Death Metal is a subgenre of metal and is in addition to black and thrash to the spectrum of extreme metal. Characteristic are martial tunes that are played at a very low tuned guitars and electric basses. Rapid rhythm on drums figures dominate in combination with a frequent use of double bass and blast beat techniques. The vocals are mostly kept guttural and is called a "growling" or "Grunt". The lyrics convey typically a negative belief, often combined with resignation. Here you will often find topics such as death, disease, war, and social shortcomings. Occasionally philosophical subjects such as misanthropy, nihilism, and the like.
The style of music emerged in the mid-1980s from the thrash metal. Only
after some time but developed awareness of a new style of music and
metal scene which allows it to then find, for example, even with the
thrash metal band Destruction riffs that were readily available from a
death metal band to come.
As
the first pioneering bands especially the Possessed, Slaughter,
Hellhammer / Celtic Frost, Master / Deathstrike, Morbid Angel and Death,
the head of Chuck Schuldiner regarded as the "Godfather of Death Metal"
is worshiped.
Most
influential were the U.S. bands from the area around Tampa, Florida
(for example, Death, Morbid Angel, Obituary, Deicide), the environment
of New York and Maryland (Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, Immolation,
Malevolent Creation), and to a large extent Autopsy also. To
the formation of the first geographic concentration (Florida Death
Metal) are likely to significantly located in Tampa Morrisound Studios
have contributed, in which Scott Burns worked. This has long been one of the leading death metal producer.
Parallel to the grindcore death metal was one of the punk movement attributable music. This
was particularly the mid / late 1980s in the UK and spawned important
pioneering bands like Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower, Benediction or
Carcass, which characterized the U.S. death metal crucial and
increasingly even the fallen towards death metal.
As
the European counterpart to the technically demanding, in later years
almost progressively acting U.S. death metal evolved in the late 80
Stockholm (Sweden), the stronghold of the primitive stresses, straight
death metal. Known representatives of this direction are Unleashed, Carnage / Dismember, Nihilist / Entombed and Grave. A
certain musical influence from the American band Autopsy was not to be
dismissed out of hand and this is particularly evident in the Nihilist
demos.
Another
variation of the Swedish death metal established himself in the early
1990s specifically in Gothenburg: the melodic death metal, also known as
New Wave of Swedish Death Metal (NWoSDM). As a pioneer band can be named At the Gates. One of the most famous and successful bands in this direction are in Flames. In contrast to their earlier works, the last albums can only conditionally assign to the Death Metal. Recent
albums by the band distanced themselves increasingly through increased
use of electronics and Screaming from the classic melodic death metal. Also, we should still call Dark Tranquillity is one of the most successful existing bands. Often the band Children of Bodom is known as a major band whose style is only partly attributable to the melodic death metal. The
melodic death metal is characterized by emphasized melodic passages and
uses elements of NWOBHM, for example, the two lead guitar solos played
polyphonically. The
typical elements of melodic death metal found years later in the
hardcore punk scene input and experience there is currently under the
name Metalcore a renaissance.
In
the mid-1990s continued in this direction, however, a music, a
saturation effect in the scene, which was encouraged by the way of the
success of Norwegian Black Metal. The public lost interest in Death Metal. Few
bands did manage to keep afloat in this time; particularly during the
Swedish and Norwegian Black Metal Death Metal scene as a "trend" and
"commerce" applicants, were only a few death metal bands like Morbid
Angel Deicide and because of their appearance and the Satanic Black Metal assigned and there also popular. Towards the beginning of the new millennium, however, we speak of a revival of Death Metal.
In Death Metal departures from the usual style often accepted only reluctantly. In
the words of the singer from Unleashed, Johnny Hedlund, 1993 in an
interview that bands that were also incorporated elements from other
genres into their work, after some time have to deal with the rejection
of the scene. Ironically, with the revival of the death metal began a style explosion.
Thus, the death metal sometimes refers various influences in using. In
the early 1990s took death and doom metal bands like Tiamat, My Dying
Bride and Paradise Lost-Gothic influences in their music, and thus
justified the Gothic Metal. Mid-1990s
combined bands like Entombed, Gorefest or Crack Up Death Metal with
reminiscences of old greats such as Black Sabbath, Motorhead, AC / DC,
or even the early Queen, this style is also known as Death 'n' roll. Fear
Factory began as Grindcore-/Death-Metal-Band, but increasingly samples
built into their pieces and benefited thus one of the few death metal
bands of the former industrial metal shaft. Avant-garde bands like Cynic, Atheist or Pestilence were inspired by jazz, ambient, or Latin music. The
U.S. band Nile is characterized by a synthesis of grindcore and death
metal-influenced Egyptian (pseudo-) traditional music. The
Finnish formation Waltari was however in 1995 with a 60-piece orchestra
and opera singers on a Death Metal Symphony in Deep C.