Both Nesquik and I agree that in this particular case, Blessed should be higher than Covenant.

Death:
11. Left Hand Path (Entombed)
12. Deicide (Deicide)
13. Legion (Deicide)
14. The Bleeding (Cannibal Corpse)
15. Leprosy (Death)
16. Covenant (Morbid Angel)
17. Slowly We Rot (Obituary)
18. Mental Funeral (Autopsy)
19. Fear, Emptiness, Despair (Napalm Death)
20. Horrified (Repulsion)


Black:
11. Anthems to the Welk at Dusk (Emperor)
12. Vikingligr Veldi (Enslaved)
13. A Blaze In The Northern Sky (Darkthrone)
14. Battles In The North (Immortal)
15. The Return... (Bathory)
16. Bergatt (Ulver)
17. Drawing Dawn To The Moon (Beherit)
18. Thousand Swords (Graveland)
19. Det Som Engang Var (Burzum)
20. At The Heart of Winter (Immortal)

I think Covenant is more important because of it's initial slightly more mainstream popularity and because of it's more straightforward and less complex approach which a lot of more modern death metal bands emulated, but I'm fine with Blessed being higher, since it's a much better written album anyway. As a whole it's probably more well liked and popular these days, but I just don't think it had the impact and influence Covenant had (I don't think any of the other two are nearly as important as Altars, though).

Fear, Emptiness, Despair should be nowhere near this list (or any list, for that matter). Harmony Corruption instead. I think Pieced From Within should take 19 instead (and yes it's more important than Effigy, even though it's not nearly as good), and possibly overtake Mental Funeral.

Why?

That's like adding Diabolicus In Musica over Reign in Blood.

11. Left Hand Path (Entombed)
12. Deicide (Deicide)
13. Legion (Deicide)
14. The Bleeding (Cannibal Corpse)
15. Leprosy (Death)
16. Covenant (Morbid Angel)
17. Slowly We Rot (Obituary)
18. Mental Funeral (Autopsy)
19. Pierced From Within (Suffocation)
20. Horrified (Repulsion)

Why won't you just add Harmony Corruption? Do you have something against it? I suggested that album because it's their first DEATHgrind album. They were still a grindcore band with very little death metal on FETO. Yea, FETO got a lot more metal, and is closer to metal than Scum, but HC is where they became a full fledged deathgrind band, and is therefore more important to a death metal list. It's the same way Suicidal Tendencies added a lot more metal to their music in Joiun the Army, but didn't become a full fledged crossover band until the next album. Either way Suffocation should be in the top 20, before ND and Repulsion. When will people learn that grindcore isn't fucking death metal and isn't important to the genre as a whole.

Also Legion> Deicide

Because FETO has more acclaim and I figured people would settle for that. I guess not.

Legion is not being ranked higher than the self-titled though.

Legion > Deicide

Edit: Fuck that. Prove it. Why should it be higher? The first album has sold more and has been consistently ranked higher than Legion. "but itz moar teknikal!" So? Unquestionable Presence came out a year before and that was 10 times as technical as Deicide would ever get!

Popularity is one thing (if you're using sales figures, you might as well bump up Covenant), but where are you getting your "rankings" from? I hope not from some bullshit magazine like Terrorizer again. Legion is generally considered as their best album anyway.

Atheist may have been more technical, but Legion also still had the brutality from their debut that Atheist lacked. The s/t may have outsold it, but Legion still is one of the highest selling death metal albums. The debut is solid death metal and is no doubt important, but Legion furthered their sound. Why have Human over SBG then? It's the same reason we're going with Suffocation's Pierced instead of Effigy. It's because what they did for death metal rather then just popularity. It's not like I like Legion better than the s/t either. Honestly despite their popularity, Deicide have never really been seen as one of the more influential or innovative death metal bands, so it's pretty hard to judge them based on their past influence. Nowadays though, Legion is generally considered their peak.

Fine. This I can understand.


11. Left Hand Path (Entombed)
12. Legion (Deicide)
13. Deicide (Deicide)
14. The Bleeding (Cannibal Corpse)
15. Leprosy (Death)
16. Covenant (Morbid Angel)
17. Slowly We Rot (Obituary)
18. Mental Funeral (Autopsy)
19. Pierced From Within (Suffocation)
20. Horrified (Repulsion)

The more I think about it the more I realize that it's going to be pretty difficult to rank albums once you go further down with the less mainstream genres. You can't honestly judge if Dismember is greater than Incantation or if Rotting Christ is greater than Nifelheim, since they are influential to different scenes and styles. It'll all come down to popularity, which is something we have no accurate way of judging with the less mainstream bands.

All I know is that Suffocation needs to be higher on the death metal list.

Legion > Deicide

True. Probably somewhere around the CC album.

Are we really down to just 4-5 regular posters now?