Finally a list about the great music known as death metal. No other music is as ferocious, raw, aggressive, ridiculous, sometimes beautiful, and always sure to put a smile on your face. Now for this list there are a few things you need to know before you just dive right in and get your eardrums ravaged. THIS LIST IS NOT ONLY GOING TO BE DEATH METAL IN THE STRICT SENSE! In fact those of you who are expecting the most brutal list of all time are probably going to be disappointed. I know what you’re thinking, “But this list says top DEATH metal bands!?” Yes it does but I want this list to be as cool as is humanly possible so I am expanding it a little. Plus I don’t want some whiny little punk to write “Ok number x was definitely doom thrash surf glam black metal, not death metal!” No one likes it when music gets classified into the craziest most specific genres ever. Here are the guidelines I am using to write this bad boy. The bands will be judged on:
1. Having at least two albums with death metal elements in it
2. The technicality and musicianship
3. Popularity
4. Importance in the history of death metal
5. Awesomeness
Arch Enemy has legendary guitarist Michael Amott from Carcass. It is one of the few metal bands with a female vocalist. What more could you want? They are getting more popular with each album, and every one is getting more melodic than the last. Although some hardcore metalheads may not like this it is perpetuating their growing popularity.
Some people may not know about this gem of a band. They combine the aggression of death metal with the complexities of classical music. If you have not heard any of their songs you are missing out. They are coming out with a new album this summer as well.
This band from Poland scared me the first time I heard them. They bring a black metal influence to this list (just look at the costumes they have). The drums are incredibly fast and crisp and the guitar work has hints of Middle-Eastern influence.
This Finnish band is known for their melodic riffs. While there are other very good Scandinavian melodic death metal bands (ex. Kalmah, Norther) Children of Bodom is the most popular, the reason it clinched the number seven spot.
Hopefully having Cannibal Corpse on this list will help to keep the real brutal death metal fans happy. Cannibal Corpse is extremely heavy and has built up a cult following. The horror film style subject matter of their music is very controversial, with song names like “Hammer Smashed Face” and just about any of their other songs (especially the ones off of Tomb of the Mutilated).
This band was a tough one to put on this list because they are not really death metal, but luckily awesomeness and musicianship are part of the criteria for this list. Mastodon has a unique and progressive style. The drums are absolutely amazing! Over the years Mastodon has enjoyed great reviews and was nominated for a Grammy but lost to the next band…
That’s right! What metal list would be complete without Slayer? Go to a metal show and everyone there loves Slayer. This band is historically important for metal (thrash metal really) and definitely has the popularity, but when it comes down to it the musicianship is not as good as many of the other bands on this list. However this adds to their “metalness.” The members of the band have admitted that there are mistakes in their recordings but they don’t care because they are that cool.
Many metalheads may be surprised to see the number three spot filled by this band, but it really makes perfect sense. They definitely have some death metal elements and the musicianship. While they may not be super popular or important in the history of metal yet, I believe they will be soon. Anyone who disagrees with my decision to put this band at number three should listen to Colors all the way through. It is a beautiful masterpiece with more musical styles than I ever thought could be crammed into one album.
They are everything a death metal band should be. They have caused a nice amount of controversy with their imagery and lyrics. Their lead singer burned an upside-down cross into his forehead. They have brutal riffs and blisteringly fast blast beats with spectacular guitar solos interspersed (listen to the solo in “Homage for Satan”). I don’t think anyone can argue their high position on this list.
Even if Death lacked all the other criteria (which they don’t) they still are the most important band in death metal history. Chuck Schuldiner is the father of death metal for a reason. Death is the band that started death metal plain and simple. Aside from starting the genre this list is based on, the music they make is simply beautiful. It is obvious that Chuck pours his heart into his music. Some of the things he plays will really stick with you.
Everyone’s favorite cartoon band also happens to be ridiculously metal! If Dethklok were a real band they would have the number one spot on awesomeness points alone.
Honorable Mentions: Cynic, Atheist, Pestilence, Dark Tranquility
Contributor: General Tits Von Chodehoffen
what i want to know is where is dying fetus and nile
Hmm….. I hate the music lists but interesting list
have you ever heard the band fall of a season one of the most bad ass bands ever
I think this list has both great bands like Death, Slayer and Behemoth but also crappy ones like Mastodon and the Between Buried Guys or whatever they’re called. The title is also misleading.
Also can somebody tell me why Amon Amarth isn’t in the top five??!!!
Oh I do like how the first one is named simply “death” however I bet more than one band has a variation of this
Dude, they are the inventors of deathmetal. that’s why it’s called “death”metal.
