Death metal and the roads less travelled | Part III – Transcendence into the Peripheral, 1993-94

A hundred death metal albums not from the USA Between 1993 and 1994, death metal popped its head above the underground parapet to peek into the mainstream. From airplay on MTV’s Headbangers Ball, to Morbid Angel being the first death metal band to get major label backing with a signing to Giant Records, to bloody Ace Ventura. At the time, the music industry was actually an industry as opposed to the glorified PR network it is today. It had real power. And could often bend the zeitgeist to its will. Label execs, journalists, and tastemakers across TV and radio were used to having the final say on what was in and out, and aside from some notable exceptions, they usually got their way. And by this time, they had their eyes on death metal as the next viable product to revive metal’s corpse as thrash metal appeared to breathe its last. With hindsight they were of course misguided. But for a brief window death metal looked primed to become the mainstream face of metal. This led to an…