Why exactly is DT considered "death" metal?

[The Antihero]

This is something that's been bugging me for a little while......

Dark Tranquillity usually gets pigeonholed into the "death" genre........but they don't really have much in common with the death metal paradigm, in terms of lyrics, album art, band image, any of that stuff.

Personally I don't care for all that occult/gore junk, it seems silly to me. This might sound dumb but if DT filled their music and album covers with all that stuff I probably wouldn't like them very much.

So I guess what I'm getting at is........if most people are like me and associate "death" metal with satanism, violence, gore, etc. (and I think that's a pretty safe assumption)..........do you think this "death metal" label keeps DT from being more popular?

Personally I think DT resembles more a prog-metal band than anything else. It seems to me there is a large untapped audience listening to the "progressive-yet-aggressive" style of Dream Theater and the like that would be drawn to Dark Tranquillity if they weren't tagged with the "death" genre label.

Just a thought.

 

[Jolty]

Dark Tranquillity is a death metal band, though. Melodic death metal is still death metal. The thing that keeps Dark Tranquillity from getting more popular is that people hear the growling vocals and run the other way before giving them a chance. I've played them for people who have no idea what death metal is, and they've made me turn it off because it was "giving them a headache" and they didn't like "the guy's Satan voice".

 

[KitKat]

Not everybody can like it. If someone who tries to make me listen to hiphop, I'll react the same way. And for them, it's their favorite group/singer, etc. We can't judge. I don't give a chance to a music genre I don't like, as they don't give a chance to "death" metal, whatever the definition is.
And hiphop singers or rap artists are giving me a headache, as well as growls give headaches to some people. It's just the way it is hehe!

Melodic death metal is just another genre of death metal... nothing to do about bloody/gore stuff... We shouldn't care about terms or classification. Dt is Dt, that's it!

 

[plintus]

Stanism = "bleck metahl"
Gore = brutal death/grindcore
Dragons = power metal

Anyway, it's been long ago (pushing 20 years), and there haven't been that many genres around, so... After all dt grew up to be something of it's own, strongly rooted in extreme metal though.

Oh yeah, and being stuck in a car for hours, blasting fucking rap from speakers, - that's some of those pleasures you need to experience to really appreciate life The car is a Mercedes though...

 

[GONE Ridin' Hood]

Not everybody can like it. If someone who tries to make me listen to hiphop, I'll react the same way. And for them, it's their favorite group/singer, etc. And hiphop singers or rap artists are giving me a headache, as well as growls give headaches to some people. It's just the way it is hehe!

Bling bling you wan some ice?
Ba-donka-donk your punanny is nice!
You's a nigga busta, fugly biatch!
You P.H.D wanksta, nigga with no puntang!
Rise up, foo!
Peace out.
​

Hehe, that's me trying to be a nigga gansgta, you know wa I min?


Aaaanyway, 80's rap is actually quite good , but I've never liked hip-hop .

Back to the topic, DT is Göteborg Metal for the followers, sicne we consider it a genre of its own. Yet DT pretty much fits in the Death genere because of the vocal style. the vocals are always high-toned oriented, and that's what makes it death metal .

And death metal doesn't talk that much about satanism anyway .

PS: The hip-hop part actually means something U.U .

 

[rahvin]

So I guess what I'm getting at is........if most people are like me and associate "death" metal with satanism, violence, gore, etc. (and I think that's a pretty safe assumption)

I don't think it's a safe assumption at all. Some of the earlier themes of the genre might have revolved around the macabre, but we're talking twenty years ago here. More recently, you could say death metal is about philosophy, nihilism, spiritualism, melancholy, dark passions and brooding thoughts.

 

[Nt3N]

I quote rahvin's post, that's the way it is. But for example even Death denied more than once a connection with satanism in their music/lyrics.

Anyway I think DT is labeled as "melodic death" as in the earlier days their sound (as well as at the gates and in flames) was much more similar to the (modern) death metal style. So, even is now it is totally different, people just went on labeling DT as melo-death. But recently I've sometimes seen in flames and DT categorized as "Gothenburg Sound", which is probably more approriate.

 

[marduk1507]

Asking "why exactly death metal..." in the 21st century seems almost like an oxymoron to me (exactly death metal). The music created nowadays is so complex (if it deserves to labelled as music, that is), that even the main metal genres have lots of sub-genres, or to be more precise - these boxes have lost their meaning. To illustrate - howd you call Vittra from Naglfar? Id call it melodic death metal with black edge. But their latter records can be labelled as black metal, although the change of style isnt that big - they are just hell of a lot faster and the harmonics are more grrimmmm. DT belong to swedish melodic death metal box, if you prefer.

 

[Matse]

I would probably define dt as Melancholic Death Metal, but this might be a little bit too much influenced by my favorite album projector but I think even the faster songs are kind of melancholic due to their lyrics, dark mood, ...
Could write some more about this but I'm too lazy/tired right now.

 

[Azzor1911]

oink oink