Most of this list is incorrect. The list should include:
1. Slayer I suppose because without them, DM would not exist.
2. Death (agree with you here, Chuck is King!)
3. Carcass
4. Entombed
5. Obituary
6. Morbid Angel
7. Sepultura
8. Meshuggah
9. Cannibal Corpse
10. Morbid Angel
So there.
Meshuggah are NOT death metal.
And neither is Sepultura
agreed.
I like this list much better.
Death metal came before slayer. And not having cynic, atheist, pestilence on there before supultura, entombed, meshuggah, and cannibal corpse, or even at all, makes your list not very good.
Oops. Morbid Angel at position 6 was supposed to be Deicide.
Although Between The Buried And Me are phenomenal (one of my favourite bands), they’re not death metal in the slightest. Ok they have some blast beats now and again and growling vocals but so do a lot of metalcore/technical metal bands. There’s a lot more to death metal than just blast beats and growls.
Mastodon? You got to be kidding me. Nothing death in the slightest about them
Slayer? Err…no. Thrash metal and death metal are quite different
i personally wouldve put BTBAM at number 1. theyre incredible. good list
Between the buried and me. Nuff said.
nice! all my favorite bands are on the list! My first time ever posting. Awesome site love the list!
sofaking, Dude!!!!!!!!!!!!!what are you doin bein all nice and stuff? It ain’t right.
People do need to read the introduction – “THIS LIST IS NOT ONLY GOING TO BE DEATH METAL IN THE STRICT SENSE!” That said a better name for it might be Top 10 “Extreme” Metal bands.
Even at that, though, there are some inclusions which make me scratch my head when compared to the other entries on this list. If you are going to include Between the Buried and Me in such a list, there are far better bands that could be included on this list. I mean, Arch Enemy… really? If you want to include a band who makes it for their popularity, any of the original Gothenburg bands would be a far better addition. I mean, I know In Flames’ material has gotten increasingly weaker over time, but there is nothing Arch Enemy has ever done that is really much better, especially since they added Angela Gossow.
I’m glad to see such a list on the site, though. It is good to see some lists every once in a while that really on cater to a niche audience. However, this one seems like it was thrown together and that is problematic once you start looking at the relationship of one band to the other 9 on the list.
very yes to Dethklok XD
Dethklok is awesome!! Best show ever!!! brendon small also created the cartoon ‘Home Movies’ that is on adult swim sometimes. Last halloween my friend and his band– A Killer Born dressed up as Dethklok.
There is simply too much good metal to put it all on a top 10 list.
What about Opeth,or early Katatonia,or Edge of Sanity?
What about Nile,At The Gates,early In Flames?
What about Soilwor,Napalm Death, or early Kataklysm?
What about Septicflesh,Dark Tranquility,or Posessed?
Also,I’m not sure why Dethklok is on the list.Ive got the album,and its nothing special,just generic death metal.
It’s still good to know someone is promoting the alternative music scene.
I agree. There should be another Top 10 death metal bands list.
Mmm, Children of Bodom. This list really makes my day.
And Chuck Norris?
I am stepping back from this one – I didn’t even know that such a thing as death metal existed until the 10,000 comments from the contributor begging me to post it! But it fits the demographics so there you go
Maybe something bizarre or offbeat tomorrow 
In the meantime – debate away!
Awful list. I’ve been listening to extreme metal since I was 12 (I’m 31 now), and to not include Possessed, Entombed or Carcass is ridiculous. And Mastodon? What is that tosh? Children Of Bodom? If you are going to include ‘melodic’ death metal from Finland, then you include Amorphis, and don’t even get me started on Behemoth, sweet Jesus…
That being said, death metal is the worst sub-genre of metal; black, thrash and doom metal are much better. How Jamie allowed this list to slip through is beyond me.
BTW, Slayer are not death metal at all.
BTW II, the Darkthrone and Lifelover albums are great (to any real metalheads that might be reading this).
penis: he is too busy kicking ass to worry about death metal.
New Darkthrone and Lifelover albums I mean.
BTW III, Death DID not start death metal.
rolf: read my previous comment
In some cases I have to presume that the author has knowledge I lack because there is no way I can do sufficient research in one day to determine the validity of the list when it is a topic I have no knowledge of at all. In cases like that I rely on the comments to help me either do a second list which fills the gaps or to pull it if it causes too much controversy (though a little controversy is good) 
General Tits Von Chodehoffen-
yeah! you finally got your list! now i’ve only ever heard of (and not actually heard) cannibal corpse, but i’m happy your list made it to the site in all it’s glory
Hmmmm, what about Bolt Thrower? 20 years of crunching, hook filled, ripping war metal…they should be on any top 10 DM list.
