I was just thinking about how incredibly long it took Mayhem to finally get a proper album out after they formed, and I was wondering, what are some other bands that took a decade or more to release their first album?

I'll just edit in another band I just thought of: Nunslaughter.

Thorns. Snorre W. Ruch was an influential individual in the early black metal scene in Norway, but didn't get a proper full-length until 2001.

Sadistic Intent, Wampyrinacht, Vassafor, Archgoat, Profantica.

I feel like this is actually fairly common in more underground extreme metal bands. A few examples off the top of my head:

Destruktor - formed 1997, debut album 2009
Anal Vomit - formed 1992, debut album 2005
Witchtrap - formed 1992, debut album 2002 (right at a decade I guess)
Death Yell - formed 1986, debut album 2017
Atomic Aggressor - formed 1985, debut album 2014
Armoured Angel - formed 1982, debut album 1999

Some of these, it should be mentioned, were due to the band splitting up and then reforming.

I'm not sure when the original Blind Illusion formed, but I think it was around 1977 or so; their debut came out in 1988.

Funny I forgot him because I thought of other Norwegian bands that came close, like Carpathian Forest of Manes.


True, I think Mefisto from Sweden and Pentagram from Chile as well. Actually come to think of it it might apply to the more famous Pentagram as well.

Denial of God took 15 years to release their first album, but they were quite active and released two demos and half a dozen EPs over the first decade. I suppose it's a case of a band that started young and took their time to mature, and the drummer was the final piece of the puzzle for them to put out an awesome full-length every six years.



Yeah, it likely has to do with bands who aren't making a career out of it committing to making a life out of it.

yeah, definitely, the original (U.S.) Pentagram would be at the top of the list for bands in this category. Their official full-length debut album didn't come out until 1985!

Hell (the NWOBHM one) took nearly 30 years to release their first album. All the shit that went down before their splitting up didn't help that.

Pain of Salvation (if you count their first incarnation) existed since 1984, when they were super young (Daniel Gildenlöw was only 11, for reference). They wouldn't have a debut album until 1997!

Vassafor were formed in 1994 and their debut album (Obsidian Codex) was released in 2012.

Kranium, folk / doom / death metal from Peru. Formed in 1984 / 1985, put out their debut in 1999.

Martiria and Wotan are a couple of Italian epic heavy metal bands that released a couple demos, split up, and reformed to release their debut albums more than a decade after forming.

Spiritus Mortis is somewhat famously the first ever Finnish doom metal band, having formed in 1987, but not releasing their debut until 2004.

Abysmal Grief formed in 1996 but didn't put out their debut until 2007.

Death S.S. formed in 1977, didn't put other their debut until 1988.

Defeated Sanity formed in 1993, but didn't release a proper full length album until 2004.

Destruktor from Australia comes to mind. Formed in 1990 as Damned for Eternity, they finally changed their name to Destruktor in 1997. First album didn't come out until 2009.

Paysage d'hiver still hadn't recorded a full length yet

Wasn't Internment part of the Swedish death metal scene in the early 90s somehow, but didn't get their debut until 2010?

Doesn't he count the demos as full LPs though?

I've always thought this was a dishonest misinterpretation people did to get trve points and not count them as albums. Has there ever been an official statement? Pretty sure if that's not the case the demos are the cassettes and once they are released on cd/lp they are official albums.

I personally count them as albums. I define demos to be either rough versions of songs that are intended to be re-recorded in a proper studio, or just a collection of songs to attract record deals and attention. The Paysage d'Hiver releases are obviously intended to be the final versions of the material on them.

This is why I also count the first two Nokturnal Mortum releases "Twilightfall" and "Lunar Poetry" as albums. Just because they were self-released on cassettes first doesn't make them demos, but I won't argue how the archive here defines demos.

Or maybe they just disagree about the definition of demos. Why assign dishonesty where none is warranted?