Scream Bloody Gore vs. Seven Churches - Which Was the First Death Metal Album? 

Iron Hammer I think possessed for sure gave more then just the name of death metal. you can hear possessed in many death metal and even black metal bands.

youre right!

Iron Hammer possessed made the sound*

Demos for scream bloody gore date back to 1983. Death are first. Period.

the demos from possessed are older you idiot lol

You're like all these people that can't make a difference between "this album is the first of this genre" and "I like this album". The fact you like Death more than Possessed doesn't make it the first death metal band. Anyway, "Scream bloody gore" is thrash metal, just as "Seven Churches" is.

Jo L Can you please explain why you think Scream Bloody Gore and Seven Churches are thrash albums and not death?

@@bv2001 Because eventhough they sound a step towards death metal, they are still deeply rooted in thrash metal : drums are pure thrash, riffing is thrash though just a bit heavier), and the vocals are a bit more growled but mostly thrash. Listen to these albums, then listen to Morbid Angel's "Altars of madness": the former sound thrash evolving into death metal, the latter straight death metal. Death's next album "Leprosy" sounds much more death metal than "Scream bloody gore".

Jo L I believe that these “kinda heavier” riffs and “ raspier vocals” that you mentioned is what differentiated death metal from thrash metal back then. As Jeff Beccera himself has said, Seven Churches was the first death metal album. Nowadays, maybe you think of it as more thrash than death because the genre has changed so much over the years, and maybe you can say its a mix of thrash and death. I dont listen to much death metal anyways, i kinda prefer thrash generally, but idk it seems to me kinda wrong saying that Scream Bloody Gore is thrash

I prefer Possessed because is more raw

Great inside information! And sir, as Death has been my third favorite band for years, it's an honor to have you look at the video!

Thanks. It's kind of interesting for me to hear these arguments as it makes me go back and listen to the recordings of my time in the band with a kind of fresh perspective on what we were doing. on a different topic last year I played a big benefit show for a local musician that featured a lot of old scene musicians from the 1980s and one of the other people who played that night was Larry LaLonde of Possessed.

Sometimes I wonder what Chuck would've said about the whole thing. He always seemed in interviews to think less competitively and more about how albums/bands bridged each other. There's the argument that Seven Churches, To Mega Therion, Morbid Visions, and Seasons of the Dead were just bridges to death metal but were still thrash at heart.. That's gnarly. Saw a picture yesterday of Bolt Thrower, Pestilence, and Autopsy on tour together. Wish I could time travel to be there!

@Blood Eagle 88 yes I agree. There you have it Eric Brecht of D.R.I. inventor of the blast beat

It had to be a hardcoe punk drummer to bring the blast beat to metal

Me too, when he said Larry Lalonde I called bullshit until I looked it up

I heard that Larry Lalonde was in the thrash scene but I didn't know that he played with possessed

he also played in a punk thrash band called Corrupted Morals from the bay area. And Blind Illusion I think

why not. a real musician plays anything he fancies. And he invented 2 original genres along the road. respect.

PRIMUS, of course, is way much more of a musical demanding thing

Not only that but the first possessed album made death change their sound and was a big influence on death

when he said that? can you tell a particular interview? stop rumoring lies, If you love both bands, even then, you must be a little child that just accept everything to the first instance, pay attention of what you just said...

Not really Exorcist also did release a death metal like record in 1985 called Nightmare Theatre. Even the artwork is more disturbing looking that screaming bloody gore. You also had sepultura's first release in 1985.

@@TYLERtheMAGGOT1 It was not Possessed first album from 1985 that made Death change their sound but Possessed first demo from 1984.

Post a link showing us where Chuck said that.

I am the son of Spongebob Squarepants.

He kinda looks like David Ellefson

@@7RU-vidYT he’s dave and juniors lovechild.

Inncorect, Shrek soundtrack was pure goregrind...

😐 yea Shrek came out in 2001 and death metal and grindcore came out in the mid 80’s.

No Shrek is pornogrind

Jesse Toy god way to kill a joke

All star was the heaviest thing ever.

xTWOGPlays. Yeah ther was Alot of genre's back in the day like lots of bay area THRASH bands but possessed was on there own mission of death Metal WAS there at fenders long beach back in 86 and 87.sweet dead dreams 😈💀👍

Not a bank robber man,they are drug addicts

@@roderickdeleon3216 a drug addict shot him?

