Death Metal is an extreme form of heavy metal that was born from the influence of thrash bands like Slayer and Venom in the 1980′s. Death metal would take the speed of thrash and bring it a few steps further concentrating more on heavier guitar distortion, double-bass blast beat drumming, various abrupt tempo changes, and the creation of deep vocals.Death metal took the lyrical themes of metal in a sinister direction. Songs include the subjects of hyper-violence, horror, murder, Satanism, mysticism, anti-religion, and politics. There is some argument about where the term death metal came from, but the majority of fans believe it came from the 1984 demo of the band Possessed, which contained a track called Death Metal.

By the late 80′s and early 90′s death metal had grown a huge cult following and many record labels began to snatch up as many bands as they could. This mass signing of bands caused death metal to reach its peak in 1993. Some bands have had some commercial success and remain popular to this day, but for the most part death metal failed to breakthrough into the mainstream. This is what many true metal fans find appealing about the genre. The peak in 1993 would lead to the creation a few new death metal subgenres that would help to diversify it and bring death metal to a wider audience.

Death Metal Bands• Dying fetus• Grave • LIK• Possessed• Postmortem• Deicide • Torture Division• Bloodbath• Vomitory