Swedish death metal theory

[Ats24]

So i've been getting into some early entombed, bloodbath and hypocrisy in the last year or so... the problem starts when i try to write music in that style... i can't write anything decent that sounds like it's death metal
any tips on what they use?

[stealthtastic]

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Minor thirds = backbone pf dm

[Naren]

I made a video of 8 genres of metal and the first genre in the video is labeled "Melodic death metal," but it's basically the Swedish Gothenburg wave of melodic death metal (At the Gates, In Flames, Dark Tranquility, etc.)

Metasong: Eight Metal Genres In One Song - YouTube

Some of the aspects used are: anchored riffs (generally using the lowest string while adding other notes along other strings), harmonized riffs (oftentimes harmonized in minor thirds, as in my video's example), and oftentimes melodic lead guitar over regular power chords.

Hypocrisy and Entombed would fit into this genre, but Bloodbath would not. Bloodbath is more just straight up regular death metal.

Theory-wise, the riffs are usually more chromatic than falling into any specific key.

[stuh84]

From playing a fair bit of Entombed and Bloodbath recently, the tone has as much to do with it as anything else. Also, tremolo picking melody lines, and doing them including flattened 2nds and flattened 5ths will help out.

My tips would be to learn how to play a bit of Entombed and Bloodbath. Anything from Left Hand Path (Drowned is a good one) or Clandestine for Entombed, and anything off Resurrection Through Carnage by Bloodbath will also get you there. If you learn it, you can start to dissect it, and find common elements throughout it.

[Black Tower]

if you want to be inspired by tremolo picking melodies, no band does it better than Amon Amarth. their sound is built entirely upon it.

maybe look into the different things that make up the entire genre and find a technique you can really get a handle on. use that to be the core of your sound and add things to it. whenever you want to write a new track, you will know where to start if you have a technique you can always pull an amazing riff out of.

it may sound dull and like you writing the same stuff over and over, but AA is still doing it after like 7 albums and their songs always sound new and refreshing even though the core of them all are based on that one technique.

[stuh84]

Originally Posted by Black Tower

if you want to be inspired by tremolo picking melodies, no band does it better than Amon Amarth. their sound is built entirely upon it.

maybe look into the different things that make up the entire genre and find a technique you can really get a handle on. use that to be the core of your sound and add things to it. whenever you want to write a new track, you will know where to start if you have a technique you can always pull an amazing riff out of.

it may sound dull and like you writing the same stuff over and over, but AA is still doing it after like 7 albums and their songs always sound new and refreshing even though the core of them all are based on that one technique.

Only issue here is that Amon Amarth don't sound too similar to the early Swedish Death Metal kind of sound which the OP seems to be going for. Take early Entombed, Dismember, early Bloodbath, it just isn't the same as Amon Amarth.

Stylistically there are similarities, but I'd say Amon Amarth are as close to the sound the OP seems to be heading towards as Finnish Melodic Death Metal (Omnium Gatherum, Insomnium, Swallow The Sun, Before The Dawn) is to In Flames and Soilwork. Definite shared influences and similarities, but with enough differences to make learning one unlike learning the other.

[Black Tower]

Originally Posted by stuh84

Only issue here is that Amon Amarth don't sound too similar to the early Swedish Death Metal kind of sound which the OP seems to be going for. Take early Entombed, Dismember, early Bloodbath, it just isn't the same as Amon Amarth.

Stylistically there are similarities, but I'd say Amon Amarth are as close to the sound the OP seems to be heading towards as Finnish Melodic Death Metal (Omnium Gatherum, Insomnium, Swallow The Sun, Before The Dawn) is to In Flames and Soilwork. Definite shared influences and similarities, but with enough differences to make learning one unlike learning the other.

in a sense thats because they took up one technique and ran with it. AA has a pretty unique sound. I only brought them up because i saw you wrote tremolo picking melodies and it made me think AA, but the point i guess is to focus on one single technique and base your riffs of that.

[Naren]

Originally Posted by Black Tower

in a sense thats because they took up one technique and ran with it. AA has a pretty unique sound. I only brought them up because i saw you wrote tremolo picking melodies and it made me think AA, but the point i guess is to focus on one single technique and base your riffs of that.

I very very very very very strongly disagree with that.

Amon Amarth may use tremolo picking more than most melodic death metal bands, but their style is not based solely around that single technique.

In fact, basing your entire style around one technique is just plain bad advice.

[stuh84]

Yeah, I can see why you mentioned them and they are definitely someone to look to for how to use certain techniques. I think in this sense it's as much about the notes you pick as the techniques, and probably more actually.

Amon Amarth tend to be quite melodic, where often early Swedish Death Metal is more chromatic/locrian/diminished kind of sound to it. It actually may help looking at Amon Amarth compared to say, Trail Of Insects by Bloodbath to see that while both use similar techniques, the note choice makes them sound completely different (the tone and production helps, but I'd say that is maybe 30-40% of the sound in my experience)

[Naren]

You can see what Bloodbath is playing on this guitar cover I posted:

Bloodbath - Outnumbering the Day (Guitar Cover) -...

On the discussion of tremolo picking, it starts out with tremolo picking higher up the fretboard on one guitar, while the other guitar is playing fast rhythm guitar open or lower on the fretboard.

One thing about death metal in general is understanding how two guitars can work together to make a specific sound.