A landmark year for death metal, featuring some of the genre's most well known classics and a few gems, all from the year 1991. Enjoy! Follow on Instagram: @Scourge_of_vinyl
Was 17 in 1991 and I bought on most of these classics when they were released. Butchered at birth was my very first CD! Great times for sure... I will always be nostalgic of this period.
Seminole heights guy here. I remember growing up in the early 90’s, and a buddy in 7th grade gave me Legion, by Deicide. Down the rabbit hole after that.
My eyes popped out of my head when you pulled out the first pressing of Sentenced - Shadows of the Past. I don't know what possessed them to get rid of the original art for all re-releases because that's one of the best covers of all time in my opinion.
Amazing collection man! Pretty much listed all albums that I can think of from the top of my head, except for one, which is Protector - A Shedding of Skin. Some of the most intense death thrash you'll find from that time!
Dude like I stumbled across this like horrifically late? I was 20 years old in 1991. Obituary Morbid Angel death deicide Cannibal Corpse..... The Whole 9 Yards bro. I'm glad to see as I am approaching the age of 50 that there is still people that are younger than me that appreciate the music that was considered "Underground" when I was a young guy myself. And being the fact that I'm a musician just makes it all the more sweeter that you actually appreciate the music and not just the "look"of death metal like a lot of stupid kids do today.
I own at least 75% of this (although on CD) Should've played a drinking game - a shot for every one u own... then off to bed :D Just solid gold after solid gold - fuck, what a year! Death metal RULES \m/
Excellent albums in this video. The good ole days. Gorguts , Cannibal Corpse, Entombed, Morbid Angel, Carcass,Grave and many more. Damn that was a great year. 🤘
Dude, I can’t argue with the list. Growing up in Tampa, I regularly listened to most of the records on that list and still do! You may or may not be aware of this, but Sepultura’s “Arise” was recorded at the infamous “Morrisound Studios” in Tampa. Cool video 🤘🏻
Metal peaked in the early 90s for sure. Death Metal was at the top of its game, the Thrash bands (and Maiden) were all releasing their last good album(s) before selling out or swapping singers. Hair Metal was dead, NuMetal wasn't a thing yet, and instead you had some mainstream metal acts that were actually pretty good, like Danzig, Pantera and White Zombie. Black Metal and Grindcore were hitting their stride. Plus you had both Waynes World and Beavis and Butthead in their prime. Great time to be alive.
Yeah I was there as well. 13 in 92. Good time for metal, at least as I recall. I find it odd that since coming online I see a lot of stuff about Pantera. A lot of people hating on them. I remember them flying the flag for metal and leading the charge. Shit, they had a guitar HERO! I appreciated it. Went to see them a few times with my friends and it was a big deal to us, headbanging and having fun. The 90's didnt kill metal. It never go's away. I enjoyed reading your post.
You, sir, have impeccable taste and an amazing collection. I've been watching your newer vids for a few weeks and then this came up in my suggestions. Chef's kiss.
Very impressive list,collection and commentary. Been listening to metal since 1970 and DM is still my top genre. I enjoy all your picks past and present.
Amazing vinyl collection.91 high school years hitting local club shows I must say malevolent,cannibal corpse,bahpomet all from here in buff.ny I know some say from Florida but not true least not w they started.loved seeing them n many others in there prime giving it all on stage b4 record deals or touring there first album releases but early 90s def packed full of amazing metal of all styles.thanks for sharing a taste of your collection
I'm with you, 1991 was the year when it all came together for the first time. Death's "Human" being lightyears ahead at the time, it's almost terrifying. My picks would include: Pestilence - Testimony of the Ancients Malevolent Creation - The Ten Commandments Honorable mention to Protector - A Shedding of Skin, a Thrash / Deathmetal hybrid from Germany.
New Jersey Boy here ,And I just watched the whole video and I could not have made a better list myself wow you did a good job.. a young dude remembering to put Effigy Of The Forgotten in there wow! I guess there's hope for death metal yet!
Thanks brother for that awesome list. I was born in 1980 huge death metal fan and still didn't know some of these bands. Awesome list keep em coming man
Great video. On Dismember, i heard a rumour earlier this year, according to the swedish underground scene, they are talking about reforming. I hope that is true.
Very cool youngster. Yup I remember that scene when I was a teenager. 88 to 97 was incredible. I hate most newer shit it's all the same. Gore core triggered drums Morris code shitty riffs just garbage... All these years later tho those bands are still playing. I Know Eric ex Deicide and there doing a new Amon album that's gonna be sick, was at his house last weekend hanging out.
A couple of albums i would like to add are: Contamination Rises, an awesome death metal album by a French band "No Return". Very Napalm Death influenced. Prophecies of a Dying World by Revenant. Pretty obscure stuff. From the US. Blackened Images by a Mexican band Mortuary. Choir of Horrors by Messiah. One of the few DM bands from Switzerland And "On the Seventh Day" by Master. Kickass band from US
great video. There are so many essential bands here, who made death metal what it is! Thank you for recommending "sentenced" and "Convulse", both albums are awesome as hell and confirmed once again why I love death metal so much!
