Number 12 on the list is the crushingly brutal masterpiece, Tomb of the Mutilated by Cannibal Corpse. This album is unrelentingly heavy and terrifyingly brutal.

It also broke a lot of ground for Death Metal that would come after it. Despite that, it stands alone atop its imitators as one of the best death metal albums ever.

This week's episode is the album credited with pushing death metal to the next echelon -- Human by Death. This is leaps and bounds ahead of the field in production, songwriting and technical proficiency.

Number 14 is Black Seeds of Vengeance, the sophomore effort by South Carolina's Nile. This record keeps the same artistic vision of their debut, but ups the ante with better production quality and more well rounded songwriting.

Check out my thoughts on it!

Number 15 is Slaughter of the Soul by At the Gates, a high energy, high impact record with an unmistakable sound. Why is this significantly different from other death metal of the time, and what's with all the hard-stop transitions.

Number 16 on the list is Arise by Sepultura. This record is a bit of a level up from their last one, Beneath The Remains, in terms of production and songwriting.

Number 17 on the list is Realm of Chaos by Bolt Thrower? Grind, death and first wave black metal melded into one sloppy, high energy ass beater of a record.

Number 18 on the list is the groundbreaking, influential gore grind/death metal recard Symphonies of Sickness by Carcass.

This is a big one for modern death metal, especially if you like all the hardcore adjacent stuff you might find on Maggot Stomp or 20 Buck Spin.

Number 19 is a fastball pitch for death metal fans. Massacre's 1991 classic From Beyond. No frills on this one, just classic riffs and great performance.

Number 20 is the legendary Swedish death metal album Like an Everflowing Stream by Dismember. This shit feels like it's on 100 per cent from jump, and also a big step up from the Carnage record, which features a number of the same members.

Number 21 is Nile's ambitious debut, Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka. This album tries very hard to meld technical death metal with the music and instrumentation of ancient Egypt.

There are a few things working against it though, in my opinion.