Since its genesis in the mid-80s, the death metal genre has served as one of the most extreme and disruptive genres to come out of the music world.
Whether you’re a new death metal fan or a veteran of the genre, we’re sure you’ll agree the genre’s seen huge development over the last few decades, thanks to some super forward-thinking bands.
In this article, our team of writers-slash-death-metal-fans have put together their picks for the 50+ best death metal bands of all time, along with an insight into what makes each band so great.
Let’s downtune (err, dive in):
The 50+ Best Death Metal Bands Of All Time
1. Death
Formed: 1984
Best Known Track: Voice of the Soul
You might say it’s a bit of a cop-out to put Death in the #1 spot on this list, but really, what band has had more influence on the genre of death metal as a whole?
Aside from pioneering the classic death metal sound, Death’s later albums laid the groundwork for other death metal subgenres, like technical death metal and progressive death metal.
2. Possessed
Formed: 1983
Best Known Track: The Exorcist
Possessed is only second to Death when it comes to bands that have had the most influence on the genre of death metal.
Possessed was one of the first bands to bridge the gap between thrash metal and death metal, and their debut album Seven Churches is regarded by many as the first true death metal album.
3. Cannibal Corpse
Formed: 1988
Best Known Track: Hammer Smashed Face
If you’re looking for a band that exemplifies the oft-controversial nature of death metal, look no further than Cannibal Corpse.
Their artwork and song titles have been the subject of international controversy over the years, to the point where they’ve been banned from performing in several countries at one point or another.
4. Obituary
Formed: 1984
Best Known Track: Redneck Stomp
Another one of the pioneering bands of the death metal genre, Obituary was another group that came out of Florida in the early ’80s and started making waves in the scene soon after.
With John Tardy’s distinctive death growls and the groove-based riffs the band typically uses, it’s easy to tell when an Obituary song is playing.
5. Morbid Angel
Formed: 1983
Best Known Track: Immortal Rites
Many of the early American death metal bands emerged from Florida in the early ’80s, and Morbid Angel is another essential member of this troup.
Their debut album, Altars of Madness, is still considered by many as one of the greatest death metal albums of all time.
6. Napalm Death
Formed: 1981
Best Known Track: The Wolf I Feed
Napalm Death’s debut album Scum is arguably the first-ever example of the grindcore subgenre.
Since then, the band’s musical style has transitioned towards a more straightforward death metal sound, but they’ve lost none of the heaviness or intensity they’re known for.
7. Carcass
Formed: 1986
Best Known Track: Black Star
Carcass is another band that went on to influence the creation of other prominent metal subgenres during their heyday.
They’re often credited with laying the groundwork for goregrind, and their album Heartwork is considered to be a melodic death metal classic.
8. Benighted
Formed: 1998
Best Known Track: Forgive Me Father
Benighted is a name you should definitely be familiar with if you’re on top of the modern metal scene.
This French deathgrind act have been consistently delivering bangers for over two decades now, with no signs of slowing down.
9. Deicide
Formed: 1987
Best Known Track: In the Minds of Evil
We apologize for putting so many acts from the first wave of Florida death metal on this list, but the influence these bands have had on the genre can’t be overstated.
Deicide is one of the best-selling death metal bands of the Soundscan Era, second only to Cannibal Corpse.
10. In Flames
Formed: 1990
Best Known Track: Only For the Weak
In Flames is another pioneering band, best known for helping shape the sound of the Swedish death metal and the melodic death metal subgenres.
In the years since, their sound has shifted more towards alternative metal, but their early influence on death metal can’t be denied.
11. Gojira
Formed: 1996
Best Known Track: Stranded
Gojira is definitely a name you should’nt overlook when talking about death metal, specifically technical death metal.
Their 2005 album From Mars to Sirius arguably remains as one of the heaviest metal albums ever released.
12. Misery Index
Formed: 2001
Best Known Track: New Salem
Misery Index has a unique take on the death metal sound, with strong influences from other genres like crust punk and grindcore.
Their lyrics are reflective of these genre influences as well, and generally deal with the themes of modern-day society, power structures, and the trials and tribulations of everyday life.
