Death

Death was an American metal band from Orlando, Florida, founded in 1983. The band's founder and driving force, Chuck Schuldiner, is considered "a pioneering force in death metal".^[1]

Death is considered to be one of the most influential bands in all of metal. Their 1987 debut, Scream Bloody Gore, has been widely regarded as the first record in the death metal genre.^[2] One music biographer has referred to Schuldiner as the "Father of Death Metal"^[3] while another has claimed that Schuldiner is "readily acknowledged as the true founder of the U.S. death metal scene".^[4]The band ceased to exist after Schuldiner died of brain cancer in December 2001, but it remains an enduring metal brand.

As of 2013, Death had sold over 3 million albums worldwide, with over 1,000,000 copies sold by June 2013 in the United States (excluding the numerous sales before the SoundScan era), making them the top-selling death metal band worldwide.^[5]