While most people associate death metal music with a bunch of guys grunting and slapping detuned guitars randomly, there's a multitude of reasons why this genre maintains a strong following and earns the fierce loyalty of many listeners worldwide. If you're curious about death metal, here's you're chance to learn, appreciate, listen, and enjoy.
Steps
Listen beyond the crunching guitars and harsh singing. Although the rough guitar sound and grating vocals permeate all of death metal, it can take a little getting used to, especially if your ears are accustomed to softer sounds. Believe it or not, it's more than just noise...There are melodies, patterns, and complexities to be appreciated if you listen attentively enough.
Realize that playing and
singing death metal requires enormous practice and skill. Even bass players, who don't do the complex leads and melodies associated with death metal guitar, cite to have practiced one piece of music for at least a full year just for a mere audition.
BehemothWatch a live death metal performance. Even if it's on a TV screen, observe how the group members manipulate the instruments. If you've ever tried to play those instruments yourself, you'll probably be amazed with how skillfully they play. It takes talent, practice, and dedication, which challenges the stereotype of metalheads being lazy and careless.
Remember that in death metal, unlike many other genres, each band almost always
writes their own music. That includes the riffs, drums, solos, and lyrics. Writing your own music demonstrates another dimension of instrumental mastery and talent, as well as making the music more personal and less manufactured.
Understand the context and subject matter. Death metal lyrics and themes, while not to be taken literally, celebrate the outer extremes of human experience, such as the motivations of serial killers, the activities of the walking dead, death itself, and isolation. Death metal is less about generic anger and more about empathy for people who suffer from despair, isolation, and who possess an acute sense of unfair ostracism from society. Also, many bands will cover other topics not usually associated with death, such as mythology, religion, society, and even love.
Know the sub-genres. Not all death metal is the same. The genre contains many sub-genres that can frequenlty mix and intermingle with each other. As a result, it may be difficult to ascribe a band under a single sub-genre. Here's a general guideline to get you started:
Gore metal: Cannibal Corpse, Exhumed, Aborted, Cattle Decapitation
Goregrind: Terminally Your Aborted Ghost, Anal Bleeding, Gutteral Engorgement, XXX Maniak
Deathcore: Despised Icon, Job For a Cowboy, Beneath the Massacre, Waking the Cadaver
Grind: Phobia, Circle of Dead Children, Napalm Death, Rotten Sound
Technical: Ominous, Death, Gorguts, Atheist, Necrophagist
Melodic: Dissection (old), Dark Tranquility, In Flames (old), Sacrilege, Arch Enemy, Children of Bodom
Brutal: Deicide, Malevolent Creation, Aborted, Deranged, Blood Red Throne, Dying Fetus, Decapitated, Suffocation
Respect the artists. The greatest death metalists almost can't make a living with what they do, and yet the musicians in these bands continue to soldier on in spite of their obscurity.
Tips
The genre "death metal" has been extensively separated and sub-categorized, so to label a band as simply "death metal" can be a little vague.
Keep in mind that all genres and sub-genres are under heated debate, so do not adhere to a single definition too seriously.
Warnings
There are many negative generalizations surrounding death metal. If you're reading this article, you've probably ignored them thus far. If you become enamored with death metal, be prepared for more raised eyebrows and grimaces, and continue to ignore them.
New Years Eve was pretty damn good. Got to see some friends that I don't see far often enough. But then my camera batteries died right after midnight. And a word of advice: Don't hang out in Carytown on NYE. That shit is crowded.
Dave never looks comfortable
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