Melodic death metal, 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
Melodic death metal 1993
Iron Maiden-style guitar harmonies over screamed vocals. The Gothenburg scene later became the foundation of American metalcore.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul. Thirty-four minutes that shaped two decades.
At the Gates, Slaughter of the Soul (1995) - 4 Where to go next
Melodic metalcore 1999
Gothenburg harmonies imported into American hardcore. The dominant formula of the 2000s.
Sung and screamed. Clean singing and harsh vocals trade off, often chorus against verse.
Assembled from the tree: every genre Melodic death metal descends from, in order. Melodic death metal has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.