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JJ's Bizarre Blog #17 - Blood and Gore Galore
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Salutations, ladies and gentlemen! December has rolled upon us and a thick layer of frost is covering all the land. Last time, I told you a personal story, so I figured why not do it again. In Bulgaria and other parts of the Balkans we have the tradition of cooking a whole pig whenever Christmas comes around. As you can well imagine, that is no easy task and does include some less than idyllic parts that have different effects on different people, I know some friends that have turned vegetarian because of these experiences, but I never seemed to be overly bothered by the process in some inexplicable way. And after years on a steady diet of slasher films, violent video games and Happy Tree Friends, I have become accustomed to gore for entertainment's sake, not taking it too seriously of course. Anyway, point is, in spirit of the Balkan Christmas dinner traditions and the approaching holidays, rev up the chainsaws and sharpen the hatchets, because we're talking about the nastiest subgenre there is - death metal!
Right, so you know how a lot of uninitiated people tend to complain that metal is "nothing but noise" and then describe it by doing that stupid Cookie Monster voice? Well, the vast majority isn't like that, I believe I've proven that with all my blog work so far. However, in death metal some of this is closer to the truth. The sound of the genre is defined by its merciless heaviness and brutality - fast and complex instrumentation, tremolo guitars, heavy distortion, blast beat drums, overflowing heaviness to the sound and the all important ingredient - the titular death growl. Yes, that is indeed the Cookie Monster voice. This low guttural growl used by most vocalists stands in contrast to the impassioned shouting of thrash metal or the demonic shrieks of black metal. Death metal also pulls heavily from horror films, especially slasher films, for its lyrics, with topics of blood, gore, violence and depravity taking center stage. If that's not the band's glass of beer, other edgy topics like politics, war and religion are common too.
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To find the origins of death metal, we must first go back to our old friends from British legends Venom. I talked about them in my recent black metal blog, stating how they started three subgernes with their earthshattering debut record Welcome to Hell in 1981. Well here's two out of three, and don't worry, the third will get its blog in due time. Point is, Venom revolutionized the metal scene with their speed and heaviness and satirical satanic imagery, all of which were unheard of at the time. Truly, this record and its sequel Black Metal in 1982 are the undisputed genesis point of all extreme metal.
Venom's barn burner records went on to inspire a very important band. An outfit born in the San Francisco bay area that came to be known as Possessed, the grandfathers of death metal! Spawning from the West coast thrash metal scene, Possessed took that established sound, which already heavily pulled from Venom, and sought to make it heavier, more aggressive and lean even heavier into the Satanic lyrics and imagery. From this was born the seminal record known as Seven Churches in 1985, containing the track Death Metal that gave the genre its name! While this record still leans heavily into thrash, as if the mitosis between the two movements was not yet complete, the roots of the new genre are clear. Along with the next EP and album released after it, Possessed cemented themselves as pioneers of death metal.
But while Possessed were the grandfathers, after them came the fathers of the genre! And the band could not have had a more fitting name - Death! Led by the musical genius Chuck Schuldiner, a man we lost way too soon, this band would go on to truly create the sound of death metal for generations to come. Their groundbreaking debut record, aptly titled Scream Bloody Gore in 1987, is the first true death metal album, all ingredients are present. Throughout their storied, but all too brief career, Death were and always will be the pinnacle of what the genre is capable of. They may be the first, but they remain among the best! Life is good, but Death is better!
Death also ended up inexplicably creating an entire movement in their area that continues to bless us with great music to this day. For you see, Death were based out of Florida and it would be this southern state that would become the biggest melting pot of death metal during its formative years in the late 80s and early 90s. The vast majority of the greatest American bands that became synonimous with the genre came from Florida and took the world by storm with their hymns of gore, violence and gruesome imagery, all in the name of good fun of course.
Among all these came also the most commercially successful death metal band ever, one I believe you all have heard of, the butchers known as Cannibal Corpse! Yes yes, they're from New York actually, but they are heavily associated with the Florida scene and were very much spawned from it. CC are the gold standard of death metal, the genre condensed down to the essentials. However, this doesn't mean that their sound is somehow dumbed down or "mainstreamified", quite the opposite. I think it's just a combination of the shock factor of their imagery, novelty factor and their appearance in Ace Ventura that send them into greater popularity. Ultimate, Cannibal Corpse have had one the most consistent and solid discographies in all of metal, sixteen albums under their belt and not a single dud between all of them. That is no easy feat!
