Who is the most brutal death metal band...

[marcus2k22]

Eh, I’d argue BDM has its own sound to differentiate it from regular Death Metal; though the gross lyrics are usually a prerequisite. If OP wants BDM style riffs without the lyrics always being about dookie and sexually assaulting women the closest thing would probably be slam? Maybe some Pathology?

Most, if not all, slam has the same kind of lyrical content. It is considered an offshoot of brutal death metal, and most bands can also be considered brutal death metal.

But yeah, like some people don't understand, brutal death metal has its own sound to differentiate it from regular death metal. With that being said, Autopsy, who is considered regular death metal, have more depraved and disgusting lyrics than Deeds of Flesh, who are considered brutal death metal.

I just wish it was easier to find brutal death metal with no songs about rape/misogyny/violence against women. It's not nonexistent, it's just so rare.

 

[KailM]

Are these bands outwardly advocating violence toward women/rape/murder/etc?

Most likely not. As a longtime fan and listener of Cannibal Corpse — those guys are as harmless as puppies. They simply write sick lyrics. It is the music version of horror movies. Are horror movies wrong? I don’t think so.

Personally I don’t think one way or the other about lyrics in death metal. If I like the riffs and the sound (including the vocals), I realize it is just all part of the entertainment.

Now, if they’re advocating that I go out and DO some of the things they’re writing about, or they themselves are genuine creeps, then no thanks.

You can’t even hear the lyrics in brutal death metal anyway, lol.

Maybe it’s time to try other death metal subgenres— there are plenty of others that I prefer, even if they’re not trying to be the “ultimate-most-brutal-band-ever.”

 

[marcus2k22]

Well, it's pretty hard to say a band like Gorgasm, for example, are AGAINST violence against women/rape/misogyny/snuff.

I'm sure a lot of the band members of these brutal death metal bands aren't genuine misogynists in real life. I doubt bands like Lividity have Ted Bundys that haven't been caught yet, but writing those lyrics they write, it's not all that easy to claim you're anti-misogyny. If you get called out for it, you had it coming.

 

[nickgray]

 

[aesthyrian]

I think Macabre has pretty wholesome lyrics

 

[død]

Well, it's pretty hard to say a band like Gorgasm, for example, are AGAINST violence against women/rape/misogyny/snuff.

I'm sure a lot of the band members of these brutal death metal bands aren't genuine misogynists in real life. I doubt bands like Lividity have Ted Bundys that haven't been caught yet, but writing those lyrics they write, it's not all that easy to claim you're anti-misogyny. If you get called out for it, you had it coming.

So because they have cringy lyrics you assume they are FOR violence against women/rape/misogyny/snuff? Interesting take.

 

[brector]

It is the music version of horror movies. Are horror movies wrong? I don’t think so.

Historically, horror movies have been able to bring up topics that were not acceptable/discussed at the time. So not only not wrong, but helpful to get a discussion going.

 

[thrsher]

surprised no one mentioned the newest devourment record.

 

[thrsher]

i think this fits your criteria

 

[LostTheTone]

Well, it's pretty hard to say a band like Gorgasm, for example, are AGAINST violence against women/rape/misogyny/snuff.

I'm sure a lot of the band members of these brutal death metal bands aren't genuine misogynists in real life. I doubt bands like Lividity have Ted Bundys that haven't been caught yet, but writing those lyrics they write, it's not all that easy to claim you're anti-misogyny. If you get called out for it, you had it coming.

But if you set out to provoke strong reactions and cause offense then getting "called out" is what you are aiming for, n'est pas?

And with that in mind, we should wonder whether the logic runs the other way. Could it be that these bands write about dismembering women not because they have some particular interest in that but simply because they know it will shock?

And once we have framed that question, it might well lead us to ask why these things continue to shock us, and why particularly we have a stronger reaction when its women being dismembered.

Any and all complaints about these lyrics are, in effect, saying "I demand you make your offensive music about things that don't offend me so much!", a comment that somewhat seems to have missed the point.

 

[marcus2k22]

surprised no one mentioned the newest devourment record.

I would say it's likely because of Devourment's older albums.

 

[thrsher]

I would say it's likely because of Devourment's older albums.

yeah but they have gone on record in regards to early album lyrical content and you see the shift with the new album

 

[works0fheart]

The entitlement on display from OP is hilarious.

