While Greece is mostly known for its black metal bands, there were some cool death metal bands popping up in the 90's that definitely had its own sound. I'm talking about bands such as Septic Flesh, Horrified, Obsecration, early On Thorns I Lay and whatnot. Personally I'm quite a fan of this style and it's such a shame this stuff has hardly been taken over by other non Greek bands at the times. Then again, I think that's the case because those bands probably weren't as famous as, say, Rotting Christ were back in the day, not to mention they were mostly inspired by bands and scenes in the early 90's. Horrified's early stuff does have a melodic death metal esque feel to it, Septic Flesh were Paradise Lost inspired, On Thorns I Lay sounded like they were influenced by both and Obsecration's early stuff (until 1996) sounded like Rotting Christ's Passage to Arcturo, as well as early Tiamat on their Oblivious... EP.

its a cool sound and an interesting parallel development with the black metal scene. We all know about the rivalry between the black and death metal scenes in norway but this makes me wonder if the same thing existed in greece.

Early Nightfall had a cool and rather unique a sound...

Nightfall are one of those bands to me that, despite having a unique sound, just didn't really know how to execute their musical ideas too well...not to mention the production values of their first two albums are quite shite.

The old Greek death metal band Exhumation, with Marios Ilopolous from Nightrage, was a great atmospheric death metal band that had many good albums, notably Dance Across the Past.

I love atmospheric death metal. Too bad the sound is fairly esoteric and didn't really survive into the 21st century. There were some really good non-Greek bands that played the style also, like Depresy (on their first EP and album at least) from Slovakia and Garden of Shadows from Maryland, USA.

I've been listening to Selefice's one album, "Where is the Heaven" lately. Excellent album from a cool band in Athens who just reformed and will start playing shows again. They had an interesting style with a lot of bass heavy songs. Pretty catchy too.
Dead Congregation is one of the biggest to come out of Greece this century and praised around the world; I'd say they are pretty atmospheric.

Been a long-time fan of this style and while I do enjoy many of the full-length works from the bands mentioned above, I've always been partial to the earliest recordings. Those old demos and EP's, as unrefined as they were, genuinely captured that ancient feeling and cryptic atmosphere that helped shape the Greek death metal sound.

Horrified in particular recorded two EP's very early in their career that in my opinion overshadow their debut album and any subsequent material I've heard from them.

The earliest incarnation of On Thorns I Lay, Paralysis, released a 3 track demo in 1992 that is one of my absolute favorites in this style and I'm proud to own an original copy. The music borders on doom with how the tempo crawls but it perfectly embodies that raw, dark Mediterranean sound - something that the band wasn't able to reproduce effectively on later recordings.

I actually enjoy Obsecration's debut CD as much as their pre-1996 material as the band didn't stray far from their original sound in terms of songwriting and production. The same can be said for Selefice although their one and only album was released only a couple years after the 1991 demo.

There's an old Israeli band called Morgue who I remember seeing on trader lists but never actually heard until recently. They put out a demo in 1992 that is a dead ringer for your traditional Athens recording in this vein. The band has a YouTube channel where they have uploaded it.

Vorphalack released an excellent EP on Molon Lave in 1993 before shifting to some boring black metal, though the review I read from autothrall wasn't very favorable. Might have to write my own as a point-counterpoint. Speaking of bands that turned to black metal, Italy's Necromass recorded a very solid demo tape in 1992 under the name Dark Lust that is worth hearing if you're into the classic Greek stuff.

Another one worth mentioning is Dismaed from Central Macedonia whose Messages from the Place of the Dead demo is more of a "brutal" take on this style with its sheer ferocity. Sadly it appears that it was their final release before the eventual break-up. I would have liked to hear more from them were they to have continued on the same path.

France's Catacomb is a mandatory listen. Unparalleled atmosphere with some Lovecraft lyrics to back it up. There are 2 anthology CD's out there that compile their early works. Highly recommended band.

The classic Greek influence even made it oversees to the US... Here's a couple obscure examples from the mid 90's. Cheers to Helvede for posting about Sacrofire in another thread some years ago.

Sacrofire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSuvMojUPnc

Ever Dark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F6r0qdpY4U

I actually revisited that Selefice album but I still don't like it. Just a bit of a mess of an album to me.

Also that's quite a list, Drowned. Do you know Depresy? They sort of sound like a mix between Swedish melodic death metal and Septic Flesh. I like their 1995/1998 outputs. Also I agree that Horrified's second EP is better than their full length. The latter is just a bit too...fluffy at times, I suppose. I also checked that Morgue band since it got a review put here, but I don't get the comparison the reviewer made and I never got any Greek vibe from that Catatomb band, either. Anyway, since there's a couple of bands that I haven't checked yet, I better do so. Thanks!