Because why not?

1. Hammer Smashed Face (Cannibal Corpse)
2. The Exorcist (Possessed)
3. Zombie Ritual (Death)
4. Chapel of Ghouls (Morbid Angel)
5. Corporal Jigsore Quandry (Carcass)
6. Pull The Plug (Death)
7. Slaughter of the Soul (At The Gates)
8. Slowly We Rot (Obituary)
9. Dead By Dawn (Deicide)
10. Immortal Rites (Morbid Angel)

Fail

Why?

It only has popularity. Very few bands in the early death metal scene were actually influenced by Cannibal Corpse.

The way I see it most artists were influenced more by albums than particular songs (though I'll constantly hear things like "The intro to 'The Philosopher' was revolutionary blablabla").

The reason this won't work is because popularity is all you can really rely on. It sort of works with the more general greatest songs list, but it'll be a hell lot more difficult here, since the vast majority of death metal bands don't really have "hits".

It's just getting ridiculous now.

Makes me wonder what would be the most important Death Metal song. Something by Death? Like The Philosopher or Lack of Comprehension? or Morbid Angel's Chapel of Ghouls/Maze of Torment. Technically Possessed started Death metal in a way, imo The Exorcist should be number 1, but whatever this idea wil get ditched in a short while like every other idea on this forum

Pull the Plug. Philosophical lyrics, not treating bout gore etc. Practically on every set at Death's concert. Unique composition. The most popular song from Death early days. It sounds heavier and more 'mature' than any song from Scream Bloody Gore. Besides intro to Evil Dead, PtP got the most melodic feeling from all the Death early works, especially the middle part.
Sure, it doesn't have a clip like Lack of Comprehension, it's not as awesome as Maze of Torment but still it had enormous impact on early death metal scene.

Chapel of Ghouls/MoT/Immortal Rites etc. are part of probably the greatest death metal album, but none of these songs are as important as The Philospher or Pull the Plug imo. The Exorcist was even earlier than Zombie Ritual but today very little bands say it was mainly Possessed who inspired them. It lacks in long term influence and popularity. About Hammer Smashed Face... I think it's the most important brutal death metal song and maybe even the most popular death metal song thanks to Jim Carrey. If that list wouldn't be pointless I'd agree to keep HSF in the top 5. However, it is, so I'll stop here.

So a list of the best death metal songs is ridiculous but a list of the best thrash metal songs isn't?

They both are. Gay, too.

What about a list of the most important metal albums? Metal albums that influenced and created new genre's in metal. Something like that.

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This list already exist.

I have too little knowledge about greatness of the particular death metal songs. Maybe some of you could support the list better, but nonetheless after top 10-20 it would become popularity contest.
In thrash metal there were more single released etc., but I guess top 100 or even top 50 is also too much. List of glam metal/symphonic metal songs is just more than funny.

Alternately we could make a list '100 suggested xxx metal songs' or something like that (where 'xxx' means genre). List of the most important songs from the genre in alphabetical order would be much easier to create. Not caring about order and concentrate about what to include and what not means a lot.

Thrash was a fair deal more mainstream than Death metal ever was.
In fact IMO when most people (ie non-metalheads) think of 'heavy metal' they think of thrash- they certainly don't think of prog or power metal and generally not black or death.

I already knew about that list. I was just attempting to come up with an idea. I thought it would be a different looking list if it was made. Maybe it was a bad idea, well I thought I would try.