I recommend Kraanium, seems like they’ll fit the bill perfectly.

This is why I originally avoided this thread. I'm all for having personal preference and whatnot, but the general take away I got from the original post was some pretty big "order a steak at a vegan restaurant" type of stuff.

For the record, I agree the lyrical content could be better in brutal dm, but I don't ever look up the lyrics anyways. It could be about unicorn farts for all I know.

Man you guys got mean. But really OP, you are looking for needles in a barn. Disgorge is by far the kings of brutal death metal, arguably tied only by Defeated Sanity. Their latest records are amazing and lyrically more apocalyptical than gore/snuff related, although Disgorge is over a decade from their last LP and 7 years since they told me they were working on a new one (so we'll never see it). My only point in bringing them up is the lyrics are almost entirely indecipherable, so why worry about it? I get it if it's personal moral crisis. I steer away from some stuff for my own reasons but if I stuck by dogma/doctrine I probably wouldn't be listening to much of anything. I pick and choose my spots.

Most of the brutal death metal genre bands are lyrically disgusting. That's just a part of the genre. There's a few mentioned here worth trying that are different, and a bunch that are not any where near that genre. Sounding brutal does not mean it is brutal death metal; we're talking genre not adjective. I'd sample stuff on Unique Leader Records, Willowtip Records, and Dark Descent Records or similar. If you go too far down the label rabbit hole you'll end up in territory you don't prefer.

This man knows his shit. Disgorge and DS are pretty much the kings of the genre. To so easily write them off as not worth listening to over lyrics that aren't even discernible seems silly to me.

Upon getting into metal as far back as I can remember I've known to not take the lyrics any more seriously than people should who watch wrestling. It's shock value. If it's grabbed your attention in a negative way that's part of the intent. The goal is to be as vulgar and obscene as possible. This goes way beyond brutal dm, and metal, as well.

It's important to remember that these lyrics aren't usually reflective of the bands actual beliefs. It's usually the exact opposite. Death metal is rooted in horror-esque motifs but I'd be lying if I said that a dude like Diego Sanchez is anything short of one of the nicest guys in the scene.

He's just one example, but most of these guys aren't seriously advocating the things they sing about.

This might come as a surprise to some, but the members of Dying Fetus don't actually want you to Kill Your Mother, and Rape Your Dog.

I hate how people are translating into how I'm trying to make things more "woke" or something.

There have been plenty of death metal bands in other death metal scenes that have NEVER had any misogyny/rape lyrics or OTT shock value gore lyrics.

In brutal death metal, it seems for every band that doesn't have any songs with shock value misogyny/rape/snuff lyrics, there are about four hundred who have them in most, if not all, of their songs.

Whereas in technical death metal, bands with those lyrics are close to nonexistent.

Why is it that technical death metal has never had this problem while brutal death metal does?

Technical death metal has it's fair share of bands with ridiculously obscene lyrics. Misogyny/rape included. Again, I'm not a proponent of these things because I don't need music to shock me lyrically. I don't hold much value in the lyrics of bands anymore and I haven't in some time. It's not like I'm singing along to Hammer Smashed Face whenever it comes on. I'm listening to the riffs.

But if you set out to provoke strong reactions and cause offense then getting "called out" is what you are aiming for, n'est pas?

And with that in mind, we should wonder whether the logic runs the other way. Could it be that these bands write about dismembering women not because they have some particular interest in that but simply because they know it will shock?

And once we have framed that question, it might well lead us to ask why these things continue to shock us, and why particularly we have a stronger reaction when its women being dismembered.

Any and all complaints about these lyrics are, in effect, saying "I demand you make your offensive music about things that don't offend me so much!", a comment that somewhat seems to have missed the point.

This guy gets it and saves me the trouble of having to elaborate too much further on it. I will say that if lyrics like the kind you're mentioning, OP, disappeared tomorrow, I wouldn't miss them and I doubt anyone else would, but to be honest most of us probably wouldn't realize as we're not paying attention anyways.

Metal has been a genre meant to provoke people with controversial topics and I'm surprised to see that it's still succeeding in doing so to the extent it is with lyrics that most of us have long realized aren't serious. Cannibal Corpse quite literally have a song called Stripped, Raped, and Strangled that's been a staple in their set forever, but no one into metal actively gives them shit anymore because they know they're not serious. George Fisher isn't a serial rapist, believe it or not.

