Deathgrind, from the outside in. Each step is a genre and the single record this encyclopedia would put on first. Play them in this order and the last one should sound like a next step rather than a wall.
- 1 The way in
Heavy metal 1970
It split off from hard rock and blues rock when Black Sabbath tuned down and wrote riffs on the tritone. Volume, riff and a code of its own - every branch below starts here.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Black Sabbath - the song Black Sabbath. The first thirty seconds are the genre's birth certificate.
Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath (1970) - 2 Then
Death metal 1985
Guttural vocals, low tunings, blast beats and tremolo picking. Thrash pushed past the limit of legibility, with two founding schools: Florida and Stockholm.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Entombed - Left Hand Path. The first twenty seconds explain the entire Swedish sound.
Entombed, Left Hand Path (1990) - 3 What you asked about
Deathgrind 1990
Death metal compressed to the length and speed of grindcore. No intro, no outro.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Pig Destroyer - Prowler in the Yard. No bass player, and you don't miss it.
Pig Destroyer, Prowler in the Yard (2001) - 4 Where to go next
War metal / bestial 1990
Black and death metal reduced to noise, speed and bullet belts. The least legible branch of metal there is.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Blasphemy - Fallen Angel of Doom. Twenty-five minutes of organised chaos.
Blasphemy, Fallen Angel of Doom (1990)
Assembled from the tree: every genre Deathgrind descends from, in order. Deathgrind has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.