Death metal emerged as an extreme subgenre of thrash metal in the 1980s, taking the genre’s depressive lyrics and high-voltage guitar riffs and drum beats to new extremes.
Melodic Death Metal (known as Melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal music characterized by melodic guitar riffs with catchy hooks, coupled with less growling vocals than is common within its genre. Melodeath music was made popular by bands such as At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity and Carcass.
Theme
A theme is an idea or musical concept that guides the direction of a song. Death Metal bands like Cannibal Corpse frequently focus on death and horror themes like murder, decapitation and mutilation when writing their music; often pairing this theme with fast drumming and distorted guitars to convey this unnerving world.
Death metal music is famous for incorporating low-tuned, heavily distorted guitars, growled vocals, and similar to Sesame Street character Cookie Monster vocals into its sound. These aggressive vocals match with its aggressive lyrics; songs often reference specific acts of violence.
Death metal music can often be described as being an unpredictable musical genre with abrupt tempo and key changes that feature abrupt key switches; some bands even include chromatic chord progressions into their songs. Death metal music tends to be played fast at high speeds with double bass techniques like fast double bass techniques or blast beats becoming prominent features of death metal performances.
Melodic death metal (MDM) is a subgenre of death metal featuring more melodic elements. First popularized by bands like At the Gates, In Flames and Dark Tranquillity during the early 1990s, its popularity quickly spread when their albums featuring this style were released and other metal bands adopted its sounds.
Melodic death metal music tends to focus more on relatable realities than on antireligious and satanic themes found in classic Death Metal, with bands like Death and Suffocation writing songs about suicide, murder, rape and mutilation while Behemoth explore more philosophical aspects of satanism.
Death metal music can be seen by some as endorsing violence and cruelty; however, most musicians who play it are reasonable people just trying to create art; even its violent lyrics do not intentionally stir up violent reactions in listeners; it’s up to each individual listener to decide if what they enjoy is suitable for them.
Vocals
While many metal genres can accommodate any vocal style, death metal stands out by taking this to an extreme. Death metal music usually features vocal styles consisting of harsh growling or singing accompanied by dark or sinister lyrics featuring themes of horror such as war, murder, cannibalism, extreme sex and satanism.
Death metal combines elements from traditional heavy metal, like fast riffing and harmonic guitar lines, with low tunings, distortion, and deep growling vocals of death metal. Many bands have also implemented drum patterns similar to thrash metal’s double bass pattern as well as blast beats for added intensity; death metal musicians frequently utilize tremolo picking.
Death metal music may have long been an underground genre, yet its popularity has gained wide spread mainstream recognition with bands like Deicide, Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel. Unfortunately, however, death metal has also come under criticism for glorifying violence and fomenting hatred.
Melodeath, or melodic death metal, is an offshoot of death metal with an emphasis on melody over heaviness. Among its progenitors are Swedish bands such as Entombed, Dismember and Skydancer; its style has since become more accessible thanks to catchy riffs designed to get stuck in your head, galloping rhythms that lend themselves perfectly for headbanging, and melodies designed for repeated headbang-ability.
Melodeath acts can also combine aspects of other metal styles into their sound, with influences ranging from thrash metal and progressive rock being common influences. Musicians in melodic death metal bands may play other instruments besides guitar in other bands or switch instruments on various albums.
Other subgenres of death metal include brutal death metal, which features faster and more violent music than its counterparts. Musicians may go so far as creating abstract and complex music known as technical death metal; typically associated with Boston scene as it often blends thrash metal with jazzy or classical influences.
Riffs
Melodic Death Metal stands out from other genres with its heavier and darker sound, as well as the use of diminished scales, chromaticism and tritones – giving its sound greater depth and complexity. Furthermore, melodic death metal riffs often include lead phrases which traverse all or parts of a fretboard; sometimes moving up or down strings to add variation – creating more power to each note and sound more aggressive overall.
Heavy Metal features more harmonized guitar melodies than death metal and typically features growled or cleanly sung vocals instead of their usual growl. Bands such as Children of Bodom, Amon Amarth, The Black Dahlia Murder and Insomnium have all adopted this genre over time as it became widely popular throughout Scandinavia – becoming known as Gothenburg metal.
Melodic death metal pioneers like Carcass and Dark Tranquillity helped spread the genre, introducing it to mainstream attention with their early 1990s releases. Both bands influenced numerous Swedish melodic death metal bands as well as helping popularise Gothenburg metal scene, which later spread throughout North America. Melodic death metal remains popular today.
Instrumentation-wise, heavy bass guitar is usually present, alongside clean and gruff screamed vocals as well as high-pitched growled vocals. Drums may also feature heavily, with fast, pounding beats featuring intricate patterns and time signatures.
Riffs in melodic death metal may feature power chords as well as various types of chromaticism and other fascinating harmonies, often with blast beats to add intensity; in some instances the riffs may feature repeated notes or short chords to add an unpredictable element to their music.
Many melodic death metal songs feature melodies derived from the natural minor scale, typically played in unison with bass guitar riffs and featuring long ringing power chords in higher registers.
Bass
Death metal features lyrics depicting murder, rape and torture with accompanying sounds such as heavily distorted low tuned guitars with double bass techniques such as fast double bass beats. First popularised during the 1980s by bands such as Venom, Celtic Frost and Possessed leading other more extreme bands in its development; it has often been considered extreme music due to the violence it promotes while many bands can also be perceived as antireligious and the music generally considered inappropriate for younger listeners.
Death Metal developed out of thrash metal during the late ’80s, expanding upon its morbid obsessions and grimy themes to an even darker level. It often features growled vocals as well as heavy distorted and detuned riffs – bands such as Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel are known for their aggressive imagery and aggressive music style.
Heavy music with aggressive lyrics was never accepted by mainstream audiences; it remains an underground genre with bands opting to remain anonymous in order to remain unnoticed by mainstream audiences. However, its heavy sounds and imagery made it popular among teenagers and young adults seeking an outlet to express their aggression.
Carcass and Entombed became household names during a revival of death metal in the early 1990s, leading to melodic death metal being popularised by bands like At the Gates and Dark Tranquillity that created hybrids of death metal with melodic hard rock elements.
Blackened death metal is a subgenre that marries the dark, more fluid elements of black metal with the intensity and musicianship of death metal to form an explosive new sound that often has complex song structures and time signatures that defy musical logic. Popular examples include God Dethroned, Behemoth, Belphegor and Vital Remains as blackened death metal bands.
Technical death metal is a subgenre of death metal music that pushes the limits of speed and skill, often seen with bands such as Nile, Suffocation and Carcass. This style can often be described as musical improvisation with musicians often showing off their speed and musical theory skills throughout songs; generally it is considered harder to listen to than other styles.