one of the many forms of "extreme metal" alongside genres such as
black metal and grindcore, death metal is characterised by heavily downtuned and distorted guitar riffs, extremely fast drumming (drum patterns such as blastbeats are often used, and harsh, guttural low pitched vocals, occasionally alongside high pitched screaming.
death metal comes in many
sub-genres: brutal, technical, blackened, melodic,
deathcore, etc etc, with the most "mainstream
sound" coming from more melodic bands such as in flames or arch enemy.
brutal is a genre that is commonly associated with bands such as cannibal corpse, hate eternal and devourment. this is arguably the most
heavy form of death metal with heavily downtuned guitaring, frequent blastbeats and extremely harsh guttural vocals. subject matter ranges from rape to necrophilia and everything in between.
technical/progressive death metal is a subgenre most commonly recognised by its extremely technical guitaring, with frequently changing song structures and uncommon time signatures. Examples include Necrophagist, Cryptopsy and to some extent
Opeth.
Blackened death metal is a sort of fusion between death metal and some of the more melodic aspects of
black metal, aswell as the subject matter such as satanism, the occult and general evil. Some early influences to the subgenre include deicide, immolation aswell as
black metal bands such as marduk, bathory, burzum and mayhem, and
prime examples of the subgenre are bands such as Behemoth, belphegor and zyklon.
melodic death metal is a fusion of heavy metal, death metal and other musical genres. The genre includes less harsh vocals although guttural growls are used sometimes, as well as blastbeats and uses downtuned/ distorted guitars less liberally. Started in scandinavia, or more specifically Gothenburg, Sweden, with the first bands that dubbed the genre as the "Gothenburg Sound". Pioneers of the genre are namely in flames and at the gates, and other examples include dark tranquility, amon amarth, arch enemy, entombed and nihilist.
deathcore is a fusion between death metal and "metalcore". As metalcore became more
popular thanks to bands such as killswitch engage, other bands began to fuse metalcore already
heavy aspects with a more death metal orientated sound; for example job for a
cowboy. Many deathgrind bands are confused for
deathcore.
deathgrind is a fusion between death metal with certain aspects of grindcore, such as the high pitched screaming, complex song structures and irregular time signatures. Some examples of deathgrind include cephalic carnage, pig destroyer, rotten sound and annotations of an autopsy.
