Deicide

Deicide is the eponymous debut album by American death metal band Deicide. The album contains all of their demo tracks plus the two songs Deicide and Mephistopheles. While containing mostly Satanic or blasphemous lyrical themes, Lunatic of God’s Creation and Carnage in the Temple of the Damned concern Charles Manson and Jim Jones respectively, and Dead by Dawn deals with the plot of the film, The Evil Dead.

It is considered to be the bestselling death metal album of all time. Nielsen Soundscan lists it second after Morbid Angel’s Covenant, however Deicide was released before SoundScan went into effect so the SoundScan figure lacks pre-Soundscan sales.

The album was important to the progression of death metal, due to its then-unmatched brutality and the vocal stylings of vocalist/bassist Glen Benton. His deep, guttural growl was enhanced and manipulated with studio production to make the vocals as harsh as possible.

The album was recorded at Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida, where Deicide would record most of their subsequent works.