2019 was an excellent year for death metal. It may not seem like it, because there were hardly any big name releases this year. 2019 saw new albums from Malevolent Creation, Cattle Decapitation, Nile, and that’s really about it for bands that are well known outside of death metal circles. Compare this to 2018, which had new releases from Bloodbath, Deicide, At the Gates, Behemoth, Hate Eternal, Horrendous, Kataklysm, and Unleashed and 2019 seems lacking in comparison. While that may be true as far as big releases go, 2019 was rich in less prominent, but certainly not inferior, releases. Over the course of the next few pages we’ll take a look at some of these releases, starting with my top 15 death metal albums of the year and then we’ll move on to some honorable mentions and short releases.
Before we begin I should mention that this article is geared towards old school death metal. While there will be some tech and brutal death featured, along with some blackened death and death/doom, I’ve chosen to focus on bands with an old school sound. Nothing against melodeath, symphonic, or prog, but those exist for the most part outside my area of interest and knowledge, although they make an appearance here if the band sounds sufficiently old school. Also, this isn’t intended to be comprehensive. This list is certainly not every OSDM album released in 2019 and there are a few albums I wish I had more time with because they may have made the list, like Unaussprechlichen Kulten. If you think there’s a glaring omission there’s always the comments. With that being said let’s get to it!
