I've been listening to metal for 23 years, since the ripe age of 11, usually opting for black metal (Emperor, Burzum, Dawn), some djent (Meshuggah, Animals as Leaders), some death metal, mostly along contemporary lines (Artificial Brain, new Gorguts, Ingurgitating Oblivion), some "neo-OSDM" (Spectral Voice, Blood Incantation), and some harder to define material (Strapping Young Lad).

I didn't like much of any death metal until the last five years, and OSDM really didn't click with me. I found it boring, derivative, and just not as good as the modern stuff, save for a few albums: Severed Survival, Mental Funeral, and Leprosy.

But over the last year I've been working at it, trying to gain more familiarity and understanding, even if just to appreciate OSDM's seminal qualities. In doing so I've grown to thoroughly enjoy OSDM. So here I share with you my yays, my okays, my nays, and my "still chewing" (undecided), for OSDM records. I invite you to give me a piece of your mind, redirect me if you see fit, challenge me, and make suggestions as to what I should check out next in the OSDM world. So, here we go!

The Yays

Death's Leprosy - I enjoy this more than I used to. For some time I found it a bit long, and got bored with it. But I've grown to better appreciate it's more minimalist approach. Chuck excelled at texture and feel on Leprosy, the production fits perfectly, and his vocal performance is his best, IMO.

Obituary's Slowly We Rot - While there are some catchy moments and well written tracks, I like this album more for the feel it conveys over its course. Not every riff or track is memorable. But that's not the point. Obituary honed the vibe so competently and with command.

Obituary's Cause of Death - Holy shit, this is heavy. And what a departure from SWR! Their ability to hone the mid-tempo, sledgehammer-heavy death metal sound is, in my opinion, unparalleled. And this vocals? Jesus. I love the leads and solos, too. I respect how much Obituary matured on this record.

Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness - I used to hate this record. Seriously. I didn't get it. But it clicked for me. Pete Sandoval is perfect on it, and I love the guitar work and production. The reverb and tones create a "wash" of noise and energy that I just love. Memorable, catchy tracks like Chapel of Ghouls and Maze of Torment stick in my mind.

Autopsy's Severed Survival - Catchy as fuck, iconically trashy and grimey, this was released in the year of my birth. There's a bit of a punk/grind influence there that I don't usually dig, but Autopsy do it so tastefully. I love the vocals, production, bass sound, and doom overtones. Killer record.

Autopsy's Mental Funeral - I feel like this record gets more love than SS. It's a bit too grind-ey for me. I still dig it, but I'll take the doom sound of SS over this.

Cannibal Corpse's Eaten Back to Life - I used to find this album boring. I didn't get it. But with further listens I really grew to appreciate how well Cannibal Corpse wrote, how they paced their songs so intuitively, and how cohesive the band really was. I particularly enjoy the fast, frantic tremolo riffing. I also contend, controversially, that this is the only album where Paul's drumming fits. I've long deemed his work a blight on an otherwise brilliant band.

Deicide's S/T - Hate-filled, evil, and demonic. The vocal layering, guitar tones, and riffs all reek of hell. I can really hear the frustration of Deicide's repressed, Christian upbringing on this record. The drumming, too, is just so spot on. The writing wanes a bit here and there, but it's such an excellent freshman release, with a novel take on the death metal sound.

Deicide's Legion - Jagged. I wouldn't describe the sound and writing as smooth and easy on the ears. It runs roughshod over your ears, grinding and clattering away. As evil as their S/T, Legion is more dialed in, more competent, and more self aware. Dare I say more mature? The riffs strike me as almost tech-death, similar to that heard on Suffocation's Effigy, and Gorguts' Erosion - complex, but catchy and intuitive, and without the widdly pretension of later tech-death acts. This is my favourite Deicide album.

Gorguts' Considered Dead - It just rocks. There's nothing particularly technical about it. Like Cannibal Corpse, Gorguts have always written so well and with such awareness of what they're doing. This is another album is used to consider boring.

Spectral Voice's Eroded Corridors of Unbeing - I'm gonna stick my neck out and call this neo-OSDM. This clicked with me nearly immediately. It's dripping with vibes, and grooves so damn well. I also love the doom sound in death metal

Spectral Voice's Necrotic Doom - Less developed, refined, and mature than Eroded, but still awesome. They're finding their feet here, and I love the campy sound.

Demigod's Slumber of Sullen Eyes - The intro is reminiscent of the retro horror I'm such a fan of. I'm not sure I quite yet know why I enjoy this album so much, but I just keep coming back to it. There's a certain campiness about it that I enjoy.

