i saw some great example gems from the early 90's, but nobody mentioned anything from the mighty oldskull brazilian scene which had some killer releases.
cogumelo was one of the best labels back in the day.

genocídio - hoctaedrom (great dark death metal, one of my favourite records from this country).
headhunter dc - punishment at dawn (osdm with raw production, some of the most underatted dm band out there).
sextrash - sexual carnage (some of the crazyest stuff from brazil, great record which influenced the later scene).
pentacrostic - the pain tears (doom/death the way it should be...classic stuff)
infernal - drowning in the chalice of sin (good death/thrash with some old sepultura influences)
panic - best before end (thrash/death a la old vulcano)
no sense - cerebral cacophony (very powerfull death/grind)
lustful - the almighty facets (another piece of heavy dark death metal)
tempestas - euphony of contradictions (old school death metal with some morgoth touches)
desolation - in a world of terror (classic sound of brazilian death)
loucyfer - worship flesh (another classic brazilian death/black)
flesh temptation - beyond the vision (raw old school death, rare stuff)

I thought I knew something about obscure old school death metal. I have been proved incredibly wrong by this thread. I'll try anyway....

Deceased - Luck Of The Corpse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV9x-jiK-pQ
Would you count Incubus as obscure?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh85QFhwVeg
Executer - Rotten Authorities

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-h5wJ36 ... re=related
Mutilator - Immortal Force

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fawGJLBUa8

Please make this thread a sticky... Awesome!!!

Magnus - I Was Watching My Death



Polish death/thrash sounding similar to Morbid Angel, Atheist and Sadus, just more simple and catchier. The vocalist is awesome with his own, very different style and the SHOUTS. "THIS IS THE END!"

I don't know if they count as obscure enough or not, but some way more well-known stuff has been mentioned in this thread, so here are some great albums I din't see mentioned here before:

Miasma (Aut) - Changes. Great, brutal and somewhat forgotten album.


Funebre (Fin)- Children of the Scorn. One of many great death metal albums coming out of Finnish scene. Some interesting riffing here, overall a bit different and more melodic than most of Finnish stuff of that time. Sound is clear and dirty at the same time - everything is perfectly audible, but the guitars are extremely buzzing. Produced by Timo Tolkki of Stratovarius fame.


Adramelech - Psychostasia. Another gem from Finland, somewhat similar to Demigod in style, with some occasional weirdness a la Demilch thrown in.


Molested - Blod Draum. One of the few great death metal albums to come out of Norway at that time, and a very original one. Very intense, chaotic with some weird folk passages; the overall feeling reminds me somewhat of Atrocity's Todessensucht or At the Gates' debut to a lesser extent. The mainman went on to form Borknagar.


Pentacle - ...Rides the Moonstorm. Classic dutch death metal, nothing more really to add.


Mortem (Per) - The Devil Speaks in Tongues. Great occult death metal from Peru. Brutal without being annoying, evil-sounding without being ridiculous, with some excellent riffing.

Seconded, plus Winter kicked massive ass, albeit at a sloth's pace. They were one of my favorites from the Nuclear Blast (Classic) era.

Also, Cancer never really got the attention they deserved, IMO. Great old school death metal.

Also, if you're into the perverse (while not truely obscure), Pungent Stench, from For God Your Soul... to Club Mondo Bizarro can do no wrong!

Benediction, Gorguts, Defecation (though more grind), and Asphyx (before they came back and everyone got into them) were CRIMINALLY underrated.

Speaking of my era of death metal, a lot of bands didn't barely pass the gates and I would've loved to have seen them go much further. Nuclear Blast had Divine Eve (Texas), Resurrection (once again, should have gotten MUCH more attention!), Monstrosity (everyone knows them now for George Fischer, but when that was his band, they were a force to be reckoned with), and lots of others.

From Earache, we had Massacre (Death's first "house band", before Cynic) and December Wolves, who had the most chaotic, schitzophrenic album I've heard in years (Blasterpiece Theater). Unfortunately, they fuck a lot of bands over.

Speaking of fucking bands over, a LOT of the Necropolis roster should've made much more headway: Dawn, Ophthalamia, Demonic, The Ancients Rebirth, Ashes, Deathwitch, Tartaros, Arcanum and Satanic Slaughter all deserved seats at the new roundtable of black metal. Too band Typhon was such a cock-sucking rip-off.

That's amazing. I've only heard Sextrash and Headhunter; I love the 80s Brazilian scene and stuff like Mystifier so I'll definitely have to look into some of these.

Some great things posted here and a lot of stuff I've beenn reminded to check out.

