Technical death metal

Image:Suffocation (26 von 30).jpg are commonly viewed as one of the earliest practitioners of technical death metal.]]

{{quotebox|quote="People are in their garage making a demo, and once they get into a studio they're going to want to use the [recording equipment]. It offers all sorts of temptations. Even without trying, you start to become good at your instrument, you're gonna want to do things with it."|align= left |width=25% |author=Keith Kahn-Harris|source=Coles, T. Death Metal. Bloomsbury Publishing. pg 76.}}

Distinct features of the subgenre include dynamic song structures, complex and atypical rhythmic structures, abundant use of diminished chords and arpeggios, frequent employment of odd time chord progressions, and consistent use of techniques such as string skipping in the guitar work. Bass lines are usually complex, and drumming is complex including techniques such as blast beats, odd time signatures and double kicks. The technical death metal genre has also been influenced by mostly jazz fusion, as well as thrash metal and progressive/technical-inspired heavy metal bands like Death,{{cite web|url=http://www.radiometal.com/article/pestilence-patrick-mameli-makes-no-compromise,130568|title=Pestilence: Patrick Mameli makes no compromise|website=radiometal.com|access-date=March 22, 2021}}{{cite web|url=http://battlehelm.com/interviews/gory-blister/|title=GORY BLISTER – Battle Helm|website=battlehelm.com|access-date=March 22, 2021}} Megadeth,{{cite web|url=http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/nl/interviews/view/id/2974|title=Revocation interview|date=November 2009|work=Lords of Metal|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311030555/http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/nl/interviews/view/id/2974|access-date=March 22, 2021|archive-date=March 11, 2016}} Slayer,{{cite web|url=http://metalcrypt.com/pages/interviews.php?intid=348|title=The Metal Crypt - Jeff Hanneman Tribute Interview|website=metalcrypt.com|access-date=March 22, 2021}} Voivod,{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/iconic-metal-band-voivod-gets-post-apocalyptic-on-the-wake/Content?oid=68998994|title=Iconic metal band Voivod get postapocalyptic on The Wake|website=Chicago Reader|date=March 14, 2019 |access-date=March 22, 2021}} Kreator, Dark Angel, Coroner, Sadus,{{cite web|url=https://grizzlybutts.com/2018/01/25/an-abridged-guide-to-technical-thrash-metal-1984-present-50-key-full-lengths/|title=An Abridged Guide to Technical Thrash Metal (1984-Present): 50 Key Full-Lengths|website=grizzlybutts.com|date=January 26, 2018 |access-date=March 22, 2021}} and Watchtower, the latter of whose second album Control and Resistance (1989) is often considered to be one of the sources of inspiration for the genre.{{cite web|url=https://powerofprog.com/watchtower-concepts-of-math-book-one-ep-album-review-2016/|title=Watchtower - Concepts Of Math : Book One EP - Album Review 2016|website=powerofprog.com|date=October 14, 2016 |access-date=March 22, 2021}}{{cite web|url=https://metalindex.hu/2019/11/15/control-was-just-the-natural-progression-for-us/|title="Control was just the natural progression for us"|website=metalindex.hu|date=November 15, 2019 |access-date=March 22, 2021}}

Despite the increasingly sophisticated songwriting, technical death metal has been noted for having more commercial appeal than traditional death metal. According to music journalist T Coles, "Though death metal songwriters weren't moving away from the grim subject material, there was a growing desire for clarity, with bands tightening up to better communicate weird or abstract ideas of death, and to court some of the more lucrative commercial possibilities. This more professional approach, forged from recording engineers and musicians working to refine the sound, would be the spark that finally ignited the interest of larger organizations."{{cite book |last1=Coles |first1=T |title=Death Metal |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |pages=71}}

Sociologist and music critic Keith Kahn-Harris assessed: "Within the confines of a genre there's always a tension: Where do you go with extreme music? What limits are left to explore? One of the reasons I think that extreme metal artists end up producing more technical or listenable work is ultimately it becomes less artistically satisfying to produce [traditional death metal]."{{cite book |last1=Coles |first1=T |title=Death Metal |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |pages=71}}

The 1990 album The Key by Nocturnus has been cited as the first progressive death metal album.{{cite web|last=BadWolf|date=July 13, 2012|title=Effigies of the Forgotten|url=https://www.nocleansinging.com/2012/07/13/effigies-of-the-forgotten-nocturnus-the-key/|access-date=June 26, 2021|website=NoCleanSinging}} One of the key works that cemented the subgenre was Atheist's debut album Piece of Time, also released in 1990, which took death metal into a more intricate level while incorporating influences ranging from jazz fusion to progressive metal. In 1991, New York death metal group Suffocation released their debut album Effigy of the Forgotten, which focused on pairing speed and brutality with a "sophisticated" sense of songwriting. Atheist's second album Unquestionable Presence, Pestilence's third album Testimony of the Ancients, and Death's fourth album Human were all released the same year, forging a path for more intricate and refined releases within the death metal genre.

{{wikiquote|Technical death metal}}

• List of technical death metal bands
• Florida death metal
• Morrisound Recording

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Category:Death metal

Category:Extreme metal