Death metal

It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, featuring double kick and blast beat techniques; minor keys or atonality; abrupt tempo, key, and time signature changes; and chromatic chord progressions.

[3] The lyrical themes of death metal may include slasher film-style violence,[4] political conflict, religion, nature, philosophy, true crime and science fiction.

Niche record labels like Combat, Earache, and Roadrunner began to sign death metal bands at a rapid rate.

Technical death metal is a complex style, with uncommon time signatures, atypical rhythms, and unusual harmonies and melodies.

Their dark, blistering sound, harsh vocals, and macabre, proudly Satanic imagery proved a major inspiration for extreme metal bands.

[22] Their breakneck speed and instrumental prowess combined with lyrics about death, violence, war, and Satanism won Slayer a cult following.

[23] According to Mike McPadden, Hell Awaits, Slayer's second album, "largely invent[ed] much of the sound and fury that would evolve into death metal.

[39][40] 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.

"[44] According to Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic, "Venom and Slayer redefined the extent to which a metal band could align itself with all things evil during the beginning of the decade, but Morbid Angel made these two groups sound like children's music.

[48] Death metal's popularity achieved its initial peak during 1992–1993, with some bands such as Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse enjoying mild commercial success.

[49] In the 2000s, a number of bands in the hardcore punk scene, including Black Breath and Trap Them began to incorporate elements of death metal into their sound.

[50] This was followed by a wave of bands expanding upon the death-doom style of Incantation while incorporating elements of ambient music, including Dead Congregation and Necros Christos.

[50] Tomb Mold, Necrot, Undergang and Blood Incantation were some of the earliest bands to gain traction in the 2010s, with the COVID-19 pandemic amplifying the amount of attention drawn to the movement, through Cryptic Shift, Slimelord and Vaticinal Rites.

Xibalba and Fuming Mouth were two of the earliest groups, with the wave being solidified by Gatecreeper, 200 Stab Wounds, Creeping Death,[56] Sanguisugabogg and Kruelty.

[59] 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".

[65] The lyrical themes of death metal may invoke slasher film-stylised violence,[66] but may also extend to topics like religion (sometimes including Satanism), occultism, Lovecraftian horror, nature, mysticism, mythology, theology, philosophy, science fiction, and politics.

[5] Although violence may be explored in various other genres as well, death metal may elaborate on the details of extreme acts, including blood and gore, psychopathy, delirium, mutilation, mutation, dissection, exorcism, torture, rape, cannibalism, and necrophilia.

[20] 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.

[67] 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.

[7] 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 glamorisation of such violence without social context or awareness of why such imagery is stimulating.

[76] Another possible origin was a magazine called Death Metal, started by Thomas Fischer and Martin Ain of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost.

[78] Examples of blackened death-doom bands include Morast,[78] Faustcoven,[78] The Ruins of Beverast,[78] Bölzer,[78] Necros Christos,[78] Harvest Gulgaltha,[79] Dragged into Sunlight,[80] Hands of Thieves,[81] and Soulburn.

[82][83] Kim Kelly, journalist from Vice, has called Faustcoven as "one of the finest bands to ever successfully meld black, death, and doom metal into a cohesive, legible whole.

[94] Some bands who have played this style include Dissection,[94][93][95] Sacramentum,[94][93] Naglfar,[94] God Dethroned,[96] Dawn,[94] Unanimated,[94] Thulcandra,[93][94] Skeletonwitch[97] and Cardinal Sin.

[99][102] War metal bands include Blasphemy,[98][99][102] Archgoat,[99] Impiety,[99] In Battle,[103] Beherit, Crimson Thorn,[104] Bestial Warlust,[105] and Zyklon-B.

[123] Typically, electric guitars are heavily distorted and dark ambient aspects such as keyboards or synthesizers are often used to create a dreamlike atmosphere.

[127] Characteristics of death metal, such as fast drumming (including blast beats), down-tuned guitars, tremolo picking, growled vocals, and high-pitched shrieks are combined with the breakdowns of metalcore.

[133][134] Some notable examples of these genres are Brujeria, Cattle Decapitation,[135] Cephalic Carnage, Pig Destroyer,[136] Circle of Dead Children, Rotten Sound, Gut,[137] and Cock and Ball Torture.

[140][141] The genre gained notoriety in Bali, Indonesia, where it attracted criticism of being related to the accelerated tourism development on the island and the superseding of its local culture, particularly by Jakartan one.

[152] Unlike most other death metal, melodeath usually features screams instead of growls, slower tempos, and much stronger emphasis on melody.