The Death metal reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
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Death metal

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Cover of Celtic Frost's 'Into the Pandemonium'

Death metal is a form of heavy metal music which emerged in the US (especially Florida), and Canada in the 1980s. Some important bands are Death, Morbid Angel, Suffocation and Cannibal Corpse.

The boundaries of death metal are notoriously difficult to define. Some fans and musicians have a firm concept of the genre, its categories and subcategories. Others consider such categorization limiting or useless. There is often crossover from one metal genre to another, and the influence of non-metal genres is not uncommon.

Death metal is usually identified by extreme brutality and speed. The vocals, or growls, as they're often called, are rough and/or incomprehensible and they usually communicate macabre subject matter. This style of music is known for very abrupt tempo and count changes, and extremely fast drumwork. Most bands of this use guitars and drums, often two rhythm guitars, a bass guitar, a drum set, and a vocalist. Some bands add incidental synthesizers for effect.

During the 1990s, death metal grew in many directions, spawning a rich variety of subgenres, including the following:

Grindcore is considered by some to be an even more extreme variant of death metal. However, many fans of grindcore and music historians would place it in a genre by itself, since the genre historically developed in parellel to death metal (both developed in the 1980s from thrash metal), each influencing the development of the other, but with early grindcore having a much more obvious hardcore punk and peace punk influence.

There are also other metal subgenres that have come from fusions between death metal and other genres. Bands like My Dying Bride (doom/death hybrid) and Emperor (black/death hybrid) are two examples.

Cover of Entombed's 'Clandestine'
Other notable death metal bands:

External links


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