Death Metal

Death metal: likely the most recognizable titan of musical extremity. Where black metal encapsulates its listener in the lightless shroud of Satan's cold grasp, and grindcore pummels the listener into the dirt with its bursts of anarchistic rage, death metal brutally tears into your midsection with a rusty scalpel and feasts upon your innards. Fueled by gore, hatred, and slaughter, death metal crafts chugging low-end riffs, technical lead guitar lines, and boasts double kick drum patterns at mach speeds. For such a violent and inaccessible genre, is has accumulated quite a following, reaching even celebrities of Jim Carrey's caliber. Touching the hearts of the listener both emotionally and physically, let's delve into what death metal is all about.

Death metal took its form from the heavier bands in the thrash metal scene. Bands such as Slayer, Kreator, and Morbid Saint built their sound around incredibly fast, palm-muted riffing and more controversial, bloody lyrical content. This eventually led to the initial wave of death metal, borrowing heavily from thrash sounds. Bands like Possessed, Autopsy, Master, Terrorizer, and Necrophagia led the charge with this ultra-violent style of metal.

Similarly to how black metal shifted to its most well-known form in Norway, death metal did something similar in Florida, particularly the Tampa area. Death metal bands were popping up left and right in this location throughout most of the mid- to late-'80s. Morbid Angel, Obituary, Cynic, Deicide, Massacre, Malevolent Creation, Atheist, Brutality, Nocturnus... the list is immense. None of these bands, however, had such a booming impact on the metal genre as Death. With such a simple name, Death paved the way not only for the creation of the death metal sound, but for nearly every innovation on the style for the entirety of its career, thanks to the musical mastermind Chuck Schuldiner. Death metal proved its influence and lasting power early on in its development, and the inspiration hasn't wavered.

Recommended classic death metal listening:
1. Possessed - Seven Churches (1985)
2. Death - Leprosy (1988)
3. Autopsy - Severed Survival (1989)
4. Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness (1989)
5. Obituary - Slowly We Rot (1989)

Almost as if in a direct response to America's now-Metropolis of death metal greatness, our friends across the pond in Europe decided to take a crack at joining this first wave of death. The Netherlands provided solid slabs of death metal in the form of bands like Pestilence and Asphyx. The United Kingdom came through with Carcass, Bolt Thrower, and Napalm Death (all of which had influence in the grindcore genre as well). Most notably though, were the contributions of Sweden. Recognized by some as an entire subgenre of itself, Swedish death metal featured a much sludgier, dirtier, and yet somehow more melody-driven sound than the accustomed American brand. Bands like Entombed, Grave, Dismember, and Unleashed made names for themselves in no time by delivering sweet, sweet death metal to the European masses.

Recommended European death metal listening:
1. Pestilence - Consuming Impulse (1989)
2. Entombed - Left Hand Path (1990)
3. Dismember - Like an Ever Flowing Stream (1991)
4. Carcass - Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious (1991)
5. Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal (2005)

One of the first genre offshoots of death metal was the invention of deathgrind. This style, as the name would suggest, fuses the technicality and brutality of death metal with the speed, political themes, and concise song structures of grindcore. Early grindcore groups like Carcass, Napalm Death, and Repulsion were the jumping-off points of deathgrind, with bands like Napalm Death eventually writing in the style later in its career. Terrorizer, Macabre, Exhumed, Misery Index, and Brutal Truth are all key figures in the genre, bouncing back and forth between genre tropes to create a unique blend of extremity. Not for the faint of heart, a trait shared by most grindcore spinoffs.

