Rockpedia
Rock branch Full entry · 1979

Deathrock

Emerged 1979 Origin Los Angeles, USA Subgenres — Vocals Sung
Heaviness
4
Speed
5
Melody
7

Sung. Melodic singing throughout.

In short

The American version, more punk and more theatrical, with tribal drums and horror-movie imagery.

How it sounds

  • Tribal drumming with heavy toms and bass up front.
  • Guitar with tremolo and surf reverb, but in minor keys.
  • Theatrical, near-recitative vocals with horror-film imagery.

Hear what that means

Loaded only when you press play — nothing reaches Google before that. 2 of 3 are cued to a second read from the upload's own tracklist.

The specifics

Tempo
140-180 bpm
Song length
3-5 min
Tuning
Standard, with heavy chorus and reverb, and a guitar tone that is thin and trebly rather than the wall goth would later prefer.
Production
Live, cheap and echoing, recorded in Los Angeles on punk budgets. The reverb is long and the drums are frequently a real kit played hard, which separates it from British goth immediately.
Written about
Horror film imagery, Death, theatrically, Religion, blasphemously, Los Angeles

What each part is doing

  • Guitar Punk barre chords through chorus and reverb rather than distortion, with tremolo-picked single notes for menace — surf's reverb applied to horror.
  • Bass Melodic and forward in the post-punk manner, carrying the tune while the guitar decorates.
  • Drums Fast, punk-derived and played by a person rather than programmed, with tribal tom patterns for the theatrical passages.
  • Vocals Theatrically declaimed, frequently androgynous, and much closer to punk's sneer than British goth's baritone gravity.

What it isn't

That it is the same thing as goth. They developed on separate continents at the same time with different parents — British goth from post-punk and dub, deathrock from Los Angeles punk and horror cinema — and they sound different: deathrock is fast, camp and played live, where goth is slow, romantic and frequently programmed. The scenes merged commercially in the late 1980s, which is why the distinction is now hard to hear.

Told apart from

  • Gothic rock Deathrock is the American parallel: faster, punkier, played on a real kit, and camp where British goth is romantic.
  • Horror punk Horror punk shares the imagery and keeps rock and roll's structures — Misfits songs are doo-wop with horror lyrics. Deathrock is post-punk-derived.
  • Punk rock Deathrock came out of the Los Angeles punk scene, and its rhythm section never stopped being a punk one.
  • Post-punk Both use chorused guitar and a forward bass. Deathrock is faster, more theatrical and less concerned with dread as an atmosphere.

The genres this one is most often mistaken for. Written, not derived.

History

In late-1970s Los Angeles, Christian Death and 45 Grave combined local punk with horror aesthetics. The difference from British goth is that deathrock stayed closer to punk and cared far less about studio production. The scene was small but returned strongly in 1990s and 2000s Europe.

Descended from

Sounds like this, elsewhere in the tree

Closest by the three ratings, among genres at least 4 steps away in the tree. A rating match is not a musical claim.