Your way in
Old school death metal 1989
The sound of the first wave: either the Swedish HM-2 buzzsaw or the cavernous American murk, with no showy technicality.
- Heaviness
- 10
- Speed
- 8
- Melody
- 3
- Where from
- Florida / Stockholm
- Tempo
- 120-220 bpm
- Song length
- 3.5-6 min
- Written about
- Death and decay, War, Anatomy, The occult
- Vocals
- Growled or shrieked
Why this one
| You said | Old school death metal | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| A growl or a shriek When someone is singing, what should come out? | harsh | 100% | ×3 |
| Light How much weight do you want behind it? | 10 out of 10 | 20% | ×2 |
| The nineties Does it matter when it was made? | 1989 | 96% | ×1 |
| The dark What should the words be about? | Death and decay, War, Anatomy, The occult | 100% | ×1 |
| No. Texture and force are enough. Do you want a tune you could hum afterwards? | 3 out of 10 | 80% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 77% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 5 answers you gave, weighted vocals 3, heaviness 2, era 1, about 1, melody 1 out of 8. Old school death metal leads the next by 1 point. Where two genres score the same the broader one wins, because a genre with subgenres under it is somewhere to carry on from and a leaf is a full stop.
Five records, in this order
- 1Start one step outside
Entombed, Left Hand Path 1990
Entombed - Left Hand Path. The first twenty seconds explain the entire Swedish sound.
- 2The one to put on first
Autopsy, Mental Funeral 1991
Autopsy - Mental Funeral. Death metal that crawls rather than runs.
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5Then
The first is the entry point for Death metal, one step outside, so the second record has something to be heard against. After it come Old school death metal's essential records in the order the encyclopedia lists them. Every one of these has a page here with links out to somewhere it can be played.
If that is not it
-
Funeral doom 76%
The slowest metal in existence: under 40 bpm, organ, guttural vocals and fifteen-minute songs. Music for a single chord.
4 steps from Old school death metal, meeting it only at Heavy metal.
The way into Funeral doom -
First wave 75%
The bands that supplied the name and the themes, while still playing speed or thrash metal. Venom released the album that christened the genre.
4 steps from Old school death metal, meeting it only at Heavy metal.
The way into First wave
Not simply the second and third of the ranking: those are almost always near neighbours of the first, which is three names for one suggestion. An alternate has to sit at least 4 steps through the tree from the headline and from the other alternate, which is the same floor the "sounds like this, but isn't" panel uses.
What your answers ruled out
- A growl or a shriek put 78 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Alternative rock, Blues rock, Doom metal. Worth 3 of 8.
- Light put 12 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Death metal, Brutal death metal, Sludge metal. Worth 2 of 8.
- The nineties put 23 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Blues rock, Progressive rock, Rock and roll. Worth 1 of 8.
- The dark put 119 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Punk rock, Hardcore punk, Alternative rock. Worth 1 of 8.
- No. Texture and force are enough. put 40 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Folk metal, Folk rock, Emo. Worth 1 of 8.
Counted as genres scoring 20% or less on that answer alone. A recommendation that only shows what it chose is hiding half of what it did.