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, and science fiction.
A blast beat is a drum beat that originated in hardcore punk and grindcore, and is often associated with certain styles of extreme metal, namely black metal and death metal, and occasionally in metalcore. In Adam MacGregor's definition, "the blast-beat generally comprises a repeated, sixteenth-note figure played at a very fast tempo, and divided uniformly among the bass drum, snare, and ride, crash, or hi-hat cymbal." Blast beats have been described by PopMatters contributor Whitney Strub as, "maniacal percussive explosions, less about rhythm per se than sheer sonic violence".
The 'original' or traditional blastbeat is a single-stroke roll played between your cymbal and snare, with your kick playing simultaneously with every cymbal hit.
Suffocation is an American death metal band formed in 1988 in Centereach, New York. It consists of lead guitarist Terrance Hobbs, bassist Derek Boyer, rhythm guitarist Charlie Errigo, drummer Eric Morotti, and vocalist Ricky Myers. It rose to prominence with the 1991 debut album Effigy of the Forgotten, which became a blueprint for death metal in the 1990s. Since then, it has recorded a further seven albums. These feature growled vocals with a downtuned guitar, fast and complex guitar riffs and drumming, open chord notes and occasional breakdowns.
Possessed is an American death metal band, originally formed in 1983. Noted for their fast style of playing and Jeff Becerra's growled vocals, they are often called the first band in the death metal genre, and paved the way for the 1980s Bay Area thrash metal scene, along with Metallica, Exodus, Testament and Death Angel. The band is also notable for featuring Larry LaLonde, who was the guitarist of Possessed from 1984 to 1987, and went on to join Primus.
Six Feet Under is an American death metal band from Tampa, Florida, formed in 1993. The band consists of five members: founding vocalist Chris Barnes, guitarists Ray Suhy and Jack Owen, bassist Jeff Hughell and drummer Marco Pitruzzella. It was originally a side project formed by Barnes with guitarist Allen West of Obituary, but became a full-time commitment after Barnes was dismissed from Cannibal Corpse in 1995. They have released thirteen albums, and are listed by Nielsen Soundscan as the fourth best-selling death metal act in the U.S.
Mnemic was a Danish heavy metal band formed in Aalborg in 1998. The band personally described themselves as "Future Fusion Metal".
Kataklysm is a Canadian death metal band. They have released fourteen studio albums, one EP and two DVDs as of 2020. Kataklysm won their first Juno Award for best album of the year in the "heavy metal" category for their 2015 album Of Ghosts & Gods. The band's albums have charted throughout the world, including the Billboard Top 100 in the United States.
Immolation is an American death metal band from Yonkers, New York. They are considered one of the leaders of the New York death metal scene along with Incantation, Mortician and Suffocation, as well as one of the best-known bands of the death metal genre.
The Sound of Perseverance is the seventh and final studio album by American death metal band Death, released on August 31, 1998, by Nuclear Blast. This is the only album to feature guitarist Shannon Hamm, drummer Richard Christy, and bassist Scott Clendenin.
Monstrosity is an American death metal band originating from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the death metal scene of the early 1990s.
Origin is an American technical death metal band from Topeka, Kansas, founded in 1997. They have been recognized by music critics and metal fans alike for combining a harsh sound with a high level of technical skill.
Heathen is an American thrash metal band originating from the San Francisco Bay Area, active from 1984 to 1993 and again from 2001 onwards. Despite never achieving commercial success, the band is often credited – alongside Exodus, Testament, Forbidden, Death Angel and Vio-lence – as one of the leaders of the Bay Area thrash metal scene of the mid-to-late 1980s, and they have gone through several line-up changes, leaving guitarist Lee Altus as the only constant member. To date, Heathen has released four studio albums: Breaking the Silence (1987), Victims of Deception (1991), The Evolution of Chaos (2009) and Empire of the Blind (2020).
