Very wide and sweeping question. Very hard to give a single answer to. But you can only pick one song, and you have to defend your answer.

If I had to pick ONE song, one singular track, I'd have to go with Hammer Smashed Face. Cause... it's fucking Hammer Smashed Face. I don't think it gets any more classic than that.

Death - Left to Die

Extremely hard question but this was one of the first ones to come to mind. It is definitely up there for me at least.

Nile - "Lashed to the Slave Stick"

Everything about that song is peak death metal for me.

Autopsy's Ridden with Disease would be my choice, but anything off Severed Survival really.

Going by my most listened, Suffocation - Liege of Inveracity.

Death - "Open Casket" or "Spiritual Healing"

The first one that came to my mind this time around:

This is what I came here to say. It might be a tad boring of an answer but by Azura, by Azura, by Azura that song has everything a death metal track needs.

Yep, me too.

I agree with you. If I were to showcase what death metal sounds like to an outsider. I'll have them listen to this song as it's the best representation of the sub-genre: it's loud and it's fast then it slows down and speeds up again, the vocals are inhuman, the lyrics simple yet brutal.

Override of the Overture. Riff for riff, it's one of the best songs in metal history in my mind. Great integration of melody too.

Boring answer but...

Entombed - Left Hand Path

I think Hammer Smashed Face is the most recognized and heralded song in death metal, and its a great track for sure. I personally think that Liege of Inveracity by Suffocation is the best example to show everything that death metal is all about though. Turning it subjective though, greatest is very difficult, because I wouldnt say either of those songs are even my favorite song by those individual bands.

Morbid Angel - Immortal Rites would be my pick for a favorite. "Greatest" is clearly subjective and impossible.

Certified classic right there!

Cryptopsy-“Slit Your Guts”.

When I close my eyes and think “death metal”, the opening two riffs are usually the first thing I heard in my head.

It’s weird because I don’t think of Cryptopsy as a favorite band. An overall excellent band, a legendary band, but not a favorite band, if that makes sense. But this song is fucking iconic and those first two riffs are the most quintessential death metal riffs. In my mind, at least.

We're on the same wavelength here. A few years ago somebody had a thread along the lines of "Choose one song to represent each subgenre" and I wound up pretty torn between Cannibal Corpse's Hammer Smashed Face and Suffocation's Infecting the Crypts. Two of the best songs by the best bands in the genres on arguably their best albums released at the height of the genre's explosion. I think at the time I wound up giving the edge to Suffocation simply because I like that song a tiny bit more (it lacks the classic bass lick but it has one of the most devastating breakdowns in genre history and that pushed it over the top for me). I'd argue Cannibal is more iconic and you could make equally great arguments for Pull the Plug, Chapel of Ghouls, Left Hand Path, et cetera, but cards on the table, I'm taking Suffo.

'Left Hand Path' was the first thing that came to mind here. Entombed are not my favourite death metal band - Autopsy, Morbid Angel, Dismember, Asphyx probably have a better album in them than Entombed - but that song is beyond most anything. It's like the song 'Black Sabbath' it just perfectly encompasses most everything good about the genre and has a transcendent power in the way it's crafted. The mini-ressurrection with the 'Phantasm' theme turns it from amazing to... just something even more. Fucking hell, even thinking about it makes me excited about hearing it. It was my first death metal song about 19 years ago, and it still might be my favourite.

Chapel of Ghouls, Zombie Ritual, or Out of Hand for me. Can’t choose between the 3.

For me, it's a tie between Morbid Angel's "Chapel of Ghouls" and Cannibal Corpse's "Meathook Sodomy".

This is what I came here to say. Pretty much a perfect death metal song in my eyes. One amazing riff after another.

In terms of other songs, I can think of a few contenders that I didn't see mentioned yet. World Eater, Dead by Dawn, and The Exorcist are some that come to mind. Also seconding Immortal Rites. That's a close contender to Override of the Overture for me.

Id also have to go for Left hand path. Its just a total adrenaline pumper for me, simultaneous air drums and air guitar are a must.

Its like 6:39 of that Vince McMahon meme.

My personal pick is Morbid Angel's "Maze of Torment" but I agree that Left Hand Path is an iconic and representative choice.

Hammer Smashed Face. To me it's just the perfect summary of old school death metal. When I was trying to explain to my friend the difference between black and death metal that was the song I used for death metal.

I'm not sure about the best song in the whole death metal scene. There are many subgenres and scenes I'm not familiar with.

Asphyx - The Rack. Because it is so goddamn heavy, and dark and atmospheric and twisted and because it has got equal measures of catchy-ness and obvious unfriendliness walking hand in hand into the abyss. And because this song's impact has not diminished a single iota for all these years till this very day. And because of Martin Van Drunen.

