My Top 20 Technical Death Metal Bands

I'm very ambivalent about "Top X" lists. On the one hand, they work very well as primers to the best of their subject, and making them forces you to think critically about the material in question. On the other hand, those lists are inherently reductive and arbitrary, especially for something as multifaceted as music. Still, I like them, and consequently, I've decided to make one about my favorite kind of music, technical death metal.



Now I'm going to acknowledge some problems so I don't have to fix them. It should go without saying (but doesn't) that this is subjective, and I missed a lot of very good bands because of my own preferences. I love Cynic, to use one conspicuously missing example, but not as much as these bands. Furthermore, while some of these bands aren't considered tech death universally, I only put them on here if I have a citation for tech death, or if they play prog and death metal of some kind. I think that qualifies them all, but some may reasonably disagree.



Feel free to list your own favorites in the comments.



20. Krisiun - Combustion Inferno

19. Pestilence - Stigmatized

18. Necrophagist - Intestinal Incubation

17. Neuraxis - Phoenix

16. Lykathea Aflame - Shine of Consolation

15. Becoming the Archetype - End of the Age

14. Wormed - Dehydrating

13. Decrepit Birth - Sea of Memories

12. Nile - Churning the Malestrom

11. The Faceless - Leica

10. Gojira - In The Wilderness

9. Atheist - Enthralled in Essence

8. Augury - Faith Puppeteers

7. Quo Vadis - I Believe

6. Arsis - Progressive Entrapment

5. Psycroptic -Initiate

4. Gorguts - Nostalgia

3. Cryptopsy - Cold Hate, Warm Blood

2. Vital Remains - Dechristianize*

1. Death -Empty Words



* I find it rather incongruous that I have the very Christian Becoming the Archetype and the...decidedly less Christian Glen Benton on the same list.