I contribute:

Supuration: "The Cube"--Not really old-school in sound, but in fact very progressive and melodic, but from 1993 and I thinkk extremely unique. Makes me think of Voivod circa "Dimension Hatross" playing death metal with more conventional melody and some clean vocals to accompany the strong growls. Great leads and creative use of effects on the guitars. If Fear Factory owed more to Voivod than Godflesh and continued on a more death metal-oriented path after "Soul of a New Machine" they might sound something like this, or maybe it's just the clean vocals and occasional groovy riffs that make me think of the American band. At any rate, I feel the album is one of those that really pulls in the listener and makes listening to the piece in its entirety mandatory. Unfortunately they have a great many albums aside from this one and after cursory listens I must report that they seem rather disappointing in comparison to "The Cube".

I'll also certainly second Adramelech and MOrtem, two of my favourite DM bands. I prefer Adramelech to Demigod and think while the two bands have similarities they are actually quite different. Adramelech's way of putting songs and melodies together is just fascinating..I can listen to "Psychostasia" over and over again and be intrigued by what's going on every time. It reminds me of why I love good death metal so much.

I love these kinds of threads, so I'm going to mention a few more.



Vermin (Swe) - Plunge Into Oblivion

This reminds me of Mordicus, so if you're into them, you should check out this album.



Traumatic (Swe) - Spasmodic Climax

I consider this death n roll, and it has a lot of cool riffs. If you like the Finnish death n roll sound, this is a must. It's also similar to Vomiturition.



Sorcery (Swe) - Bloodchilling Tales

This album lacks a strong production job, but there's great riffs and a cult atmosphere.

Here are some other bands that never released full-lengths but I feel still deserve to be mentioned.

Sceptical Schizo. They released a few EPs in the early 90s. It's schizophrenic doom/death metal that sounds as if it was recorded in a dungeon. Very atmospheric.



Necropsy - Never to Be Forgotten

Another EP released by a finnish band, and for only two songs, this EP is absolutely amazing. Erratic riffs and a somewhat raw production. "Never to Be Forgotten" is one of my favorite death metal songs ever.



Crematory - Denial

This band should have kept on doing what they did on Denial. It’s from Sweden but to me sounds rather different from the Swedish mold.



Abhorrence (Fin) - Abhorrence

This is the dirtiest sounding death metal from Finland in my opinion. Founded by future members of Amorphis, this is the definition of cult.




Altar (Swe) / Cartilage (Fin) split LP

I love this split, especially Cartilage’s side. Altar had a somewhat weak production in their part, but they are good nonetheless. Cartilage’s frantic song structure is really interesting.

Keep em coming!

That song is just so fucking heavy. I haven't listened to it in years but can still remember every single riff; it's that memorable. I think I'm going to write a review for the vinyl soon - more people need to hear this masterpiece. It's too bad their other material, while still great, wasn't quite of the same caliber.

I skimmed the thread and didn't see them mentioned so I'm going to have to toss Necrophiliac's "Chaopula - Citadel of Mirrors" into the fray. The guitar tone is one of my favorites, very crunchy and menacing sound. The riffing is all over the place, from doomy to thrashy and hitting most stops between. Vocals are fairly raspy and nearly perceptible in spots. Great understanding of how to be catchy without losing heaviness. This thing is a monster, but finding a copy for a reasonable price has proved beyond me.

Gangrena - Infected Ideologies



Great death metal from Portugal

Tscabeze - Opus One



Interesting old-school Aussie death metal. Highly obscure

Holy shit that was one of the most brutal covers of all time what? Death of a thousand knives?

This sounds very interesting, but exactly how bad is the production?

Pretty annoying. Mono guitar really takes the enjoyment level down a few notches for me, but the music is quite good.

To who mentioned the Morpheus Descends Album:

THANK you for mentioning that album. It fucking kills.
Oppressor is sick, too.

Shame, sounds like it has a lot of potential. I read they just recently got back together, might be interesting to follow up.

RateYourMusic has loads of lists like this with lots of obscure, forgotten gems. Good place for golddigging, imho.

Especially this album. Fucking great.



Some more suggestions:

Abominator(Aus)- Damnations Prophecy


Utterly fucking feral, brutal Death Metal.

Rebaelliun(Bra)- Burn The Promised Land


Again relentless, aggressive DM with a Brazilian flavour, exemplary song writing matched with some skin peeling solo/lead work. Fucking awesome. ...And The Immortals Shall Rise is unbelievably amazing.

Psychrist(Aus)- The Abysmal Fiend and Embrace Rapture In Disgust

The Abysmal Fiend


This may be hard to find now. Ultra brutal and murky, mostly due to the production values, but worth it none the less.

Embrace Rapture In Disgust


I love this album. Has a vague Immolation feel to it while still holding it's own. Very dark, very heavy shit. Check out the song Abate The Chains Of Rule, fucking epic, dark, crushing Death Metal.