The Mantas (Chuck Schuldiner) tracks such as Corpsegrinder and Legion of Doom came out in 84 where as Seven Churches came out in 85and Evil Dead had also been written too, in fact the Mantas tracks influenced possessed so the honour clearly goes to Chuck.

James Smith dude get over it. No.

Thank you, amigo :)

You're welcome dude, would be good talk with u more often :)

bro, it's talk very well

Puta que es bakan que a muchos de mis compatriotas les guste el Death Metal, y el Metal en general, saludos desde Conce!!

Logan Murray both wrong DUDE.

superbombenhagel hahahaha

It's funny cus thats how I thought it was pronounced before hearing someone say it the right way.

Not quite... since they're from Brazil, the band's name with Brazilian accent sounds something like this SÉ (really opened "e", like in SEven ) - POOL (yep... exactly like "diving pool") - TOO (like "me too") - RAH (like the Egyptian god... curled "R" and slightly muted "A")

Carlos Jantarada everything is right but the "sé", actually is se

I wouldn't have known that is what he was saying if I hadn't read your comment.

TheMetalWarrior1993 sep-ultra 😂

I originally pronounced the band this way as well. It was not until I met a Brazillian chick in my college class and I asked her how to properly say it.

Michael Campbell fucking deal with it. You fucking pleb

SEPULTRA

Seven Churches had too much of a thrash sound to be the first death metal album. First ever death-thrash album sure, but SBG was the first true death metal album

It's a shame really! You should hear the "Zero Tolerance" bootlegs they put out after Chuck passed, it features some of those demos and a demo to the Control Denied sophomore that almost happened

How so? Seven Churches blows the piss out of Scream Bloody Gore.

@@twikirobot6897 The production quality, the progressive song writing, the deeper and bleaker subject matter, the playing style that separated Death's sound from just really harsh sounding thrash metal and would become a staple in death metal. In tweaking the sound that Possessed created, they took death metal to another level. But hey, opinions.

@@twikirobot6897 fuck no

der todesking Finally someone said it and I 100% agree with you.

WISE GUYS , YOU BOTH

Very good.

good luck finding the album in 85. or even knowing about it.

No, possessed made the genre, and death used and evolved it.

No. Chuck said it himself Possessed made the first ever DM album.

@@rodaki9408 exactly lol

In Lyrics: Possessed not made the original of Death Metal lyrics and Death gave the true lyrics of Death Metal.

There is a song called Death Metal on Onslaught's "Power from Hell" which predates Seven Churches. Not sure Possessed would've been aware of this when they penned the closing track to their magnum opus.

I

Nope. Design the skyline was the first one. Shut the fuck up

Alright, that works. As long as it's done.

+Azazul Soulmeister Yep. But design the skyline is still a better death metal band than bmth

666 Belzebú BMTH was never even Death Metal lmao. They were Deathcore.

+Azazul Soulmeister I know ahahaha I was just joking... who the hell would consider shit like that Death metal?

Pantra Metalca Slare Minstry Nuker Salt

Testamnt Anthrx Krtor Tnkrd

Fear Facry Nuker Holcost Pong May'm Tesmint

MarmaladeMilkshake Trash metal and debt metal 4ever!

@@vietnamd0820 fucking debt metal

Black /Death metal

Wolfgang Von Poserkila all deaths early albums are thrashy to me. After spiritual healing is when they started having a slower approach

No, I personally think that SBG is more death metal than Leprosy, especially in atmosphere. Remember that death, especially the early stuff, is an offshoot of thrash. Leprosy certainly has a lot of death metal lyrical themes - nihilism, certainty of death etc, but so did SBG but more on the gore theme. Not quite the political/war aspects, or moshing/hating posers typical of thrash at the time

The Classic Heavy Metal Vault. Death went the distance Thow with better quality follow ups, all by herself chuck wrote ,played + solos, sang, passed on like a loyal death metaller master!!possessed only had gates w dead production,storys are great, but now my homies play in that band still respect them but not the same, should of left it alone.

The Classic Heavy Metal Vault you sound stupid lol

Regurgitating Blasphemy SBG is better than Leprosy

Both Possessed and Death _had_ demos tapes as well. So what?

Actually the original pioneers of 'death metal' WAS Death with their 1984 demo

Hellhammer had a demo in 1983.

Hellhammer isn't death metal

Criptonus Kilagin What were they, then?

