Death Metal

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Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes.

Building from the musical structure of thrash metal, death metal emerged during the mid 1980s. It was mainly inspired by thrash metal acts like Slayer, Kreator and Celtic Frost. Along with the band Death and its frontman Chuck Schuldiner (who is often referred to as "the father of death metal"), bands like Possessed and Morbid Angel are often considered pioneers of the genre. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, death metal gained more media attention as popular record labels like Earache and Roadrunner began to sign death metal bands at a rapid rate. Since then, death metal has diversified, spawning a rich variety of subgenres.

Inclusive death metal music subgenres:

  • Brutal death metal See: http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/subgenre/brutal-death-metal
  • Melodic death metal See: http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/subgenre/melodic-death-metal
  • Swedish death metal, also referred to as Scandinavian death metal, should not be confused with melodeath. This genre is characterized by its focus on raw energy and aggression. The guitars are typically extremely distorted and downtuned, and, in addition to traditional death metal elements, artists within this subgenre also draw on hardcore punk and early thrash metal. While not restricted to Sweden, the genre is called death metal because it was largely popularized by death metal artists from Sweden, such as Carnage, Nihilist, early Entombed, Dismember, Grave, and Unleashed. Seeing that many of the prominent artists within this genre were located in around Stockholm, it is sometimes referred to as the Stockholm sound in contrast with the Gothenburg sound. While big in the 1990s, the popularity of this genre waned in the 2000s, as melodeath became more popular, but recently a number of bands based in Eastern Europe, such as Brutally Deceased and Morbider, have taken up the Stockholm sound and are bringing it back onto the scene.
  • Death-grind combines elements from death metal with element of grindcore. From grindcore, the genre inherits song brevity (with the average length being 2:30), emphasis on fast picking and blastbeating as well as the lyrical content (which means that a lot of death-grind deals with gore, pornography or socio-politics). From death metal, it inherits song complexity and focus on performance and technique, although guitar solos are not as common as in other styles of death metal. When Napalm Death started to gravitate towards death metal from pure grindcore, they developed a death-grind sound, and they are probably the most influential band in the death-grind genre. Other death-grind acts are Lock Up, Terrorizer, and Pig Destroyer. On MMA, those death-grind artists and releases that lean more towards grindcore are included under grindcore, while those that lean more towards death metal are included under death metal.
  • Technical/progressive (or tech/prog) death metal See: http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/subgenre/technical-death-metal
  • Blackened death metal combines death metal and black metal, of lyrically the focus is typically on Satanism, occultism and anti-religion. Behemoth is considered one of the most influential blackened death metal bands.
  • Death ‘n’ roll See: http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/subgenre/death-n-roll


The following subgenres are NOT listed under death metal in the MMA:

  • Grindcore: has its own sugbenre section.
  • Death-thrash: included under thrash metal.
  • Deathcore: included under metalcore.
  • Doom-death: included under doom metal.


Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_metal

Written by Time Signature.

Sub-genre collaborators:
  • Nightfly (leader)
  • Vim Fuego
  • TheHeavyMetalCat

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death metal Music Reviews

ARGHOSLENT Hornets of the Pogrom

Album · 2008 · Death Metal
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UMUR
"Hornets of the Pogrom" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US death metal act Arghoslent. The album was released through Drakkar Productions in March 2008. It´s the successor to "Incorrigible Bigotry" from 2002 and features a couple of lineup changes since the predecessor as bassist Kommando has been replaced by Einzelganger and lead vocalist Von Demonicus has been replaced by The Genocider. Arghoslent have not toned down their lyrics dealing with neo-Nazi/white Supremacy topics, endorsement of the transatlantic slave trade, and hateful rants against jews, so consider yourself warned before reading on/listening to the album.

"Incorrigible Bigotry (2002)" was quite a few steps up in quality from "Galloping Through the Battle Ruins (1998)" and "Hornets of the Pogrom" actually accomplishes being an even better quality release. Stylistically this is melodic death metal with a great drive and some convincing aggressive growling vocals. The album is loaded with killer riffs (both fast tremolo riffs and heavy riffs), harmony guitar melodies and leads, and a great raw and brutal energy/power. While this is old school influenced death metal to the bone, there is a strong traditional heavy metal influence in the music too, which is both audible in the way some of the riffs are constructed but also because of the many melodic elements featured on the album.

The musicianship is strong and I especially enjoy how the drums are played, driving the music forward with great aggression and power. The growling vocals are relatively one-dimensional in nature, but they are well sounding, brutal, and fairly intelligible, suiting the instrumental part of the music perfectly. "Hornets of the Pogrom" features a powerful, detailed, and overall very well sounding production, which does exactly what the best productions do...provide the material with a golden platform to shine.

