Death: Ranking All 7 Studio Albums
A gentle stroll through an utterly perfect discography.
Ranking the seven albums by Floridian titans Death is difficult, because, well… every one is pretty much perfect.
From its formation as “Mantas” in 1983 to its tragic dissolution in 2001, Death was a juggernaut of ever-expanding inspiration that existed as the brainchild of frontman Chuck Schuldiner.
The outfit debuted as a duo on 1987’s Scream Bloody Gore – the album oft credited with inventing death metal as a whole – before refining their anarchic ingenuity the next year on Leprosy.
By 1993, Death had undergone a total audial makeover, transitioning from macabre aggressors to sophisticated experimentalists, with their intriguing journey charted through the increasingly progressive trilogy of Spiritual Healing, Human and Individual Thought Patterns. With Symbolic, the titans tapped into the then-burgeoning melodic death metal movement, crafting a harmonic high-point, before concluding their discography on the bravest possible note with the mind-melting unpredictability of The Sound of Perseverance in 1998.
Tragically, founder and driving force Schuldiner would pass away in December 2001 at just 34 years old, but his legacy as a heavy metal pioneer deserves to be known by as many people as possible. And that is why this list exists: to guide you through the genius of one of the most perfect metal acts to ever grace the Earth.
7. Leprosy (1988)
Despite its place at the very bottom of this ranking list, it is important to note that Leprosy is not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, taking into account everything from the song-writing to the production to even the artwork, it actually stands as one of the best discs to come from death metal’s infancy.
Following on from their abrasive game-changer of a debut, Scream Bloody Gore, Leprosy saw Death refine the manic approach of their first outing: the musical content was far more skilled in balancing pure, unbridled heaviness with Chuck Schuldiner’s incomparable guitar godliness. The lyrical content also matured somewhat, shying away from the graphic horror, rape and occultism of Scream Bloody Gore in favour of more psychologically unnerving territory.
The reason Leprosy finds itself starting this list, however, is that it exists primarily as a transitional piece. As their second and final venture into straightforward death metal territory, Death’s 1988 release would never have been able to match the raucous, genre-defining explosion of their debut, while its maturations in music and lyrics would soon pale in comparison to the progressive nirvana that Chuck and co. would first discover on Spiritual Healing.