Death Metal was created by Dr. Necker using a piece of one of Charnel's "children" quite inadvertently retrieved by Death Wreck (see Death3 #1) after his completion, Dr. Necker gave him his orders and was met with "(a four letter word) you". Death Metal went rogue and during his solo career has fought the likes of Death's Head II, Death Wreck and such teams as Alpha Flight and Genetix.

After Death's Head II wen't rogue, Evelyn Necker found herself left with the inferior prototype to Minion, Death Wreck, being the only tool at her disposal. She discovered interesting signals from an alternate Earth (Earth-9939) and transported Death Wreck there, where he was promptly attacked by the spawn of Charnel, who were beings given life through magic consisting of the metal promethium. After a short battle of which Death Wreck was on the losing end of, Dr. Necker retrieved her creation, and unexpectedly, an arm of one of the spawn of Charnel, which she used to create a being deadlier then Death's Head II, Death Metal. But Evelyn's luck was no better with Death Metal then it had been with Minion, and he too wen't rogue. Unwilling to give up, Necker sen't Death Wreck back to Earth-9939, where he befriended the remaining Avengers of that reality, and hoping to gain more allies they used a device to bring more like D.W. to their reality and thus, transported Death's Head II, and Death Metal to their world. Death Metal soon encountered Dr. Doom, and his allies Dr. Octopus, and Kingpin, but the three villains proved no match for Death Metal and were all killed, as was the Ghost Rider of 9939, who attacked Death Metal believing him to be a creation of Charnel. Death Metal and his "brothers" would join forces and alongside 9939's Avengers, and the X-Saviours, would make one last stand against 9939's Charnel. Ultimately Death 3 triumphed over the demonic Charnel, finally putting an end to the hell that was Earth-9939.
After his return to Earth-616 Death Metal determined that as the last trace of Charnel, he himself was too dangerous to live, but since he was incapable of suicide, he instead set out to challenge heroes and villains to the death, in order to be destroyed in combat.