The Okays

Cannibal Corpse's Butchered at Birth - I contend that all the way up to Bloodthirst, CC were the best, most self-aware writers in death metal. They nearly had a pop sensibility without sounding cheap or inclined to accessibility and marketing, they changed admirably from record to record while retaining their core sound, and they really knew what they were doing. Straight up, the writing was spot on. But the drumming is a huge let down for me, and always has been. That this is frustrating to read is not lost on me...

Suffocation's Effigy of the Forgotten - I almost didn't include this because I'm not sure it qualifies as OSDM. It's quite techy. But it's hailed as a classic, and clearly informed oodles of records following it. The first four tracks slay, but afterward it just drags for me. Luc Lemay says this album inspired him to write Erosion. I can see why, and respect Suffocation for Effigy. But I also wish Mullen had not been so omnipresent throughout the album. The first four tracks would have made this record an excellent EP. A friend of mine said that Suffocation have something special, but that they don't quite know how to access it. I agree.

Morbid Angel's Covenant - There are some killer tracks here. Pain Divine is excellent. Pete Sandoval is so tight throughout. But in my opinion there is a lot of fat. I find myself bored, the ideas uninteresting, and the spark that made Altars so fucking evil and great, absent.

Entombed's Left Hand Path - The sound is iconic; the production is dialed in so deftly, the guitar and bass tones are perfect, and the band knows what they're doing. I regard this album as more so seminal than anything. But I get bored quickly, as the ideas cease to be novel by the third or fourth track, and I can't see why this couldn't have been a really tight EP.

Death's Scream Bloody Gore - Don't get me wrong; this is a super cool album. Chuck arguably pioneered a sound here, and death metal likely wouldn't be death metal without it. I respect it's seminal relevance. I just don't find the writing to be all that consistent. And that's okay! It's a youthful, unhinged, evil as fuck record. And I love the production.


The Nays

Massacre's From Beyond - Everybody noteworthy was doing it better than Massacre at the time, IMO. I don't find anything particularly special, or even seminal, about this album. I could take or leave a lot of the riffs, and I don't find their core ideas all that interesting.

Malevolent Creation's Ten Commandments - I wanted so badly to like this album. Hailing from New York, with much fanfare, Malevolent Creation seemed like a promising act for my New York death metal fix. They clearly knew what kind of sound they were going for, and achieved it. But despite many attempts, I just can't get into it. I find it boring, and the ideas uninteresting. Perhaps more exposure will change my mind. But I just can't help but find the writing rather empty. I feel this way about Retribution as well.

Immolation's Dawn of Possession - I just don't get it. I've tried so many times, and just find their writing flat. Many have described Immolation as angular and jagged, filling a certain niche in the death metal sound. But I'm just not hearing it, and I can't help but find their ideas boring. Perhaps I'm just missing something, or I just really don't jive with their style.

Still Chewing

Nihilist's demos - Revered for their seminal work, and for essentially being the predecessor Entombed, I am working at trying to understand what made Nihilist so special. I don't particularly doubt their seminal relevance, and I want to better understand it. But I have to give it time and patience.


So, that's where I am so far. There are some other releases I didn't include because I felt they may fall somewhat outside of the old school death metal sound. Piece of Time, Unquestionable Presence, Nespithe, and Human come to mind. I also neglected to mention Pestilence's first two records. They strike me as just okay, as I'm less so into their sound, but nonetheless respect them.

I'd love for your feedback, guidance, and even your challenges! I've been thoroughly enjoying exploring old school death metal, and I look forward to working my way up through the nineties and onward. But right now I am deeply entrenched in the OSDM sound, and loving it. As I write this I'm spinning Incubus's Beyond the Unknown.

Those are all fairly basic choices, but some of them still rank among the absolute best.

I hype ripping corpse more than anyone around here it seems but they're one of the best in the business, great fuckin band, Revenant is also a great band as well.

My two other criminally underrated albums are the first Septic Flesh ep temple of the lost race which is absolutely phenomenal, and I really love the first Gathering album always, that's a great album but people that even bother listening never seem to think it's that great, I think it fuckin rocks

Disincarnate by Loudblast is another album from the time and has the Morrisound production but I actually think it's flat out superior to most of the other Scott Burns produced stuff, it's a shame too, cuz that's a great old school dm album that nobody really cares about either.

