Some say that “Death Metal” can be traced back to the eighties heavy metal band Slayer. Slayer took the fast and heavy guitars and drums of speed/thrash metal and coupled them together with angry violent and at many times satanic lyrics. “Death Metal” was not through with it’s evolution until the band Death for whom many say the genre was named after. Death took what Slayer had done and added the most horrible vocals imaginable at the time, a harsh and guttural style which came to characterize the style now known as “Death Metal.” Some more of the originators of “Death Metal” included: Obituary, Carcass, Malevolent Creation, Possessed, etc. Many of which came out of the late eighties/early nineties hot bed of original “Death Metal,” Florida. The style reached it’s height in the late eighties and nineties (Although it never rose above “cult” status.) “Death Metal” has come quite a ways since Slayer and Death, expanding into different “sub-styles” and finding their own niche in underground music. Now a days “Death Metal” can be found all over the world from Chile to Japan. It is now enjoying most of it’s success in Latin America and Europe with newer bands such as Brujeria, Opeth, In Flames, The Haunted, etc.
-Brutal Death Metal- Crushingly heavy, fast, sometimes chaotic, music. Sometimes
with intelligent lyrics i.e. Cryptopsy, and sometimes with sick, gore filled
lyrics i.e. Cannibal Corpse and sometimes satanic i.e. Incantation
-Melodic Death Metal- My personal favorite, obviously melodic guitar, complex
music, and usually intelligent lyrics, many times poetic. Some examples of Melodic Death Metal are In Flames, Opeth, Arch Enemy, late Carcass, etc.
-Grindcore- Hardcore punk style music, usually with down tuned heavy guitars,
with “Death Metal” style vocals. Usually has serious lyrics. A sort of sub-genre of Grindcore is Goregrind/Gorecore (below.) Examples of Grindcore are Nasum, Benumb, Coalesce, etc.
-Gorecore- This is a sort of style or sub-genre of Grindcore. The difference
between the two is that Gorecore is usually even heavier, faster, and in my opinion less talented. The lyrics are also… well… about gore, and violence, are usually meant to be humorous. Some Gorecore bands are: Mortician, anal cunt, early Carcass, and Exhumed.
*You may have noticed that I used quotation marks around “Death Metal,” I use these marks because some “Death Metal” bands do not like to be put into the “Death Metal” category because to some the name only suggests that the band sounds like the band Death and their for make bands sound like they are only poseurs(which they usually are not!)
