Disclaimer:
Please don’t unleash years of suppressed anger and throw a hot cup of coffee in your dog’s face if you don’t see (insert band name) at (insert position) or any such situation. This feature is based on the opinions of an author that writes, primarily, based on experiences and makes no claims that the collection of releases you’re going to be reading about is certified by God, Satan, Rick Moranis, or any other extremely prominent deity. Enjoy.
Introduction:
1989 was a year of solidification in both musical dynamics and global spread. With the initial boom of death metal in 1987, and the global spread throughout 1988, 1989 was a year in which multiple legendary bands were finishing their demo days and moving on to sign with various record labels that were beginning to crop up.
At this point, the frame of extreme music has been erected, the death metal sound solidified and its image was becoming more consistent across the board. Squeezing out thrash metal as the top extreme expression, death metal was a brute force of sonic information. And now, every band was fighting their up the mountain to become the heaviest, fastest, nastiest band in the world.
While black metal did not make much progress in the demo front during 1989, its two major contributions to this list were both in the Top 5.
While 11 of these demos are from the USA, the Scandinavian scene was bursting at the seams with their own unique take on things, contributing 8 demos. Other nations such as Poland, Hungary, Austria, France, and Australia made powerful additions to this list.
Death metal fans rejoice, this list is especially for you.
Grab a drink, take a seat on the shitter and enjoy. As always, thank you for reading.
#25: Order From Chaos (USA) – Crushed Infamy
Label: Independent Release
The trio of Pete Helmkamp, Chuck Keller, and Mike Miller saw through bulldozer death as their last demonstration before the Will to Power EP. Featuring scorching leads, almost punk-like rhythm patterns and overall tight execution, Order From Chaos were a truly unique musical experience.
#24: Deceased (USA) – Nuclear Exorcist
Label: Independent Release
The fourth of five demos in the early days of the band, wrapped in grainy analog warmth and suffering from slightly low volume on the mix, Deceased would release one more demo before their debut Gut Wrench EP.
#23: Sorcery (SWE) – Unholy Crusade
Label: Independent Release
The last of a series of four demos that launched the band’s career and the final step leading into 1991’s Bloodchilling Tales. Mid-tempo death metal with quality production. Flat, boxy drums merge with grainy guitars in this vocal-heavy mix.
#22: Disastrous Murmur (AUT) – Embryonic Uterogestation
Label: Independent Release
Undoubtably death metal and a worthy early contribution to the Austrian scene, following the efforts from Disharmonic Orchestra and Pungent Stench the year before. Primitive in delivery, this aspect is magnified thanks to the foggy production where everything feels as if it’s all within a small frequency range. Raw sonic information.
#21: Funebre (FIN) – Cranial Torment
Label: Independent Release
Debut effort of one of the first Finnish death metal bands, alongside Abhorrence. Sludgy, churning chaotic death metal with pounding drums and grinding guitars. Vocal-heavy mix with guitars and bass forming a chainsaw clusterfuck overtop machinegun drumming and snare abuse.
#20: Vital Remains (USA) – Reduced to Ashes
Label: Independent Release
This was the early cave drawing for 1992’s Let Us Pray. Grinding, steamrolling death metal wrapped in a vocal heavy and grainy mix. Punishingly heavy, it was in direct competition with bands such as Immolation and Morbid Angel as kings of raw demonic heaviness from this era.
#19: Dr. Shrinker (USA) – Wedding the Grotesque
Label: Independent Release
Hailing from Wisconsin, the band’s third demo tape, Wedding the Grotesque, was one of the highlights of their entire career. Riff forward and raw as fuck, Dr. Shrinker was the Midwest’s golden goose when it came to early death metal.
#18: Cannibal Corpse (USA) – Cannibal Corpse
Label: Independent Release
The first strike of a Chris Barnes-fronted Cannibal Corpse, the launch of a powerful era in the band’s career. Featuring five tracks that would later reappear on 1990’s Eaten Back to Life, Barnes gave a near thrash-like vocal execution, a far cry to the guttural punishment he laid down on 1991’s Butchered at Birth and 1992’s Tomb of the Mutilated.
#17: Grave (SWE) – Sexual Mutilation
Label: Independent Release
Dark, guttural death metal from the emerging alpha Swedish scene. Bass heavy and packed with crushing riffs, this particular demo was immersive and powerful. Still years away from Into the Grave, the band had their complete sound fleshed out very early into their career which really allowed them to stand apart from bands that would later soften or otherwise change from their original raw death metal roots.
#16: Massacra (FRA) – Nearer from Death
Label: Independent Release
Ripping death thrash from the French scene. This four-piece put down a raw display of furious rhythms, chord-driven madness, and riff after riff. The precursor to the Final Holocaust full-length that would come out the following year.
#15: Immolation (USA) – Immolation
Label: Independent Release
A quick eleven-minute tape that contained three tracks of rolling, crushing, dark death metal. The final demo before the band’s meteoric launch into death metal legend, featuring an early power guitar duo of Rob Vigna and Tom Wilkinson, the riffs never stop coming on this tape.
#14: Malevolent Creation (USA) – Malevolent Creation
Label: Independent Release
Yet another heavy hitter from the early Florida death metal scene, Malevolent Creation was death metal through and through from the very beginning of their career. There is no mistaking it. A fully talented lineup which produced monster riffs, tight surgical drumming, and thundering bass. The late Brett Hoffmann on vocals, driving the madness forward.
#13: Armoured Angel (AUS) – Wings of Death
Label: Independent Release
Ripping Australian thrash, dark and macabre. Joining bands such as Hobbs’ Angel of Death as thrash powerhouses of the Aussie scene. It would take another decade before the band eventually got around to producing their first formal full-length, Angel of the Sixth Order.
