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.
Napalm Death are an English grindcore band formed in Meriden, West Midlands in 1981. None of the band's original members have been in the group since 1986, but since Utopia Banished (1992), the lineup of bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch Harris, drummer Danny Herrera and lead vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway has remained consistent through most of the band's career. From 1989 to 2004, Napalm Death were a five-piece band after they added Jesse Pintado as the replacement of one-time guitarist Bill Steer. Following Pintado's departure, the band reverted to a four-piece.
Celtic Frost was a Swiss metal band from Zürich. They are remembered for their strong influence on the development of several varieties of extreme metal and for their avant-garde approach to music more generally.
Candlemass is a Swedish epic doom metal band established in Upplands Väsby, a suburb of Stockholm in 1984 by bassist, songwriter and bandleader Leif Edling and drummer Matz Ekström. The band had a defining influence on doom metal, and the epic doom genre itself is named after their debut album Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. Along with Pentagram, Saint Vitus and Trouble, Candlemass has been referred to as one of the "big four of doom metal".
My Dying Bride are an English doom metal band formed in Bradford. Since their inception in 1990, they have released 13 studio albums, three EPs, one demo, one box set, four compilation albums, one live album, and one live CD/DVD release.
Paradise Lost are an English gothic metal band. Formed in Halifax, West Yorkshire in 1988, they are considered to be among the pioneers of the death-doom genre and regarded as the main influence for the later gothic metal movement. Bands that have cited Paradise Lost as an influence, or have covered them, include My Dying Bride, Anathema, The Gathering, Amorphis, Cradle of Filth, Katatonia, Moonspell, Lacuna Coil, HIM, Nightwish and many others. As of 2005, Paradise Lost have sold over two million albums worldwide.
Bloodbath is a Swedish death metal supergroup from Stockholm, formed in 1998. The band has released six full-length albums, two EPs and two DVDs depicting their performances at Wacken Open Air and Bloodstock Open Air. The group consists of Martin Axenrot (ex-Opeth), Anders Nyström (Katatonia), Jonas Renkse and Nick Holmes.
Mark Andrew "Barney" Greenway is a British extreme metal vocalist who is the current lead singer of Napalm Death and a former member of Extreme Noise Terror and Benediction.
Jonas Petter Renkse is a Swedish musician in the bands Katatonia (1991–) as lead vocalist, founder, songwriter and formerly as drummer ; in Bloodbath (1998–) as bassist, founder, songwriter; and in Wisdom of Crowds (2013–) as co-vocalist.
Sore Throat were a British crust punk band formed in Huddersfield in 1987. They are known for being one of the earliest exponents of the grindcore subgenre known as "noisecore", as well as for launching the careers of several prominent members of the British heavy metal community.
Gothic metal is a fusion genre combining the aggression of heavy metal with the dark atmospheres of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music. The genre originated during the early 1990s in the United Kingdom originally as an outgrowth of death-doom, a fusion of death metal and doom metal. Lyrics are generally dark and introspective with inspiration from gothic fiction as well as personal experiences.
Peaceville Records is a British independent heavy metal record label. The label was founded by Paul "Hammy" Halmshaw in Dewsbury, England, in 1987, who was also a one-time drummer of Sore Throat. Originally a tape label releasing anarcho punk, the releases moved towards metal through crust punk and similar forms of metal-influenced English hardcore punk. Halmshaw started running the label full-time in 1988, although the original tape label incarnation was founded in 1981 as a vehicle for releasing Instigators demo cassettes.
Lost Paradise is the debut album by British heavy metal band Paradise Lost. Released in February 1990 by Peaceville Records, it features the band's early death-doom style. The album was re-issued in 2003 and included three bonus tracks.
Icon is the fourth studio album by British heavy metal band Paradise Lost, released in 1993. It marked a departure from the death-doom sound of their early work, and was the last album to feature Matthew Archer on drums.
Host is the seventh studio album by British gothic metal band Paradise Lost.
The Fathomless Mastery is the third full-length album by Swedish death metal band Bloodbath, released on 29 September 2008 via Peaceville. It is the band's last studio album to feature vocalist Mikael Åkerfeldt and the first to feature lead guitarist Per Eriksson. A video was made for "Hades Rising", directed by Owe Lingwall and shot on location in Vallentuna, near Stockholm. The album peaked at No. 45 on the Heatseekers Chart in the US on release.
Trees of Eternity was a Swedish metal band from Örebro that began in 2009 as a musical collaboration between Finnish guitarist Juha Raivio and South African-born Swedish singer Aleah Stanbridge.
Grand Morbid Funeral is the fourth studio album by Swedish death metal band Bloodbath. It was released by Peaceville Records on 17 November 2014.
Medusa is the fifteenth studio album by British gothic metal band Paradise Lost, released on 1 September 2017 via Nuclear Blast.
The Arrow of Satan Is Drawn is the fifth studio album by Swedish death metal band Bloodbath, released on 26 October 2018 via Peaceville. It is the only album to feature guitarist Joakim Karlsson.