You neeeeed to listen to I.N.R.I by Sarcofago. Mid 1987

leonardo alves Will check it out dude, thanks! Edit: Just listened to Satanic Lust and holy shit the blast beats are awesome!

Great! some says they've came up whit that.absolutelly brutal

leonardo alves Yeah pretty sick stuff.

Yeah, that's true..

Until you said Metallica i was with you, change them out for Slayer, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost and Sodom then Death Strike/Master.

jprp999 agreed man, put celtic frost in there and maybe Slayer. but get Metallica the hell outta there

They may be influential but that doesn't stop their music from being complete garbage

Does for me

You could also argue Kreator's "Pleasure to Kill", maybe Morbid Angels "Abominations of Desolation" if you call it an official release, Volcano's "Bloody Vengeance" and Necrophagia's "Season of the Dead." but these two are the albums that are always being brought up, so why not? :) thanks for liking it!

Death Strike's "Fuckin' Death" deserves a nod too. It was originally just a demo, but a damn fine one that was the beginning of the career of Paul Speckmann who has carried on the torch of 80s death/thrash ever since.

The Mantas (Chuck Schuldiner) tracks such as Corpsegrinder and Legion of Doom came out in 84 where as Seven Churches came out in 85and Evil Dead had also been written too, in fact the Mantas tracks influenced possessed so the honour clearly goes to Chuck.

To be fair, the likes of Slayer and Kreator introduced many death metal elements before Possesed did.

+Marooner Dusty Huhhuhhuhhuhhuhhuhuhhhuh xD

Shut up, Beavis. Want me to kick yer ass again?

Why?

The Mantas (Chuck Schuldiner) tracks such as Corpsegrinder and Legion of Doom came out in 84 where as Seven Churches came out in 85and Evil Dead had also been written too, in fact the Mantas tracks influenced possessed so the honour clearly goes to Chuck.

@@ohgoditsjames94 when a wise guy like you, makes facts clear..Chuck smiles somewhere..because is fair you know

There is also INRI by Sarcofago on the table

+Izach I would do a video on it, but that's such a permanent list right? ;) Dystopia, Autopsy/Abscess (same band really), Death, Ghoul/Gwar (can't pick one over the other), Godflesh, Nile, Suffocation, Nine Inch Nails, Ramones, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, His Hero Is Gone and I've been addicted to Skinny Puppy quite a bit lately...

That is really cool man, I really enjoy pretty much the same. Currently been digging my teeth into Havok, Skeletonwitch, Uncle Acid. but my favorites include Slayer, Obituary, Death, Black Sabbath, Cannibal Corpse, Anthrax, Motorhead, and Metallica!

+Izach Oh that's cool. I've been into this for years, that list is only a rough draft as of course there are several bands I listen to just as equally... Actually been getting into Cure lately. Really loving At the Gates, Haemorrhage, and Origin too.

the Cure? that's metal af

+Izach Oh yeah, the way Brandon Lee transforms into the Crow and "Burn" plays? You're going to go onto the roof and act like a superhero for a few minutes.

Possessed sounds A LOT like Venom, Sodom, Hellhammer, Destruction, early Sepultura, and the rest with Venom being the one band that laid down the template for all of those, plus later death and black metal acts. Possessed in turn sound a LOT like Deicide and Morbid Angel, two bands that I've always been more inclined to think of as American black metal bands, than death metal. Not that I think the distinction between first wave black metal, first wave death metal, and extreme thrash metal were all that big or important - I've heard people try to invent an "extreme metal' or "proto-black metal" pigeon-hole for these bands, alongside the likes of Mercyful Fate(!) or even Discharge(!), as if they'd all neatly fit into into such a subgenre together and solve all the pigeon-holing problems, but the truth is, there really weren't any neat, distinct lines between these bands, other than the fact that they were each pushing the boundaries explored by Venom and a few other metal and punk bands of the era in their own, distinct ways... these bands were death and black metal at the same time, at a time when the maps everyone was navigating by were drawn only by thrash metal acts.... In any event, the reviewer did specifically mention both Sepultura and Morbid Angel at least, and that's a great place to start looking to find the greater context for the Death and Possessed albums. Really, back in those days, we would have called any of those bands thrash, death, black, or just metal or even heavy metal, and everyone would have known what we were talking about without any spit-takes or arguments. The obsessive pigeon-holing only came in later, through the 1990s, when the record labels started realizing there was money in marketing different genres. "Want more bands that sound like Death with the serial numbers filed off? We've got a whole catalog full of death metal, all with the same handful of musicians in them, with the same producers working at the same studio with the same equipment and instruments, and the same artists producing the same artwork on the same assembly line - collect them all!" Before that, nobody cared much that Possessed didn't sound precisely like Death, or who set the template that everyone else would copy first - not sounding exactly like the template was a selling point back in those days, and it was glorious.