13. Cattle Decapitation
Formed: 1996
Best Known Track: Forced Gender Reassignment
Another band that is perhaps best known for the controversy they’ve generated, Cattle Decapitation has at many points faced criticism for their albums’ graphic artwork.
The band itself is known for its staunch support of animal rights, with their lyrics often exploring situations where humans are placed in undesirable situations that animals often find themselves in.
14. Cynic
Formed: 1987
Best Known Track: True Hallucination Speak
Cynic is more of a progressive metal band these days, but their earlier material, particularly that from their debut album Focus, is one of the first and arguably greatest examples of technical death metal ever to exist.
15. Strapping Young Lad
Formed: 1994
Best Known Track: Love?
These days, Devin Townsend is known for his solo material. However, from the ’90s until the late 2000s, he was known as the frontman of Strapping Young Lad.
SYL’s debut album was a strange hybrid of thrash, death, and industrial metal, but later releases adopted a more straightforward (but no less heavy) death metal sound.
16. Cryptopsy
Formed: 1988
Best Known Track: Graves of the Fathers
The Montreal death metal scene is one of the biggest in North America, and you can’t talk about the Montreal death metal scene without talking about Cryptopsy.
Cryptopsy was one of the death metal bands to emerge from Montreal during the birth of the scene, and their second album None So Vile remains a death metal classic to this day.
17. Suffocation
Formed: 1988
Best Known Track: Pierced From Within
Suffocation is another member of the first wave of American death metal bands (although they’re not originally from Florida) to end up having a significant influence on the genre.
Their debut album Effigy of the Forgotten remains a quintessential death metal album to this day.
18. Bolt Thrower
Formed: 1986
Best Known Track: The Killchain
Aside from Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower is probably the band most closely associated with the creation of the grindcore genre.
Also, like Napalm Death, they ended up transitioning to a more “standard” death metal sound with their next few releases, and are generally considered to be one of the best death metal bands to ever come out of Britain.
19. Vader
Formed: 1983
Best Known Track: Triumph of Death
Vader was actually formed around the same time as other death metal pioneers – like Death and Possessed – but they actually began life as a heavy metal band with some thrash influences.
They didn’t truly become a death metal band until several years later, at which point they became one of the most celebrated Polish death metal bands.
20. Despised Icon
Formed: 2002
Best Known Track: MVP
Despised Icon is technically a deathcore group, if you really want to split hairs.
However, their earlier work has a strong technical element to it, and they’re definitely more on the death metal side of things compared to some other deathcore acts.
Despised Icon was one of the first bands to fuse elements of death metal with elements of metalcore.
21. Gatecreeper
Formed: 2013
Best Known Track: Craving Flesh
Gatecreeper might be a fairly young band compared to most of the others on this list, but they stand out by setting the bar for the modern death metal scene, especially with their 2019 album Deserted.
Their top-notch production and awesome live shows make them absolutely worth checking out if you’re into heavy music in general.
22. Entombed
Formed: 1987
Best Known Track: Left Hand Path
One of the other members of the first wave of Swedish death metal bands, Entombed later became known for their fusion of death metal with elements of hard rock.
This style would later go on to be known as “death ‘n’ roll”, which was somewhat polarizing among diehard metal fans, but helped the band garner a more mainstream appeal.
23. The Black Dahlia Murder
Formed: 2001
Best Known Track: What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse
Proof that not all good melodic death metal comes from Sweden, The Black Dahlia Murder is probably the best American example of this subgenre.
In terms of heavy music as a whole, The Black Dahlia Murder is one of the most popular contemporary bands, with their last seven albums charting on the U.S. Billboard 200.
24. Anaal Nathrakh
Formed: 1999
Best Known Track: Forward!
Anaal Nathrakh has a bit of a difficult style to pin down, as they frequently incorporate elements from multiple genres of metal into their music.
They’ve been classified as many things over the years, including blackened death metal, industrial death metal, and grindcore; regardless, they’re certainly one of the more interesting groups in the scene.
25. Outer Heaven
Formed: 2012
Best Known Track: Bloodspire
Despite being a relatively new band, Outer Heaven very much brings the kind of energy that the old-school death metal bands brought back in the ’80s and ’90s.
Combine that with modern production values, and you’ve got a winning combination that you can’t help but headbang to.