Call me crazy but I've always loved the Massacre album more than most Florida shit too, it's just such a blast, I don't care how simple it is, it's just immediate bad ass fuckin death metal

Besides Dark Recollections and Nihilist which I find to both be superior to left hand path, I really just barely care about the archetypal swedish sound, the dismember debut is pretty cool, but I think the first unleashed rapes it as well, hell id put Pan thy monium and edge of sanity's crimson at the top as well, especially the first Pan thy monium album, what a phenomenal and heavy as balls album thats still way out of left field

The first Gorguts is ok, Erosion ls far better and Human Remains did the whole obscura thing better before them, so I'd say Erosion is really the only Gorguts album I'd take on an island with me

But I got weird taste anyway

Have you tried later Immolation? Here in After is when they get angular, DoP is pretty straight forward. It could be viewed as their Considered Dead, the normal one before shit gets weird.

Sounds like you're well on your way to 'getting it' with those descriptions (and it is a long journey). Took me years to appreciate "Altars of Madness" properly, and I am sure records like LHP will unveil themselves to you in time.
"Dawn of Possession" is probably the 'classic DM album' that took me longest to appreciate it (but I love it now). I have never been too fussed about "From Beyond", "Butchered at Birth" or "Covenant" either.

Try these for a start:
- Autopsy - Retribution for the Dead EP (because it is better than both the albums you list above)
- Seance - Fornever Laid to Rest (if you like "Legion" then try this, because it is better in every way)
- Immolation - "Here In After" (seconding the recommendation above, this record was massively under-appreciated when it came out, but it is one of the best mid-90s DM records)
- Darkthrone - Soulside Journey (takes a little while to get into, but very much worthwhile technical/proggy death metal)
- Atheist - Piece of Time
- Hellchild - Where the Conflict Reaches (similar to early Gorguts but better in my opinion)
- Sentenced - Shadows of the Past (this one took me ages appreciate but it is probably my favourite Finnish death metal album now, better than the Demigod one)

There is loads more stuff of course, including tons of demos and EPs that are just as essential as anything listed above. But that should be enough for now.



Have you heard the Latshaw demo?

You should listen to Vital Remains' debut album if you want to hear an original and unique take on OSDM.

Responding to robotiq, I have not heard the demo but I'm confused do you mean the aborted second album, or does latshaw another band entirely from the whole new Jersey scene

Also agree that darkthrone album is a very quality death metal album, I know we're all supposed to collectively forget that but they were actually fuckin unique as a death metal band too, very progressive without even having a trace of complexity whatsoever, it's quite odd

Exactly this, the "Pain Immaculate" demo from 1992

Great to hear that you've been enjoying some OSDM lately. Like what Forever Underground said, I would also recommend checking out Vital Remains, especially their records up to Dechristianize. I would also throw in Luciferion's debut in the mix too.

New York and Finnish scene and you’ll be fine….

I kind of agree with your nays. Massacre is a band I never got at all and I think are really mediocre. I do like The Ten Commandments and Dawn of Possession but I have always preferred later albums from both bands. Maybe give Sinister a spin? Personally I enjoy most of their albums but the first three tend to be the most liked their discography. You didn't mention Asphyx either. The Rack and Last Ones on Earth are great doomy death metal from that era.

If you haven't already give these a shot:

Pestilence - Consuming Impulse
Deceased - Blueprints For Madness
Incantation - Diabolical Conquest
Skelethal - Unveiling The Threshold
Mortuary Spawn - Spawned From The Mortuary

Also Suffocation - Human Waste and Breeding The Spawn

Oh if you like the first Cannibal Corpse album then Sepultura's "Beneath the Remains" is a must, because it is a very similar album but better in every respect.



Can't believe I forgot that one, yep that would be top of the list based on the original post. Amazing album.

Seeing a lack of Unleashed here.

First 3 are total classics of catchy death metal

OP already mentioned early Pestilence

Okay, yes, I am now very curious about Beneath the Remains.

And yes, I spin Consuming Impulse here and there. The guitar work is a lot of fun. I think, though, that it's perhaps a touch too thrash for me, especially where the vocals are concerned.

Yes. I recently spun Acts of God, and wasn't enthused. Though, I'm on such an OSDM kick right now that the modern sound is less appealing to me (for the time being). It also wasn't a very close listen.

Is their later work closer to the modern sound, or does it remain OSDM?

Ah! Yes, Piece of Time is a fun record. Though, I've always preferred Unquestionable Presence, which I didn't include because I don't really consider it OSDM.

Thanks for the list. I'm very curious about your claim that Seance does Legion better. I fucking love the sound on Legion. It's so abrasive.

