You can argue death metal started before Death, but you can never argue it started after. All Hail Chuck \m/

Loudwire be like: "We are not saying it was Death, but it was Death"

I actually invented death metal but I don't want to talk about it.

I'm not saying this host reminds me of a Nickelodeon presenter. But he definitely reminds me of a Nickelodeon presenter

“How do you explain Cannibal Corpse to your parents?” Easy, my dad was the one who introduced me to Cannibal Corpse lol

"And then comes Cannibal Corpse and how do you explain that" I haven't heard such truth in years

Whatever, but Death is still the greatest death metal band of all time

Ive heard lot of people say that Reign in Blood laid the foundation for death metal and that Slayer were the heaviest band of their time, but I think Kreator's pleasure to kill was way heavier and a lot closer to being borderline death metal than Slayer ever were. IMO, Pleasure to Kill is still to this day, probably the heaviest thrash metal album I've ever heard.

I miss Chuck. I'm going to listen to Human now.

As a Loudwire expert I can safely say that Slipknot was the first death metal band, Ghost was the first black metal band, Rammstien is the only industrial metal band, and suicide silence was the father of rock and roll.

Sepultura's Beastial Devastation was more death metal than Slayer's Hell Awaits in 1985.

I like this guy. He has the energy of someone who doesn’t know what he’s talking about but the copy is really intelligently researched/worded

Possessed and Death, there I saved you 12 minutes. Possessed was death thrash and coined the term Death Metal.

So... no one is going to acknowledge the existence of Necrophagia anymore?

Created by Possessed, perfected by Death.

Chuck Schuldiner said in an interview that Possessed is the first death metal band. Bay Area represents underground music. 🇺🇸🎸👿🤘

Possessed invented Death Metal, Death defined Death Metal.

Thats not Matt Pike, he's wearing a shirt

Can we just appreciate the fact that he greenscreened himself into the loudwire place?

Possessed’s “Seven Churches” was the true first death metal album, but Death’s first two albums really laid the path for late 80s blow up.

I love most bands mentioned here, but I also feel Necrophagia really deserves some credit as well. Great underrated band and their debut Season of the Dead is one of the first and a masterpiece of horror and death themed metal.

For me Death are not only the Kings of death metal, but of all metal. They had the melodies, the philosophical and intelligent lyrics, incredible musicianship and where always harder and heavier

Let's just ignore that "death metal" was a very common term in the swedish underground in like... 83

Venom Welcome to Hell in 1981 was the very first brutal, speed, heavy guitar riff, grunty barking evil vocals, dark and satanic death metal album. Many call it the first black metal album, well there can be 1000 metal genres, I call it the very first death metal album because there was no brutal, speed, heavy riff, dark metal album exactly like that before 1981. It was the very first, therefore the very, very beginning of the death metal genre that simply doesn't and cannot have the progression in sound that lets say 1986's Darkness Descends, 1987's Scream Bloody Gore and 1991's Butchered at Birth have, but it was the beginning.

I.M.O. , Death Metal invetion came gradually , the first seed being on early Slayer , Venom , Celtic Frost and Kreator , but the first (for me) "official" Death Metal register has to be Sepultura's "Bestial Devastation" or the first Possesed . One of these 2 . or both .

I have a problem my mom calls pantera death metal

Not saying they aren’t the “origin” but using the term in a song would mean Steppenwolf originated heavy metal.

Sepultura "Beneath the Remains" has to be a 50/50 combination of thrash and death.I heard it the other day on KZfaq and had forgotten how heavy and yet catchy it is.Awesome guitar work,so fast and with many a tortured-bend chord and note.

Earliest I've been since Phil Anselmo kissed Gruhammed

Mike Torrao (Possessed): “We kind of got a big influence from Venom. We had no influence from Slayer at all. Everybody thinks we did but we didn't.” "Kiss was like my influence to play guitar and stuff. I liked Ace Frehley, the guitar player, and then I grew up on Iron Maiden. After that Judas Priest through high school and then I got into Venom and that's when the Possessed thing started happening."

Can't believe no one mention Sepultura! They had a lot to do with early Death Metal stuff and the genre actually given the name. I think Max and Igor really laid down a foundation to follow on there own. Even if you listen to Cavalera Conspiracy today. That's how early Death Metal sounded. I remember hearing Igor's blast beats way before Death or Napalm Death.

