Toxodeth was in a very real sense the Mexican equivalent of a band like Atheist or Cynic. Toxodeth wasn't just one of the most singularly bizarre bands from Mexico but a genuine pioneer in strange, progressive death metal all around. Mysteries About Life and Death: The Gods of Mexican Death Metal Toxodeth, Cenotaph, Agony Lords, Blackthorn, Bloodsoaked, and many others can point a finger to Chaos Records for modern reissues, and remains a great place to get many of the records you’re about to read about. Many of the bands discussed in the article owe their first releases since the'90s to Chaos Records, and often their first or only CD and vinyl editions.
It's also impossible to talk about this scene without a special mention to Chaos Records, who has been the single greatest driving source in reviving the most important records from Mexican death metal history via a series of loving reissues that goes back years. If you read this one and want to go further with Mexican death metal, you turn to Mexican Underground Metal thanks both to my friend Dan, who co-wrote this article with me, as well as to the editor of Mexican Underground Metal (who by request is not named here) for helping with the proof-reading of this article. If you see an article on Swedish death metal, you read it and then turn to Ekeroth's Swedish Death Metal to dive deeper afterwards. The series was a vital resource when I was digging past the bigger names, and is the next step for any reader that wants to dig past what is included in this article. Prior to getting into the article proper, special attention must be given to the Mexican Underground Metal zine series. With only a single primitive official demo released before changing names to Cenotaph in 1989, Damned Cross sported an impressive lineup of members that largely still play killer death metal to this very day and helped lay the foundation stones for all Mexican death metal.
Hot on Transmetal's heels were Damned Cross, who were perhaps the first real death metal band in Mexico.
They were also proof that Mexican metal could be successful, and remain by far the most popular and celebrated band from the early wave of Mexican extreme groups, with album after album of cool material in the general vein of death metal pioneers like Possessed, Sepultura, and Death coming out in between 19. Not only amongst the first thrash bands in Mexico, they were also one of the first to put out a record, and possibly the first to take that vital leap towards death metal ferocity on a full-length. Though cult bands Virgin Witch and Death Warrant really kickstarted the invention of more fast and aggressive metal in the country, it was Transmetal that took it to the next step.
There was not a robust, instantaneous thrash scene like there was in so many other countries it took until the mid-'80s for real heavy metal records from bands like Cristal y Acero, Ramses, Zebra, and Luzbel to even surface, and right around when death metal was becoming a global phenomenon, the first Mexican thrash bands started popping up a few years too late.
The roots of Mexican death metal go back to the first Mexican rock and heavy metal bands.