Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. 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. The lyrical themes of death metal may include slasher film-style violence, political conflict, religion, nature, philosophy, true crime and science fiction.
Edge of Sanity was a Swedish death metal band that, alongside Opeth, is commonly regarded as being the first to fuse extreme metal styles like death and black metal with progressive rock. The group was founded by Dan Swanö in 1989 and ended in 2003.
Death was an American death metal band formed in Altamonte Springs, Florida, in 1983 by guitarist Chuck Schuldiner, drummer/vocalist Kam Lee and guitarist Rick Rozz. Formed out of what would become the Florida death metal scene, Death is considered to be among the most influential bands in heavy metal music and a pioneering force in death metal. The band's 1987 debut album, Scream Bloody Gore, has been widely regarded as one of the first death metal records, alongside the first records from Possessed and Necrophagia.
Atheist is a Florida death metal band from Sarasota, Florida, founded in 1987.
Melodic death metal is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal. The genre features the heaviness of death metal but with highly melodic or harmonized guitar riffs and solos, and often features high-pitched shrieked vocals alongside the low-pitched growls commonly featured in traditional death metal. Pioneered by the English heavy metal band Carcass with their 1993 album Heartwork, melodic death metal developed further in Sweden in the mid-1990s. The Swedish death metal scene did much to popularise the style, soon centering in the "Gothenburg metal" scene. At the Gates' Slaughter of the Soul, Dark Tranquillity's The Gallery, and In Flames' The Jester Race, all released in the mid-1990s, were highly influential albums in melodic death metal, with At the Gates and In Flames being the two most common influences on North American 2000s heavy metal bands. Many American heavy metal bands emulated At the Gates' sound, resulting in the usage of the phrase "At the Gates worship".
Fleshcrawl is a German death metal band formed in Illertissen, Bavaria, in 1987. Their most recent album, Into the Catacombs of Flesh, was released in 2019 under Apostasy Records.
Psycroptic are an Australian technical death metal band formed in Hobart, Australia in 1999. Mainstay members are Dave Haley on drums and his brother Joe Haley on guitar. Their lead vocalist, Jason Peppiatt, joined in 2004. In 2008 they signed to Nuclear Blast. As of August 2022, the band have released eight studio albums. They have undertaken Australian national tours supporting international acts, Incantation, Decapitated, Origin and Misery Index. Psycroptic have also toured Europe with Nile and with Deicide. In February 2019, the band started a co-headlining tour alongside Aversions Crown and support bands Within Destruction, Hadal Maw and Hollow World across Europe. They also headlined a 2019 tour in the United States in support of their album As the Kingdom Drowns.
Illdisposed is a Danish death metal band from Aarhus, that was formed in 1991 by vocalist Bo Summer and guitarist Lasse Bak. As of 2020, the band consists of vocalist Bo Summer, guitarists Jakob Batten and Rasmus Henriksen, bassist Kussen and drummer Rasmus Schmidt.
Focus is the debut studio album by American metal band Cynic, released September 14, 1993, through Roadrunner Records. A remastered version of the album was released in 2004.
Gorerotted were an English deathgrind band formed in 1997 that disbanded in January 2008 and reformed with new members as The Rotted. Gorerotted's lyrics and song titles were largely inspired by horror films and serial killers. The band's song titles often incorporated humorous rhymes or puns such as "Cut, Gut, Beaten, Eaten", "Put Your Bits in a Concrete Mix", and "Only Tools and Corpses", a pun on the popular British sitcom Only Fools and Horses, the latter beginning with a similar introductory drumbeat to the sitcom's theme music.
Alarum is an Australian progressive metal band which formed in 1992. Their first album, Fluid Motion, was self-released in 1998. The second album, Eventuality..., was released in Australia and United States on Willowtip Records in October 2004 and in Europe on Earache Records in June 2005. From April to June 2006 Alarum toured US with Necrophagist, Arsis, Cattle Decapitation and Neuraxis. They followed with shows in the United Kingdom and Ireland with Obituary. The group's third album, Natural Causes, was issued in Australia and US in October 2011 and in Europe in January 2012. Alarum released their fourth album Circle's End in June 2020.
Eucharist is a Swedish melodic death metal band, which released two albums in the 1990s, and a third in 2022.
Creepmime were a Dutch death metal band active from 1991 to 1997, and recorded two full-length albums, both on Mascot Records.
Sacramentum is a melodic black metal band from Falköping, Sweden, formed by Nisse Karlén (vocals/guitar) in the summer of 1990 under the name of Tumulus. The band released three full-length studio albums and two demos. They are best known for their debut album Far Away from the Sun, which is often considered one of the best early melodic black metal releases.
Avulsed is a Spanish death metal band, formed in August 1991 in Madrid by Dave Rotten.
Cynic is an American progressive metal band formed in Miami, Florida by Paul Masvidal in 1987. Masvidal originally served solely as the band's guitarist, but later took over as lead vocalist and chief songwriter. Cynic incorporates elements of progressive rock, alternative, and metal.
Inquisition is an American black metal band that formed in Cali, Colombia in 1988 and later relocated to Seattle, Washington. The band possessed a thrash metal sound on its earliest recordings, but began incorporating more black metal influences in 1996 with its first extended play Incense of Rest.
Defeated Sanity is a German technical death metal band from Dachsbach, Bavaria that was conceived in 1993 by guitarist Wolfgang Teske and his son, drummer Lille Gruber. The group's lineup currently consists of Gruber (drums), Jacob Schmidt, Josh Welshman (vocals), and Vaughn Stoffey (guitar). The band is known for their very brutal, abrasive and intricate style of death metal, while at the same time maintaining almost jazz fusion style influences. Defeated Sanity's genre has also sometimes been categorized as progressive death metal.
Carceri is a Dutch death metal band from Delft, Netherlands, formed in 2000. The band comprises vocalist Kees de Vlieger, guitarist Ivar Useinov and Yoram Danneleit, bassist Rogier van Kleef and drummer Josha Nuis. Carceri released a debut album, The Good Must Suffer The Wicked, in 2011 via Armada Productions. In 2012 the band played at Neurotic Deathfest and toured as opening act on the Reborn of Death 2012 tour with Suffocation, Blood Red Throne, Cattle Decapitation, Sadist and Cerebral Bore in the UK, Ireland and France.
Florida death metal is a regional scene and stylistic subdivision of death metal centered around the US state of Florida, with some of the most significantly pioneering and best-selling death metal acts having emerged from the area. Notably, the Tampa Bay area is unofficially known by many death metal fans as the "capital of death metal."