Does’nt really suprise me that they are’nt on here, they have always been massively under rated.
p.s. jfrater-
response to this list will be an informal “poll” about how many hard-core metal fans frequent LV! will there be a place we can see the final stats of the poll/surveys you’ve been running lately?
what, has everyone totally ignored cryptopsy?? They make all but ‘Death’ look like a bunch of farting vaginas…
nice one…
this list is bull*****……
there are soo many better things to discuss about than so called “death metal bandS”. R&B is the best….
You should srsly read something about the history of Death Metal. Where the **** is Napalm Death?
And where is Morbid Angel?
I do no even like those two band but there should be included.
And one could easily a straight Death Metal list.
Slayer? if you include Slayer you can also include Metallica…
“1. Having at least two albums with death metal elements in it”
What are these elements you are talkin about? And if you take just “elemenst” Weezer could be included beacuse the singer uses shouts from time to time.
Weak list, sorry.
Napalm Death are grindcore…
This is the first time that the listverse has legitimately bummed me out with such a TERRIBLE group of choices for a list.
Seriously though, Between the Buried and Me? Get out of here.
No Carcass? Suffocation? Entombed? Decapitated? Good lord… Not only are a bunch of staples of death metal not mentioned, an entire section of death metal (swedish or melodic death metal) is only represented by the lousy Arch Enemy and NOT by AT THE GATES, In Flames or Dark Tranquility. Truly a failed list.
But Dethklok got lipservice.. cool. ::rolls eyes::
There is no such thing as an objective top 10 music list.
General Tits will be happy now! I knew the name of one of these bands, and haven’t (consciously) heard their music. As a classical muso, I’ll wander over over to my (comparatively quiet) “Great choral music list from before 1750 list” and let the General defend him(?)self against what is bound to be a huge onslaught of aggrieved comments.
Where is Mayhem? Cradle of Filth? In Flames? :
Oh GOD. I knew this list would bring all the jumped-up elitists out of the woodworks… I’m a metal fan myself but I gotta say the bull***** elitism and slandering of OPINIONS is one of the things I HATE the most. Seriously, opinions are subjective, deal with it.
Have your own opinions of course, that’s the whole point, but this list is ALSO someone’s opinion so calling it bull*****/wrong/’TERRIBLE’ is just plain wrong.
I reckon a lot of the bands on there are well placed…. but just because some of you disagree don’t go being dicks.
How about a ‘hey, interesting list, thanks for taking the time to compile it… I disagree with some of your choices though.’ (Eg, I think Arch Enemy suck big fat donkey balls, but that’s not General Tits Von Chodehoffens fault!)
Moral of this story: Your elitism doesn’t make you look cool, it makes you look like an internet douchebag!
(PS – Thanks for putting an uber-niche list like this!)
They need to add Five Finger Death Punch at Number ONE
Just take away “Top” from the title of this list and that could have prevented a lot of the *****ing and moaning that metal heads are known for.
Not hugely into Death Metal but I guess I’d have to say it seems a couple of better bands seem to have been missed out. I saw Children of Bodom a couple of months ago and they were singularly pants. I’d agree with those calling for Napalm Death and Carcass. That said a couple of great inclusions, namely Death and Slayer who aren’t death metal (I know, I did read the intro) but are beyond awesome! Once again, a list that really is entirely subjective and liable to induce frothing disagreement but interesting nonetheless. General Tits, a very brave sally forth.
Patrask (comment 30) : I hope you are joking… Mayhem and CoF are black metal.. and CoF is hardly even black metal nowadays.
In Flames WAS melodic death metal but not anymore.. but I do like their early work.
lo: I have a few more polls to go – when I am done I will do an admin list which includes all the results. I will be doing an advertising flyer which incorporates all the info as well as other site info such as number of posts and comments (you can see some of this on the about page already). The polling info is anonymous but extremely useful in finding a replacement advertiser for the one that canned us because of complaints about one of our lists.
Ate (28): don’t we know it? But all is not lost – another list will spring from this one like a phoenix from the flames
This list is total crap
Slayer shouldnt be there, same as BTBAM
Children of bodom suck
why don’t you have good DM bands like Obituary, Bolt Thrower and Morbid Angel, or even decent sub-genre DM bands like Devourment and Putrid Pile
Plus, so many great other DM bands, to name a few, Skinless, Torture Killer, Fonldecorpse, The Berzerker, impaled and carcass!
MonkeyBrains: thank you for your comment: it is the epitome of what we love to see here – clear headed moderate viewpoints!
