- Absolute death metal – A collection of links, contact information, tour dates and interviews with death metal bands such as Cannibal Corpse and Centurian.
- A Dark Place – A comprehensive guide on death, black, doom, and grindcore genres. Includes lyrics, band descriptions, and sound samples.
- Death Metal – A site for the promotion of death metal music and bands.
- Eternal Obscurity – Death metal band biographies, discographies, news, reviews and links.
- Everflowing Stream, The – Site dedicated to contemporary extreme metal and hardcore music, with reviews and interviews.
- Grindcore 999 – Metal Trade List – An entire collection of EPs, LPs, and CDs. E-mail for trade offers. Consists of death metal, black, grind, thrash, and others.
- Metal Stench – Tablatures, lyrics, photos, and MP3s.
- Phoenix Militia – 1987 issue of death metal zine by Bill Steer (of Carcass and Napalm Death).
Death metal is a sub-genre of Heavy Metal that evolved out of Thrash Metal during the early 1980s. Commonly recognized characteristics include lyrics praising death, rhythmic, chromatic progressions and a narrative or «story telling» song structure such that there is not a verse-chorus cycle as much as an ongoing development of themes and motifs. Aesthetically, it is usually identified by violent rhythm guitar, fast percussion and dynamic intensity. «Blast beats» are frequently used to add to the ferocity of the music. The vocals are commonly low gurgles named growl, death growl, or death grunt. This kind of vocalising is distorted by use of the throat, unlike traditional singing technique which discourages it. Music journalist Chad Bowar notes that, due to the similarity of the vocals to «unintelligible yelling», the style is sometimes described as «Cookie monster vocals». Also, those not familiar with the genre sometimes confuse it with «Deathrock».
Death metal’s subject matter usually addresses more nihilistic themes than any other genre (except maybe black metal), usually using metaphors of a gruesome nature to represent a larger concept. The focus on mortality along with the extreme nature of the music (as well as the name of Death, one of the genre’s pioneers) likely inspired the naming of this genre as «death» metal.
Death metal is commonly known for abrupt tempo and count/time signature changes, and extremely fast and complex guitar and drumwork, although this is not always the case. Bands of this genre frequently utilize downtuned and distorted guitars, a downtuned, sometimes distorted bass guitar, a drum set (almost universally using two bass drums). Although this is the standard setup, bands have been known to incorporate other instruments such as keyboards. Death metal is very physically demanding of its musicians, especially in its more «technical» forms.
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