If you're going to get up in arms about the beliefs of a band at least do it about the ones who are vehemently pieces of shit, such as Watain who have gone on record saying they've purchased dogs and other animals from people just so they can kill them and use their blood/carcasses for their stage show.

There are bigger issues within metal that people seem to get away with than writing some cringey lyrics. Black metal has had an issue with becoming synonymous with white nationalism for a while now. Do I now dislike black metal? No. But I won't support the bands who actually have a shitty set of beliefs regardless of whether or not it's reflected in their lyrics. I've had the unfortunate experience of seeing some of these bands live and witnessing it first hand (not only within black metal). The sad part is people quickly forgive and forget this type of behavior as well, eg. Phil Anselmo getting drunk and yelling "White Power" at Dime Bash. The dude has a history of doing shit like this and still has an avid fanbase. Pick your battles with more important shit than some (intentionally) offensive lyrics.

It's important to learn to separate a piece of art from the artist. Is the art shocking? If yes, that was probably the point. Is the artist a piece of shit? If yes, the previous answer could be either yes or no. A correlation isn't always there.

 

[Chri]

This is why I originally avoided this thread. I'm all for having personal preference and whatnot, but the general take away I got from the original post was some pretty big "order a steak at a vegan restaurant" type of stuff.

For the record, I agree the lyrical content could be better in brutal dm, but I don't ever look up the lyrics anyways. It could be about unicorn farts for all I know.



This man knows his shit. Disgorge and DS are pretty much the kings of the genre. To so easily write them off as not worth listening to over lyrics that aren't even discernible seems silly to me.

Upon getting into metal as far back as I can remember I've known to not take the lyrics any more seriously than people should who watch wrestling. It's shock value. If it's grabbed your attention in a negative way that's part of the intent. The goal is to be as vulgar and obscene as possible. This goes way beyond brutal dm, and metal, as well.

It's important to remember that these lyrics aren't usually reflective of the bands actual beliefs. It's usually the exact opposite. Death metal is rooted in horror-esque motifs but I'd be lying if I said that a dude like Diego Sanchez is anything short of one of the nicest guys in the scene.

He's just one example, but most of these guys aren't seriously advocating the things they sing about.

This might come as a surprise to some, but the members of Dying Fetus don't actually want you to Kill Your Mother, and Rape Your Dog.



Technical death metal has it's fair share of bands with ridiculously obscene lyrics. Misogyny/rape included. Again, I'm not a proponent of these things because I don't need music to shock me lyrically. I don't hold much value in the lyrics of bands anymore and I haven't in some time. It's not like I'm singing along to Hammer Smashed Face whenever it comes on. I'm listening to the riffs.



This guy gets it and saves me the trouble of having to elaborate too much further on it. I will say that if lyrics like the kind you're mentioning, OP, disappeared tomorrow, I wouldn't miss them and I doubt anyone else would, but to be honest most of us probably wouldn't realize as we're not paying attention anyways.

Metal has been a genre meant to provoke people with controversial topics and I'm surprised to see that it's still succeeding in doing so to the extent it is with lyrics that most of us have long realized aren't serious. Cannibal Corpse quite literally have a song called Stripped, Raped, and Strangled that's been a staple in their set forever, but no one into metal actively gives them shit anymore because they know they're not serious. George Fisher isn't a serial rapist, believe it or not.

If you're going to get up in arms about the beliefs of a band at least do it about the ones who are vehemently pieces of shit, such as Watain who have gone on record saying they've purchased dogs and other animals from people just so they can kill them and use their blood/carcasses for their stage show.

There are bigger issues within metal that people seem to get away with than writing some cringey lyrics. Black metal has had an issue with becoming synonymous with white nationalism for a while now. Do I now dislike black metal? No. But I won't support the bands who actually have a shitty set of beliefs regardless of whether or not it's reflected in their lyrics. I've had the unfortunate experience of seeing some of these bands live and witnessing it first hand (not only within black metal). The sad part is people quickly forgive and forget this type of behavior as well, eg. Phil Anselmo getting drunk and yelling "White Power" at Dime Bash. The dude has a history of doing shit like this and still has an avid fanbase. Pick your battles with more important shit than some (intentionally) offensive lyrics.