Davd: but that would spoil all the fun
okay – so after all the noise in the last month or so from General Tits – where the hell is he? He should be here to take one for the team!
@ 31. MonkeyBrain.
Hear hear.
Is this a joke? Slayer influenced Death Metal sure, but I wouldn’t put Black Sabbath on a “Top 10 Doom Metal Bands”…
You got Death right at least, couldn’t be anything else for that first spot. Carcass should at least be in the honourable mentions though. I don’t understand why Behemoth are on there though, just because of the cool costumes? I really think you need to look at a couple of those again *cough* 3,4 and 8 *cough* but apart from that nice list.
Oh yeah, criterion number one is absolute bullsh*t, either they’re Death Metal or they shouldn’t be on a “Top 10 DEATH Metal Bands” list.
J-Frater, I am offering something, would it be possible for me to make a secondary list, it would take me like 45 minutes to an hour tops, of the top 10 – 15 death metal bands. Compiled with suggestions from the commentors on this list, my own personal oppinion and also taker into consideration a few suggestions from this list
please get back to me soon
Saw Children of Bodom at a very intimate concert at one of my local music stores. Was probably one of the craziest concerts I’ve been to. Just imagine being in a room the size of your living room with them. Kind of scary. The concert was only outdone by the Cannibal Corpse concert I went to a few weeks later. And I’m not even a huge fan of death metal.
This list is okay. Death at number one was a no brainer. I wouldve left children of bodom and mastodon off. They’re strictly metal. Some more originators of the genre wouldve been nice. Like Venom or Bathory. And maybe some newer kings like Whitechapel or The Black Dahlia Murder. In all, good list just too much straight “metal” bands. I may make one later and see what you guys think.
Oh and congrats for Penis making Jamie call someone Penis.
My list, i reckon this is a fairly universally acceptable list
1. Death
2. Carcass
3. Napalm Death
4. Entombed
5. Obituary
6. Morbid Angel
7. Bolt Thrower
8. Amorphis
9. Deicide
10. Cannibal Corpse
11. Skinless
12. The Berzerker
13. Psycroptic
14. Whitechapel
15. Ghoul
I hate whitechapel but decided to add them in with a few other bands who are putting a new spin on things, namely the last 4
nice
47. Maelstrom : You forgot Venom, but apart from that great list. Much better than General’s…
Venom are much more closely attributed to Black metal more than anything
@47
not made but they could be more melodic death metal
Enooo: I really did feel weird doing that – and was considering posting a comment about it – but I thought if I didn’t say anything that no one would notice – obviously they did
49. Maelstrom : It can only be objective to an extent, obviously you hear more Black Metal in it. I think that the reason I clump them with Death Metal is probably just my personal listening habits. If you want to be as objective as possible they probably count more as Speed/Thrash more than anything else.
Thanks JFrater….. I just KNEW this list would bring out metal snobs! I swear, that ‘scene’ (for want of a better word) has the most snobbery I’ve ever encountered; I can understand liking what you like but dude, enough with the musical purism!
Maybe that’s an idea for another list – ‘Top ten bands metal fans think are crap for no apparent reason.’
53. MonkeyBrains : I don’t think snobbery is the right word, Black Metal fans – and I’m talking really purist early Scandanavian sorta jobs – don’t like other metal because it’s too mainstream or “sold out”. I assume that’s the sort of thing you were referring to?
Great list! To all those saying the list failed, go make you own and stop being cry babies. Why do some of you put bands into so many little sub-genres? Guys metal is *****ing metal. Personally some of my favs are Slayer, Lamb of God, DevilDriver, Inflames, Cannibal Corpse just to name a few.
I’m not a death metal fan, but if I could judge the bands’ sound on their looks, then I’m going to have to trust you on your list choices. They all look pretty hard-core.
Sorry, my last post had some swearing in it… Here’s the edited version:
Kudos on adding Dethklok. I honestly think this is a decent list. Then again I’m not a freaking elitist jerk like everyone else posting here…
At The Gates?
While most of the bands here are great, I’d have to say that I’m pretty disappointed with this list.
Slayer should be higher on the list, and I don’t think Deicide deserves 2nd (although they are a very good band, they just don’t deserve that high of a rank as much as Slayer does).
Oh my god, I love this list so much! This author is a genius. I seriously flipped when I saw BTBAM on this list. In my opinion, they would easily be number 1, although Death does deserve it for starting the genre. They have been my favorite band since they came out, and my love for them grows with each album.
Necrophagist was a good touch too. They should have been higher up. I never really understood why people rave about Mastodon so much. Decide should have been waaaaay lower.
Awesome list though. Kudos!