I remember Venom, Merciful Fate, and Celtic Frost being referred to as "Death Metal" in 86 - 87. Shit was moving so fast - nobody paid attention to labels then. I also remember hearing Slayer on pirate tapes in 84.

I was wondering why people never mention Sepultura " Beastial Devastation (1985)" and "Morbid Visions (1986)" and Sarcófago "I.N.R.I (1987)". D.D. Crazy from Sarcófago was the first drummer to introduce "blast beats". I.N.R.I. is one of the most extreme metal album of all time. There were lots of other bands at that time doing extreme music.

Hell Awaits was pretty death metal like

I graduated high school in '88 so I remember these days! I was able to convince my grandparents to buy 'Reign in Blood' (on cassette of course) as my Xmas present! This reads like someone browsing through my music collection! Great stuff!

Possessed is generally considered the first death metal band due to their more intense thrash style and the growled vocals. They were an influence on Chuck Schuldiner & Death.

I'd say sepultura morbid visions had some early death metal in it

Killjoy (Necrophagia): "I started getting into punk when I was twelve and stayed there until hearing Venom when they started. Venom had elements of punk but with a whole new twist. I was hooked big time. And soon after, Necrophagia was created."

I saw Death at The Beacham Theatre when James Murphy had joined the band (all props to Rick, too, though!). After sound check they were hanging out in their 'tour bus' and even though they were always cool it was obvious they were tired so we all left them alone and hung out waiting for the show to start. Seemingly out of nowhere James Murphy walked out and asked the few of us that were nearby if we wanted to hear an advanced copy of their 'new album' called Spiritual Healing- we just needed a casette player since his advance copy was on cassette. We walked right across the street to my friend's car and James put the cassette in the tape deck. I think we got to hear 3 songs or so- that was f*cking cool. It's still one of my top favorite albums of all time to date. James- your rock man. That was the coolest shit ever. RIP Chuck- some unreal music you made man! Terry, Rick and especially Bill- you guys made the best death metal ever- Thank You All!

Chuck said in his 90's interviews, Venom and Possessed did.

Death's "Death by Metal" and "Reign of Terror" demos came out in 1984 and were very much death metal recordings earlier than Possessed's "death metal" demo. In fact at the time "death by metal" was recorded, the Possessed guys were doing projects like Blizzard that sounded more like AC/DC than death metal.

Last time i was this early, i still thought that Slipknot are death metal.

Death- Spiritual Healing was my first. I ordered a cassette from Columbia House music club because I liked the cover art. Now I’m 41 and still listening to death metal, deathcore, slam, thrash.

I have always considered the band Possessed to be the godfathers of death metal. The band Death is the first true death metal band.

I know Reign in Blood is the more popular Slayer album, but Hell Awaits had way more of an influence on death metal and extreme metal in general. That album was darker and more evil than RIB, if that's possible. Also no one ever mentions Necrophagia's - Season of the Dead. Released a few months before Scream Bloody Gore

Always joke that if Tom Araya growled instead of yelled in Reign in Blood, its instantly death metal

I find it interesting that you didn't talk about the fact that Sepultura's EP, Beastial Devastation had much the same vibe as these other two albums (especially Seven Churches). I know they were generally considered a thrash band, but their stuff evolved quite a bit over the years and their early stuff definitely has that "beginnings of death metal" vibe to it. And that also came out in 1985. I think some credit is due there.

The great thing is that Death Metal was mainly created by teenagers: Venom: Black Metal (1982), vocals and songwriting: Conrad Lant *19 years* Possesed: Seven Churches (recorded March/April 1985), lyrics and vocals: Jeff Becerra *16 years* Death: Sceam Bloody Gore (recorded November 1986), lyrics, songwriting, guitar, bass, vocals: Chuck Schuldiner *19 years* drums: Chris Reifert *18 years*

I’d say that load by Metallica inspired death metal artists I mean just listen to mama said that’s pure death metal right there

It was obviously Fitzgerald McDeath, the great floridian chemist who died in 2001 of heavy metal poisoning...

Sorry , anyone that thinks Venom didn't start Black metal is dead wrong ......

"Invented" is a really stupid metric. Nobody invented death metal; its always been there, humans just finally figured out how to unleash it.

First blast beat I can remember: Milk by Stormtroopers of Death off of Speak English or Die

"How can you listen to that SCREAMO music???" 🤢🤮 I have heard this TOO many times...

