| Death metal | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Thrash metal[1] Early black metal[2] |
| Cultural origins | Mid 1980s, United States (particularly Florida) |
| Typical instruments | Vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums |
| Mainstream popularity | Underground in 1980s, gradual rise until peaking at small to moderate in early 1990s. Increasing diversity and legitimacy since 2000s. |
| Subgenres | |
| Melodic death metal, technical death metal | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Deathcore, blackened death metal, death/doom, deathgrind, death 'n' roll | |
| Regional scenes | |
| Florida, New York, Sweden, Denmark, United Kingdom, Brazil, Japan, Poland | |
| Other topics | |
| Extreme metal, death growl, blast beat, list of death metal bands | |
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes.
Building from the musical structure of thrash metal and early black metal, death metal emerged during the mid 1980s.[2] Metal acts such as Slayer,[3][4] Kreator,[5] Celtic Frost,[6] and Venom were very important influences to the crafting of the genre.[2] Possessed[7] and Death,[8][9][10] along with bands such as Obituary, Carcass, Deicide and Morbid Angel are often considered pioneers of the genre.[11] In the late 1980s and early 1990s, death metal gained more media attention as popular genre niche record labels like Combat, Earache and Roadrunner began to sign death metal bands at a rapid rate.[12] Since then, death metal has diversified, spawning a variety of subgenres.[13]
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English heavy metal band Venom, from Newcastle, crystallized the elements of what later became known as thrash metal, death metal and black metal, with their 1981 album Welcome to Hell.[14] Their dark, blistering sound, harsh vocals, and macabre, proudly Satanic imagery proved a major inspiration for extreme metal bands.[15] Another highly influential band, Slayer, formed in 1981. Although the band was a thrash metal act, Slayer's music was more violent than their thrash contemporaries Metallica, Megadeth and Exodus.[16] Their breakneck speed and instrumental prowess combined with lyrics about death, violence, war and Satanism won Slayer a rabid cult following.[17] According to Allmusic, Slayer's third album Reign in Blood "inspired the entire death metal genre".[18] It had a big impact on the genre leaders.[16]
Possessed, a band that formed in the San Francisco Bay Area during 1983, was attributed by Allmusic as "connecting the dots" between thrash metal and death metal with their 1985 debut album, Seven Churches.[21] While attributed as having a Slayer influence,[22] current and former members of the band had actually cited Venom and Motorhead, as well as early work by Exodus, as the main influences of their sound.[23][24] Although the group had released only 2 studio albums in their formative years, they have been described by both music journalists and musicians as either being "monumental" in developing the death metal style,[25] or as being the first death metal band.[26][27][28] Earache Records noted that "....the likes of Trey Azagthoth and Morbid Angel based what they were doing in their formative years on the Possessed blueprint laid down on the legendary Seven Churches recording. Possessed arguably did more to further the cause of 'Death Metal' than any of the early acts on the scene back in the mid-late 80's."[29]
During the same period as the dawn of Possessed, a second influential metal band was formed in Florida: Death. Death, originally called Mantas, was formed during 1983 by Chuck Schuldiner, Kam Lee, and Rick Rozz. In 1984 they released their first demo entitled Death by Metal, followed by several more. The tapes circulated through the tape trader world, quickly establishing the band's name. With Death guitarist Schuldiner adopting vocal duties, the band made a major impact on the scene. The fast minor-key riffs and solos were complemented with fast drumming, creating a style that would catch on in tape trading circles.[30][31] Schuldiner has been attributed by Allmusic's Eduardo Rivadavia as being "widely recognized as the Father of Death Metal".[32] Death's 1987 debut release, Scream Bloody Gore, has been described by About.com's Chad Bowar as being the "evolution from thrash metal to death metal",[33] and "the first true death metal record" by the San Francisco Chronicle.[34]
Along with Possessed and Death, other pioneers of death metal in the United States include Autopsy, Necrophagia, Master, Morbid Angel, Massacre, Atheist, Post Mortem,[35][36][37] Obituary and Deicide.
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". Death metal spread to Sweden in the late 1980s, flourishing with pioneers such as Carnage, God Macabre, Entombed, Dismember and Unleashed. In the early 1990s, the rise of typically melodic "Gothenburg metal" was recognized, with bands such as Dark Tranquillity, At the Gates, and In Flames.
Following the original death metal innovators, new subgenres began by the end of the decade. British band Napalm Death became increasingly associated with death metal, in particular, on 1990's Harmony Corruption. This album displays aggressive and fairly technical guitar riffing, complex rhythmics, a sophisticated growling vocal delivery by Mark "Barney" Greenway, and socially aware lyrical subjects, leading to a merging with the "grindcore" subgenre. Other bands contributing significantly to this early movement include Britain's Bolt Thrower and Carcass, and New York's Suffocation.
