Ilustrious Words: Death Metal Oldies

Woods’ post earlier this week inspired me to compile a list of some of my favorite “old-school” death metal releases. I hear the term “old-school” thrown around in a lot of music subcultures, but death metallers seem to carefully distinguish newer bands from older ones with more conviction than most. Since I am unfamiliar with their methodology for differentiating old school bands from newer (“new-skewel?”) bands, I just didn’t mention any records after 1994. This would make sense, seeing as how the now infamous New Academy of Death Metal was built in 1995 in Tampa, Florida. If you haven’t figured out that the last sentence was sarcastic by the time you’re finished reading this sentence, never view this blog again. That all being said, I wish I had the time or energy to discuss each record below individually, for each is significant and special in its own way. Pungent Stench and Autopsy provide the gorey goodness, Entombed and Dismember dish out the buzzsaw riffage, and acts such as Morbid Angel and Deicide are responsible for more children leaving the Catholic Church than pedophile priests. I am sure there are some surprises on this list, but I encourage everyone who reads it to check out the albums or dust them off and rediscover why you fell in love with this style of music in the first place.

Pungent Stench – “Been Caught Buttering” (1991)

Dismember- Like an Everflowing Stream (1991)

Autopsy- Acts of the Unspeakable (1992)

Entombed- Left Hand Path (1990)

Morbid Angel- Covenant (1993)

Death- Leprosy (1988)