I've always considered 1992 to be the golden year of death metal. I could go on all day about death metal albums that came out in 1992. Fornever Laid to Rest is tied with Here in After by Immolation as being my favorite death metal album of all time, and is still criminally underrated today. I think one of the reasons Human by Death stands out in Death's early discography is not only because of the music, but also because of the production. That album hits the sweet spot for having clarity, but also having that nice analogue sound. Effigy of The Forgotten is still a masterpiece. Frank Mullen has never sounded more brutal. The slam on "Liege of Inveracity" is just... my goodness. From Beyond is a marvelous album, but I think Massacre's legacy would have been better just having that studio album in their discography considering the album that came out after it. Where No Life Dwells is a perfect example of a death metal album's album cover adding a great sense of tone color to the music. Everything seems to just work out perfectly. Blessed Are the Sick is my favorite of the David Vincent albums. My favorite Morbid Angel is actually Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, but Blessed isn't much far beyond. Arise is a bonafide classic. It's definitely a death/thrash album in my opinion. The production on it is almost exactly the same as Idolatry by Devastation, which isn't a surprise considering it also came out in 1991 and Scott Burns produced it. I like Sentenced's later gothic metal material, but nothing comes anywhere even remotely close to Shadows of (the) Past. As good as Dreaming With the Dead is, my biggest problem with it has always been the guitar tone. I guess it made Erik Rutan paranoid about his tone afterwards because he's become a complete freak when it comes to guitar tone. Cursed has always been my favorite Morgoth album. I've always preferred it over The Eternal Fall. Also, I liked your reference to Peter Steele talking about "ripping of the best". War Master is one of the best examples of grooves working perfectly with metal. Most metalheads hate anything to do with groove metal, but War Master hits that nice sweet spot straight-up death metal and having the infectious grooves to go along with it. Plus, that album cover will forever be a classic. Asphyx always sticks in my mind being next to Unleashed and Morgoth as being one of those early Century Media bands. Granted, if I'm going to listen to an early Century Media bands, 9 times out of 10 it's going to be Iced Earth or Nevermore, but Century Media definitely had a good hand in discovering some of the most legendary European bands of the genre. Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious has always been easily my favorite Carcass album. Like Human, it hits the sweet spot of having clarity with the nice analogue sound. Butchered at Birth is my second favorite Cannibal Corpse album (my favorite being The Bleeding). Everything about it is just perfect. The guttural vocals, the lack of any mids in the guitar, the atypical riffs, etc. Everything about it just works perfectly. And that album cover... Need I say more? DAWN OF POSSESSION! Anything Immolation does is golden. Anything. Probably my favorite death metal album is Here in After, but Dawn of Possession is one of those albums that doesn't sound primitive. They're always been a few steps ahead of the curve. Considered Dead and The Erosion of Sanity go hand-in-hand perfectly. I can't listen to one without listening to the other. Considered Dead is definitely one of Scott Burns' best sounding albums. Into the Grave still has one of the best guitar tones of the Swedish death metal scene. Speaking of amazing guitar tones, Like an Everflowing Stream's guitar tone is still another one of the best guitar tones not just in Swedish death metal, but death metal in general. I'm still much more of an Indecent and Obscene fan though. Soulside Journey is my favorite Darkthrone album. Total Death is close up there, but Soulside Journey is the one I go to the most. Clandestine is easily my favorite Entombed album (which is a relatively unpopular opinion). Everything about it is just perfect. I think it has better riffs, a better guitar tone, better production, and better songs than Left Hand Path. Massacra has always been one of those bands that never got as big as they should have, and I think that is mostly to do with the fact that they were from France. France never had much of the scene at the time and didn't have any real producers during that time to get them the sound they needed. That's just my opinion. I'd recommend The Ten Commandments to any thrash fan who isn't into death metal. Similar to Eaten Back to Life, it's too death metal sounding to be thrash, but has just enough of a thrash sound to be appreciate by someone who mostly listens to thrash. I've always found Mental Funeral to be incredibly overrated. It's a great album, but I've never been able to understand the crazy amount of worship that it gets. World Without God is easily one of the coldest sounding death metal albums out there. I could listen to it all day. As you can probably tell, I'm a big fan of old school death metal. It's easily my favorite genre, but if I had to pick my favorite album from 1991, it'd probably be Night of the Stormrider by Iced Earth (which is obviously not a death metal album). Okay, my comment is done. I applaud any of you who actually read all of it.
It's more of a list-styled comment. If I could make my comment in the style of a Word document with ease, I would. I essentially just spilled out my thoughts as the albums went on. Haha!