White Supremist lyrics and image aside, "Hornets of the Pogrom" is a high quality death metal album with strong melodic sensibilities. Arghoslent are even relatively unique sounding, although the elements they use to create their sound are hardly original. They manage to combine all elements to a sound of their own though, and the final result is pretty damn brilliant. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

ARGHOSLENT Incorrigible Bigotry

Album · 2002 · Death Metal
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UMUR
"Incorrigible Bigotry" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US death metal act Arghoslent. The album was released through Drakkar Productions in October 2002. Almost to the day four years after the release of the band´s debut full-length studio album "Galloping Through the Battle Ruins (1998)".

The lyrics and the band´s image are as controversial as ever with neo-Nazi/white Supremacy topics, endorsement of the transatlantic slave trade, and hateful rants against jews. As a reviewer you can take two stances on such topics, which is a purely subjective one, condemning Arghoslent for their hateful output, or the more objective one, and mainly talk about the music, which is the one I´ll take...

...and there are plenty to talk about other than the controversial lyrics, as Arghoslent are a very well playing band, performing their music with great technical skill and a burning passion and conviction. Stylistically the material on "Incorrigible Bigotry" continue the melodic death metal style (not melodeath) of "Galloping Through the Battle Ruins (1998)", but it´s audible that Arghoslent have spent the four years between the two releases honing both their playing and their songwriting skills, because "Incorrigible Bigotry" is not just one step up from its predecessor but rather two or three steps up in quality. The same goes for the sound production, which is professional, raw, and powerful and suits the material perfectly.

The music features tempo changes, heavy riffs, fast galloping riffs and rhythms, blistering leads and harmonies, and some really convincing snarling growling vocals in front. This is high quality death metal and there´s even a touch of originality to the sound which you don´t always hear on death metal releases from artists few people have ever heard about. Usually there is a good reason only a few people have heard about a band and even fewer call themselves fans, but that´s not the case with Arghoslent, who could easily have been more recognised had it not been for their ideological choices.

So upon conclusion "Incorrigible Bigotry" is a quality melodic death metal release by Arghoslent and as I have chosen to look past the lyrical content and not let it affect my rating of the album, I´ll rate this album purely on the quality of the output, which I think is somewhere between a 3.5 star (70%) and a 4 star (80%) rating. I know some people will question why a reviewer who doesn´t share the opinions of an artists like Arghoslent would review their releases, and thereby in part support their music/cause, but I don´t see it that way. As I said above I´ll review anything with an objective mindset, and I´ll let the reader decide if this is something they´d spend their time listening to.

ABSCESS Damned and Mummified

Album · 2004 · Death Metal
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UMUR
"Damned and Mummified" is the 4th full-length studio album by US death metal act Abscess. The album was released through Red Stream, Inc. in October 2004. It´s the successor to "Through the Cracks of Death" from 2002 and features one lineup change as bassist Joe Allen is back in the fold. Allen temporarily left Abscess in 2000 but returned in 2002. He did not perform on "Through the Cracks of Death" though, where the bass tracks were recorded by the other three members of the band.

Stylistically the material on "Damned and Mummified" features very few surprises if you are already familiar with the preceding releases and Abscess old school death metal sound with hardcore/punk leanings. Abscess formed after Autopsy split-up in the mid-90s and is pretty much a continuation of that band, but with a little more emphasis on hardcore/punk elements. This is still filthy, gory/horror lyric drenched old school death metal delivered in the most raw and organic manner possible. Sometimes on the verge of sounding noisy and chaotic, and often taken down to a heavy, brutal, doomy crawl. Lead vocalist/drummer Chris Reifert has always been an aquired taste, with his completely over the top brutal and asylum bound (yet intelligible) growling vocals. Personally I think he is one of the greatest death metal vocalists on the scene and his delivery is both passionate, convincing, and varied.

"Through the Cracks of Death (2002)" featured a rather thin sounding production job, which unfortunately meant it didn´t have the impact it could have had, but thankfully the sound production on "Damned and Mummified" is stronger. It´s a raw, brutal, and organic sounding production, which suits the material perfectly. Abscess are well playing too and upon conclusion "Damned and Mummified" is a good quality death metal release. Granted Abscess sound a little stagnated at this point, but they do what they do with conviction. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

ABSCESS Through the Cracks of Death

Album · 2002 · Death Metal
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UMUR
"Through the Cracks of Death" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US death metal act Abscess. The album was released through Peaceville Records in May 2002. It´s the successor to "Tormented" from 2000 and features one lineup change as bassist Joe Allen temporarily stepped out of the band from 2000-2002 and didn´t rejoin in time for the recording sessions. The bass tracks were therefore recorded by the other three members of Abscess (who recorded three to four tracks each).

