Is that a real genre of music? I thought the Society made it up to scare the kiddies.....
Death metal is a type of heavy metal music with thrash metal influences which 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.
Death metal has, like most subgenres of heavy metal, proven notoriously difficult to define. Some fans and musicians have a firm concept of the genre, its categories and subcategories. Others consider such categorisation limiting or useless. There is often crossover from one metal genre to another, and the influence of non-metal genres is not uncommon.
Death metal is usually identified by extreme brutality, intensity and speed. "Blast beats" are frequently used to add to the intensity of the music. The vocals - death grunts, (guttural roars) or "growls", as they are often called, are rough and often incomprehensible. Similarly, those not familiar with the genre sometimes confuse it with "death rock", which is an entirely different musical classification altogether.
Death metal's subject matter usually deals with the darker side of society that most other musical styles avoid writing about although some bands such as Dying Fetus write mostly political lyrics. The focus on mortality along with the extreme nature of the music likely inspired the naming of this genre as "death" metal. Other bands still take their lyrical inspiration from horror movies, e.g., early Death, Cannibal Corpse, Mortician. Death metal is known for very abrupt tempo and count/time signature changes, and extremely fast and complex guitar and double bass drumwork. Most bands of this genre use downtuned and distorted guitars (usually utilising two), which play both rhythm and lead guitar parts, a downtuned, sometimes distorted bass guitar, a double bass drum set, and a vocalist who uses the death grunt vocal style. Some bands, such as Septic Flesh and early Amorphis, added incidental synthesizers or other instruments for effects. Of all the Metal genres, Death metal is the most physically demanding of its musicians.