Seeing Trevor in this is heartbreaking.

Your answer is on the thumbnail. "Death"

Id say both Death and Possessed played an equally big role in it. The guys from both bands were good friends too and inspired eachother alot. Possessed laid down the framework, and Death followed it up with what we understand as the typical death metal sound today.

What about SEPULTURA's Bestial Devastation and Morbid Visions???

Honestly, Scott Burns came along way after death metal was "invented," but he deserves some credit in making it what it became, for sure.

Kreator (Pleasure to Kill) ,Slayer (Hell Awaits) and Dark Angel (Darkness Decends) helped the blue print. Possessed and Death (Massacre) and Celtic Frost were the pioneers. Onslaught had a song called Death Metal, but it was more Thrash based. Kam Lee, Jeff Becera, Chuck Schuldner and Tom G. Warrior were the original vocalists of DM ( along with Mike Browning, Evil D and Lee Dorian (although he's more Hardcore).

Slayer opened gates for Death metal to be a Genre ... and then possessed entered through that gate ...

I'm Irish.. And Celtic Frost is pronounced Keltic Frost. Great mini documentary \m/..

No question that 7 Churches was the first true death metal album. Death simply refined the sound over the years. Everyone copied Scream Bloody Gore and 7 Churches in the following decade.

Here's the way I think about it. Everyone says Possessed did death metal first. I don't think so. Put it this way, say the song "Death Metal" was called something different on Seven Churches. No one would be saying Possessed was the first death metal band. That album is dark thrash. The music is pure thrash and the vocals and lyrics are more in line with Slayer, early Kreator and Dark Angel then anything death metal. People attach the label to Possessed because they have a song called Death Metal on the album plain and simple. Deaths demos in 83 and 84 are MUCH more guttural vocal wise and the music/riffs and especially the gory lyrics are MUCH more in tune with death metal than Possessed would ever be. Also... Sepultura's Bestial Devastation EP. No one ever talks about that. Those songs were written in 1984/85. Some of the earliest blast beats for death metal on record and the vocals and badly translated lyrics were total death metal. Sorry, for me Possessed was a dark thrash band ala early Kreator and early Dark Angel. Death/Sepultura/Hellhammer moved away from the thrash sound and created Death Metal. Want a few other bands look up Poison from Germany. (not the have a good time all night and every day band lol) They had a 1984 demo that was completely death leaning) Hellhammer was probably the very first to get the vocal sound close along with Kam from Death in 1983/early 84. I will listen to Seven Churches again today as it is a great record, just.... as many times as I've heard it I never think "this is death metal" ever. I think "this is a dark, heavy thrash band that has a song called death metal"

In the early 80's, ('80-'85) we'd call it "Chainsaw Rock." That was the term myself and some of the other college radio station DJs used as we thought it described that music well. Friday &/or Saturday nights 10/11pm - 1/2am we played the hardest, fastest, loudest we had or could get from friends and other students. We even had a chainsaw without the chain, we'd crank it up and rev it up, on and on to start the show. COC (Corrosion of Conformity) was a local band then here in Raleigh, NC, but COC was considered more punk, however they did have a few songs that would've been considered Thrash or Death metal.

VENOM started the ball rolling, they were so fucking insane when they arrived on the scene, they opened Metal up to a whole knew direction. Early Maiden and Motörhead, mixed punk and Metal, created that wave, and while they were taking off, then Venom came out of nowhere, it was so brutal to a then 16 year old, opened my mind, early Kreator, Possessed, and Slayer, then pushed faster and more extreme. What a time to be alive!

King Diamond and Chuck. King Diamond was so thoughtful he created metal operas. Abigail, Them and Conspiracy are timeless masterpieces. Enjoy.

Necrobutcher (Mayhem): "When I heard Venom in 1982, it was like Motörhead only 10 times rawer. They had the punk element but they also had a death metal edge and that was before death metal even existed. It was the whole package. They are my favorite band of all time and to me they're the only band that can really call themselves black metal." “Black metal was something Venom came up with so we couldn’t steal that. We just called our music ‘aggressive music,’ ‘brutal metal,’ ‘total death music,’ words like that. The only band who could legitimately say they played black metal were Venom.”

I still remember the day I left Eaten Back to Life in the CD player downstairs as that's the only one in the house and my Dad found it. The look on his face when he saw the album cover was classic lmao. He was speechless.

