Scott Burns (record producer)

Scott Burns is an American computer engineer and a former music producer of death metal records from late 1980s and 1990s. He was crucial to the emergence of the Florida death metal scene, and has been called an "extreme metal overlord".^[1][2][3]

Scott Burns
Genres	Death metal industrial metal progressive metal
Occupations	Composer, mastering engineer, mixing engineer, producer
Years active	1987–1997 (Full-time) 1998–present (Part-time)

He has produced many records for many famous death metal bands, including Death, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Sepultura, Obituary, Atheist, Transmetal, Suffocation, and Cynic. He has engineered some of the top genre-defining death metal albums such as Death's Human, Massacre's From Beyond, Obituary's Slowly We Rot, and Assück's Misery Index. He most recently worked on the album Frozen in Time (2005) by Obituary. Burns has since quit producing full-time to work in computer programming. He said: "Since I was young and having fun, I got pigeonholed. Which is fine, but I was just 'the death metal guy.'"^[4][5]

According to Jack Owen, Burns commuted an hour to Morrisound, and would often sleep in the studio or in band members' closets at their residences.^[6]

In 2023, Burns was the subject of the David E. Gehlke biography The Scott Burns Sessions: A Life in Death Metal 1987–1997, which documents his career and albums produced at Morrisound and features interviews with him and other artists involved in their creation.^[7][8][9] Following its release, Burns made a rare public appearance at the 2024 Decibel Metal and Beer Festival in Philadelphia.^[10]

Discography

Year	Band	Release	Role
1988	Death	Leprosy	Engineering[11]
1989	Amon	Sacrificial (Demo)	Mixing[12][13]
	The Guff	The Art of Deception (Demo)	Engineering[14]
	Sepultura	Beneath the Remains	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[15]
	Obituary	Slowly We Rot	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[16]
	Atheist	Piece of Time	Producer, Engineering[17]
	Terrorizer	World Downfall	Engineering[18]
	Awake!	Beliefs (EP)	Producer, Engineering[19]
1990	Assück	Necrosalvation (EP)	Engineering[20]
	Cynic	Demo 1990	Producer, Engineering[21]
	Death	Spiritual Healing	Producer, Mixing[22]
	Cancer	To the Gory End	Producer, Mixing[23]
	Deicide	Deicide	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[24]
	Napalm Death	Harmony Corruption	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[25]
	Napalm Death	Suffer the Children	Producer, Engineer, Mixing[26]
	Cannibal Corpse	Eaten Back to Life	Producer, Engineering[27]
	Demolition Hammer	Tortured Existence	Producer, Engineer, Mixing[28]
	Obituary	Cause of Death	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[29]
	Master	Master	Producer, Engineer, Mixing[30]
	Atrocity	Hallucinations	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[31]
	Exhorder	Slaughter in the Vatican	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[32]
	Various artists	At Death's Door (A Collection of Brutal Death Metal)	Producer (tracks 1, 3, 6, 8, 9 & 12)[33]
	Hellwitch	Syzygial Miscreancy	Engineering[34]
	Overthrow	Within Suffering	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[35]
1991	Cynic	Demo 1991	Producer, Engineering[36]
	Acheron	Rites of the Black Mass (Demo)	Producer[37]
	The Guff	Refuse to Crawl (Demo)	Producer, Engineering[38]
	Skeletal Earth	Eulogy for a Dying Fetus	Producer, Engineering[39]
	Sepultura	Arise	Producer, Engineering, Lyrical assistance & translation[40]
	Slap of Reality	Fletch (EP)	Producer, Engineer[41]
	Malevolent Creation	The Ten Commandments	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[42]
	Devastation	Idolatry	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[43]
	Cancer	Death Shall Rise	Producer[44]
	Cannibal Corpse	Butchered at Birth	Producer, Engineering[45]
	Loudblast	Disincarnate	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[46]
	Massacre	From Beyond	Engineering[47]
	Atheist	Unquestionable Presence	Producer[48]
	Pestilence	Testimony of the Ancients	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[49]
	Gorguts	Considered Dead	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[50]
	Death	Human	Producer, Mixing[51]
	Suffocation	Effigy of the Forgotten	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[52]
	Assück	Anticapital	Producer, Engineering[53]
	Master	On the Seventh Day God Created... Master	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[54]
1992	Assück	Blindspot (EP)	Producer, Engineering[55]
	Disincarnate	Soul Erosion (Demo)	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[56]
	Hideous Corpse	Demented (Demo)	Mixing[57]
	Sepultura	Third World Posse (EP)	Producer (track 1), Mixing (track 2)[58]
	Speckmann Project	Speckmann Project	Producer[59]
	The Guff	Jackass Live	Producer, Engineering[60]
	No Return	Contamination Rises	N/A[61]
	Acheron	Rites of the Black Mass	Producer, Engineering[62]
	Obituary	The End Complete	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[63]
	Deicide	Legion	Engineering, Mixing[64]
	Malevolent Creation	Retribution	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[65]
	Assück	State to State (EP)	Engineering[66]
	Solstice	Solstice	Engineering, Mixing[67]
	Cannibal Corpse	Tomb of the Mutilated	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[68]
1993	Raped Ape	Terminal Reality (EP)	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[69]
	Skeletal Earth	Dreighphuck (EP)	Producer[70]
	Various artists	At Death's Door II	Producer (tracks 2, 4, 7 & 8)[71]
	Resurrection	Embalmed Existence	Producer, Engineering[72]
	Death	Individual Thought Patterns	Producer, Engineering[73]
	Cynic	Focus	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[74]
	Transmetal	El Infierno de Dante (also available as Dante's Inferno)	Producer, Mixing[75]
	Loudblast	Sublime Dementia	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[76]
	Hellwitch	Terraasymmetry (EP)	Engineering[77]
	Loudblast	Cross the Threshold (EP)	Producer, Mixing (track 6)[78]
1994	Skeletal Earth	Dē.ĕv'ṓ.lū'shŭn	Producer[79]
	Cannibal Corpse	The Bleeding	Producer, Engineering, Mixing, Mastering[80]
	Psychotic Waltz	Mosquito	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[81]
	Obituary	World Demise	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[82]
	KMFDM	Glory	Remixing (track 6, "Move On")[83]
1995	Jason Rawhead	Dehumanized	Producer, Engineering[84]
	Deicide	Once upon the Cross	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[85]
	Suffocation	Pierced from Within	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[86]
	Six Feet Under	Haunted	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[87]
	Internal Bleeding	Voracious Contempt	Mixing[88]
1996	Sean Malone	Cortlandt	Producer, Engineering[89]
	Transmetal	México bárbaro	Producer, Mixing, Mastering[90]
	Transmetal	El llamado de la hembra	Producer[91]
	Cannibal Corpse	Vile	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[92]
	Psychotic Waltz	Bleeding	Engineering[93]
	Monstrosity	Millennium	Producer, Mixing[94]
1997	Assück	Misery Index	Engineering[95]
	Malevolent Creation	In Cold Blood	Producer, Engineering[96]
	Sadus	Elements of Anger	Producer, Mixing, Mastering[97]
	Deicide	Serpents of the Light	Producer, Engineering, Mixing[98]
1998	Suffocation	Despise the Sun (EP)	Producer, Engineer, Mixing, Mastering[99]
	KMFDM	Agogo	Remixing (track 8, "Hole in the Wall")[100]
2003	Gordian Knot	Emergent	Producer[101]
2005	Obituary	Frozen in Time	Producer[102]