Armoured Angel(Aus)- Stygmatyr and Mysterium

Stygmatyr


This is great. Killer bruising, thick guitar tone. Hymn Of Hate rules.

Mysterium


Same as above. And they were brilliant live. Sadly missed. The demos are definitely worth tracking down too, they have more of a death/thrash feel to them, but with songs like Madame Guillotine, worthy of a mention.

Belial(Fin)- Wisdom Of Darkness


This is a bloody mini masterpiece IMO. Great murky production, some pummeling song writing and great vocals. Comes loaded with a dread atmosphere too.

Edit: Sorry bout pic sizes.

Someone said it before - this album is a fucking goldmine. I'm definitely booking this one right next to the "hidden gems" thread.

Definately seconding this. Glad to know someone else knows of Adramelech.

Thanks guys, those rules.

And not enough Dusk love shown around here. They are all Masterpieces.

Matrikhore-demo
Traumatic-e.p
Splattereah-early gore worship
Lesch Nyhan(the same^^^)
Decrepitaph(new on razorback believe it or not)
Cenotaph e.p's (mex) brutal shit
aaah i don't have time for endless lists but is is endless
CORPSE MOLESTATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't forget Disasterous Murmur's Rhapsodies In Red, amazing slab of brutal 80's death right there.

This.

This.

This.

And This... (pretty old thread, a (solid) list compiled by 'Roman', aka 'HowDisgusting')
http://www.metal-archives.com/board/vie ... re&start=0

Downloaded Wombbath - Internal Caustic Torments and am absolutely loving it! I want to marry this thread.

Tenebrarum's only album, "Alta Magia", is a lowly, grime-ridden slab of death metal with heavy leanings to surrounding Mexican bands at the time, but with an atmosphere all of its own. Classy use of keyboard too.

Purtenance's "Member of Immortal Damnation" is a very good album in the Finnish style, some effective slow and crushing riffs intertwining with some rather deft moments of wistfulness too. Recently re-released on vinyl on a compilation via The Crypt.

Massacra's second album "Enjoy The Violence" is a death-thrash album that isn't afraid to step into slower, Descend Into The Absurd-esque moments of slow, eerie pounding. Doesn't always get the same praise as it's older brother "Final Holocaust" does, unfortunately.

This shouldn't be on page 2 just yet...

First here are some old bands that deserves a mention, then some newer bands that play in the older style.

Perpetual Doom plays, contrary to what the name suggests, not doom, but rather pure death metal (which, admittedly, is slow sometimes). Only one demo, but it's really great stuff, brutal and very atmospheric at the same time and the drumming is great.


Torture Krypt's old demos are also great. Very chaotic, very raw old school brutal death metal.


Kingdom of the Lie - again, only a single demo (1993), but it's great! Some guy from Vader did some guest guitar work. It's one of the bands I've managed to find that sounds the closest to Immolation. Very raw production, but as soon as one gets past that, this is quality.


I mentioned Eldritch Horror earlier, but nobody seemed to take notice, so here we go again. Only demos again, and sadly I only have one of them, but really really good stuff! Also somewhat similar to Immolation, Demilich or newer bands like Cosmic Atrophy - very old school, great riffs, guitar tone and vocals. I love this band and I wish they had released a full length.

Conscious Rot is from Lithuania, and I sadly only have one of their demos, their latest from 1994. Very very bass heavy otherworldly death metal, great bass and guitar tone, really great and heavy DM.



Now, for some newer bands (2000+) that plays some very cool old school DM.

Everyone should check out Throne of Nails - both their demo and full length is great. Their sound is great, like a mix of Morbid Angel and early Immolation. Great vocals, raw but understandable.


Cruciamentum is an awesome British band, demo level still IIRC, and they definitely have listened to their share of old Incantation and Infester. Very raw and ugly.


Beyond Mortal Dreams is an Australian band similar in style to Yoght Sothoth or Abramelin I think. Sometimes really fast, sometimes epic, sometimes atmospheric, sometimes very brutal. From Hell (don't mind the silly name) from 2008 is a great record.


Embalmed Souls have been around since the early 90s, but I have only heard their 2005 demo. Very good brutal old school styled death metal.


Good luck finding this one - Inno Obscuritas ~ Blasphemy of the Ancient Kingdom. Somewhat more melodic than many of the others I've mentioned, but with a otherworldly, old school vibe to it.


Intemperence is from Norway, but plays a mean slap of almost progressive old school death metal, very inspired by the old European scene (especially the Dutch) I think. Their EP is great.


Karnarium is from Sweden, and their fist full length, from 2008 though they formed in 1998, is full of raw ugly, but very bass heavy death metal. Classic Blood Harvest sound.