#12: Nihilist (SWE) – Drowned
Label: Independent Release
This quick two-song tape clocked in at less than ten minutes but left a deeply lasting impression on both the Swedish death metal scene and the far-wider European scene as a whole. This was the last demo tape produced by the band before they fully became Entombed.
#11: Darkthrone (NOR) – Cromlech
Label: Independent Release
Pre-black metal Darkthrone were heavy-hitters in the early Scandinavian death metal scene. Recorded live as a four-piece, the Cromlech demo was tightly executed and compositionally interesting. This would be the last demo release before 1991’s Soulside Journey.
#10: Therion (SWE) – Beyond the Darkest Veils of Inner Wickedness
Label: Independent Release
With great low-end presence, thin guitars, and maniacal gutturals, Therion provided yet another worthy contribution to the burgeoning Swedish death metal scene. Well-crafted longform tracks, all over five minutes, displayed an excellent compositional mindset.
#9: Entombed (SWE) – But Life Goes On
Label: Independent Release
The famous ripping buzzsaw guitar tone makes its true debut here on But Life Goes On. Shortly after the disbanding of Nihilist, Entombed wasted absolutely no time clawing themselves back up to the top rung of Swedish death metal.
#8: Vader (POL) – Necrolust
Label: Independent Release
The second demo from Polish legends Vader was the springboard that launched into the Morbid Reich demo tape and, later, their debut full-length The Ultimate Incantation. Featuring the classic ‘Decapitated Saints,’ Vader played what sounded like a cross between death metal and thrash metal, and ultimately used this formula to become one of the biggest metal bands in Polish history.
#7: Demolition Hammer (USA) – Necrology
Label: Independent Release
Riding the wave that was created by their excellent 1988 demo tape Skull Fracturing Nightmare, Demolition Hammer struck again in 1989 with yet another top-notch example of powerful, in-your-face thrash metal. Armed with a new drummer in the form of one Vinny Daze, the band went full warp-speed with aggressive hard-hitting songs, powerful drumming, and ripping leads.
#6: Winter (USA) – Winter
Label: Independent Release
Crushing doom death from New York. Where others pressed the gas in pursuit of breakneck speed, Winter went the opposite direction, slowing things down into a toxic sludge pit of riffs and pounding drums. This was the only demo the band has ever produced and it has since become a bit of legend in the deep underground.
#5: Abomination (USA) – Abomination
Label: Independent Release
Ripping death thrash from a Paul Speckmann-led trio from Chicago. Abomination hit amazingly high speeds during certain sections of the tape and really exhibited a precise and brutal musical assault. Some of the best material in the history of the band.
#4: Old Funeral (NOR) – The Fart That Should Not Be
Label: Independent Release
While featuring a rather unfortunate demo cover and title, Norway’s Old Funeral was another example of early Norwegian death metal. Featuring Abbath on bass and vocals, the band ripped through seven hard-hitting tracks that explored numerous tempo changes and riff phrases. Production is unsurprisingly raw, but features an excellent bass guitar presence.
#3: Blasphemy (CAN) – Blood Upon the Altar
Label: Independent Release
The Ross Bay Cult. Blasphemy were both parts death metal and black metal. While lacking the finesse of many of their contemporaries, Blasphemy forged a hyper-unique identity for themselves. Destructive, dark, and impure, Blood Upon the Altar, to this day, is still a widely heralded piece of sonic devastation.
#2: Tormentor (HUN) – Anno Domini
Label: Independent Release
Recorded in a professional studio where the end result eventually ended in music purgatory, Anno Domini was released as a demo instead of a vinyl full-length. Featuring a young Attila Csihar on vocals, Anno Domini was a black metal masterpiece that slipped under the Western radar for years.
#1: Amon (USA) – Sacrificial
Label: Independent Release
The final demo of Amon’s career was pure death metal power. Raw, focused, well-produced, compositionally powerful, and featuring the classic four-piece lineup that made early Deicide such a musical dynamo. Arguably light years ahead of any other death metal band on this list, Amon was the foundation of one of Florida’s greatest death metal bands.
Outro:
The American death metal scene was taking shape. The sound was becoming more consistent, the image was becoming more consistent, the energy was tangible, and the talent was being stoked and crafted. Certain bands such as Immolation, Order From Chaos, and Amon had now released multiple demos and were ready to move up to the big leagues. Other bands, such as Dr. Shrinker and Nihilist were hitting their apex at the demo level.
Europe, especially the Scandinavian region, showed up in a huge manner. Old Funeral and Darkthrone stoked the smaller Norwegian scene while Finland’s genesis came from acts such as Funebre and Abhorrence. Sweden outperformed all other however, with pure buzzsaw death metal and more brash acts such as Sorcery and Therion.
Demolition Hammer and Armoured Angel were the flanking thrash metal contributions, proving the genre still produced apex predators on the new band front.
Eastern European communist nations such as Poland and Hungary produced bands of noticeably distinct tonality such as Vader and Tormentor. One question to ask is what influence did Western music play in the formation of these two bands? And how did it penetrate through the bullshit communist brick wall of media control?
One thing that was consistent across all demos is that they were all clear improvements over the demo output of the previous year, 1988.
Would you have changed anything on this list? If so, leave a comment.
As always, thank you for reading.
Feel free to view our Top 25 for the previous year, 1988:
The Top 25 Metal Demos of 1988
The Top 25 Metal Splits/EPs of 1988
The Top 25 Metal Albums of 1988
AJK
apanthropy 
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