The Best Death Metal Album of Each Year of the 1990s

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What’s the best death metal album of each year of the 1990s? You’re about to find out!

While death metal began five years earlier if you’re among the true believers who agree that Possessed’s 1985 debut Seven Churches was indeed the subgenre’s very first full length, it enjoyed a much larger breakout in the ’90s.

The scene’s earliest figures (the aforementioned Possessed, Death, Morbid Angel, Necrophagia, Obituary, Nihilist, Bolt Thrower, Autopsy, etc) had gained strength toward the late ’80s, contributing a handful of cherished early classics.

But in the ’90s, death metal became more of a worldwide phenomenon, evolving from localized pockets across the globe that found a common bond in extreme music through tape trading. It was clear that metal was continuing down its path of extremity, in part kickstarted by thrash bringing more aggression than the traditional heavy metal that arrived earlier.

Record labels such as Earache and Combat and recording studios (Sunlight Studios in Stockholm, Sweden and Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida) helped unify and legitimize the scene as its musicians leveled up their skills.

READ MORE: 10 Best Death Metal Covers of ’80s Metallica Songs

Among the biggest innovators, of course, was Death mastermind Chuck Schuldiner. Known for assembling specific lineups as he advanced not only Death’s sound, but what was capable within all of death metal, he is the definition of a musical revolutionary.

By the late ’90s, death metal had become more brutal, more technical and more progressive as various offshoots of the core style continued expanding.

Below, we undergo the difficult task of naming the very best death metal album from each year of that glorious decade for death metal.