Abscess was formed by former members of Autopsy and Hexx. Especially the former was quite the prolific act on the early US death metal scene, but Abscess never reached more than underground recognition and struggled throughout their carrer to escape the shadow of Autopsy.

Stylistically the material on "Through the Cracks of Death" continue the raw and filthy old school gore/horrer themed death metal of "Tormented (2002)". Abscess still incorporate hardcore/punk influences, and there actually haven´t been much musical development between the two releases. There are other differences though, and it´s especially the two sound productions which are very different sounding. "Tormented (2002)" featured a dark, organic, and murky sound production, but "Through the Cracks of Death" features a less raw and also less organic sounding production job. Especially the drums feature a more dry and less heavy tone, which provide the material with a very different atmosphere from its direct predecessor.

To my ears the sound production unfortunately also means that "Through the Cracks of Death" is a step down in quality from "Tormented (2002)". It´s simply a less interesting album to listen to and it is in large part due to a sound production which doesn´t do the material justice. There are still several great death metal tracks on "Through the Cracks of Death" (I for example really enjoy "Tomb of the Unknown Junkie") and although I ultimately prefer "Tormented (2002)" to this one, it doesn´t mean "Through the Cracks of Death" is a bad quality release. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

DESULTORY Through Aching Aeons

Album · 2017 · Death Metal
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UMUR
"Through Aching Aeons" is the 5th full-length studio album by melodic Swedish death metal act Desultory. The album was released through Pulverised Records in June 2017. It´s the successor to "Counting Our Scars" from 2010 and features the same four-piece lineup who recorded the predecessor. In fact this lineup have been playing together since 1997, but under the Zebulon monicker from 1997-2008, after which they opted to change their band name back to Desultory (who originally disbanded in 1996). So "Through Aching Aeons" actually marks the 20 year anniversary for this lineup.

Desultory formed in 1989 and were pretty active in the early and mid-90s releasing three studio albums in the years between 1993 and 1996. Starting out playing melodic old school Swedish death metal and ending up playing a raw heavy rock/metal/death´n´roll style on "Swallow the Snake (1996)". They continued to play the latter style of music in Zebulon, but when they revived the Desultory name in 2009 they also opted for a musical change back to a melodic death metal sound. "Counting Our Scars (2010)" is a little more contemporary sounding with thrash and heavy grooves than the music style on their early albums, but still a sort of return to the roots album.

That musical direction is continued on "Through Aching Aeons", which is actually an even more "back to the roots" type album than "Counting Our Scars (2010)" was. Lead vocalist/guitarist Klas Morberg has returned to a more aggressive growling delivery (fully intelligible), and the guitar tone brings back memories of early 90s Sunlight Studio productions. Desultory manage to strike a good balance between old school melodic death metal ideas, and a couple of more contemporary musical ideas (thrash riffs and heavy grooves). "Through Aching Aeons" is overall pretty old school though. Desultory always mastered melancholic melodies and atmospheres while still bringing great rawness and power to their music, but on "Through Aching Aeons" you can add darkness to that equation, because this is a pitch black album.

Compared to their early releases there is less focus on soaring melodic guitar leads and harmonies (although they are still present in the music), and more focus on raw power (there are even some blastbeat sections on the album), heavy riffs (and faster thrashy riffs), aggression, and dark atmosphere (check out the intro and reoccuring cold melancholic guitar work on "Beneath the Bleeding Sky"). So upon conclusion "Through Aching Aeons" is what I had hoped "Counting Our Scars (2010)" would have been. The latter mentioned is also a good quality album, but "Through Aching Aeons" is in a whole other league. I hope it´s not too late for Desultory to finally get the recognition they deserve, because they are definitely one of those gems who deserve more attention, and "Through Aching Aeons" could be the album which brings them back on the map (or at least it should be). A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved).

death metal movie reviews

NAPALM DEATH Punishment in Capitals

Movie · 2003 · Death Metal
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Kingcrimsonprog
Punishment In Capitals is a 2002 live DVD (also available on CD) by British extreme metal icons Napalm Death, released after their triumphant Enemy Of The Music Business album won back the praise of fans and critics after their experimental string of records in the nineties.

