The difference, by ear
Both left clean singing behind. Death metal is low, dry and precise, and the growl sits under the guitars; black metal is high, thin and shrieked, and buried in reverb.
Both are growled or screamed, but black metal is a little faster: 160 to 280 bpm against 120 to 260. To hear the difference, play Death next to Bathory. Both grew out of heavy metal, black metal first and death metal three years after. Sweden appears in the origins of both.
In figures
Death metal
Where it sits
In short
Guttural vocals, low tunings, blast beats and tremolo picking. Thrash pushed past the limit of legibility, with two founding schools: Florida and Stockholm.
How it sounds
- Guttural growls produced from the diaphragm, with controlled vocal distortion.
- Tremolo picking on down-tuned guitars (D, C, B) and blast beats past 200 bpm.
- Structures without a classic chorus; riffs succeed one another instead of repeating symmetrically.
Key acts
- Death
- Morbid Angel
- Cannibal Corpse
- Entombed
Start here
The pickEntombed - Left Hand Path. The first twenty seconds explain the entire Swedish sound.
Full page →Black metal
Where it sits
In short
Tremolo picking, blast beats, shrieked vocals and deliberately cold production. More an aesthetic than a technique - atmosphere matters more than clean sound.
How it sounds
- Tremolo picking on open fifth voicings, with vocals in the high register.
- Deliberately thin, cold production - the missing bass is an aesthetic choice, not an accident.
- Fast blast beats, drums often mixed back, atmosphere placed above technique.
Key acts
- Bathory
- Mayhem
- Darkthrone
- Emperor
Start here
The pickDarkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky. The production is intentional, not a flaw.
Full page →