Death Metal Discharge
Death Metal Discharge
Vince Guglielmi
Death metal. It's a hot trend bleeding into hardcore punk right now. Cool hardcore bands are citing it as an influence. Cool kids are wearing it on vintage longsleeves. How much do we really know about it, though? Here's a crash course on the genre for hardcore kids, punks and newjacks. I'm going through the Top 40 Death Metal Albums according to British metal magazine Terrorizer and giving my thoughts on each album. I'm hearing most of the albums for the first time. Come with me on this journey through the most menacing, aggressive form of music around. Let's submerse ourselves in filth.
89's #8: Motorhead - Ace of Spades
This week's episode dives into an extremely influential and important record from Motorhead -- Ace of Spades. Unlike some of their British metal contemporaries, Motorhead weren't afraid to get down and dirty with the mix, nor were they afraid of playing at a breakneck speed.
Feb 9, 2023
12 min
80's #7: Judas Priest - British Steel
Today we're reviewing one of the most important and so far, to my taste, best NWOBHM albums, British Steel by Judas Priest. This delivers on the promise a lot of its contemporaries showed in 1980 by being straightfoward and having thoughtful production. Check it out!
Jan 26, 2023
12 min
80's #6: Joy Division - Closer
Joy Division's Closer is a cold, distant album that has been influential and critically acclaimed since its release. When metal music was too afraid to let their guitar tones get out of hand, albums like this were pushing sonic boundaries while proving to be relevant and impactful.
Jan 19, 2023
12 min
80's #5: Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
This week's episode is the 1980 self-titled debut by Iron Maiden. I was expecting something a bit different - this has way more classic rock influence than I thought. Still. you can see the early developments that would lead to extreme metal in the works here.
Jan 14, 2023
10 min
80's #4: Diamond Head = Lightning to the Nations
Today we're doing another NWOBHM banger that influenced the shape of metal: Lightning to the Nations by Diamond Head. This wasn't on the original Terrorizer list, but I needed 2 more albums to make it an even 100, so I picked this one after seeing Metallica cover one of the songs live. Check it out!
Jan 6, 2023
11 min
80s Prologue
Welcome to the second season of Death Metal Discharge! I decided to count down Terrorizer's top 100 most important albums of the 80's for this season. I chose to do the 80's list for two reasons, 1) the eighties are a foundational period in extreme music and 2) the list has so much cool shit on it. I couldn't turn down the chance to review some of these records. So strap in! This is gonna be a long exercise but I'm hoping it's worthwhile. Let's trace the evolution of extreme music through its first and arguably most important decade.
Dec 16, 2022
7 min
Deathcore Discharge FT. Eli Enis
This week we have another long-form episode. I'm really exicited about this one. We've all seen the impact classic death metal had on hardcore over the last few years. Something that's happening in a bit more subtle of a fashion is the influence of deathcore on hardcore. Many new kids have gotten into hardcore from deathcore and heavier metallic stuff over the past 10 years, but it's treated as some sort of unspoken secret. That seems to be changing as bands like Sunami and the Daze records scene openly embrace deathcore's influence on their sound. With that in mind, I'm joined by Revolver Magazine editor one-time deathcore head Eli Enis to talk about 15 of deathcore's most essential records and how they may have shaped or be shaping hardcore. Check it out!
Nov 30, 2022
1 hr 23 min
Epilogue
The death metal discharge experiment has come to an end.  So, what did I think about the list? What are my top 10 albums> What would I give to kids hardcore kids as a "starter pack" for getting into death metal? My friend Odai joins me to discuss all those questions, as well as his personal journey with the genre of death metal. Check it out!
Nov 17, 2022
1 hr 45 min
#1: Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness
Number one on the list is finally here! It should come as no surprise to anyone following along that Terrorizer's best death metal album of all time is Altars of Madness by Morbid Angel. This record is on another level of intensity. It came out early enough in the game to set the stage for everything that came after it, and somehow, nothing has captured this record's intense hunger since it dropped.
Nov 2, 2022
11 min
#2: Deicide - Deicide
Number two on the list is Deicide by Deicide. one of the most familiar yet also interesting albums on this list. I don't love using those kinds of paradoxes in my reviews but I think it fits here. The vocals on this one are absolutely out of this world.
Oct 19, 2022
9 min
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