Death metal

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Death metal
Stylistic origins	Early black metal[1] Heavy metal Thrash metal
Cultural origins	Early-Mid 1980s United States, Germany
Typical instruments	Vocals − Bass guitar − Guitar − Drums
Mainstream popularity	Underground in mid 1980s, growth in late 1980s and early 1990s.
Subgenres
Melodic death metal − Brutal death metal Progressive death metal − Technical death metal
Fusion genres
Blackened death metal - Deathgrind − Death/doom − Deathcore − Death 'n' Roll
Regional scenes
Florida − New York − Scandinavia − United Kingdom − Brazil − Japan
Other topics
Death growl − Extreme metal − Blast beat − Bands

Death metal is an extreme heavy metal subgenre. The genre is typically characterized by the use of heavily-distorted guitars, harsh vocals that are low-pitched and/or growled, morbid lyrics, exceptionally fast-paced rhythms and melodies, frequent blast beats on drums, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes.

Building off the speed and complexity of thrash metal, death metal came to true prominence by the mid 1980s.^[1] Bands like Slayer, Possessed^[2] and pioneer death metal bands such as Death and Morbid Angel are considered prime influences in the genre.^[3] In the late 1980s and early 1990s, death metal gained more media attention as popular record labels like Earache Records and Roadrunner Records began to sign death metal bands at a rapid rate.^[4] Since then, death metal has diversified, spawning a rich variety of subgenres.^[5][6]

Death metal has been met with considerable hostility from mainstream culture, mainly because of the violent themes, imagery and stage personae surrounding many bands.^[7] It is typically seen as an underground form of music, in part because it does not appeal to mainstream tastes and because its musicians often choose to remain obscure.

Contents 1 Characteristics 2 Origin of the term 3 Early history (up to 1991) 4 Later history (1991–present) 4.1 Melodic death metal 4.2 Technical death metal 4.3 Progressive death metal 4.4 Brutal death metal 4.5 Death/Doom 4.6 Blackened death metal 4.7 Deathcore 4.8 Other fusion subgenres 5 See also 6 References 7 Literature

[edit] Characteristics

The genre is often identified by fast, highly distorted and downtuned guitars, combined with guitar playing techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking. The percussion is usually fast and dynamic. Blast beats, double bass and exceedingly fast drum patterns are frequently used to add to the ferocity of the genre.^[8] The vocals are often guttural roars, grunts, snarls, and low gurgles colloquially called death grunts or death growls. This vocal style is sometimes referred to in tongue-in-cheek as Cookie Monster vocals because of the similarity with the popular Sesame Street character of the same name.^[9][10]

Death metal is known for its abrupt tempo, key, and time signature changes, as well as extremely fast and complex guitar and drumwork.^[11][12] Death metal may include chromatic chord progressions and a varied song structure, rarely employing the standard verse-chorus arrangement. These compositions tend to emphasize an ongoing development of themes and motifs.^[13] The setup most frequently used in death metal is two guitars, a bass guitar, a vocalist and a drum kit almost universally using two bass drums or a double bass drum pedal. Although this is the standard setup, bands have been known to incorporate other instruments such as electronic keyboards.

Death metal's lyrical themes typically invoke Z-grade slasher and splatter movie violence,^[14] but may also extend to contain themes of Satanism, Occultism, mysticism, and/or social commentary.^[15][16] Although violence may be explored in various other genres as well, death metal elaborates on the details of extreme acts, including mutilation, dissection, rape and necrophilia. Sociologist Keith Kahn-Harris (author of Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge) commented that this may be attributed to a "fascination" with the human body that all people share to some degree, a "primal desire", and that although the genre often glamorizes violence and obscurities, there is equally as much fear and disgust amid the exploration.^[17] Heavy metal author Gavin Baddeley also stated that there does seem to be a connection between "how acquainted one is with their own mortality" and "how much they crave images of death and violence" via the media ^[18]. Additionally, contributing artists to the genre often defend death metal as little more than an extreme form of art and entertainment, similar to horror films in the motion picture industry.^[19] Needless to say, this has brought such musicians under fire from activists internationally, who claim that fact is often lost on a large number of adolescents, who are left with the glamorization of such violence without social context or awareness of why such imagery is stimulating. ^[1]

“	The gory lyrics are probably not, as much as people say that’s what would keep us from being mainstream, like “death metal would never go into the mainstream because the lyrics are too gory”, I think it’s really the music, because violent entertainment is totally mainstream.[20]	„
—Alex Webster, Cannibal Corpse