The band play a mixture of every era in their career up to that point, the catchy nineties singles ‘Breed To Breathe,’ and ‘Greed Killing,’ sit side by side with mid era death inspired fare such as ‘Suffer The Children,’ and ‘World Keeps Turning,’ which blends against the band’s early grindcore material era like ‘Scum,’ ‘Lucid Fairy Tale,’ and the famous ‘You Suffer,’ in a set list which also leans heavily on the band’s then newest, and still arguably best album Enemy Of The Music Business.

Standout tracks include an energetic version of ‘Hung,’ as well as ‘Can’t Play Won’t Play,’ and ‘Narcoleptic,’ which was as yet unreleased at the time of recording. With a set-list of this caliber, Punishment In Capitals should be a rewarding viewing experience for most Napalm Death fans and would serve well as an introduction to the band for potential fans as well.

Interestingly, the DVD recording retains all the dead air, waiting out-of-breathe and other non-musical moments in between tracks, presenting you the gig as it actually happened and not inter-cutting the show with outside material to create some false sense of professionalism or excitement. This is a double edged sword as it is commendable but may still irritate viewers raised on slicker, fast paced major label DVD releases.

The production is fairly good in terms of audio recording quality and mix, with simple camera work and editing covering the visual side of things. Although not the most impressive looking DVD ever released, it serves well for Napalm Death to deliver an energetic a sweaty performance. My only major gripe is that for the first half of the show shots of drummer Danny Herrera are very few and far between, but this is remedied later on.

There are a fair amount of extras too, including two bootleg quality recordings in Tokyo from 1996, a six track selection from a Chilean gig in 1997 as well as a hidden Easter Egg (a live-in-a-TV-studio version of ‘If The Truth Be Known,’ accessible by making the image’s eyes glow red my navigating the menu.) In addition to the musical extras there is also a documentary, which while not masterfully crafted is worth at least one watch, covering topics such as Barney’s haircut, the effect of foreign food on the bowels and the charity for which this gig was in aide of.

Overall, Punishment In Capitals is a worthwhile DVD purchase that will give you a good selection of Napalm Death material, both in the concert itself and with a nice selection of extras. Definitely recommended viewing for fans of the band.

ZYKLON Storm Detonation Live

Movie · 2006 · Death Metal
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Kingcrimsonprog
This DVD captures Norwegian death metal band Zyklon on their 'Aeon,' era tour Live; the tracklisting on the wonderful but slightly short DVD is made up of tracks from the bands excellent first two albums.

The band are on top form and deliver the material fantastically live, They never miss a step, and are ruthlessly professional.

Song's from the band's debut album are much better here with new singer Tony 'SecthDamon,' Ingebrigtsen. Who has a better voice to match the material than Daemon did.

Furthermore the audio and visual quality is great, and apart from a little intro interrupting the first 20 seconds of fan favorite 'Core Solution,' there's very little to complain about whatsoever.

Indeed, with such a brilliant performance, a good production and an excellent track listing, this DVD is a real must-have for any Zyklon fan.

AMON AMARTH Wrath of the Norsemen

Movie · 2006 · Melodic Death Metal
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Kingcrimsonprog
Talk about value for money, from a band like Amon Amarth you wouldn’t expect them to be able to afford such a crazily generous and in depth DVD package when some of the bigger bands can’t afford anything even half this good.

The Set comes in a glorious 3 DVD digipak with detailed artwork, a full booklet and an awesome little viking crown that keeps it closed. Then you get Five full concerts (with 22, 16,13, 11 and 9 tracks respectively) and a documentary.

The main feature; a 22 track concert from Cologne in 2005 is an incredible affair with crystal clear sound, Huge guitar tones, amazingly heavy drums and nice clunky bass. The camera work is of a higher quality than even some of the biggest metal bands’ DVDs and again the sound is immense.

Then theres the performance, the band are absolutely electric delivering furious renditions of material from all eras a their career from the massive ‘Amon Amarth,’ and ‘Fate of Norns,’ to catchy closer ‘Death In Fire,’ and the crowd just lap it up.

Vocalist Johan Hegg absolutely commands the stage, engaging the crowd at every opportunity and singing his heart out while the band hammer through their classics like ‘heavy,’ is going out of style.

On top of all that you have a great light show, huge Amon Amath banners, more pyro than a kiss concert and an interlude with about thirty Viking reenactors sword fighting on stage! That feature is worth the money alone, the show is probably one of the best metal concerts on the market and I can’t stress how good the sound and picture are; then on top of all that you get the rest of the set, featuring virtually ever Amon Amarth song ever written, and performances from ‘Waken Open Air festival,’ ‘Summer Breeze Festival,’ and two more indoor concerts in Europe.

If you like Amon Amarth Buy this right now. If you don’t, you will within thirty seconds of watching this.

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