However, talking about Florida, there was another melting pot of death metal goodness and it was on the opposite side of the Atlantic in a place that is the polar opposite of Florida - Sweden! It's still disputed by a lot of people whether the Americans or the Swedes invented the genre, I personally lean westward, but that's besides the point. It was and still is a breeding ground for amazing bands and their contribution to the genre cannot be understated. Swedish bands tended towards a darker and more atmospheric sound and esoteric and mystical lyricism instead of the bombastic violence and blasphemy of the US.
An outlier that deserves a separate mention is the Dutch powerhouse Pestilence. Divorced from both major breeding grounds, these lads came from nothing and ended up being one of the most pioneering and revolutionary bands in the sphere of death metal, while also remaining criminally underrated, most likely because of their origins. They deserve all the praise though as they have been at this for almost as long as Death have. And to me, it's a very poetic coincidence that two of the most revolutionary bands that kickstarted death metal are named after two of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
From then on, the bloody ball had started rolling and from the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Poland and many more, death metal acts started to rising from graves all over Europe. While death metal tended to be a more western thing, Europe has never had a shortage of phenomenal bands on offer.
Beyond that, death metal has become a global phenomenon, with every content of the world blessing us with some bloody good bands. Violence and darkness are universal concepts so it's no shocker that inspiration has struck all kinds of people the world over.
As the years go by, it's only natural for a huge genre like this to develop subgenres, so let's talk about them now. The earliest one to arise and the one closest to "vanilla" death is technical death metal. Quite simply put, this is death metal played with a greater degree of proficiency, featuring more complex instrumentation, more advanced time signatures and more dynamic and unpredictable song structures, while keeping the core death metal sound intact. Tech death is just a joy to listen to if you enjoy musical proficiency, as these guys are the final bosses of music. If you can learn to play these tracks on any instrument, you've reached the end game.
Closely connected to tech death, we have progressive death metal. There is significant overlap between the two and a lot of bands can be considered a bit of both, but prog death distinguishes itself by taking heavier inspiration from progressive metal, including much longer songs, much more varied structures and outside influences. While tech death sticks to the classic death metal sound, while playing it with advanced complexity, prog death often includes acoustic sections, keyboards, clean vocals, samples and more to create a much more intricate and varied sound. These guys take the rough and tough sound of death metal and make it sophisticated. How epic!
Going in a completely different direction, we have melodic death metal. Now, this genre is a rabbit hole in and of itself, so it's most likely gonna get its own blog in due time. To briefly summarize here though, melodeath takes the core aspects of death metal such as the growls, distorted guitars and heaviness and adds a heaping does of melody and Iron Maiden inspired dual guitar, as well as keyboards and clean vocals, to create a more approachable and less brutal sound. These tracks also often focus more heavily on catchy choruses unlike other subgenres. A perfect blend between brutal and beautiful, it's no surprise why this genre took the world by storm.
Worth a mention is also the connection to grindcore and all of its related subgenres. For any grind fans reading this, I know I know, grindcore originated from a completely different movement originating in punk and technically predates death metal. However, there is significant overlap between the two and a lot of bands blend elements of both. It's kind of like two rivers of blood and brutality that started in different mountains but fused downstream into a turbulent mess of ruthless violence!
And course there's the whole modern submovements like slam that have become somewhat popular, but that's a rabbit hole for another day. Just know that there is a lot more out there and I highly encourage you to look deeper into it.
Alright, let's put this wild beast down for now. Death metal is such a wild ride and the last year has been very death metal-focused for me, full of new discoveries, concerts and awesome memories. This journey started in December last year, so this blog to me is the perfect commemoration and culmination of all that. So, if you're ever wonder why anyone would enjoy sick music that is this brutal, truth is, it's all in good fun and listening to something so aggressive really helps you let off some steam from all the stress of the world. So no matter what troubles you're facing, charge them head on and rip them to pieces! Become an unstoppable force of mayhem and perseverance! You have the perfect soundtrack to do so! See you all on the flipside!
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