What is Death Metal? History, Origins, Genres

Popular Bands from Death and Morbid Angel to Children of Bodom

Aug 28, 2009

Death Metal History, What is Death Metal, ericorner, sxc

Death metal is a subgenre of heavy metal which emerged during the 1980's, typically seen as having split off from the burgeoning thrash movement exemplified by Slayer.

Death metal is a genre possessed of frenetic energy and drive – music that is aggressive and somewhat cacophonous in many instances due to the machine-gun blastbeat of the drums that drives the action forward. Popular belief lends itself to Chuck Shuldiner of the band “Death” being the progenitor of death metal as a genre, though this claim is without formal citation and is accepted as such.

Lyrics, Vocals, Instrumentation, and Aesthetic

Death metal is an extreme genre of music that has a firm basis in the themes of death, violence, morbid aesthetics, gore, and horror. Vocalists in the death metal genre rarely perform “clean” vocals or lyrics, instead opting to use what is commonly known as a “death growl”, a low gravelly delivery that can also include barks, shrieks, or rasped tones in order to convey a more animalistic, guttural sound.

Death metal also typically incorporates extremely low-tuning on both the standard electric guitars (both lead and rhythm) as well as the electric bass – some bands even dropping the tuning to E – as well as making full use of the double-bass drum. Blast beat drumming is extremely prevalent in death metal compositions, an auditory assault that is evocative of gunfire or explosions – once again tying into the warlike, primal tone of the genre.

Politics, Themes, and Culture

Death metal is not overtly political, though this is not to say that it is entirely apolitical – just that the political stance of most death metal compositions is extant in the aesthetic itself rather than within the vocals – the vocals being somewhat hard to interpret at times. A good example of this is Machine Head's recent album, the Blackening, and in particular the song “Aesthetics of Hate”.

Written in response to a conservative commentator lauding the murder of metal legend Dimebag Darrell on an online conservative e-zine, Iconoclast, the song exposes the hypocrisy of the conservative establishment while calling for the seemingly ironic punishment of these charlatans via the hand of God.

“You tried to spit in the eye

of a dead man's face

Attacked the ways of a man

not yet in his grave

But your hate was over all too soon

Because nothing is over

and nothing's through

'Til we bury you”

The final chorus of the song, “May the hands of God strike you down” is repeatedly delivered over a ponderous, low tonal riff until the conclusion of the piece.

Death metal is politically antagonistic, generally left-wing in it's treatment of society and culture – a direct similarity in sociopolitical expression as echoed in the earlier punk rock movement of the 1950's throughout the 1970's as explored in Dick Hebdige's work Subculture : The Meaning of Style.

The death metal culture is largely underground in nature, with most shows being performed at local heavy metal bars and other establishments of the same nature – with larger acts such as Children of Bodom and Lamb of God performing in arenas and stadiums as the genre has grown in popularity.

Themes of violence, drugs, gore, and death are prevalent not only in mainstream death metal culture but are also prime targets of self-satire. Nowhere is this more evident than with enormous popularity of Metalocalypse aired on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim – an animated series following the exploits of the most brutal death metal band to ever grace the Earth, Dethklok.

Metalocalypse bridges the gap between satire and entertainment, simultaneously offering an homage to the nature of the death metal culture while remaining tongue-in-cheek about the overly serious attitude that many death metal fans adopt toward their music and culture.

What Are Some Popular Death Metal Bands?

While it is hard to define the exact boundaries of death metal as a genre – especially given the tendency of many fans and reviews to fracture heavy metal into thousands of subcategories – some of the most popular bands in the genre include.