Effigy of the Forgotten is the debut full-length album by New York-based death metal band Suffocation, released in 1991. The cover artwork was created by Dan Seagrave. Several of the tracks had appeared on earlier releases: "Reincremation" and "Involuntary Slaughter" were re-recorded from the Reincremation demo, while "Infecting the Crypts", "Mass Obliteration", and "Jesus Wept" appeared originally on the Human Waste EP.
Scrolls of the Megilloth is the second studio album by Australian Christian extreme metal band Mortification. The band's most famous release, this album is full-on death metal, with the thrash metal roots barely showing, and possibly their most extreme album to date. According to AllMusic, the album "garnered the band some attention from the heavy metal underground" and contains "some of the most frightening vocals ever recorded." In 2010, HM Magazine ranked Scrolls of the Megilloth number 17 on the Top 100 Christian Metal Albums of All Time list with Van Pelt stating that "Though the band has been living it down ever since, this album raised the standard of Christian grindcore to almost unattainable levels."
Opprobrium is an American death metal band from Metairie, Louisiana, United States. Founded in 1986 by brothers Francis and Moyses Howard under the name Incubus, Natives of Rio de Janeiro, the Howards emigrated to New Orleans and formed the band. The original incarnation featured bassist/lead vocalist Scot Latour, and the trio's 1987 demo Supernatural Death landed them a deal with the small Brutal Records imprint. Their official debut, Serpent Temptation, was released in 1988; however, LaTour departed soon afterwards, leaving Francis to take over vocal duties. Incubus signed with Nuclear Blast in 1990 and soon released their follow-up Beyond the Unknown; recording with Francis on bass as well, Incubus eventually tabbed Mark Lavenia as the full-time bassist. But shortly thereafter, in 1991, Incubus disbanded, then reappeared after a ten-year break from the music business, being forced to change their name in order to avoid confusion with newly emerging rock band Incubus from California. They released their album Discerning Forces on Nuclear Blast Records in 2000.
Deeds of Flesh is an American brutal death metal band from Los Osos, California, U.S. They were formed in 1993 by Jacoby Kingston, Erik Lindmark (1972–2018) and Joey Heaslet, and remained active until Lindmark's death in 2018. They founded their own label, Unique Leader Records, which has since become home to a number of other death metal bands from around the world. Deeds of Flesh have released nine studio albums, their most recent being Nucleus which was released in 2020.
Ulcerate is a New Zealand-based extreme metal band formed by guitarist Michael Hoggard and drummer Jamie Saint Merat in 2000. The band have released six studio albums to date. The band's sixth album Stare Into Death and Be Still was released on 24 April 2020 on Debemur Morti Productions. The band have been featured in numerous articles as one of New Zealand's most prominent extreme metal acts, have toured widely across North America and Europe, and have been compared favourably to bands such as Neurosis and Gorguts. The band's sound has been described as "nauseating, disorienting and gleefully disharmonic", and is characterised by extremely technical death metal with extensive use of dissonance, time signature changes, and complex song structures.
Exitium is an American grind band from Norman, Oklahoma, United States, formed in September 2001 by Kirk Kirkwood, Andy Bread, Justin Jones, Brandon Carrigan, and Brian Carrigan. They have released two studio albums: Mechanical Expressions of Purpose in 2004 on Compulsive Blasphemer Records, and Outsourcing Morality in 2006 on Deepsend Records. Then some of the band split. Justin split from the band. But then died in September 7, 2020. And others went other ways
Entity is the fifth studio album by technical death metal band Origin. It was released through Nuclear Blast, on June 7, 2011. It was released on CD & Vinyl.
Metal Allegiance is an American heavy metal supergroup, formed in Long Island, New York, in 2014 by bassist and songwriter Mark Menghi. Shortly after, he recruited bassist David Ellefson, guitarist Alex Skolnick, and drummer Mike Portnoy. Though the group does not have an official lead singer, they usually hire guest musicians to contribute vocals and/or guitar parts to their studio recordings and live shows, including Andreas Kisser of Sepultura and Mark Osegueda of Death Angel. To date, Metal Allegiance has released two studio albums and one EP.
