Blood, gore, shirtless men? Definitely Debauchery.
KILL! MAIM! BURN!
Debauchery is a Death Metal band from Stuttgart, Germany. Founded in 2000 as Maggotcunt before changing their name in 2002, Debauchery was initially formed by current vocalist, guitarist, and bassist Thomas Gurrath and former drummer Dani.
They all are Khorne worshippers. Except they do not spill blood in his name... as far as we know.note
The band consists of:
- Thomas "The Bloodbeast" Gurrath – Vocals and Guitars
- Dennis "The Bloodpriest" Ward - Bass guitar
- Oliver "The Bloodhammer" Zellmann – Drums
Former members:
- Ronald Squier - Drums
- Dani - Drums
Additional Members
- Tomasz - Drums
- Joshi - Guitars
- Simon Dorn - Guitars
- Marc Juttner - Bass
- Thomas Naumann - Guitars
- Günther Werno - Keyboards
Main Discography:
- Kill Maim Burn (2003)
- Rage of the Bloodbeast (2004)
- Torture Pit (2005)
- Back in Blood (2007)
- Continue to Kill (2008)
- Rockers & War (2009)
- Germany's Next Death Metal (2011)
- Kings of Carnage (2013)
- Fuck Humanity (2015)
- Thunderbeast (2016) (split)
- Enemy of Mankind (2018)
- Monster Metal (2021)
- Demons of Rock 'n' Roll (2022) (split)
This band provides examples of
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Song tropes
- All Germans Are Nazis: Not helped by their sound, at all. Well, technically they ARE Khornates, but what average person will make the difference?
- Bilingual Bonus: They record songs in both their native German and English, with all their albums since Fuck Humanity being split releases with versions of each song in both languages. Thomas has also never appeared on camera speaking English despite knowing it, with all his interviews in the language being transcripts, meaning only German speakers will get the full experience of his on camera appearances. Justified, as the band is really only popular in their home country and thus don't really need to market themselves elsewhere.
- Careful with That Axe: Thomas' high screams can definitely be unsettling.
- Cover Version: They have done covers of KISS (I Love It Loud), AC/DC (Hail Ceasar), Genesis (I Can’t Dance), Rammstein (Weißes Fleisch), The Beatles (Eight Days a Week), Judas Priest (Heavy Duty/Defenders Of The Faith), Manowar (Kings of Metal), Rolling Stones (You Got Me Rocking), Six Feet Under (War Is Coming), Slayer (Angel of Death), and Alice Cooper (School's Out).
- Death Metal: Of the old-school and death 'n' roll variety, to be exact. Also one of the most well-known non-tech bands in the genre from Germany, along with Disbelief, Fleshcrawl and Morgoth.
- Distinct Double Album: Their 2009 album Rockers & War is divided into two discs. War features some of their heaviest death metal songs to date, while Rockers is, minus the death growls, pure traditional heavy metal, essentially dividing both parts of their sound in two.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Their first three albums are much heavier and are pretty straightforward death metal, with their first album Kill Maim Burn even bordering on deathgrind. While Torture Pit had one or two songs that hinted at what they would later become, it wasn't until Back in Blood that they started evolving into their signature death metal/hard rock fusion.
- Genre Throwback: Their sound is largely a throwback to both old-school 1990s death metal and death 'n' roll, and Thomas's side project Blood God was formed to pay homage to trad metal of the 70s and 80s.
- Gorn: They have a song titled Chainsaw Masturbation
. Nuff' said. However, starting with Rockers & War their lyrics gradually became less graphic. - Hard Rock: Have elements of this, especially in their later albums. To be expected, as they frequently cite many classic rock/metal bands such as AC/DC as their favorite artists. They would later take these influences and fully flesh them out in their Traditional Heavy Metal side project band Blood God, and Thunderbeast showcased this side of their sound the most, being more or less a pure trad metal album with death metal vocals.
- Harsh Vocals: Comes with being a band somewhere between "normal" Death Metal and Grindcore. Thomas also has a tendency to sound like a squealing pig during some songs, especially live performances.
