So I thought I’d compile a list of such songs. Songs not every death metal fan may be familiar with, songs you may have skipped over on great albums, passed over or simply forgotten due to other great songs by classic bands. Some are more obscure undiscovered gems from bands that lurked outside the death metal limelight. Some of them, you guys may already revere, but maybe they need a little love from the less experienced death metal fan.

Or maybe I was bored and this is simply a list of songs I fucking like, and wanted to share and we just happened to need a blog badly- who cares?

Of course and as usual bear in mind this list is merely my own personal musings on what constitutes overlooked and great so if you disagree, feel free to comment, add your own songs or start your own webszine/blog and write about your own shit. That or boil your head.

So I thought I’d compile a list of such songs. Songs not every death metal fan may be familiar with, songs you may have skipped over on great albums, passed over or simply forgotten due to other great songs by classic bands. Some are more obscure undiscovered gems from bands that lurked outside the death metal limelight. Some of them, you guys may already revere, but maybe they need a little love from the less experienced death metal fan.

Or maybe I was bored and this is simply a list of songs I fucking like, and wanted to share and we just happened to need a blog badly- who cares?

Of course and as usual bear in mind this list is merely my own personal musings on what constitutes overlooked and great so if you disagree, feel free to comment, add your own songs or start your own webszine/blog and write about your own shit. That or boil your head.

1) Pungent Stench “Rip You Without Care” from the Pungent Stench/Disharmonic Orchestra split (Nuclear Blast, 1989). Talk about an appropriate song title. The song just rips with a tenacity that Pungent Stench never quite regained after they went all comedy/porno core. Pure old school grinding savagery.

2) Benediction “Grizzled Finale” (demo version is all I could find on line) From Subconscious Terror (Nuclear Blast, 1990). A simple as death metal gets, this repetitive riff and drum line just reeks of classic, no frills death metal back when Barney Greenway wasnt a politcal or social mouthpiece for Naplam Death.

3) Entombed “Forsaken” from Crawl EP (Earache Records, 1991). Released shortly after Left Hand Path, the Crawl EP was a strange vocal anomaly featuring Orvar Säfström (though the version linked above features LG Petrov) of Nirvana 2002, but the track itself is as intense as anything Entombed would ever write yet never made it onto the Clandestine album.

4) Grave “Restrained” From Hating Life (Century Media, 1996). Groove. Sheer, hefty, head snapping grove is what highlights this massive track taken from an album thats widely regarded as the band’s worst effort, though I still prefer it over thge overrated Soulless (though that’s another upcoming blog).

5) Morgion “Basking Under a Blacksun Dawning” from Among Majestic Ruin (Relapse, 1996). Majestic Ruin indeed. Slow and solemn but huge and epic. Morgion’s defining track peaks with a synth laced majesty that helped define what doom/death metal was going to be in years to come.

6) Konkhra “Crown of the Empire” from Weed Out the Weak, (Metal Blade, 1998). Nothing fancy here, just a precise, groovy Danish attack from one of the oldest most consistent Danish bands around. Though they seemed to mellow out on their Metal Blade debut, this track marched and rumbled with confidence and heft.

7) Eternal Suffering “The Warmth in Her Torment” From Drowning In Tragedy (Extremities Productions, 1999). One of the many Suffocation clones that the NYDM scene kicked out, the short lived Eternal Suffering only released one album- it was a scorcher that was rough, ready and heavy with this track having one of the better breakdown/grooves of the late 90s.

8 ) Garden of Shadows “Continuum“ from Oracle Moon (Wicked World, 2000). Another criminally shortlived act, Garden of Shadows took the sound of Morgion’s regal death doom, and made it even more epic and grandious. On an album full of lengthy, brilliant tracks, “Continuum” and the title track should be heard by all metal connoisseurs.

9) Council of the Fallen “Lying In Wait” from Revealing Damnation (Martyr Music Group, 2002). Slicing and viscious but technical blackened death metal that languished on the Ill fated Martyr Music Group, Council of the Fallen has since resurfaced as Order of Ennead, but this still remains their finest, most intense moment.

10) Neuraxis “Truth Beyond Recognition” from Truth Beyond…(Galy, 2002). In my opinion Neuraxis have been steadily declining since this album,  an overlooked but in my opinion landmark Canadian album that had this amazing song as well as “…Of Divinity”.

11) Rune “An Affinity” From The End of Nothing (Willowtip, 2003). The now defunct Rune showed that Willowtip was truly a label to be reckoned with with this album and “An Affinity” showed a form of extreme metal that was eloquent, dreamy, technical and blistering while many death metal bands were stuck in ruts.

12) Beyond the Sixth Seal “A Potent Wind” From Earth and Sphere (Lifeforce, 2004). A side project of The Red Chord’s Mike CKenzie and Adam Wentworth, Earth and Sphere was one of the best albums of 2004, but because of the slight metalcore tag (and label), got largely ignored.

13) Man Must Die “Severe Facial Reconstruction” From …Start Killing (Retribute Records, 2004). My guess this is the track that got the band signed to Relapse Records. Brutality and melody combined in one explosive, perfectly balanced death metal assault.

14) Cephalectomy “Of Grievance And Exhumation…(The Fallen)” from Eclipsing the Dawn (Discorporate music, 2004). If you gave classic Sylvain Houde era Kataklysm some ridiculous melody and harmonies, you’d get Cephalectomy and this awesome opening cut that makes mystical grindcore truly epic. Man, these guys need to do another full length album asap.

15) Vore “Threshold of Empowerment” From Maleficus (Self Released, 2005). The pure and militant chug fest of “Threshold of Empowerment” plays like a march of Roman Centurians- steady, stern, resilient and ready for war. Rousing yet simple, Vore don’t need blast beats – nor do they need a record deal apparently.

16) Lost Soul “Godstate” from Chaostream (Wicked World Records, 2005). One of Poland’s forgotten gems, luyrking in teh shadow of Decapitated, Vader and Behemoth, Lost Soul truly came into their own in 2005 and “Godstate” with it’s bludgeoning opening riff showed they were just as talented as their peers.

17) God Dethroned “Nihilism” from The Lair of the White Worm (Metal Blade, 2005). A brilliant track on an otherwise forgettable album, “Nihilism” is one of God Dethroned’s finest moments with a blastbeat and solo at 3:30 to simply die for.

18) Zyklon “Vile Ritual” from Disintegrate (Candlelight, 2006). A Sheer, dizzing vortex of speed. What else would you expect from Samoth’s death metal side project?

19) The Monolith Deathcult “Den Ensomme Nordens Dronning” From Trivmverate (Twilight Vertrieb, 2008). Any song that starts with the  sea going hymn “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” is instantly awesome. Often considered a mere Nile clone, Germany’s The Monolith Deathcult unleashed an overlooked masterpiece in 2008, and this track typifies the band’s epic orchestral take on brutal technical death metal

20) Moker “Manual Strangulation” from Total Domination (Shiver Records, 2009) Featuring one of the sickest breakdowns of 2009, Belgium’s Moker ply a form of classic burly death metal that most American fans may not have heard. Please rectify this.