I gave it a quick listen, I thought it was immediately fucking good tho I need to explore it again, I also like Damonacy, and Embrionic deaths stream of solidarity demo quite a bit as well, but that style is way too underrated, which sucks, id take it over swedish and Finnish stuff 9 times out of 10, the third cancer album sins of mankind is actually pretty quality too, and always struck me as being somewhat along the same lines, tho a little more conventional, I bought a shirt at MDF, and the guy was like a little surprised I got that shirt as opposed to the first album, but we ended up talking about fuckin revenant which was rad, cuz I was just some dumb 19 year old kid, and he was straight from the old days, it was cool

Morpheus Descends is another band from around there who are actually just a great fucking death metal band too, tho I need to give them more spins, I enjoy them more each listen,

Another band that kinda plays weird but in a typical death metal skin is a band called Victims of Internal Decay, I actually found their CD just chilling at a record store that has since unfortunately burned to the ground, but I actually think they had a lot of ability, and were pretty creative, despite being not well known, same story for the band Exmortis from Maryland, they fucking rule, but nobody cares

Id recommend to the OP, most people are right about the immediate classics, but imo you're best bet for going past those is to find those bands with just a little bit of an off kilter sound as opposed to just more straight up death metal, even stuff like Supuration is pretty cool as well

More album unsung classics
Baphomet The Dead Shall Inherit
Rottrevore Iniquitous
Morpheus Descends Ritual of Infinity
Infester To the Dephts,in Degradation
Putrevore Macabre Kingdom
Deteriorot in Ancient Beliefs
Timeghoul 1992-1994 Discography
The Chasm Deathcult for Eternity

The first couple of Immolation albums were from a time when Bob was still finding his own style as a writer and a player, which is why they sound so much more straightforward than the later material. I also feel like Alex Hernandez played a role in the shift, he was a massive step up in the technical department (not that Craig was bad by any means, just that Alex was a wizard) and was much better equipped to capture the essence of the parts that Bob was writing and expand upon them.

The first two Malevolent Creation albums (before they turned into death metal Jerry Springer) are great riff city thrashy death metal, but I can understand why they'd feel pedestrian. Agreed on Massacre, From Beyond has not aged particularly well, and when I saw them back in May (albeit for the other bands on the bill, but I figured I'd still give them a chance), all their shit sounded the same and I left after like six songs (it also didn't help that I had an intense and visceral dislike for Kam after just listening to him talk for a bit - it's not hard to see why he has so many burned bridges, dude is such a negative, bitter, angry douche who can't go more than a minute without taking a shot at someone or blaming them for something that happened to him).

Hmmm, Embrionic Death, I need to explore their stuff further.
There were a surprising number of these NJ/NY death metal acts making that shronky, aggressive, technical death metal sound. Damonacy as you say, also Cross Fade, Bleed, Windbreed, Mass Psychosis, early Human Remains, etc.

I know of cross fade I actually had the bass player say something to me on Facebook cuz I mentioned them in relation to Ripping Corpse type shit, I'm not too familiar with their stuff tho

I don't know the others except obviously Human Remains is fuckin great, I love all their music, it's very creative, but also completely unhinged and really fuckin angry.

Embrionic Death rules too, but only the last demo is in line with the real scratchy kinda RC style tho it's arguably a lot more progressive of a take on it, I think it's a great demo, the one right before it Regurgitate the Dead is great straight early Brutal Death metal, it's good as well

Cool. Some very good albums mentioned in the original post and others.
Definitely listen to Erosion of Sanity from Gorguts. I do like it better than Considered Dead. You can hear the Suffocation influence, too, but it's just starting to get ever so twisted. There are some really nice churning grooves on this album, and some of the riffs and even vocal lines are strangely memorable.

I'm also going to throw two albums into the ring that haven't been mentioned yet:
The first is Todesensucht from Atrocity. The vocals are kind of a garbled mess, sure, but talk about some really twisted sounding death metal. Really incredible musicianship on display and just a weird approach that's also really fun to listen to. Definitely avoid stuff after their first two albums though.

And finally, Psychostasia from Adramelech. I consider this one groovy death metal album, and I don't mean that in a bad way in any sense...and it's not "groovY' in the way you might think, either. Plus, the riffs are really original. I love the way the band employs interesting rhythm on this album. if you liked the Demigod album, I guess this is close in some respects, though the feel is pretty different to me.

I tossed on their first record the other night, and really couldn't get into it. I'll try again. Thanks for plugging them, I'll check them out.

Admittedly, I'm surprised by this. Benton has always struck me as kind of... well, Glen Benton. I'll definitely give them a spin. Thanks.

We definitely agree Erosion is the better album. I just don't really deem it OSDM? It's a favourite record of mine, though. But all that being said, I'm a huge fan of Colored Sands and Pleiades' Dust. As I'd said in the OP, I've long preferred contemporary death metal, up until only recently.

Thanks for the recs, by the way.

Why can't I get into Asphyx? I love the doom sound in death metal. Is there a different approach I should be taking?

