Death metal

Death metal is a type of heavy metal music with thrash metal influences that emerged in the United States (especially Florida and California), Europe (especially the United Kingdom and Sweden) and Canada in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Early history (up to 1991)

Death metal is clearly an outgrowth of heavy metal, but the full story is complex and interesting, and is the subject of some debate among fans and musicians.

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Although growling vocals are usually the prime factor in identifying death metal, this by itself would also include albums such as Welcome to Hell from 1981 by British metal group Venom—an important early Heavy Metal group—where the vocals may be mostly "growling", but the music is not what is generally meant by "death metal" today; and would also exclude music such as early Slayer, whose speed and brutality make some consider them (debatably) in the Death metal genre.

Related Topics:
Growling vocals - 1981 - Venom - Slayer

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Instead, many fans place the birth of death metal around 1985, due to U.S. bands such as Florida's Death and California's Possessed. This music, although fitting the above description of "extreme brutality and speed" for its time, did not create anything significantly new compared to their immediate predecessors, and one would be hard pressed to identify strong and specific musical differences between, say Death's debut album from 1987 and same-period work by thrash metal bands such as the Brazilian Sepultura or even the aforementioned Venom, except perhaps slightly "growlier" vocals.

Related Topics:
1985 - Florida - Death - Possessed - 1987 - Thrash metal - Brazil - Sepultura

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Another important impact on the death metal scene was made by Slayer, by their releases of Show No Mercy and Hell Awaits in the year 1983 and 1985 respectively. Despite the lack of growled vocals, the song structures are closer to death metal than to thrash metal. In fact, most Slayer albums, especially 1986s Reign in Blood, are still favourites of many death metal fans.

Related Topics:
Slayer - Show No Mercy - Hell Awaits - 1983 - 1985 - Thrash metal - 1986 - Reign in Blood

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To their credit, early "death metal" bands such as Death did push the format forward, something that would ultimately pay off in a new form of music that was substantially different from their closest forefather, thrash metal.

Related Topics:
Death - Thrash metal

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Other death metal historians maintain that the 1985 brand of "death metal" is more aptly summarised by the oft-used moniker "post-thrash" and that the band Death receives inflated credit partly because of its name (though it is generally very well accepted that Death's later music was pivotal in the creation of the subgenre Technical Death Metal). Under this paradigm, the modern concept of "death metal"—the point when it clearly decouples from the origins in heavy metal and thrash metal—can be set to 1989 or 1990, when the above-mentioned band Death and others had started to mature, and another crucial source of input had been merged into the brutal stew of riffing and growling. This input was hardcore punk.

Related Topics:
Post-thrash - Technical Death Metal - 1989 - 1990 - Hardcore punk

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Just as in the original creation of NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) by Iron Maiden and other bands was sparked by the youthful energy of punk rock in the late 1970s, so did cross-fertilisation between metal and punk once more create something new in the late 1980s. The chaotic and often confusing development that took place around this time is well illustrated by the band Napalm Death, often characterised as a "grindcore" band (see below). This band acknowledges heavy influence in its early days from early demos by the band Death (such as "Infernal Death") and Massacre, and was simultaneously always part of the hardcore punk scene. However, Napalm Death themselves changed drastically around or before 1990, leaving grindcore (and most of the band members) behind, and on 1990's Harmony Corruption they can be heard playing something one might call "death metal" by the above characterisation. In fact, the project band Terrorizer's album, World Downfall (1989), is clear signs that some merging of hardcore punk and thrash metal is going on, with members from Florida's Morbid Angel and the new line-up of Napalm Death co-composing.

Related Topics:
NWOBHM - Iron Maiden - Punk rock - 1970s - 1980s - Napalm Death - Grindcore - Massacre - Hardcore punk - 1990 - Harmony Corruption - Terrorizer's - Thrash metal - Morbid Angel

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Many similar works rapidly appeared hot on the heels of Harmony Corruption: Britain's Bolt Thrower, Britain's Carcass, Sweden's Entombed, New York's Suffocation, and many others, and this development into a more well-executed, clearly distinct brand of metal was cemented when the band Death themselves followed the trend they had participated in starting, the technical album Human from 1991. Another example of this type of death metal is Morbid Angel's Blessed Are The Sick from 1991. At this point, all the above characteristics are clearly present: abrupt tempo and count changes, occasionally extremely fast drumwork, morbid lyrics and growling delivery.

Related Topics:
Bolt Thrower - Carcass - Entombed - Suffocation - 1991 - Morbid Angel - Tempo - Drum

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Whichever way one prefers to view the history of death metal, confusing the story is the ubiquitous mixing of terms, even among artists themselves; Bill Steer in the early line-up of Napalm Death once said: "Death metal died in 1990, and everyone in the '90s who claims they're playing death metal is lying or a loser."

Related Topics:
Bill Steer - Napalm Death

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