Technical death metal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Technical Death Metal | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins: | Death metal, Progressive metal, Jazz/Fusion and often (but not always) Latin American and European classical music |
| Cultural origins: | Late 1980s, United States |
| Typical instruments: | Electric guitar - Bass guitar - Drums |
| Mainstream popularity: | Rare, except among some Death metal fans |
| Other topics | |
| Timeline of heavy metal | |
Technical death metal, or tech death for short, is a term used to describe bands in the subgenre death metal. As death metal bands began further exploring the genre, they experimented with a variety of song structures, tempos, and playing techniques from other genres to create music that changed the style. As a result of such experimentation, such as the works of Cynic and Cryptopsy, the subform of tech death established itself as a complex and varied musical style.
A general explanation of technical death metal is that it incorporates a variety of influences from other genres of music to compose music that is thought to be unexpected, difficult to play and difficult to comprehend. Songs tend to be written without distinct choruses, with varied or layered time signatures, and sometimes dissonant or atonal guitar riffs. Frequently the result is the appearance of chaos followed or surrounded by a thick groove.
The experimentation of death metal bands started in the late 1980s and early 1990s in some parts of Morbid Angel, Suffocation, Monstrosity, and Vital Remains albums.
The subform had its forefather in the early 90's when Atheist's debut album Piece of Time and The Key by Nocturnus came out (Both in 1990). Other early technical death albums are Considered Dead (1991) by Gorguts, Nespithe (1993) by Demilich and Focus (1993) by Cynic. While Cynic became recognised for their technicality, it wasn't fully understood until the mid 1990s when other bands created music that furthered what were then the borders of death metal. By Cryptopsy's 1996 release of None So Vile, it was thought that certain bands were creating music that was too varied and technical to be generalized as standard death metal.
While there are many bands that would cite either band as an influence, some bands are considered tech death because they defy categorization as standard death metal. The result of a plethora of death metal bands is that any experimentation that uses different types of technical playing abilities in the genre is considered technical death metal.
Similar genres have been emerging as a result of the current metalcore trend. Mathcore (Also known as technical metalcore) are bands that use a lot of breakdowns from the hardcore scene while using many elements from genres considered extreme metal. The term "mathcore" generally refers to bands that incorporate unorthodox rhythms, chord progressions, and different elements of technical death metal.
[edit] Bands
Some bands of this genre include:
- Aborted
- Alarum
- Anata
- Arsis
- Atheist (death metal; jazz/fusion elements)
- Beneath the Massacre
- Capharnaum (death metal)
- Confessor (technical doom metal)
- Coroner
- Cynic (jazz/fusion elements)
- Cryptopsy
- Darkane
- Death (death/progressive metal)
- Decapitated
- Demilich
- Devolved
- Dungortheb
- Foreign Objects (band)
- Gorguts
- Gorod
- In-Quest
- Lethargy (progressive thrash metal)
- Lost Soul
- Lykathea Aflame
- Kataklysm (earlier work)
- Martyr
- Massacra
- Necrophagist
- Negativa
- Neuraxis
- Nile
- Nocturnus (sci-fi tech Death/Thrash)
- Psycroptic
- Psyopus
- Quo Vadis
- Spawn of Possession (brutal death metal)
- Suffocation
- Theory in Practice
- Vehemence
- Visceral Bleeding
- With Passion