Recommended deathgrind listening:
1. Terrorizer - World Downfall (1989)
2. Brutal Truth - Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses (1992)
3. Napalm Death - Enemy of the Music Business (2000)
4. Misery Index - Heirs to Thievery (2010)
5. Cattle Decapitation - Monolith of Inhumanity (2012)

Technical death metal, often simply referred to as tech death, is a style of death metal focusing heavily on technical difficulty. The musicianship of your average tech death band is to be stretched as far as humanly possible, resulting in incredibly complex and demanding songwriting. Tech death bands, due to implementing far more experience in music theory, tend to bring new vibes into the death metal formula with dynamic textures and exotic scales. Bands from the Florida death metal scene such as Atheist, Cynic, Nocturnus, and later-career Death would spearhead this movement. At its height, bands like Cryptopsy, Nile, Decapitated, Necrophagist, and Gorguts would continue it. Tech death remains one of the most popular styles of death metal today, flourishing in its own scene with bands such as Obscura, Beyond Creation, and Archspire leading the pack.

Recommended technical death metal listening:
1. Atheist - Unquestionable Presence (1991)
2. Death - Symbolic (1995)
3. Gorguts - Obscura (1998)
4. Decapitated - Winds of Creation (2000)
5. Necrophagist - Onset of Putrefaction (2004)

Born from a combination of the tech death and Florida death scenes, brutal death metal is a genre that intends to fully up the ante of death metal's extremity. Triggered blast beats at high speeds, chunky and blazing riffing, and often including midtempo midsections are all characteristics of the genre. First wave bands like Suffocation, Mortician, Pyrexia, Cannibal Corpse, and Dying Fetus exemplify a slow-burning, hatred-fueled style of death metal based around raw aggression. Tech death bands like Cryptopsy and Nile soon enter the fray as well, not allowing impressive musicianship to downplay the sheer brutality and heaviness of their sound.

Recommended brutal death metal listening:
1. Cannibal Corpse - Tomb of the Mutilated (1992)
2. Suffocation - Pierced from Within (1995)
3. Cryptopsy - None So Vile (1996)
4. Nile - Black Seeds of Vengeance (2000)
5. Dying Fetus - Destroy the Opposition (2000)

Once the 1990s began, death metal had found numerous ways to up its extremity factors. However, a handful of bands in Gothenburg, Sweden had the blueprint for a new style of death metal that did the opposite. Known as "the Gothenburg three," the bands Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, and At the Gates shaped a new brand of death metal, known as melodic death metal. With the subtle aid of Carcass, Amorphis, and Edge of Sanity, melodeath quickly caught on as one of the most commercially successful and widespread genres of death metal. Invoking the melodies and harmonies of early NWOBHM bands like Iron Maiden, melodeath bands focused on both catchy hooks and memorable leads, as much as they would give focus on heavy riffs and brutal vocals and lyrics. This style reigns incredibly successful even today, with golden age bands like Children of Bodom, Amon Amarth, Wintersun, and Arch Enemy still going strong with newcomers like Insomnium and Mors Principium Est. From a less melodic but similarly elegant standpoint, symphonic death metal bands like Fleshgod Apocalypse and Septicflesh began appearing around this point in the timeline as well.

Recommended melodic death metal listening:
1. Carcass - Heartwork (1993)
2. At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul (1995)
3. Dark Tranquillity - The Gallery (1995)
4. In Flames - The Jester Race (1996)
5. Insomnium - Above the Weeping World (2006)

Similarly to how mid-career classic black metal bands like Darkthrone and Satyricon took considerable influence from the classics and began the black 'n' roll movement, death 'n' roll began around the same time. Bands like Entombed and Carcass released albums with seemingly random influence from classic hard rock and heavy metal bands, inspiring a handful of smaller death metal bands to ride this scattered trend. Bands such as Xysma, Gorefest, Death Breath, Helltrain, Doomriders, Black Breath, and Debauchery picked up the death 'n' roll torch and went with it all the way through the subsequent decades from the 1990s onward.