It's important to learn to separate a piece of art from the artist. Is the art shocking? If yes, that was probably the point. Is the artist a piece of shit? If yes, the previous answer could be either yes or no. A correlation isn't always there.

Good man.

 

[LostTheTone]

Upon getting into metal as far back as I can remember I've known to not take the lyrics any more seriously than people should who watch wrestling. It's shock value. If it's grabbed your attention in a negative way that's part of the intent. The goal is to be as vulgar and obscene as possible. This goes way beyond brutal dm, and metal, as well.

I think this is the really key point - And the comparison to pro wrestling is exactly on the money. A lot of people dont get wrestling either, but its a really pure art form.

The only metric for success is the reaction you get from the crowd, and negative reactions are just as good as positive reactions. Why? Because the only thing better than seeing a guy we like win is seeing him come back from the brink of defeat at the hands of a guy we hate who also cheated. The bad guy needs to get negative reactions, he needs us to hate him or the good guy winning wont be so satisfying.

And the crowd enjoys booing the bad guys. We love to hate him. We ENJOY that he's an asshole. We want to see what he'll do next. We want him around more, but we also want to see him get beat.

Obviously death metal doesnt have a narrative the same way, but the reaction is the same. All of the obscenity is just to get a response. Some people may not like the idea of seeking negative attention, but good art is challenging and doesnt just try to make us feel generally alright with life. Classical music has plenty of ominous, dark, oppressive passages; classical art has plenty of visions of hell.

Brutal death metal is an acquired taste (and ironically I dont really dig it all that much myself) but you dont have to like it to get what is going on. It's all about revelling in the dark and the horrific and the outright horrible, because it is thrilling to be trangressive, and its exciting to cut loose. But thing is... All of this actually affirming that the horrific stuff is horrific and that we dont support it.

Horror is only thrilling BECAUSE it's unacceptable. People who get a boner from murdering ladies arent excited by BDM because its not transgressive to them.

 

[Blytheryn]

I hate how people are translating into how I'm trying to make things more "woke" or something.

There have been plenty of death metal bands in other death metal scenes that have NEVER had any misogyny/rape lyrics or OTT shock value gore lyrics.

In brutal death metal, it seems for every band that doesn't have any songs with shock value misogyny/rape/snuff lyrics, there are about four hundred who have them in most, if not all, of their songs.

Whereas in technical death metal, bands with those lyrics are close to nonexistent.

Why is it that technical death metal has never had this problem while brutal death metal does?

Because this genre’s entire raison d’etre is over the top violent shock content including lyrics about rape, murder etc, etc.

I don’t think guys who play tech death have ever kissed a woman, so that explains the lack of lyrical content there.

 

[LostTheTone]

Because this genre’s entire raison d’etre is over the top violent shock content including lyrics about rape, murder etc, etc.

I don’t think guys who play tech death have ever kissed a woman, so that explains the lack of lyrical content there.

Perhaps a little less glibly; the point of "technical" and "progressive" genres is to show off the music. There are plenty of tech death bands that are totally instrumental but you can't be a brutal death metal band and not have vocals. And there's a reason for that.

If you remove the vocals from a lot of death metal it's not clear what genre it should be in just based on the riffs. The "sound" is intimately connected to the vocals.

The basic test in extreme metal - If the singer sounds like the cookie monster, it's death metal, if he sounds like a ring wraith, it's black metal. The vocals matter.

 

[Blytheryn]

Perhaps a little less glibly; the point of "technical" and "progressive" genres is to show off the music. There are plenty of tech death bands that are totally instrumental but you can't be a brutal death metal band and not have vocals. And there's a reason for that.

If you remove the vocals from a lot of death metal it's not clear what genre it should be in just based on the riffs. The "sound" is intimately connected to the vocals.

The basic test in extreme metal - If the singer sounds like the cookie monster, it's death metal, if he sounds like a ring wraith, it's black metal. The vocals matter.

Thanks for… refining my message there. Hit the nail on the head.

 

[Chri]

I don’t think guys who play tech death have ever kissed a woman, so that explains the lack of lyrical content there.

Hey now! Hold up! We’re not all Uber geeks…just regular geeks

 

[LostTheTone]

Hey now! Hold up! We’re not all Uber geeks…just regular geeks