Oh yes! I love Erosion. It's a favourite DM record of mine. It's just that I think it's too progressive to be deemed OSDM? I've gotten some helpful pointers in this thread that have fallen a little outside of what I deem OSDM - begs the question: is my definition too narrow?

For the same reason, I didn't mention Nespithe, Psychostasia, or Le Dernier Crepuscule. Thanks for mentioning Psychostasia again. I agree the groove smokes. Nespithe, too.

Sweet, thanks. I'll check it all out. Got a few days off coming up. Gonna spend them jamming albums and gettin' stoned.

Bolt Thrower - War Master/ they have that perfect mid tempo crushingly heavy sound.

Mortification - Scrolls of the Megolith/great stuff.

Thanks, I don't know Mortification. For some reason Bolt Thrower has never clicked with me. But on this death metal kick, I've not yet given them another chance. So, now's the time.

Coming back to say I'm spinning this right now. I'm just landing at the title track. The riffing is tight, interesting, and tastefully unpredictable. It'll take me a bit more to understand quite what is going on here. The drummer is okay. I find him perhaps a bit too busy; he doesn't take time to breathe, and seems to compulsively punctuate riffs with snare and tom rolls. He reminds me a little bit of Flo Mournier, but not quite as bad. The vocalist, too, is just so present, and I find him a bit bothersome. Actually, I'd like for him to shut the fuck up, hahahahha.

This album is regardless worth my time. The guitar work will keep me coming back. It's tasteful, largely tremolo work. If I have a production gripe, it's that the guitars are perhaps a bit buried in the mix. If the rhythm, lead, and bass were a little more forward I'd be happy. The vocals kind of dominate the mix.

As I keep mentioning I arrived a bit late to the party to appreciate Thrash in the right context, and I feel similarly about OSDM in that I enjoy newer bands instead who expanded on the various elements of DM. I don't find OSDM to be boring or derivative, rather I simply prefer this "absolutism" of the newer output so to say. Maybe if someday I take time to listen to nothing but chunks of OSDM in their own context then it will click with me - I just hadn't felt compelled. Then again I do listen to and enjoy some if not many albums mentioned here, but just never connected those with the "original" OSDM sound as such. Also I find myself agreeing with the reviewer who mentioned that DM really took a turn for the interesting only when NY and Finland came onboard, a direction in which my taste gravitates.

Plenty of excellent mentions already. Personal shout-out would be to this band Imprecation who just seem to get everything right when it comes to said genre. Then, somewhat tangentially I would like to re-post this from an adjacent thread which I think fits the bill in its own way:

The Crossfade '94 demo is superb. I was listening to Bleed "At Peace with My Madness" demo today - another good example of the NJ death metal sound. Mass Psychosis "Face" is another great one (recorded in 1991 when the band were just called Psychosis).
Ah, I can see what you mean about Embrionic Death, yes there is a big difference between their last demo and the earlier ones.

Some albums that i strongly recommend you to listen since they are not in your list. They are old school classics, you probably will love them, nothing but pure old school death metal from Earache Records and other american and european cool albums.

Nocturnus – The Key (1990)
Napalm Death – From Enslavement to Obliteration (1988)
Napalm Death – Harmony Corruption (1990)
Carcass – Necroticism – Descanting the Insalubrious (1991)
Atheist – Unquestionable Presence (1991)
Convulse – World Without God (1991)
Dismember – Like An Everflowing Stream (1991)
Grave – Into The Grave (1991)
Incantation – Onward to Golgotha (1992)

From Beyond never did anything for me either. It sounds and feels too much like a groove metal album, but whats weird is the only groove metal album that was even out when From Beyond came out was Cowboys From Hell.

As for Immolation, maybe you might enjoy Here In After and Close To A World Below better. Shit, if you don't like those two albums you probably don't like Immolation.

Well, if you wanted Immolation to sound angular, you shouldn't've picked their first album, which is the one album of theirs that isn't angular. Gorguts also grew into their avant/technicool reputation after their debut, but maybe you're already aware.

I'd suggest Brutality's Screams of Anguish for something no one else has mentioned, and seconding Infester's one album (one of the most creepy, atmospheric metal albums ever with endless nooks and crannies, but it also slaps if you just turn your brain off)

Definitely share your thoughts on Asphyx if you get around to checking them out. Ideally the first or second albums. While they aren't for everyone, I still hold them out as one of the 'must hear' bands for fans of OSDM.

Yeah I love 'Let us pray', definitely scratches that itch for something original and different. I tried several other VR albums but none clicked with me.
Oh, and add me to the 'From beyond' fanclub.