To close the circle, Death released their fourth album Human in 1991, an example of modern death metal. Death's founder Schuldiner helped push the boundaries of uncompromising speed and technical virtuosity, mixing technical and intricate rhythm guitar work with complex arrangements and emotive guitar solos.[38] Other examples 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 present: abrupt tempo and count changes, on occasion extremely fast drumming, morbid lyrics and growling vocal delivery.
Earache Records, Relativity Records and Roadrunner Records became the genre's most important labels,[39] with Earache releasing albums by Carcass, Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, and Entombed, and Roadrunner releasing albums by Obituary, and Pestilence. Although these labels had not been death metal labels, initially, 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, and Peaceville. Many of these labels would go on to achieve successes in other genres of metal throughout the 1990s.
In September 1990, Death's manager Eric Greif held one of the first North American death metal festivals, Day of Death, in Milwaukee suburb Waukesha, Wisconsin, and featured 26 bands including Autopsy, Broken Hope, Hellwitch, Obliveon, Revenant, Viogression, Immolation, Atheist, and Cynic.[40]
Death metal's popularity achieved its initial peak between the 1992–93 era, with some bands such as Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse and Obituary enjoying mild commercial successes. However, the genre as a whole never broke in to the mainstream. The genre's mounting popularity may have been partly responsible for a strong rivalry between Norwegian black metal and Swedish death metal scenes. Fenriz of Darkthrone has noted that Norwegian black metal musicians were "fed up with the whole death metal scene" at the time.[41] Death metal diversified in the 1990s, spawning a rich variety of subgenres which still have a large "underground" following at the present.
The setup most frequently used within the death metal genre is two guitarists, a bass player, a vocalist and a drummer often using "hyper double-bass blast beats".[42][43] Although this is the standard setup, bands have been known to occasionally incorporate other instruments such as electronic keyboards.[44]
The genre is often identified by fast, highly distorted and droptuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking. The percussion is usually aggressive, and powerful; exceedingly fast drum patterns frequently add to the complexity of the genre.[45]
Death metal is known for its abrupt tempo, key, and time signature changes. 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.
Death metal vocals are often guttural roars, grunts, snarls, and low growls colloquially known as death growls. Death growling is mistakenly thought to be a form of screaming using the lowest vocal register known as vocal fry, however vocal fry is actually a form of overtone screaming, and while growling can be performed this way by experienced vocalists who use the fry screaming technique, "true" death growling is in fact created by an altogether different technique.[46] The three major methods of harsh vocalization used in the genre are often mistaken for each other, encompassing vocal fry screaming, false chord screaming, and "true" death growls.[47] Growling is sometimes also referred to as Cookie Monster vocals, tongue-in-cheek, due to the vocal similarity to the voice of the popular Sesame Street character of the same name.[48] Although often criticized, death growls serve the aesthetic purpose of matching death metal's aggressive lyrical content.[49] High-pitched screaming is occasionally utilized in death metal, being heard in songs by Death, Exhumed, Dying Fetus, Cannibal Corpse, Job for a Cowboy and Deicide.
The lyrical themes of death metal may invoke slasher film-stylized violence,[50] but may also extend to topics like satanism, anti-religion, occultism, Nature, mysticism, philosophy, Science Fiction, and politics.[51][52] Although violence may be explored in various other genres as well, death metal may elaborate on the details of extreme acts, including mutilation, dissection, torture, rape and necrophilia. Sociologist Keith Kahn-Harris commented this apparent glamorization of violence may be attributed to a "fascination" with the human body that all people share to some degree, a fascination which mixes desire and disgust.[53] Heavy metal author Gavin Baddeley also stated 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.[54] 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.[2] This explanation has brought such musicians under fire from activists internationally, who claim that this 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.[2]
According to Alex Webster, bassist of Cannibal Corpse, "The gory lyrics are probably not, as much as people say, [what's keeping 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."[55]
The most popular theory of the subgenre's christening is Possessed's 1984 demo, Death Metal; the song from the eponymous demo would also be featured on the band's 1985 debut album, Seven Churches.[56] Possessed vocalist/bassist Jeff Becerra said he coined the term in early 1983 for a high school English class assignment.[57] Another possible origin is a fanzine called Death Metal, started by Thomas Fischer and Martin Ain of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. The name was later given to the 1984 compilation Death Metal released by Noise Records.[58][59] The term might also have originated from other recordings. A demo released by Death in 1984 is called Death by Metal.[60]
It should be noted that cited examples are not necessarily exclusive to one particular style. Many bands can easily be placed in two or more of the following categories, and a band's specific categorization is often a source of contention due to personal opinion and interpretation.
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 examples; the former went so far as to include jazz-style drum solos on albums, while the latter incorporated elements of jazz fusion. Nile have also incorporated Egyptian music and Middle Eastern themes into their work, while Alchemist have incorporated psychedelia along with Aboriginal music. Some groups, such as Nightfall, Septic Flesh, and Eternal Tears of Sorrow, have incorporated keyboards and symphonic elements, creating a fusion of symphonic metal and death metal, sometimes referred to as symphonic death metal.
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