Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath or MDM) is a subgenre of heavy metal music that combines death metal with elements of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. The style originated and developed in Sweden (pioneered by At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity and In Flames) and the United Kingdom (pioneered by Carcass) during the early and mid-1990s. The Swedish death metal scene did much to popularize the style, soon centering in the "Gothenburg metal" scene.

Musical characteristics

Melodic death metal uses components of NWOBHM, in particular the fast riffing and harmonic guitar lines, but also is influenced by the characteristics of death metal like heavily distorted guitars, fast double-bass drum patterns and sometimes blast beats, some even utilizing elements from other genres such as black metal and thrash metal. The vocal style of the genre combines harsh screaming, sung vocals, and death growls, some artists emphasizing one of these techniques over the rest.

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 and screams, aggressive, powerful drumming featuring double kick or 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 invoke slasher film-stylized violence,religion (sometimes Satanism), occultism, Lovecraftian horror, nature, mysticism, mythology, philosophy, science fiction, and politics, and they may describe extreme acts, including mutilation, dissection, torture, rape, cannibalism, and necrophilia.

Building from the musical structure of thrash metal and early black metal, death metal emerged during the mid-1980s. Bands such as Venom, Celtic Frost, Slayer, and Kreator were important influences on the genre's creation.Possessed and Death, along with bands such as Obituary,Autopsy and Morbid Angel, are often considered pioneers of the genre. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, death metal gained more media attention as popular genre niche record labels like Combat, Earache, and Roadrunner, began to sign death metal bands at a rapid rate.

Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal.

Death metal may also refer to:

Death Metal is the fourth album by Swedish death metal band, Dismember. The fourth track, "Let The Napalm Rain", opens with a sample from the movie Apocalypse Now.

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Personnel