Seven Churches

Along with Death's Scream Bloody Gore, this is one of the two records always named when the question of the first death metal album comes up. It was recorded between 30 March and 5 April 1985 at Prairie Sun Studios in Cotati, California, produced by Randy Burns, and Combat Records released it in 1985. The band came out of the middle of Bay Area thrash, but Jeff Becerra's voice is already not a thrash shout. The combination of the speed of "The Exorcist", "Pentagram" and "Burning in Hell" with that low, crushed delivery is the shape the genre would take. The last song on the record is called "Death Metal", and Morbid Angel among many others have named the blueprint this album laid down as their starting point. The running order here is the 1985 original's as printed.