Choosing Death

In 1986, the idea that death metal and grindcore would ever impact popular culture was unimaginable. Yet soon this barbaric amalgam of hardcore punk and heavy metal came to perpetually define the musical threshold of extremity. Initially circulated through a scattered tape-trading network of underground thrillseekers, bands rose from every corner of the globe and death metal and grindcore spread faster than a pandemic plague of undead flesheaters. By 1994, the genre's most prominent labels had sold well over a million death metal and grindcore albums each. Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal & Grindcore examines the rise, fall, and resurrection of death metal and grindcore through the eyes and ringing ears of the artists, producers and label owners who propeled the movements. "I thought of death metal and grindcore as a return to a more extreme punk," writes the BBC's John Peel in his foreword. "This music was another step into outlaw territory beyond any aggressive music heard before."