[edit] Origin of the term

There are multiple theories on how the term "death metal" originated. One theory is that the name originates from an early pioneer of the genre, Death. A Florida journalist explained to his readers that Death play their own kind of metal: "Death's Metal".^[21] Others contest that Death is not the origin, but that the harsh vocals and morbid lyrical content generally inspired the genre, regardless.^[22] Another possible origin is a fanzine called "Death Metal", started by Thomas Fischer and Martin Ain of the band Hellhammer (later Celtic Frost). The name was later given to the 1984 compilation Death Metal released by Hellhammer's label Noise Records.^[23][24] The term might also have originated from other recordings. Possessed's 1984 demo is called Death Metal, and a song with the same name is featured on their 1985 debut album Seven Churches.^[25] A demo released by Death in 1983 is called Death by Metal.^[26]

[edit] Early history (up to 1991)

The history of death metal begins in the early 1980s. A style emerged that was between death metal, black metal and thrash metal. European bands like Venom, Bathory, and Hellhammer, and bands from the US like Possessed and Slayer formed the basis of this extreme heavy metal music style. From these founding acts styles diversified into death and black metal.^[27]

The British band Venom crystallized the elements of what later became known as thrash metal, death metal and black metal with their 1981 album Welcome to Hell.^[28] Their dark, blistering sound, harsh vocals and macabre, proudly satanic image proved a major inspiration for extreme metal bands.^[29] Another highly influential band, Slayer, formed in 1981. Although the band is a thrash metal act, Slayer's music is more violent than thrash metal contemporaries Metallica, Megadeth or Exodus.^[30] Slayer is regarded as one of the most sinister thrash metal bands from the early 1980s^[31] and are considered the ancestors and the direct responsible for the rise of death metal.^[32][33] Their breakneck speed and instrumental prowess combined with lyrics about death, war and Satanism won Slayer a rabid cult following.^[34] According to All Music Guide, their third album, Reign in Blood, inspired the entire death metal genre^[35] and was an important inspiration for the genre leaders: Death, Obituary and Morbid Angel.^[30]

Possessed, a band that formed in 1983, was heavily influenced by early Slayer.^[36] Although Possessed's brand of metal resembled Slayer's fast and Satanic thrash metal they're often cited as the first death metal band.^[37][38][39] This is largely because of the grunted vocals which set the stage for death metal's breakaway from thrash metal.^[36] The 1984 demo Death Metal and 1985 album Seven Churches are regarded as their most influential material. Not long after the dawn of Possessed, a second monumental death metal band was formed in Florida. The band Mantas, composed of Chuck Schuldiner, Kam Lee, and Rick Rozz released a demo entitled Death by Metal in 1983. In 1984, under their new name Death, more demos were released. The tapes circulated through the tape trader world, quickly establishing the band's name. With Death guitarist Schuldiner adopting vocal duties, creating a guttural and non-melodic growl, the band made a major impact on the scene. Fast, dark minor-key riffs and fierce solos were complimented with fast drumming, creating a style that would catch on in tape trading circles.^[40][41] Subsequently, Schuldiner has been "widely recognized as the father of death metal".^[42]

Along with Possessed and Death there were other influential bands who introduced an early raw extreme metal style, guttural vocals and lyrics concerning death and/or Satanism. In 1984, Bathory released the influential early black metal album Bathory.^[43] Hellhammer have released demos as early as 1982. In 1984 they were featured on the split album Death Metal.^[44]

As heavy bands like Slayer, Death and Possessed paved the road to death metal in America, heavy European and South American bands were creating a buzz in the metal underground. By the mid 1980s, German thrash metal bands like Kreator, Sodom and Destruction were becoming underground majors.^[45][46][47] These band's releases all featured uptempo rhythms, fast guitar solos, raspy screamed vocals and dark lyrical themes; an influence on later death metal bands. At the same time a small South American scene would emerge. Bands like Holocausto, Sarcófago and Sepultura would release death metal records around 1986, most notably Sepultura's first LP, Morbid Visions.

An early death metal album, Season of the Dead, was released by Necrophagia in 1987. That same year saw the release of Death's Scream Bloody Gore, which some writers consider the subgenre's first "proper" release.^[48]

By 1989, many bands had been signed by eager record labels wanting to cash in on the subgenre, including Florida's Obituary, Morbid Angel and Deicide. This collective of death metal bands hailing from Florida are often labeled as "Florida death metal". To their credit, these early death metal bands did push the format forward, something that would ultimately pay off in a new form of music that was substantially different from their closest forefather, thrash metal.

The late 1980s also saw the rise of death metal in Scandinavia (particularly in Sweden, i.e. "Gothenburg metal"), with bands such as Nihilist (which disbanded and bifurcated into Entombed and Unleashed), Grotesque (also disbanded, resulting in At the Gates and Liers in Wait), Carnage (later Dismember), Tiamat, Grave and Amorphis from Finland.

