Death

Death’s catalog—seven studio albums in 12 years—remains one of the most ruthlessly individualistic in extreme-metal history. Guitarist Chuck Schuldiner, who founded the Florida-based band in 1983, never stopped exploring new sonic terrain until his untimely death from brain cancer in 2001. Their first three records (Scream Bloody Gore, Leprosy, and Spiritual Healing) are gloriously aggressive landmarks that established the blueprint for death metal. Their collision of hellish growls and furious tempos with mind-shattering guitar complexity yielded arrangements so brainy that lofty comparisons to jazz and classical aren’t merely justified; they’re the only ones that make sense. Growing more ambitious as the group pressed ahead, Schuldiner and Death retained the rawness of their early work yet began weaving in elements of progressive metal, including otherworldly melodies and ornate acoustic guitars. Their final effort, 1998’s The Sound of Perseverance, is a bittersweet listen, at once a darkly splendorous example of technical death metal that’s a bona fide classic and a tragic reminder that we lost Schuldiner far too soon.