Recommended death 'n' roll listening:
1. Entombed - Wolverine Blues (1993)
2. Gorefest - Erase (1994)
3. Carcass - Swansong (1996)
4. Doomriders - Black Thunder (2005)
5. Death Breath - Stinking Up the Night (2006)

Death metal has its fair share of fusion genres as well. Combining with other prominent metal genres has led to debate as to whether or not to include these as true subgenres or simply spinoffs. Progressive death metal, blackened death metal, and deathcore will be the key three discussed here. Progressive death metal bands are often lumped into the tech death scene, though I find them to be distinct enough in style and execution to warrant quick discussion. Bands can be progressive without being overly technical. Many progressive death metal bands simply fall under or take influence from progressive metal as a whole, such as Cynic, Gojira, and Opeth. Blackened death metal is simply death metal with black metal influence. This includes Behemoth, Hate, Belphegor, and many other bands. Some confuse this term with war metal, a subgenre of black metal, though I think there's enough distinction to be made. Lastly, we have deathcore. No one is arguing (to my knowledge) that deathcore isn't a genre, but whether or not it is a subgenre of death metal or not is up for debate. Most would consider it a subgenre of metalcore, but the death metal influence is too obvious not to include the genre in the death metal discussion. Deathcore includes bands such as All Shall Perish, The Red Chord, Despised Icon, and Whitechapel.

Recommended progressive death metal listening:
1. Cynic - Focus (1993)
2. Edge of Sanity - Crimson (1996)
3. Opeth - Morningrise (1996)
4. Death - The Sound of Perseverance (1998)
5. Gojira - From Mars to Sirius (2005)

Recommended blackened death metal listening:
1. Necrophobic - The Nocturnal Silence (1993)
2. Hate - Awakening of the Liar (2003)
3. Behemoth - Demigod (2004)
4. Belphegor - Goatreich: Fleshcult (2005)
5. Akercocke - Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone (2005)

Recommended deathcore listening:
1. The Red Chord - Fused Together in Revolving Doors (2002)
2. All Shall Perish - The Price of Existence (2006)
3. Despised Icon - The Ills of Modern Man (2007)
4. Whitechapel - This is Exile (2008)
5. After the Burial - Rareform (2008)

The most recent development in death metal is the creation of slam death metal. What characterizes this genre, you ask? Well, my friend, are you familiar with the concept of "slamming?" You respond with, "Why Zach, who do you take me for? Of course I know what slamming is! It's that one riff at 2:52 in Suffocation's 'Liege of Inveracity' right?" You would be quite right, you scholar you. So get this: they really out here making an entire genre based around a single riff. Even stranger than that concept, is the fact that it's still getting oodles of new bands contributing and building off of this sound, and the genre continues to flourish. Drawing from the brutal death metal of Suffocation and Pyrexia, slam bands like Devourment, Internal Bleeding, Abominable Putridity, Katalepsy, 7 H.Target, and Cephalotripsy created a genre of death metal based in pure filth and horror. Slam themes draw from the goriest, most depraved recesses of humankind's morbid curiosity. As a result, brutal death metal continues to dig itself deeper and deeper underground.

Recommended slam death metal listening:
1. Suffocation - Effigy of the Forgotten (1991)
2. Internal Bleeding - Voracious Contempt (1995)
3. Devourment - Butcher the Weak (2006)
4. 7 H.Target - Fast-Slow Demolition (2012)
5. Katalepsy - Autopsychosis (2013)

Death metal, whether you like it or not, is an undeniable cultural phenomenon. Even folks who have never heard a lick of death metal in their lives know what the term means (generally speaking). Death metal has become synonymous with extreme music, festering in the depths of the underground music scene, lying in wait to steal your innocent Metallica-listening 13 year old and transform him into a metal purist... But fear not, horrified parental figures, because death metal is more than just a stereotype. It exists to shed light on the pits of the human mind, to open up the realm of dark fantasy into the musical world and ask "what if?" The sheer weight that death metal carries and the wide spread of all the ways the sound can be performed furthers death metal's lasting power. It's honestly amazing how bands like Scar Symmetry can be considered under the same genre umbrella as bands like Kraanium. Such is the way of death metal.