Following the original death metal innovators, a new hybrid began by the end of the decade. Just as the creation of New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) lead by Iron Maiden and other bands was sparked by the youthful energy of punk rock in the late 1970s, so did cross-fertilization between metal and punk once more create something new in the late 1980s. The chaotic and often confusing development that took place around this time is well illustrated by the British band Napalm Death, often characterized as a "grindcore" band, although simultaneously a part of the hardcore punk scene. However, Napalm Death themselves changed drastically around or before 1990, leaving grindcore behind. In particular, on 1990's Harmony Corruption, Napalm Death can be heard playing something most fans would call death metal today, i.e. modern death metal by the above characterization. This album clearly displays aggressive and fairly technical guitar riffing, complex rhythmics, a sophisticated growling vocal delivery by Mark "Barney" Greenway, and thoughtful lyrics. Other bands contributing significantly to this early movement include Britain's Bolt Thrower and Carcass, and New York's Suffocation.

To close the circle, the band Death released Human in 1991, an example of modern death metal. Death's founder Schuldiner helped push the boundaries of uncompromising speed and technical virtuosity, mixing in highly technical and intricate rhythm guitar work with complex arrangements and emotive guitar solos.^[49] Other examples of this are Carcass's Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious, Suffocation's Effigy of the Forgotten and Entombed's Clandestine from 1991. At this point, all the above characteristics are clearly present: abrupt tempo and count changes, on occasion extremely fast drumming, morbid lyrics and growling vocal delivery.

As mentioned above, by the end of the 1980s, various record labels internationally began to sign death metal bands at a rapid rate. Earache Records, Relativity Records and Roadrunner Records became the genre's most important labels,^[50] with Earache releasing albums by Carcass, Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, and Entombed, and Roadrunner releasing albums by Obituary, Sepultura, and Pestilence. Although these labels had not been death metal labels to start with (Earache was founded for grindcore and Roadrunner for thrash), they became the genre's flagship labels in the beginning of the 1990s. In addition to these, other labels formed as well, such as Nuclear Blast, Century Media Records, and Peaceville; many of these labels would go on to achieve successes in other genres of metal throughout the 1990s.

[edit] Later history (1991–present)

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Death metal's popularity achieved its peak between the 1992-93 era, with some bands such as Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse enjoying mild commercial successes; however, the genre as a whole never broke in to the mainstream owing to its extreme nature. Nevertheless, rather than fading away, death metal diversified in the 1990s, spawning a rich variety of subgenres, including the following. It should be noted that cited examples are not necessarily exclusive to one particular style.

[edit] Melodic death metal

Main article: Melodic death metal

Scandinavian death metal could be considered the forerunner of "melodic death metal". Melodic death metal, sometimes referred to as "melodeath", is heavy metal music mixed with some death metal elements, such as growled vocals and the liberal use of blastbeats. Songs are typically based around Iron Maiden-esque guitar harmonies and melodies with typically higher-pitched growls, as opposed to traditional death metal's brutal riffs and much lower death grunts. Carcass is sometimes credited with releasing the first melodic death metal album with 1993's Heartwork, although Swedish bands In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, and At the Gates are usually mentioned as the main pioneers of the genre and of the Gothenburg metal sound. Additionally, Afflicted, Entombed, Amon Amarth, Unleashed and Tiamat helped to define the sound that would evolve into common melodic death metal. Entombed (ex-Nihilist) was the band which started to combine punk and death/thrash riffs and set a trademark "Sunlight studios" guitar sound. This was mainly created by the use of the Boss Heavy Metal distortion pedal, creating a raw, mechanical, electric buzz, which many bands of this genre later tried to reproduce. Nevertheless, this sound was inspired by British deathgrind band Unseen Terror on their debut album Human Error.

[edit] Technical death metal

Main article: Technical death metal

Technical death metal refers to bands that are particularly distinguished by the complexity of their music and the virtuosity of their musicians. Technical death metal is musically characterized by fast, chaotic, sometimes atonal riffs and atypical rhythms with varied or layered time signatures. It is a term commonly applied to such notable bands as Pestilence, Cryptopsy, Decapitated, Gorguts, Necrophagist, Origin, and Spawn of Possession.

[edit] Progressive death metal

Progressive death metal is a subgenre of death metal that incorporates characteristics such as time signature and mood changes from progressive metal. The overlapping of genres is quite common, and jazz is a common influence. The genre typically showcases death metal growls, blastbeats, chaotic alternating rhythms of progressive metal, and acoustic parts. Gorguts are an example of a band noted for creating jazz-influenced death metal on their album Obscura, along with Spheres by Pestilence. Additionally, Cynic, Edge of Sanity, Opeth, Sadist, and Atheist are seen as progressive death metal. This and technical death metal are closely associated, sharing many of the same traits and often overlapping, but have different emphasis as descriptions.

