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Description of Death Metal

 
Out of the aggressive music and violent lyrics of Thrash/Speed Metal acts like Slayer rose Death Metal, a dark specter that played faster, with ultraviolent subject matter. In the '80s, bands from the U.K. (such as Napalm Death and Carcass) and from Florida (Death, Deicide, Obituary and Morbid Angel) created sounds appropriate for snuff films. Wallowing in gore, these bands used hyperbolically violent lyrics. Death Metal album covers are unmistakable for their fantastic, gruesome imagery.

Death Metal is a low-rumbling beast, using down-tuned guitars to emphasize the bass, while the vocals rant ghastly tales in a deep, throaty, often incomprehensible Cookie Monster growl. Speedy blast beats move the sound at a velocity that challenges the threshold of human ability exemplified by technical masters like Napalm Death drummer Mick Harris -- as much an athlete as a musician -- and the low, rhythmic blur of bands such as Gorefest. Though Death Metal is largely unevolved, its more political and punk elements spawned Grindcore. In Scandinavia, Death Metal bands became more gothic in tone, addressing Satanism, paganism, and Viking lore, and eventually mutating into Black Metal.

 

Death Metal Key Tracks

 
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1. Burial Extol
2. Year One Now Entombed
3. Total Death Kreator
4. Sweet Wound Sour Still Breathing
 

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Death Metal Key Artists

 
Atheist

Starting out a thrash band in
the 1980s, Atheist evolved
into one of the most
adventurous progressive
metals working today.

Cancer

Formed in Britain in the late
'80s, Cancer make gentle,
quiet and friendly music for
Pat Boone fans.

Cannibal Corpse

One of the most extreme
death metal bands ever. We
aren't even allowed to print
most of their best song
titles. Formed in Buffalo,...

Carcass

In the mid-1980s, Carcass
mystified those who didn't
understand why "Vomited
Anal Tract" is one of the
best song titles ever. Napa...

Cryptopsy

This brutal death metal band
emerged from Montreal in
1993. Cryptopsy are not for
the faint of heart.

Death

Led by Father of Death
Metal Chuck Schuldiner,
Death gave rise to both that
genre and Grindcore
before going semi-Goth.

Deicide

Deicide are so evil, so truly
evil, that it's probably a bad
idea to even look at their
album covers. Even though
singer Glen Benton has an...

Entombed

Combining the extremity of
grindcore with the
intricacy of Floridian death
metal, Entombed put
Scandinavian metal on the...

Gorguts

Gorguts is the very outer
limits of extreme metal,
constructing songs so
mathematical you need a
degree to buy their recor...

Immolation

N.Y.C.-based death metal
band active in the mid-1980s
and early '90s.

Incantation

Incantation incorporate
elements of grindcore and
death and black metal into
their brutal, malignant
attack. The band formed i...

Lamb of God

Lamb of God preach the
new American gospel of
death metal. Lamb of God
was originally called Burn
the Priest. The founding...

Malevolent Creation

Malevolent Creation's first
two records were
considered major steps in
the expansion of American
death metal's borders. Lik...

Morbid Angel

Early, merciless and
essential Death Metal band
from 1980s Florida. Morbid
Angel spawned the whole
scene down there.

Nile

Egypt-obsessed Death Metal
band from South Carolina,
Nile plays some of the
fastest, most absurdly great
music ever.

Obituary

The kings of Florida's
incredibly prolific metal
scene, Obituary produce
some of the most inhuman
noises you will ever hear....

Pestilence

Formed in Holland in the
1980s, this short-lived,
under-recognized band had
a hand in expanding death
metal's borders.

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