melodic death metal

The tradition & historical record

Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs and solos, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal, combined with low-pitched growls or aggressive screams and the heavily distorted guitars of traditional death metal. Pioneered by the English band Carcass with their 1993 album Heartwork, melodic death metal was developed further by Swedish bands like At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity, and In Flames in the mid-1990s. The Swedish death metal scene did much to popularise the style, soon centering in the "Gothenburg metal" scene. At the Gates' Slaughter of the Soul, Dark Tranquillity's The Gallery, and In Flames' The Jester Race, all released in the mid-1990s, were highly influential albums in melodic death metal, with At the Gates and In Flames being the two most common influences on North American 2000s heavy metal bands. Many American heavy metal bands emulated At the Gates' sound, resulting in the usage of the phrase "At the Gates worship". In the late 1990s and early 2000s, many melodic death metal bands emerged, including Children of Bodom, Arch Enemy, Amon Amarth, The Black Dahlia Murder, Insomnium, and Soilwork. In the 2000s decade, melodic death metal achieved popularity among heavy metal fans, starting with the release of In Flames' 2002 album Reroute to Remain, which showed a change to a more eclectic sound while retaining the band's melodic death metal sound. ¹

Melodic death metal combines death metal with elements of traditional heavy metal ranging as far as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, especially melodic or harmonized guitar riffs, with the heavily distorted guitars, fast double-bass drum patterns and occasional blast beats of death metal. Alternative Press Magazine describes the style as "incorporat[ing] stylistically 'pretty' and epic sounds" into the death metal formula, augmented by "blazing" guitar solos and "buzz-saw"-like guitar tones. The vocal style typically features harsh screams or low-pitched growling (similar to traditional death metal) but often features clean sung vocals as well. Unlike traditional death metal, melodic death metal is more prone to using verse-chorus song structures. Melodic death metal is said to be more musically diverse than traditional death metal. According to Vlad Nichols of Ultimate Guitar, the boundaries of melodic death metal "[grant] much more artistic freedom" to artists as opposed to traditional death metal, and enables enjoyment of death metal sounds by a wider audience. He assessed, "the heaviness was still there, but it was now made all the more enjoyable by the diversity of musical and thematic expression it provided." Some melodic death metal bands fuse the style with other styles of heavy metal and extreme metal. For example, Finnish band Children of Bodom is known for incorporating strong elements of power metal into their style. ¹

Much of the origin and popularity of melodic death metal can be attributed to the bands At the Gates, In Flames, and Dark Tranquillity, whose mid 1990s music releases (namely Slaughter of the Soul, The Jester Race, and The Gallery, respectively) are widely considered to have defined the genre and laid the foundation for the Gothenburg metal scene. Many of the band members from these acts shared a public transportation route through the city. Dark Tranquillity vocalist Mikael Stanne recalled the scene's origins: "The part of Gothenburg we’re all from is really tiny. There is basically one bus route that leads into the city. I was at the first stop on the route, and that was where Tomas Lindberg from At The Gates lived as well. Then it would be [Dark Tranquillity guitarist] Niklas Sundin and Anders Fridén from In Flames. Then we’d meet up with the Björler twins and Anders and Peter Iwers – all on the same bus into the city. Then we’d sit in the park with a tape recorder and tons of beer, and that was it! The community and the friendships started there." ¹

According to Vlad Nichols of Ultimate Guitar, "At the Gates, Dark Tranquility, and In Flames eschewed the traditional trappings of death metal, and began experimenting with leading melody, more conventional riffing and lyrics exploring topics not only related to gruesome violence - and everybody loved it. Following their initial success, Gothenburg became the Mecca of this new direction in death metal, and many more bands joined the fray." Writer Gary Sharpe-Young considered the Gothenburg scene the commercial salvation of death metal: "Gothenburg became the new Tampa and the genre received a new lease on life."The titular melodic elements can be traced to traditional Scandinavian musical motifs. ¹

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, melodic death metal quickly expanded with many bands emerging, including Amon Amarth, The Black Dahlia Murder, Arch Enemy, Soilwork, Insomnium, and Children of Bodom. Additionally, other genres would begin using melodic death metal as an influence, including melodic metalcore and melodic black/death. Stewart Mason claims that melodic metalcore has become very popular in the United States, using the term "Swedecore" to describe Scandinavian-style metal as played by non-Nordic bands. Many melodic death metal and metalcore bands (especially after melodic metalcore band Killswitch Engage rose in popularity) were heavily influenced by Slaughter of the Soul by At the Gates and had an influence of them in their music. Many heavy metal bands in the mid-2000s, in turn, were labeled "At the Gates worship". ¹

In the 2000s, melodic death metal became popular among heavy metal fans. In 2002, In Flames' album Reroute to Remain peaked at number 10 on the Top Heatseekers chart. The album, retaining the band's melodic death metal sound, showed a diverse mix of different musical genres, including occasional electronica and hip hop synthesizers and occasional clean singing. This helped gain the band a new amount of fans while alienating fans of In Flames' early work. In Flames' next two albums, Soundtrack to Your Escape (2004) and Come Clarity (2006), peaked at numbers 145 and 58 on the Billboard 200, respectively, with the latter album giving In Flames a Swedish Grammy Award. The Black Dahlia Murder, Arch Enemy, Children of Bodom, and Amon Amarth also enter the Billboard 200 during the 2000s decade. In the mid–late 2000s, melodic metalcore became one of the most popular heavy metal genres, with bands like Killswitch Engage, Unearth, Bullet for My Valentine, All That Remains, Shadows Fall and Atreyu achieving success, headlining major festivals and selling a lot of records. Melodic metalcore combined melodic death metal elements like melodic guitar riffs and screaming with elements of the original style of metalcore like breakdowns. At the Gates and In Flames were major influences on these bands. Killswitch Engage are often credited as the band that brought melodic metalcore into the mainstream among heavy metal fans. ¹

Many melodic death metal ban… ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Melodic death metal”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

melodic death metal is subgenre of death metal, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 10 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²