Tom Warrior (Hellhammer/Celtic Frost/Triptykon): “Well, first and foremost, when we started we were simply a Venom clone. In 1981 when I first heard Venom there was no other music on the planet like this. The only band that approached the extremity of Venom was the punk band Discharge. Me and my best friend at the time wanted to form a band and hearing these bands proved to us that what we had in our mind was actually feasible. It encouraged us to actually form a band though we were completely inexperienced. We had just picked up our instruments. And because we were so inexperienced initially we weren’t good enough to emulate our own ideas so we tried to copy Venom and that included, of course, the lyrical content, which would explain why the early Hellhammer material is so extreme, so Satanic.” "The song titles, the riffs, down to our stage names - everything was copied from Venom. We thought Venom was the heaviest band, and we wanted to be heavier. Everybody thought we were a new heavy band, but in reality we were just a miserable photocopy." “To this day, I regularly listen to [Venom's] "Welcome to Hell", and it has never lost its utterly unique aura, extremity, and aggression for me. It transports me instantly to the feelings and images of when me and [former Hellhammer bassist/vocalist] Steve Warrior used to worship this album on a daily basis.”

“I know if you won’t listen to me, you’ll at least bow to papa Trev” always. RIP papa. Laughed until I cried.

Slayer would tell you “Venom” started death metal in 1978.

Waldorf: _Who Really Invented Death Metal?_ Statler: _Who cares!?_ Both: _OHOHOHOHOHO!_

Paul Speckmann (Master/Death Strike/War Cry): "We started out playing this doom, Sabbathy kind of stuff, and around that time I discovered a 7” single from Venom-“Live like an Angel, Die like a Devil” and “In League with Satan” on the back of it. That changed my life. Bill Schmidt was fired from War Cry and he spoke to me about doing something heavier. I showed him the single and it changed his life as well. At the time, we started listening to Motorhead, more Sabbath, Slayer was around, but Venom was the band that spurned me to play more aggressive music.”

Possessed single handedly created it FIRST by writing a song called "Death Metal". Give credit where it is due.

My Vote is for Possessed! MY LIFE CHANGED in 1986 (or so, still a bit foggy) when I saw my first death metal show - Possessed in a small 250 person bar in Colorado Springs, CO. Larry Leland turned his guitar neck down to me and cut my forehead with his guitar string and I had blood streaming down my face (really, probably trickling, but) I was turned! It is a perfect memory of that moment when I committed my life to the genre, the culture, and the purity of death metal. I am 53 now and still go to as many shows as I possibly can. That moment made me, no FORGED me into the metalhead I am today! OH, FATHER, OH SATAN, OH SUN!

Interviewer: "Chuck, a lot of people credit you with starting the death metal scene, the death metal genera. What do you think when they say that?" Chuck Schuldiner: "Well, it’s definitely flattering, but I really can’t consider myself to have started it. In my opinion Venom were the first - to have the brutal vocal style, tuning low their instruments, that initial brutal aggression. But I think that maybe I’ve kept it going to what death metal is today, as a lot of those older bands are no longer going, like Venom; and I guess I picked up where they left off, and I’m still in there luckily.”

Homeboy needs some acting lessons.

Death/Mantas Emotional demo came out in very early 1984. If we are talking demos. That's it. They formed in 1983. Possessed always sounded like thrash to me

I second Matt Pike (one of the greatest metal guitarists ever in his own right) on Celtic Frost being pivotal. The tone is much sludgier than most thrash, and has a chaotic unpredictability that unimaginative people would call amateur but is totally unique. Also, his vocals went to a greater extreme

As a Brazilian I would vote for INRI by Sarcofago as the First genre defining death metal album. Sadly at the time there was no internet so that others could enjoy overseas.

Why is Akerfeldt always looking so sweaty? Put a fan on the man lmao save him.