- Industrial Metal: Displays elements of this genre from time to time, most prominently on their earlier albums.
- Melodic Death Metal: Experiments with this genre from time to time, with good examples being "Murder Squad", "Kneel Before the Dragon Gods", "Wolves of the North", and "Walking Glory Road".
- Man of a Thousand Voices: Thomas has demonstrated on many occasions to be a fairly versatile vocalist. While mostly opting for his trademark Chris Barnes meets Corpsegrinder growls, he has also done pig squeals, high-pitched tortured shrieks, thrash-esque shouts, Spoken Word in Music, and even raspy snarling cleans akin to Bon Scott or Udo Dirkschneider among other things.
- Metal Scream: Most of their songs.
- Rearrange the Song: All their albums after Fuck Humanity have been released as splits between themselves and Thomas's side projects, featuring variants of the same songs with different vocals and/or German lyrics.
- Refuge in Audacity: Many of their song's titles.
- Running Gag: Try and find an album that doesn't have a song about violence, or Khorne of Warhammer40000. We. dare. you.
- Soprano and Gravel: Thomas occasionally includes Brian Johnson-style "clean" vocals into their later material.
- Special Guest: Schmier from Destruction on "Warfare" from Continue to Kill, and former Judas Priest and Iced Earth singer Tim "Ripper" Owens on "Bloodking" from Monster Metal.
- Three Chords and the Truth: For a death metal band, most their songs are very stripped down in nature, usually consisting of only a few simple riffs and at times juvenile lyrics. They fully embrace this, even poking fun at it in their song "3 Riff Hit", which features a (probably fake) audio clip of someone asking, "How come Debauchery don't play no progressive death metal?", with Thomas responding with, "BECAUSE WE ARE DEBAUCHERY!".
- Title-Only Chorus: Many of their songs.
- The Unintelligible: Almost as bad as Anal Cunt.... if that's even possible. Though Thomas is generally more understandable in their later material.
Music Video tropes
- Fanservice: The music video for Lords of Battle features a stripper dancing on a stripper pole throughout the video.
- Fandisservice: And about three minutes in, to quote one YouTuber - "that awkward moment when your stripper gets her period"
Misc tropes
- Camp: Basically the band's entire schtick. They write over-the-top lyrics that take the stereotypical genre subject matter of blood, gore, war, and sex to ludicrous extremes, perform with theatrics that rival black metal and shock rock bands, and as of their most recent albums, dress up in monster suits◊ a la Gwar while playing live, which is virtually unheard of in death metal. It sort of says something that their original name before releasing an album was Maggotcunt.
- Digital Piracy Is Evil: Downplayed. While Thomas does not care if people download the band's music for free, he does not believe that doing so shows genuine appreciation for their work. He said that buying a CD or digital copy of an album is the strongest indicator that you are truly a fan, since he himself buys his favorite media.
- Fanservice: The album art for Back In Blood has a hot girl that's topless.
- Fandisservice: ...That is, if you don't mind the blood that she's pouring upon herself.
- I Am the Band: Thomas. He's the only member to appear on all albums and writes most of the music. In fact, most musicians credited on their later studio recordings minus the man himself are session players.
- No True Scotsman: A rare example in which the creator has expressed this mindset towards their own work. Thomas has expressed in interviews that he never intended Debauchery to be a death metal band at all, and that he had always wanted to play traditional heavy metal and hard rock, but became a growler because he did not have the vocal range to sing like his idol Rob Halford. Hence, he thinks of Debauchery more as a "heavy metal band with death metal vocals", but has never used the term "death 'n' roll" to describe their music - it was never his intention to appeal to genre purists.
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Spiritual Successor: Could be considered one to both Six Feet Under and Cannibal Corpse, as Thomas's vocals sound like a nearly 50/50 cross between Chris Barnes and George Fisher. They could also be considered one to Bolt Thrower due to their lyrical themes and grooves, and to Entombed or Gorefest due to carrying on the death 'n' roll sound in their absence. - Theme Naming: Blood.