And lastly - Darkness Eternal. All three of this one man band's records are great (he was a live member of The Chasm at some point). The newest is from 2005, and is the most polished and melodic (though it isn't melodeath in any shape or form). The older albums are more chaotic, but all of them are very dark, atmospheric death metal with a very subtle black metal influence. Great stuff.





EDIT: added pics.

Oh, and I forgot: Chaotic Aeon - this Chinese band has just released a very very cool 6 song EP. Very old school, dark lovecraftian death metal, sounds awesome even though they use a drum machine. Highly recommendable!


I also want to recommend Ascended, though I have only listened to them on myspace - I haven't found a place to buy their new EP yet. Finnish band that really plays up to that old cool Finnish tradition, reminds me of a slower Adramelech.

A recent discovery of mine that definitely deserves mention in this thread is Comecon. I guess they're most known for the fact that they used drum machines on all of their recordings and that fact is just about the only thing ever talked about in relation to this band (on this board, anyway). Their entire discography (a split single, three full lengths and a compilation) only has two reviews here, so I'd call them pretty obscure.

Megatrends in Brutality (1992)

This album features L.G. Petrov of Nihilist and Entombed fame on vocals. Blastier than Petrov's more well-known bands and his vocals here are less shouty and more gurgly. While the riffing might not be as memorable or aggressive as the more famous OSSDM bands, there's still a lot to like about this album, especially the strange sounding solos.

Converging Conspiracies (1993)

Continuing the trend of having ridiculously awesome death metal vocalists front the band, this time around they snagged Martin Van Drunen of Pestilence and Asphyx fame. How did they manage to get such high profile frontmen if they couldn't even find a human being to play drums? The guitar tone on this album is considerably heavier than on Megatrends and the riffs are definitely better constructed. The solos are even crazier, and the band incorporates stuff like jaw harps this time around and have a lot more weird sort of avant-garde breakdown sections.. The drum machine even sounds more convincing here. Great album.

I don't have the third album, Fable Frolic, or the first split so I'm not sure how those releases hold up but these two are definitely worthwhile.

This thread fuckin' delivers and just doesn't stop! My "Must Get" list has been growing faster in the past few days alone than it has in several months before then.

did somebody mention brutality's screams of anguish?, that album is one overlooked gem, in fact, the band itself is very overlooked when someone talks about the USDM scene of the early 90s

Yeah! I was going to mention this, but forgot. Definitely worth a mention. Powerful, crushing song writing, brilliant lead work and a quite epic DM at times. Probably their best in my eyes.

EDIT:

Krabathor- Orthodox


Thought I'd mention this too. Death metal from the Czech Republic. Really brutal and intense stuff, kind of stripped back in composition but with a great sound.

Quick addition to my Comecon post:

Using the "how-wrong-AllMusicGuide.com-is-about-the-band-is-proportional-to-their-quality" yardstick (for underground metal, anyway), Comecon are really, really good.



1) The band is obviously death metal and not thrash.
2) I'm not sure if Petrov sang on that first split or not, but either way it wasn't released until 1991 so obviously the claim about this band only being famous for giving him his start is patently false.
3) As I said, they never had a human drummer and they even spelled the fake drummer's name wrong.

I'd say three major falsehoods in 30 words is a pretty impressive score.

Holy shit, this thread will keep me busy until December.

If you dig thrashy death metal like RIPPING CORPSE and DEMOLITION HAMMER you should definitely check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeSvxx255pg

Good luck finding this one - Inno Obscuritas ~ Blasphemy of the Ancient Kingdom. Somewhat more melodic than many of the others I've mentioned, but with a otherworldly, old school vibe to it.


I occasionally dl this and just enjoyed every second that I have heard. Hope this band can have a proper full-length.

^ I've wondered what that album was for 6 months! Thanks for posting it! Damn, my list jumped from 80 bands to +115 thanks to this thread!

Deteriorot - In Ancient Beliefs CD

=> a mix of old Swedish Dark Death Metal (Treblinka/Tiamat, hints of old Dismember) and a good dose of US-Death Metal à la old Immolation/Incantation. It is one of the best Dark Death Metal releases ever from the US. The guitar sound is sharp like a razor blade and the Death Metal vocals are brilliant.




I second Embalmed Souls. Mix of Sadistic Intent goes Swedish Deathdoom.

Don't know if they have been mentioned before but Swedish Sarcasm is worth checking out if you're into really fucking heavy black/death (with emphasis on death).

Oh I know man. Do you own it? I've been looking everywhere and I can't find it. It's so fun to play along with too, the riffs are so simple yet extremely effective.

It would be cool to see a review of it from you. I enjoy reading your oldschool death metal reviews.



I normally don't like black/death metal but these guys are very good. Is the sound on that video the actual production of the CD? It could be a little clearer but other than that I really enjoyed the song.