Cannibal Corpse, Possessed and Death pioneered Death Metal. Possessed coined the "Death" and is widely regarded as the inventor of the genre, but I'd argue that Death defined it. Chuck Schuldiner is the Godfather of Death Metal. Honorable mentions include Obituary, Necrophagia and Autopsy. Sepultura may not belong to the list, but it's my personal mention. Morbid Angel and Venom inspired all of the above, and Hellhammer turned Celtic Frost, alongside Bathory and Mercyful Fate, spearheaded Black Metal. [Mayhem was part of the second wave of Black Metal with Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Emperor, Satyricon and Gorgoroth]. I'm not entirely sure why there's this emphasis on Slayer, when the same could be said about Kreator. Death Metal is a stand-alone genre beyond its early adaptations of Thrash Metal, that transformed into the realm of Extreme Metal with bands like Demilich and Abhorrence that emerged from the Finnish Death Metal scene, which offered enlightened technical and complex compositions of music. Slayer pales in comparison to what true heavy listening is today. Seriously. I love both Thrash and Death, but Slayer is overrated!

- Venom started it all with the black metal scene. Slayer and Metallica opened up for Venom in the early 80s.

Venom - Black Metal really should be a parts of this conversations

Enough of that seven churches was the first death metal. Possessed was just a sketchy edgy thrash band. The first death metal was scream bloody gore. It has a very good atmosphere. If you listen to it, it sounds like it was actually recorded in a hellish crypt by some damned evil intentions. It's pure evilness. If you could smell a record it would smell like rotten musty flesh. And no one did anything like that before and that's all that matters.

Three demos that were released in 1984: Death's first release: "Death by Metal" demo Possessed's first release: "Death Metal" demo Genocide's first release: "Toxic Metal" demo Genocide would become Repulsion two years later (another important early band in both death metal and grindcore). Morbid Angel and Necrovore (both mentioned in the video) didn't have their first releases until 1986 and 1987 (which is not to say I'm trying to take anything away from their importance). Personally, I think you can definitely make an argument for all three of the aforementioned demos being the first death metal releases (though you can also hear more thrash than later releases by those bands). Just my two cents. Links to all three demos, so anyone can listen for themselves. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fJuVf5d9y8rIYqs.html kzfaq.info/get/bejne/n52PZpyDvNW9dWQ.html kzfaq.info/get/bejne/iNKnY6qI3c3dnok.html

Vocals: Glen Benton Bass: Alex Webster Guitar: Trey Azagthoth Guitar: Chuck Shuldiner Drums: ?

More important question: Why was viking metal invented?

Damn, Mike Akerfeldt is sweating like crazy

Celtic frost is an amazing band. I love their Mexican radio cover. Their entire content is awesome.

for me, Death Metal was made with these 3 records possessed’s seven churches necrophagia’s season of the dead death’s scream bloody gore

One thing I can thank my brother for is learning that I love death metal and Gothic metal. Type O Negative is my favorite band in the metal category.

Mariah Carey invented Death Metal!

Hell Awaits by Slayer and Black Metal by Venom are two of the most important albums that led to the creation of Death Metal.

Personally for me was Possessed. Death we’re good but they continued the journey not start it.

Posessed’s debut was released two years earlier, thus it was first.

I think this is kinda like a similar argument to who really invented Heavy Metal. We know there was some heavy metal elements before Sabbath with bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, The Who, even the Beatles in a couple songs, but no one can say that those are Heavy Metal bands, that’s when Sabbath took it to another level and established that particular sound and style, thus, being the true creators of Heavy Metal. With Death Metal before it was considered a thing you had Possessed, Celtic Frost, etc, with elements of Death Metal but a little over shadowed by a clear influence of Thrash Metal, but Death took it to a whole new level with Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy and established what Death Metal really sounds like followed by Morbid Angel’s debut, and that’s when other bands started to pick up on that. For me that’s why just like with Sabbath and Heavy Metal, Death is the creator of Death Metal as we know it. Heck, it’s even on the name of the band! And we are just talking about official records, and not even counting the demos that we’re made back in 83 that Death did as “Mantas”, if you ask me that sounds pretty Death Metal to me.

Venom is black death metal and honorable mention, doing it way back. Seven gates of hell!

North Americans (and Brits) will always restrict their stories to the northern hemisphere, but the Brazilian death metal scene - which developed around the Cogumelo Records label - started releasing its records in 1985 (before Reign in Blood) and includes not only the first two Sepultura death metal releases (Igor plays blast beats on the song Antichrist), but other pioneers of the genre (and of blast beats) such as Sarcófago, Holocausto, and Mutilator. Gore and violent lyrics, aggressive visuals, and extreme speed are already there. Not to mention the influence of the Brazilian grindcore pioneers Brigada do Ódio on Napalm Death (Brigada's record is from 1985 too, and includes blast beats)