Ok, I just found this video now in my feed/suggestions. Don't know HOW a title such as this one took so long to show up in RU-vid's algorithm for me but, at least it's here. I 'm gonna make what should be a very obvious prediction to be on your list of 17 albums crucial to Death Metal in 1991. The stand out & #1 (IMO) has got to be: The Ten Commandments, the debut album from Malevolent Creation. I'm curious what YOU have here... So, I'm going back to watch the video now...
as someone that was into all this shit when it all came out, your analysis on your vids are always spot on. same reverence for the same albums. example: recognizing War Master is the quintessential Bolt Thrower album (i've seen numerous newer school DM kids arguing for other BT albums), knowing The Bleeding is/was CC at their finest (no contest); etc. very cool to see some in next gen of dm people knowing their shit proper. kudos bro
Awesome list of albums! I’m glad to see I have most of them and there are a couple I just haven’t gotten yet. But you mention a few new ones to me, so that’s going to be exciting to check those out.
All killer records, but lets not forget also about such Choir of Horrors or A Shedding of Skin!!!!!!!! And Of Darkness... and The Ten Commandments!!!!!!! Ohh, so many!
1991 was an epic year for all death metal fans. I agree with ally our comments except MORGOTH, the Cursed album is a Masterpiece, they actually changed style in this album and the riffs are just amazing, I know they were inspired by DEATH but you can hear that in their first 2 EPs. Thank you for the great video!
Awesome video. Love all the early 90s swedish death metal. Didn't know about Sentenced's Shadow of the past...Im absolutely blown away surely as good if not better than Left Hand path, underrated for sure! Keep up the good work brother
1991 was certainly the peak for this style . I remeber brazilian metal mags ALMOST ONLY talking about Death Metal bands between late 1990 and early 1993 . Then , the style lost a little of its popularity , but never really "fade out" . 1991 certainly was the peak for the style .
Glad you brought that morgoth into the mix I remember getting high when I was 14 listening to that cassette cursed although the vocal range does sound like death I feel like they have their own sound there were more atmospheric and scary sounding than most other death metal bands at the time in fact I used to watch faces of death and they had a sequel called Traces of Death where they played death metal in the background while people were dying and morgoth was one of the songs. Loved the acoustic interlude that goes into the spoken word at the end of the album.
Man this is an amazing list and someone who’s his stuff I do think that with death metal you just can’t look at one year but 90 91 92 and 93 had so much
You can add up to your list another amazing french Canadian from Montreal OBLIVEON. Very technical death who went under the radar a bit. I think they were on Active record for the first album in 91
Thanks for doing this video. Sentenced and Convulse I hadn`t heard of, looking forward to checking them out. I went to my first death metal gig in `91 Morbid Angel and Unleashed, amazing. A few albums worth a mention; Gorefest - Mindloss Tiamat - The Astral Sleep Grave - Into the Grave Pungent Stench - Been Caught Buttering Cerebral Fix - Bastards (not really death metal, but a great band)
Nice review. I am into metal since 1984 and saw the death metal's rise. I was lucky to discover these bands emerging from everywhere, what a fucking great era! You can add an excellent french album from 1991: Loublast:Disincarnate (yes, I'm french ^^) Thank you to mention the great "Massacra's album" I saw them live twice back in the 90, it was so brutal!
Can u make separate videos where u like say what ur fav old school death metal albums are, what ur melodic death metal albums are, tech death, slam etc
i'm happy to hear you speak highly of considered dead. at this point i almost exclusively listen to osdm and cannot get into the obscura era gorguts. considered dead though, in my opinion, is one of the greatest death metal records of all time. no bullshit, dark, memorable riffs from front to back. i say this because it's criminally overlooked, and people seem to forget gorguts weren't always the noodle-y goofball shit they became.
Yes 1991 was Death Metal's pinnacle,so many classics came out that year.Here's my top 5 albums of 1991: (1)"Testimony Of The Ancients" by Pestilence;(2)"The Ten Commandments" by Malevolent Creation;(3)"Dawn Of Possession" by Immolation;(4)"Cursed" by Morgoth;(5)""From Beyond" by Massacre.I also love Suffocation's first release the EP "Human Waste" which is better than "Effigy Of The Forgotten" in my opinion.Probaby my fave Death Metal song of 1991 is a tie between Cancer's "Hung,Drawn and Quarted" off the "Death Shall Rise"album or "Dawn Of Eternity" by Massace.
You mind posting a quick reference list for the records from those years... love to compare but really unfamiliar with the stuff post 1994-95 maybe. Love to see your list. Cuz 91 is gonna be tough to beat.
Scot Slater Sure! I can’t really make a list, but I can give you a few albums to check out first! 2008: Trample the Weak (By Skinless) 2008: Antihesis (By Origin) 2013: I don’t know the albums name, but the band is called Endless. They have a brutal logo and in Bandcamp, there name is in all caps I think. 2012: Basically every debut album by new death metal bands. This has been the best year in a long time for new bands. Also, Reign Supreme (By Dying Fetus). 2013: Same as 2012, an amazing year. 2017: Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, and a ton of other bands (especially older bands) released killer albums. I hope this helped! 😁
Thanks for the suggestions. I don't just want to be one of those "all the best music has already been made" or "all new metal stuff sucks" guys... so I am game to check out some new stuff too.
@@MetalheadNation I just saw Origin with Deicide, they were killing it, technical while ripping along, heavy and just seeming nuts to the unseasoned. Played good setlist.
