomb Mold
  94. The Necrotic Manifesto
    (2014) Aborted
  95. Lifeblood
    (2021) Brand Of Sacrifice
  96. The Wreckage of Stars
    Black Crown Initiate
  97. Majesty and Decay
    (2010) Immolation
  98. TerrorVision
    (2018) Aborted
  99. Something Wicked Marches In
    (2019) VLTIMAS
  100. Slumber of Sullen Eyes
    (1992) Demigod
Covenant album cover
Covenant
Symbolic album cover
Symbolic
Seven Churches album cover
Seven Churches
My Arms, Your Hearse album cover
My Arms, Your Hearse
Scream Bloody Gore album cover
Scream Bloody Gore
Individual Thought Patterns album cover
Individual Thought Patterns
None So Vile album cover
None So Vile
Annihilation of the Wicked album cover
Annihilation of the Wicked
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Edited By: Lew
Last Updated: 2026-04-25
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