If someone says death metal, the first song that pops into my head is always Override of the Overture. Just peak death metal to my ears. The second song is always Infant Sacrifices from Hypocrisy's sometimes overlooked Osculum Obscenum.

Word for word. "Left Hand Path" isn't far behind. These two Swedeath songs absolutely rule. The riffs, melodies, vocals, etc. are superb.

Im a bit partial to The Final Massacre on Litany. It was the song that made me get into the genre.

I'm partial to "Scream Bloody Gore" (the song) but yeah, you could actually pick three or four songs off of that Entombed track that would be right up there.

"Scream Bloody Gore" is the archetypical death metal song- it's got everything, brutality, gore, crushing riffs, great production, vocals, guitar work, and was from a groundbreaking and standout record which the band them/himself never really topped.

Give some love to Vader - 'Wings'.

This made me curious about data on this so I poked around Spotify:

Cannibal Corpse - Hammer Smashed Face (27M streams)
Death - Symbolic (19M streams)
Behemoth - Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel (17M streams)
Vader - Triumph of Death (8M streams)
Deicide - In the Minds of Evil (8M streams)
Entombed - Left Hand Path (7M streams)
Morbid Angel - Immortal Rites (6M streams)
Bolt Thrower - The Killchain (6M streams)
Nile - Lashed to the Slave Stick (4M streams)
Suffocation - Pierced From Within (3M streams)
Cryptopsy - Graves of the Fathers (2M streams)
Dismember - Override of the Overture (2M streams)
Autopsy - Charred Remains (1M streams)
Pestilence - Twisted Truth (1M streams)

Outliers: Death's Voice of the Soul has 28M and Obituary's Redneck Stomp has 14M (what??) but since those are intros/interludes I left them out of the main list.

I'm guessing that a huge chunk of these listens come from hardcore kids.

Deicide - Satan spawn, the Caco-Daemon

(if you think you know it by heart and are capable of judgment on that alone, listen to it again)

Really liking the Liege of Inveracity pick. Maybe not my straight up favourite but as far as representation goes it pretty outstanding because it covers so much ground and it's all "pure". There's tech, there's brutal, there's slam, the chugging grooves, there's trems, there's variation between very fast and quite slow, it's got a lot of blasts but it's not all blast, the thrash connection has been severed pretty much completely, there's a wildly atonal guitar solo etc. I can't think of any other 5 minute packages from that classic era which cover so much stuff, it's really only missing some of the melodic sensbilities, and even then that tremmy part new the start has SOME of it. It's also not crazy locked into one style of scene, like I mean, it's NYDM but still a lot broader in it's stylistic branches than Left Hand Path which is pretty much only super indicative of Swedeath or the thrashier Florida stuff. Just really good pick to sum up "death metal" as a whole.

Also it is good.

Entombed - Left Hand Path

Nothing gets close, nothing. With all due respect to Death, Possessed, Obituary, Morbid Angel or Cannibal Corpse, THIS particular song is a death metal hymn in every right.

Morbid Angel: God of Emptiness

It has the lyrics, the atmosphere and the heavy brooding riffing. There is an epic feeling to the song which I prefer and everything is on point.

Massacre Corpsegrinder

Couldn't possibly answer this question, so I'll just give one of my favourite songs from one of my favourite death metal albums of all time, and maybe not a pick many would consider for a question like this:



From Flourishing's 2011 magnum opus of grinding, technical, dissonant, pounding death metal The Sum of All Fossils, 'Momentary Senses'. With its agonised verses, hard-as-concrete grooves, winding structure, savage blasting passages... it's definitely a showcase of death metal in peak form. It may not be a summary of all (or most) of what DM can be such as 'Liege of Inveracity' (the fact that's cropped up so many times is a pretty good tell; it's a great pick) but eh, there's something to be said for songs that just elevate the art form in their own specific way being some of the best in the genre.

Bolt Thrower - Cenotaph (1991)

True to its title, this song has a monumental quality to it. It has stood the test of time despite any flaws it may have. It is very well written, simple yet elegant, with enough melody and tempo changes to keep things interesting. There's the epic riff right after the intro that opens up the first verse with Karl Willetts exclaiming those perfect lines "Alone you stand - The final parody - Destined to silence - A memorial to mortality". The pace quickens and the band charges into a signature BT riff, sounding like the proverbial tank rolling over a battlefield. There's the chaotic grind eruptions in the second half of the song before the epic riff returns, this time leading into the outro. It never gets old!

Morbid Angel - Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPSWdn1-JU0