What was the first Death Metal ?

One could argue that the first DM album was Scream Bloody Gore by Death, however , by 1987 we already had Sarcófago , which were already playing Death Metal in a much more extreme way than Death ( blastbeats and parts with ultra growled vocals ) so im my opinion the first Death Metal was Possessed Seven Churches.

Possessed was the first band I'd ever heard that used the growling WOOOOAAAAARRRRRGH vocal style.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Possessed was the first band I'd ever heard that used the growling WOOOOAAAAARRRRRGH vocal style.

Me too...

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Possessed was the first band I'd ever heard that used the growling WOOOOAAAAARRRRRGH vocal style.

Me too...

Ditto

manny wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Possessed was the first band I'd ever heard that used the growling WOOOOAAAAARRRRRGH vocal style.

Me too...

Ditto

Either Possessed or Death (Mantas), depending on who demoed first, I suppose.

Possessed would be my guess

Quote :

Either Possessed or Death (Mantas), depending on who demoed first, I suppose.

Our good friend Doctor Wik E. Pedia sez that both bands released their first demos in 1984 (Possessed's Death Metal and Mantas' Death By Metal). Possessed was the first to get signed and put out an album though (Seven Churches came out in '85, Scream Bloody Gore was '87)

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

Either Possessed or Death (Mantas), depending on who demoed first, I suppose.

Our good friend Doctor Wik E. Pedia sez that both bands released their first demos in 1984 (Possessed's Death Metal and Mantas' Death By Metal). Possessed was the first to get signed and put out an album though (Seven Churches came out in '85, Scream Bloody Gore was '87)

Well then Possessed gets my vote. If not for anything but for coining the term.

i would agree with Possessed

Possessed

I don't know guys. Are you guys sure that it wasn't Possessed?

kmorg wrote:

I don't know guys. Are you guys sure that it wasn't Possessed?

Damn kmorg, you obviously don't know anything! Obviously it's Possessed! Geez, get with the program.

POSSESSED

Shuldiner never claims to having invented death metal.

I still think it's funny that Possessed and Primus share the same guitarist.

Some of the early MANTAS (pre..-DEATH) recordings sound very death metal too, and they were from the mid 80s. Also MASSACRE (USA) demos from 86 has maybe the first ever real death metal voice on a recording. NOCTURNUS demo, AMON demo (pre-DEICIDE) or bands like MORBID ANGEL, or NUNSLAUGHTER are part of the very first death metal bands when we talk about the USA of course.

Here are some curious thoughts from Will Carroll (drummer Death Angel) about Death Metal. There was actually a three part question starting at the 6:48 mark, with Will's view about Death Metal, but at the 9:45 mark the question was: Do you think Possessed started Death Metal and Death perfected it?

Needless to say, his answer was quite different. Is he wrong or is there some validity to what he's saying?

he's entitled to his opinions, but they're rather far reaching. he's also wrong about Obituary's singer. John Tardy sings, Donald is on drums.

Hard to say for absolute certainty. Genocide, who later became Repulsion (and released the album Horrified), demoed in '84 with Toxic Metal.

What about Hellhammer? didnt they put out an EP around 1984?

stepcousin wrote:

What about Hellhammer? didnt they put out an EP around 1984?

Back in the mid 80s I remember hearing Hellhammer and Celtic Frost described as both "death metal" and "black metal"...before either of those terms were widely used to describe a genre of music.

I think extreme bands of both the death and black varieties owe ALOT to Tom Warrior's bands...and Bathory too of course.

Tom Warrior claims in his book they invented the term "death metal" and even had their own fan zine with that name.

I never heard the term death metal to describe a band til bands like Death, Morbid Angel etc started actually releasing albums, but I do remember the title from Possessed's Seven Churches, also stylistically IMO Possessed seemed to be the predecessor of those types of bands soundwise, thou personally I felt most of the bands that followed were alot more talented.

Sarcófago was way too extreme for 1987, I think only Napalm Death and Repulsion where that extreme in that year

Ur forgetting Motorhead, been there, done, next.

stepcousin wrote:

What about Hellhammer? didnt they put out an EP around 1984?

Stuck in the 70's hey? What a decade, bro.