THE 20 BEST ALBUMS EVER
20 DEATH
SCREAM BLOODY GORE (1987)
The album that became the epicentre of the Floridian wave and birthed a new generation of metalheads in the process. Scream Bloody Gore was to inadvertently provide the embryonic blueprint for what was to become the death metal genre. This gradual epiphany was predominantly due to the appearance of Chuck Schuldiner’s guttural approach to vocals, the only aspect that really set Death apart from their ferocious thrash contemporaries – a genre from which he took primary inspiration. The apex of the early formative demos and line-ups, Scream Bloody Gore immersed their thrash roots in a fascination with horror and Chuck’s grisly artistry, but its transitional nature unleashed a wild, wide-eyed energy all its own.
19 BOLT THROWER
REALM OF CHAOS (1989)
A monument to its creators singular vision, shattered the death metal mould with a sustained assault of mid-tempo savagery that has arguably never been beaten. Aside from sounding like a swarm of tanks powering over the horizon, songs such and upped the ante for all of heavy music.