[edit] Brutal death metal

Brutal death metal developed by combining certain aspects of the song structures of grindcore/goregrind with death metal but it should not be confused with deathgrind (grindcore that is very close in form to, and maintains the complexity of, death metal) because it has nothing to do with hardcore punk, except for its breakneck speed. The bands in this genre are often categorized as technical death metal, and as of now there is a sizable overlap between the two genres, with the boundary in many cases being negligible. Brutal death metal is associated with bands like Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Devourment, Disgorge, Hate Eternal, Nile, Skinless and Suffocation . The death grunts are very low-pitched and the lyrics are often, but not always gore related. In addition, the guitar riffs are usually slow chunky grooves or hyper fast and down-tuned, often with pinched harmonics. Typically, if guitar solos are played, they usually make large use of tremolo picking, varied arpeggios, and wailing harmonics. The drumlines are usually highly varied in style, ranging from slow rhythms to churning blast beats.

[edit] Death/Doom

Main article: Death/doom

Death/doom is a slow and melancholic subgenre inspired by and mixed with classic doom metal. The genre was created by the likes of Autopsy, Incantation, Asphyx, My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost and Disembowelment. Whereas traditional doom metal relies heavily on slow tempo to create a melancholic atmosphere, death/doom is slightly faster and emphasizes minor-key melodies to create a similar atmosphere, and commonly utilizes death growls.

[edit] Blackened death metal

Main article: Blackened death metal

Blackened death metal is a subgenre of death metal fused with the more fluid and melodic elements of black metal. These bands also tend to adopt some of the thematic characteristics of that genre as well; evil, Satanism, and occultism are all common topics and images. Early influences for blackened death metal included death metal bands like Deicide and Immolation as well as black metal bands like Mayhem. God Dethroned (Early), Behemoth, Belphegor, Angelcorpse, Zyklon, and Sacramentum are examples.

[edit] Deathcore

Main article: Deathcore

With the rise in popularity of metalcore, traits of modern hardcore punk have been utilized in death metal. Bands like Job for a Cowboy, Despised Icon, Bring Me the Horizon, and The Red Chord combine metalcore with brutal death metal influences. Death metal characteristics such as fast and dynamic drumming (including blast beats), downtuned guitars, tremolo picking and growled vocals are combined with slower groovy riffs and breakdowns. This metalcore / death metal hybrid is frequently referred to as deathcore.

[edit] Other fusion subgenres

There are other heavy metal music subgenres that have come from fusions between death metal and other non-metal genres, such as the fusion of death metal and jazz. Atheist and Cynic are two prime examples; the former of which went as far as to include jazz-style drum solos on albums, and the latter of which incorporated influences from jazz fusion. Nile have also incorporated Egyptian music and Middle Eastern themes into their work, while Alchemist are one of the only death metal bands that have incorporated psychedelia along with Aboriginal music. Some groups, such as Nightfall and Eternal Tears of Sorrow, have incorporated the heavy use of keyboards and symphonic elements, creating a fusion of symphonic metal and death metal, sometimes referred to as symphonic death metal. Industrial metal has also been fused with death metal with Fear Factory's Soul of a New Machine.

It is also noteworthy that many bands can easily be placed in two or more of the preceding categories, and a band's specific categorization is often a source of contention due to personal opinion and interpretation.

[edit] See also

• List of death metal bands
• Death growl
• Blast beat
• Extreme metal

[edit] References

[edit] Literature

• Albert Mudrian, Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal & Grindcore (Feral House) ISBN 978-1-932595-04-8
• Kahn-Harris, Keith 'Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge' Berg, http://soulremnants.com, ISBN 1-8452-0399-2
• Purcell, Natalie J. 'Death Metal Music: The Passion and Politics of a Subculture' McFarland & Company, ISBN 0786415851
• Christe, Ian. Sound of the Beast: the Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2004.
• Harrell, Jack. "The Poetics of Destruction: Death Metal Rock." Popular Music and Society. Spring 1995. Republished, April, 1996 in the Social Issues Resources Series (SIRS) database.

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Regional scenes	New Wave of British Heavy Metal · Norwegian black metal · Scandinavian death metal · Bay Area thrash metal · Brazilian thrash metal · Teutonic thrash metal · Australian heavy metal
Other topics	Metalheads · Fashion · Subgenres · Bands · Festivals · Umlaut

v • d • e Extreme metal
Genres	Black metal - Death metal - Doom metal - Thrash metal
Sub-genres	Brutal death metal - Drone doom - Funeral doom - Melodic black metal - Melodic death metal - Progressive death metal - Sludge metal - Symphonic black metal - Technical death metal - Viking metal
Fusion genres	Black/Doom - Blackened death metal - Crossover thrash - Death/Doom - Deathcore - Deathgrind - Grindcore