Very funny hahaha

Never heard anyone pronounce it that way since '94, in the days before the interwebs

his way of talking is usually annoying

You gotta remember he’s from the Midwest.

Yeah. The whole argument is stupid. If you coin the term "Death Metal", then whatever the sound of that song is, that is Death Metal. Black Metal is the same. People say Venom isn't Black Metal but they were the first band to use that phrase

People who say that Venom aren't black metal are cancer.

From the black metal I've listened to, it's hard to digest. Is it supposed to be underproduced and broken sounding? The vocals are kind of just talking in a... constipated voice? What would the genre be called if it's really heavy, loud bass mix, and low growling? Death metal is a bit high pitched for what I'm looking for.

Carter Blunt Yes it is actually meant to be underproduced. Fans of Second Wave of Black Metal like that. I personally don't care, I love it either way

Carter Blunt But Venom doesn't sound like that. They're Thrash/Punk. They coined the term Black Metal because their main theme is Satan

Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal and Grindcore by Albert Mudrian

Killbot&GorGorAttack!! Cheers!

Absolutely, the Mantas demos were more death metal sounding. Even the Hellhammer demos were pretty death metal sounding, despite whatever everyone wants to call them now (several different names can apply, I guess). It's hard to determine the first death metal DEMO because a lot came out around the same time or can be called death metal retroactively, but albums tend to be easier to track so the discussion has always been about these two albums. Yeah, some of the interviews do sound a bit far-fetched, not to mention cryptic. It was probably the attitudes of both bands at the time that caused all of this confusion to begin with, with both of them trying to be the most extreme bands on the planet in different ways but at the same time. But good points!

Light Of Disaster I was literally about to write that, %100 agreed the first ever death metal band/artist was Chuck Shuldiner/Mantas that demo is a fuckload heavier than anything possessed did and it was earlier than anything else, as well as chuck starting death metal with mantas demo he also created Technical Death Metal with Symbolic truly a legend :)

Yet one more "know it all" who even after Chuck said Possessed was the sole reason Death sounded the way they did...Bright future and you band sounds like millions of other bands...Accomplishments on...0

Light Of Disaster you are correct

I think you are a wise person, I come every once in a while, to check the situation, and is a sad thing man, because people discredit facts and just tend to overpower suppositions of a great band, but yet very ego burned up, Possessed is running against what Schuldiner said, and all these new fans that say love both bands, believe rumors, even if Chuck was a very humble guy, he did for sure will never like all the perceptions that Becerra makes as a final statement like in the interview he gave for blabbermouth.net..where he " puts a final" to the argues of what is the very beginning of the genre.. mostly because he declares of been the creators in all forms...forgot to mention all the important facts chuck said were influencial like Venom, Celtic frost, hellhammer, kreator etc...even a great band should never forget humbleness in Sculdiner's birthday or his death anniversary, please check how just the final line is just going directly to chuck..you need to know very little of psychology or semantic to realize is just possessed's promotion to declare the first Death metal band..there's an urgency very cristal clear for god's sake... is crap because I love to hear all bands, but egos ruin the spirit of the music...ahh...I'll just listen to blood in the playground by Anvil has the power to calm!!

nope, it was Mieke Telkamp

@@arnoburtner380 Waarheen waarvoor?

^^^

This isn't true because Death was making death metal before Seven Churches was released. Seven Churches was even inspired by Mantas (Death).

Ican partly see why you think- its loaded with brutal heavyness and stacato skeleton rythms

The sun watch the brutal death metal vs Pink Floyd

Ha! I was thinking the exact same thing

Leprosy the Band not the album by Death

I totally agree

They could be considered death metal, though I'm kind of on the fence between that and extreme metal for how to describe that album. Commonly it's these two albums that get debated, so maybe I should've named the video "Is Seven Churches a Death Metal Album?" But thank you for watching! I like Crispin Glover, I just hope I'm not a dead fuck!

Maybe you could ask Biff for some pointers with the ladies. Metal for life.