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.
Arch Enemy is a Swedish melodic death metal band, originally a supergroup from Halmstad, formed in 1995. Its members were in bands such as Carcass, Armageddon, Carnage, Mercyful Fate, Spiritual Beggars, The Agonist, Nevermore, and Eucharist. It was founded by Carcass guitarist Michael Amott along with Johan Liiva, who were both originally from the death metal band Carnage. The band has released eleven studio albums, three live albums, three video albums and four EPs. The band was originally fronted by Johan Liiva, who was replaced by German vocalist Angela Gossow in 2000. Gossow left the band in March 2014 to become the group's manager and was replaced by Canadian vocalist Alissa White-Gluz.
A number of heavy metal genres have developed since the emergence of heavy metal during the late 1960s and early 1970s. At times, heavy metal genres may overlap or are difficult to distinguish, but they can be identified by a number of traits. They may differ in terms of instrumentation, tempo, song structure, vocal style, lyrics, guitar playing style, drumming style, and so on.
Metalcore is a fusion genre combining elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk, that originated in the late 1980s. Among other styles blending metal and hardcore, such as crust punk and grindcore, metalcore is noted for its use of breakdowns, which are slow, intense passages conducive to moshing. Other defining instrumentation includes heavy guitar riffs often utilizing percussive pedal tones and double bass drumming. Vocalists in the genre typically perform screaming, more popular bands often combine this with the use of standard singing, usually during the bridge or chorus of a song. However the death growl is also a popular technique within the genre.
Katatonia is a Swedish heavy metal band formed in Stockholm in 1991 by Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström. The band started as a studio-only project for the duo, as an outlet for the band's love of death metal. Increasing popularity led them to add more band members for live performances, though outside of the band's founders, the lineup was a constantly changing, revolving door of musicians throughout the 1990s, notably including Mikael Åkerfeldt of the band Opeth for a period. After two death/doom albums, Dance of December Souls (1993) and Brave Murder Day (1996), problems with Renkse's vocal cords coupled with new musical influences led the band away from the screamed vocals of death metal to a more traditional, melodic form of heavy metal music.
Between the Buried and Me, often abbreviated as BTBAM, is an American progressive metal band from Raleigh, North Carolina. Formed in 2000, the band consists of Tommy Giles Rogers Jr., Paul Waggoner, Dan Briggs, Dustie Waring (guitar) and Blake Richardson (drums).
Deathcore is an extreme metal subgenre that combines death metal with metalcore. The genre consists of death metal guitar riffs, blast beats, and metalcore breakdowns. While there are some precursors to the concept of death metal fused with metalcore/hardcore elements seen in the 1990s, deathcore itself emerged in the early 2000s and gained prominence beginning in the mid-2000s within the southwestern United States, especially Arizona and inland southern California, which are home to many notable bands and various festivals.
Songs for Insects is the debut album for American progressive metal band Thought Industry. It was released in 1992 through Metal Blade Records, was produced by Dave "Rave" Ogilvie, and features as cover art "Soft Construction with Boiled Beans " by Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí.
Alaska is the third studio album by American progressive metal band Between the Buried and Me. It was released on September 6, 2005 through Victory Records and is the first album to feature the band's current lineup, with the addition of Dustie Waring on guitar, Dan Briggs on bass, and Blake Richardson on drums. The band co-produced the album with Matthew Ellard, who produced the band's last album The Silent Circus, and Jamie King, who had previously produced the band's self-titled album. The album was remixed and remastered in 2020.
Transcendence is the second studio album by American heavy metal band Crimson Glory, released in 1988 via Roadracer Records in Europe and MCA Records in United States. It is considered by many to be their finest work. It was recorded at Morrisound Studios.
The Agonist was a Canadian melodic death metal band from Montreal, Quebec, formed in 2004. The last known lineup consisted of lead guitarist Danny Marino, bassist Chris Kells, drummer Simon Mckay, rhythm guitarist Pascal "Paco" Jobin and lead vocalist Vicky Psarakis, who joined in March 2014 following the departure of vocalist and founding member Alissa White-Gluz.
Once Only Imagined is the debut full-length studio album by the Canadian metal band The Agonist.
Lullabies for the Dormant Mind is the second studio album by Canadian metal band The Agonist. It was produced by Christian R. Donaldson. The album demonstrates a more diverse sound than the Agonist's debut album and features classical, jazz, opera, grindcore, thrash metal, and black metal influences. It features guest violins by Avi Ludmer and orchestrations by classical pianists Melina Soochan and Jonathan Lefrancois-Leduc (Blackguard). In 2009 the band released two videos from the album, "...And Their Eulogies Sang Me to Sleep" and "Thank You, Pain".
Manifesto is the fourth full-length studio album by German melodic death metal band Deadlock. It was released by Lifeforce Records on 17 November 2008 in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Japan, and on 20 January 2009 in the United States. A box set limited to 1000 copies with two bonus tracks and several items was released as well.
Tesseract are an English progressive metal band from Milton Keynes. The band, formed in 2003, consists of Daniel Tompkins, Alec "Acle" Kahney, James Monteith, Amos Williams and Jay Postones. The band is currently signed to Kscope. They are credited as one of the bands to pioneer the djent movement in progressive metal. As of 2022, Tesseract have released four studio albums: One, Altered State, Polaris and Sonder, as well as two live albums, Odyssey/Scala and Portals, and the extended plays Concealing Fate, Perspective and Errai.
Alissa White-Gluz is a Canadian singer, best known as the lead vocalist of the Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, and former lead vocalist and founding member of the Canadian metalcore band the Agonist. Her vocal style includes both growling and clean vocals (singing). Although primarily associated with melodic death metal and metalcore, she has appeared as a guest vocalist for power metal, symphonic metal and deathcore bands, notably Kamelot, Delain, Carnifex and Powerwolf, and has performed live with Nightwish and Tarja Turunen.
War Eternal is the ninth studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, which was released first in Japan on 4 June 2014 by Century Media. It is the first Arch Enemy album in 15 years since Burning Bridges to feature a new line-up; Alissa White-Gluz took over on vocals after former long-time vocalist Angela Gossow stepped down from vocal duties to be the band's business manager. Additionally, ex-Arsis guitarist Nick Cordle replaced Christopher Amott in 2012. Cordle ultimately left the band just before their European tour and was replaced by former Nevermore guitarist Jeff Loomis.
Eye of Providence is the fourth studio album by Canadian metal band The Agonist. It was released on February 23, 2015 in Europe and the following day in North America. It is the first full-length album featuring vocalist Vicky Psarakis since the departure of founding member and original vocalist Alissa White-Gluz in 2014. The album received general acclaim from critics, with many applauding the utilization of Psarakis' vocals and her distinction from White-Gluz.
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