26. Tomb Mold
Formed: 2015
Best Known Track: Infinite Resurrection
Death metal experienced somewhat of a revival in the mid-2010s, thanks to bands like the aforementioned Gatecreeper and Outer Heaven, as well as bands like Tomb Mold.
Their biggest claim to fame recently was their inclusion on the Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack, where they performed the song “Adaptive Manipulator” as the fictional band Bacillus.
27. Obscura
Formed: 2002
Best Known Track: Akróasis
Another band you definitely shouldn’t sleep on if you’re a fan of technical death metal in particular.
Obscura’s songs are known for being compositionally complex, and they’re also noteworthy for their lyrical content, which tends to be almost entirely philosophical in nature.
28. Incantation
Formed: 1989
Best Known Track: Devoured Death
Alongside Suffocation, who we already mentioned, Incantation was one of the main death metal bands from New York City to emerge during the late ’80s.
Since then, they’ve been one of the more prolific bands in the scene, with their discography consisting of 10 full-length albums, 4 EPs, 2 live albums, 3 splits, and 3 demos.
29. Dissection
Formed: 1989
Best Known Track: Maha-Kali
Dissection was one of the most important bands in the Swedish death metal and black metal scenes.
However, unfortunately, the band garnered a considerable amount of controversy thanks to frontman Jon Nödtveidt’s heavy involvement with the MLO, a Satanic organization, as well as his 1997 conviction for being an accessory to murder.
30. Beyond Creation
Formed: 2005
Best Known Track: Omnipresent Perception
Another prominent band from the Montreal death metal scene, Beyond Creation represents what technical death metal sounds like when played at its absolute peak.
Their compositions are simultaneously intricate, catchy, and heavier than hell; no one who calls themselves a fan of technical death should miss out on them.
31. Rings of Saturn
Formed: 2009
Best Known Track: Senseless Massacre
Rings of Saturn are primarily known for their high-speed, high-intensity, extremely technical brand of death metal.
Their songs often feature a deliberately “otherworldly” kind of sound, which is very much in line with their lyrical themes of outer space and extraterrestrial life.
32. Necrophagia
Formed: 1983
Best Known Track: Blood Freak
Not to be confused with the similarly-named German band Necrophagist, Necrophagia is another member of the pioneering group of American death metal bands.
Their debut album, Season of the Dead, came out a few months before Death’s own debut, Scream Bloody Gore; as a result, Season of the Dead is one of the first actual death metal albums ever.
33. Opeth
Formed: 1989
Best Known Track: Windowpane
Opeth is primarily known for being a progressive metal/rock band, although one definitely can’t deny the influence that death metal has had on their music.
Their 2001 album Blackwater Park is considered to be the band’s magnum opus, and several publications have listed it as being one of the best metal albums of all time.
34. Nile
Formed: 1993
Best Known Track: Lashed to the Slave Stick
If you enjoy themed death metal, Nile is most likely already on your radar.
The band puts a unique spin on the death metal genre with their song themes, which are almost always centered around either Egyptology or the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
35. Revocation
Formed: 2006
Best Known Track: Dyers Eve
Technically, Revocation has been active since the year 2000, although they called themselves “Cryptic Warning” until 2005.
As Revocation, however, the band has become known for its extremely tight musicianship and top-notch production.
36. Akercocke
Formed: 1997
Best Known Track: Leviathan
Akercocke is certainly not the most well-known death metal band, but they’re almost certainly one of the most interesting ones.
While they primarily play blackened death metal, the band has also frequently experimented with other genres, including post-punk and progressive metal.
37. Portal
Formed: 1994
Best Known Track: Esp Ion Age
Portal isn’t a very well-known band either, but once again we feel like they deserve a spot on this list because of the unique elements they add to the death metal genre.
Portal uses elements of black metal and dark ambient music, with the intent of “capturing a cinematic horror scope”.
38. Sepultura
Formed: 1984
Best Known Track: Roots Bloody Roots
Sepultura isn’t strictly a death metal band as such. They’ve dabbled in many genres over the years, including groove, thrash, and nu metal, and other genres like world music and hardcore punk.
