The truth about melodic death metal

[Clay-Man]

I think that what people consider melodic death metal has changed a lot and I think people categorize things too easily into the genre now.

This is what true melodic death metal is to me:


It actually sounds like death metal, but with melody, not just growled vocals over heavy metal riffs, there were very much a lot of death metal elements put into the music back in the 90's.

Now all melodic death metal is either some metalcorish but not completely metalcore band that came out of europe instead of america, or some power metal shit with growled vocals like Children Of Bodom.
There isn't the thriving chaos sound of old death metal in these bands anymore.

A genre can evolve and all, but in my opinon, TRUE melodic death metal were the stuff you got out of the 90's and some early 00's.

An example of easily using melodic death metal as a label is this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immersion_(album)

Just because In Flames was featured on it doesn't make the album melodic death metal.
Some of you need to get over the fact that In Flames honestly isn't TRULY that type of band anymore. They said it their selves. they are a metal band in general now.

 

[Erik Erna]

Melodic Death is dead, with the exception of very few bands.

 

[karver]

MELO/DEATH

I think even death have great melodies, but it is focused more on rhythm face of music.. but there are also great melodies ..


For me is the main difference in the way that are melodies represented.. melodeath is for me built on harmonies, harmonies in lead and also in rhythm verses.. for example check Dark Tranquillity - A Bolt of Blazing Gold, one of the first melodeath songs.. (Anders Friden on vocals.. )

IN FLAMES
It is not bad that they are playing another style now, but why they still call it in flames.. As I wrote in another topic I accept someone like it, I dont say it is bad, but I'm pretty fucked up that I they didn't keep on that great thing they have created.. I like also their new stuff, but also miss the old.. hope that their possible new album will not be like that single with pendulum.. imagine that they will play food for the gods and after that song like self vs. self..

 

[Erik Erna]

Death's last album was getting close...Had Chuck not died, it would have continued to evolve.

 

[Clay-Man]

Here's Soul Demise. Pretty like older melodic death.

 

[Erik Erna]

If I didn't know any better, I'd say that was Dimension Zero.

 

[Clay-Man]

Soul Demise is heavily influenced by At The Gates.

Anyways my point is that today's Melodic Death Metal isn't so much of Melodic Death Metal as it was in the past.

Now it's Heavy Metal guitar with growled vocals, Metalcore that has enough influences to be labeled as MDM, or power metal with growled vocals from finland.

I like the heavy metal melodic death metal sound a lot though, like In Flames Colony/Clayman work, was melodic death metal edged more towards a heavy metal sound than just a death metal sound.

But in the end MDM isn't what it really is anymore. All the blast beat, chaos, and thrashy death sounds aren't very present in present bands, though some come close to a mixture of the sound, but nothing is like it before.

The upcoming Sacrilege GBG sounds like it could be of older melodic death metal though.
No vocals yet though.

 

[Erik Erna]

For ATG inspired bands, I really liked Light This City. Such a shame they broke up...makes me want to cry a little bit right now.

 

[karver]

..if we are talking about style.. check my site http://bandzone.cz/allthefury .. I'm working on IF covers with synths, you can find there Artifacts, Clad in Shadow, Clayman..

 

[krofius]

Yeah, it's more like Modern Melodic Death Metal or something now. Melodeath nowadays often has a lot of keyboard in it aswell. Well, I like both really oldschool all the way to ''newer''.
And btw about Sacrilege GBG, the band will not release an album sadly =/
I talked to Daniel Kvist on their myspace 3weeks ago or something, and due to people not having time no album will be made, but instead he is taking the music he wrote for Sacrilege GBG demos, to a new project called SLAYSTATION, and here's the ''2010 sample'' from Sacrilege GBG now with vocals by Jimmie Strimell I think his name is. SLAYSTATION - New World Slaughter

Personally I like it alot I don't like Jimmie in Dead By April lol, but he did well in Nightrage, and is doing well here aswell.

 

[Erik Erna]

That is a pretty bad ass track, I like it.

 

[Hurrdurr]

What about bands like Dark Tranquillity? Or maybe Insomnium? ^^ (Beautiful music )

 

[Erik Erna]

What about bands like Dark Tranquillity? Or maybe Insomnium? ^^ (Beautiful music )

DT is the best band ever, but Insomnium I am bi-polar with. I love the music, but the vocals sound weak as hell to me.

 

[Clay-Man]

Yeah, it's more like Modern Melodic Death Metal or something now. Melodeath nowadays often has a lot of keyboard in it aswell. Well, I like both really oldschool all the way to ''newer''.
And btw about Sacrilege GBG, the band will not release an album sadly =/
I talked to Daniel Kvist on their myspace 3weeks ago or something, and due to people not having time no album will be made, but instead he is taking the music he wrote for Sacrilege GBG demos, to a new project called SLAYSTATION, and here's the ''2010 sample'' from Sacrilege GBG now with vocals by Jimmie Strimell I think his name is. SLAYSTATION - New World Slaughter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwx5piuIWCc
Personally I like it alot I don't like Jimmie in Dead By April lol, but he did well in Nightrage, and is doing well here aswell.

That's very disappointing to hear that there will be no new Sacrilege, but the track you posted sounds really nice.

 

[Erik Erna]

I truly believe Hypocrisy's latest album is pure, uncompromised Melodic Death Metal.

 

[stizzleomnibus]

There was a song on the Sacrilege GBG MySpace called "Breathing Death Through a Straw" that I really want to hear in non-MySpace quality. That song was sick as hell. I've never heard anything quite like it, and I am excited to hear something new in the same vein.

As for the topic: someone put together 18 gigs of melodeath and put it up on TPB (Mega melodic death compilation or something like that). I started listening, discovered Amon Amarth (which is awesome), then realized that the torrent was full of shitty bands. Someone literally grabbed every band that's supposedly in the genre, and came up with a lot of bands that demonstrate a common flaw for many 2nd- and 3rd-tier metal bands: they can't actually right good songs. Great death riffs, sometimes a good melody, but slapped together in such a unintelligible fashion that it's hard to tell how they even got signed.

That's why I'm big into Dark Tranquillity. They're one of a very tiny number of bands that write music that works from beginning to end without relying on the typical pop formula. Niklas' long, torturous tracks, or the more typical constantly high-energy tracks are unique amongst metal.

 

[Clay-Man]

Dark Tranquillity is a band I like a lot. They are closer to melodic death metal than most other bands, but they still sound more like Heavy Metal with growls than actual Melodic Death Metal.

 

[Erik Erna]

Dark Tranquillity is a band I like a lot. They are closer to melodic death metal than most other bands, but they still sound more like Heavy Metal with growls than actual Melodic Death Metal.

I see DT as like experimental death metal but...In a sense, wouldn't everything they do technically be melodic death since they were the pioneers?

 

[Clay-Man]

They didn't invent the term theirselves.
That's like saying In Flame's new albums are completely melodic death metal when you know they aren't really that anymore.

 

[Erik Erna]

True, I was just being a smart ass anyway. I would imagine doing one single genre for twenty years would get boring though.