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.
Manowar is an American heavy metal band from Auburn, New York. Formed in 1980, the group is known for lyrics based on fantasy and mythology, as well as numerous songs celebrating the genre and its core audience. The band is also known for a loud and emphatic sound. In an interview for MTV in February 2007, bassist Joey DeMaio lamented that "these days, there's a real lack of big, epic metal that is drenched with crushing guitars and choirs and orchestras... so it's nice to be one of the few bands that's actually doing that". In 1984, the band was included in the Guinness Book of World Records for delivering the loudest performance, a record which they have since broken on two occasions. They also hold the world record for the longest heavy metal concert after playing for five hours and 1 minute in Bulgaria in 2008. They also have been known for their slogan "Death to false metal".
Progressive metal is a broad fusion music genre melding heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified guitar-driven sound of the former with the more experimental, cerebral or "pseudo-classical" compositions of the latter.
Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres. Both the music and the lyrics are intended to evoke a sense of despair, dread, and impending doom. The genre is strongly influenced by the early work of Black Sabbath, who formed a prototype for doom metal. During the first half of the 1980s, a number of bands such as Witchfinder General and Pagan Altar from England, American bands Pentagram, Saint Vitus, the Obsessed, Trouble, and Cirith Ungol, and Swedish band Candlemass defined doom metal as a distinct genre.
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.
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual transgression".
Avenged Sevenfold is an American heavy metal band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1999. The band's current lineup consists of vocalist M. Shadows, rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance, lead guitarist Synyster Gates, bassist Johnny Christ, and drummer Brooks Wackerman.
Thergothon was a Finnish doom metal band which lasted from 1990 until 1993 and pioneered the funeral doom subgenre. They only released one demo, Fhtagn nagh Yog-Sothoth (1991), and one album, Stream from the Heavens (1994). Their sound was extremely slow and dirge-like in long pieces, which combined heavy guitar riffs, extremely deep death grunts and sparse lead guitar melodies. The band disbanded a year before the release of the album and its members focused on other projects.
Turn Loose the Swans is the second album by the British heavy metal band My Dying Bride, released in 1993.
Trivium is an American heavy metal band from Orlando, Florida, formed in 1999. The band comprises vocalist and guitarist Matt Heafy, guitarist Corey Beaulieu, bassist Paolo Gregoletto, and drummer Alex Bent.
Evoken is an American funeral doom metal band from Lyndhurst, New Jersey, United States. Evoken is one of the earliest U.S. doom/death metal bands that are still active today, along with Novembers Doom and Rigor Sardonicous.
Axis of Advance was a Canadian death metal band from Edmonton, active from 1998 to 2008. Their music was described as "freaked-out, hyper and evil metal...not for the weak and not really for most rational human beings, but it will sound great to those looking for a slice of evil black metal the way it should be done."
Stormcrowfleet is the debut album by the Finnish funeral doom metal band Skepticism. It is one of the most important releases of the genre, and is considered a classic within it.
This Empty Flow was a Finnish band formed in Turku in 1994. Founded by Jori Sjöroos and Niko Sirkiä, who were also the founding members of Thergothon, a Finnish band known for pioneering the funeral doom metal subgenre, although the music of This Empty Flow moved away from that sound into a more melodic, gothic rock and ambient-influenced style.
Avantgarde Music is an Italian record label, formed as a continuation of Obscure Plasma Records, focusing on black and doom metal artists. The label had a sub-label called Wounded Love Records, which has released albums by Dolorian and Taake. A new sub-label, Flowing Downward, had been founded in 2018, specializing in atmospheric black metal bands specifically.
Dead Again is the seventh and final studio album by the American gothic metal band Type O Negative, released before the death of frontman Peter Steele in 2010, and subsequent dissolution of the band. It was released on March 13, 2007, through record label Steamhammer, a subsidiary of SPV.
Death-doom is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It combines the slow tempos and pessimistic or depressive mood of doom metal with the deep growling vocals and double kick drumming of death metal. The genre emerged in the late-1980s and gained a certain amount of popularity during the 1990s, but had become less common by the turn of the 21st century. In turn, death-doom gave rise to the closely related genre of funeral doom as well as to the more melodic, gloomy and romantic gothic metal.
Fhtagn nagh Yog-Sothoth is the only demo album made by the funeral doom pioneers Thergothon. It originally was released in November 1991. It was reissued in 1992 by Wild Rags Records and in 1999 by Eibon Records. The demo was reissued again by Eibon in late 2005 or early 2006. This demo was released on Vinyl in 2006 by Painiac Records, with new artwork and a bonus track titled "Dancing in the Realm of Shades" from an unreleased rehearsal.
After the Burial is an American progressive metal band from Minneapolis, Minnesota. They are currently signed to Sumerian Records and have released five of their six full-length albums through the label. Since their inception in 2004, the band has gone through two vocalist changes, two drummer changes, the departure and death of founding rhythm guitarist Justin Lowe, and the departure of bassist Lerichard Foral. Lead guitarist Trent Hafdahl remains the sole remaining founding member. They are considered key contributors to the development of subgenres such as djent and progressive metalcore.