Nonetheless, there have been times where they have exerted considerable influence over the death metal genre, particularly in the early ’90s.
39. Asphyx
Formed: 1987
Best Known Track: Deathhammer
The Netherlands isn’t known for producing too many metal acts, but Asphyx is perhaps the country’s main claim to fame within the death metal sphere.
Asphyx is noteworthy for incorporating elements of doom metal into their songs; as such, much of their material falls into the “death-doom” subgenre.
40. Decapitated
Formed: 1996
Best Known Track: Earth Scar
Decapitated is regarded as one of the best bands within the genre of technical death metal, and one of the first Polish death metal bands to gain an international audience.
They’ve consistently garnered critical acclaim for their genre-defining albums and helped revitalize the genre when many people felt it was stagnating.
41. Job for a Cowboy
Formed: 2003
Best Known Track: Entombment of a Machine
Beginning as a deathcore group, Job for a Cowboy transitioned into a full-fledged death metal band with the release of their debut album Genesis.
They’ve been described as “straightforwardly brutal” by Rolling Stone, and have received even more critical praise in recent years for incorporating more progressive elements into their music.
42. Exhumed
Formed: 1990
Best Known Track: Necromaniac
Exhumed is noteworthy amongst other death metal acts for the fact catchiness is something the band keeps in mind when writing songs.
Unlike other more technical death metal bands, Exhumed’s song structures are generally very traditional.
43. Aborted
Formed: 1995
Best Known Track: Drag Me to Hell
Aborted is one of the key contributors to the brutal death metal subgenre, and their music combines the fast pace of grindcore with the more technical aspects of death metal.
Band founder Sven de Caluwé has stated that he chose the name “Aborted” because he wanted his CDs to be the first selections people would see when browsing music stores.
44. Rotten Sound
Formed: 1993
Best Known Track: Burden
Rotten Sound is known for being more of a grindcore band, but their songs tend to be more on the death metal side of things thanks to their longer length and slightly less frenetic sound.
Allmusic describes them as being “one of the most intense bands in the Scandinavian death metal/grindcore scene”.
45. Disfiguring the Goddess
Formed: 2006
Best Known Track: Sleeper
Disfiguring the Goddess, the solo project of Cameron “Big Chocolate” Argon, is perhaps one of the better examples of the niche subgenre of slam death metal.
If you like tons of downtuning and totally unintelligible gutturals, DTG should definitely be on your playlist.
46. Destroy Destroy Destroy
Formed: 2003
Best Known Track: Beyond the Scorpion Gate
While Destroy Destroy Destroy is a fairly obscure band as far as it goes, they definitely deserve a spot on this list thanks to their unique style of melodic death metal.
Their sound borrows elements from thrash and glam metal, and their lyrics often incorporate similar themes that you’d find in Viking metal.
47. Kataklysm
Formed: 1991
Best Known Track: The Black Sheep
Another prominent member of the Montreal death metal scene, Kataklysm became noteworthy for their fast and technical style of death metal which they dubbed “Northern hyperblast”.
In 2015, their album Of Gods & Ghosts won the Juno award for the best metal album that year.
48. Blood Incantation
Formed: 2011
Best Known Track: Slave Species of the Gods
Blood Incantation is part of the new guard of modern death metal, but since their inception just a decade ago they’ve managed to gain a lot of praise for their unique sound.
Their music has been described as “a psychedelic take on classic death metal”.
49. Witch Vomit
Formed: 2012
Best Known Track: Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave
Another band making waves in the modern death metal scene.
Witch Vomit has been described by Kerrang as being “as mercilessly fast” as any of their contemporaries, but with “occultish” riffs and melodies that add a bit of nuance to their sound.
50. Hatebeak
Formed: 2003
Best Known Track:
Since Hatebeak is technically a novelty band, we’re putting them last on our list purely out of principle. If you’re not already aware, the band’s main gimmick is the fact that all of the vocals are performed by a grey parrot named Waldo.
Despite the fact that the band only exists as a gag, Hatebeak actually manages to be a pretty solid death metal band in its own right.
Closing Thoughts
We hope you enjoyed our top picks for the best death metal bands of all time! If you enjoyed this article, why not check out our list of the best pop punk bands of all time next?
