An aural stimulation that has somewhat been related to bleeding of the ears, an excess production of testosterone, and the utter pissing off of rap fans around the world. In fact, this form of music is just white noise set to very fast beats, but due to a certain property only evident in angry, white, suburbanite males, this white noise translates into very fast, very technical, and very well written music (see: necrophagist OMG) Death metal musicians tend to have an extreme amount of skill, using secret techniques taught to them by subliminal messaging through the Slayer Compact Disc, Reign In Blood, of only which a few copies exists today, that produces this extreme effect. It is said that there are secret rituals in Greg's Basement that are used to summon the almighty Slayer, involving the parting of a chicken, dipping your head in entrails for apples, and going trick or treating in the middle of august. Avoid death metal fans at all cost. They are infected with nerd syndrome, a very infectious disease which you may catch after only one listen to a death metal CD. If you ever encounter one of these nerds, the obvious symptoms are as follows: Obesity, extreme paleness of the skin, acne, a lack of social awareness, stuttering, the tendency to talk to oneself, a delusion that they are OMG TEH HOTNESS. Run.

A form of music that developed in the mid 1980's from thrash. Possessed recorded a song entitled "Death Metal" in 1984, which would appear on their debut album Seven Churches in 1985. Other bands such as Aggression, Death, Necrophagia, Nun Slaughter, Slaughter Lord and even Slayer contributed to the movement. What defined death metal was the fact that it was basically an exaggerated form of thrash--everything from the vocals (which transformed into a mix of growling, grunting and rasping) to the drumming was made harsher and heavier than before. The music itself became somewhat anti-rhythmic, and in some cases experimental (as seen with Darkthrone's Goatlord album, or the modern technicality of Necrophagist). The first bands to really modernize the movement included Autopsy, Cannibal Corpse, the virtually unkown Necrovore, Morbid Angel, Obituary, and Ripping Corpse, among others. Death metal could range from the blood and gore horror imagery of Cannibal Corpse, to the satanic overtones of Deicide, to the political statements carried by Dying Fetus. Some criticize death metal as they feel the musicians do nothing but randomly band their instruments. Nothing could be further from the truth--listen to Morbid Angel's album Covenant, for instance, or Cannibal Corpse's Gore Obsessed, to get a better perspective on the scene.

A brutal sub-genre of heavy metal. Misplaced anger is often put towards this genre by ignorant people who think jazz is really avant-garde.

Death metal usually includes but is not limited to fast riffage, growling vocals, and blast beats. Modern death metal has some grindcore influence. Yes, it does take talent to vocalize like that. Record yourself "growling" and let's see how professinal you sound.

Death Metal is a genre of metal composed of blastbeats, crunchy and technical guitar riffs, intricate bass lines, and usually gutteral vocal styles. Death metal uses these all and is uncomprehendable to all people without a musical background. The complexity overloads most peoples minds, they can only settle for simple things like "tappin that ass!!" Death metal is one of the most unapriciated forms of metal because of its complexity and its technicality. This is also the metal that scares preps into thinking metalheads are goths.

Actually, Death Metal isn't simply about satan/death/killing ect. Grindcore/death metal masters NAPALM DEATH have had a long history of political statments in thier music. The afformentioned Satan enlightens and brings forth religious ideas and concepts. In reality, Death Metal can be inteligent. However, bands like Obituary and Cannibal Corpse stay true to the no-brains-kill-em-all style, (good fun) but try not to tar all music of one genre with the same brush.

A style of music whose listeners know and appreciate the level of skill and often "tight" musicianship, characterized by the ability to churn out complex 32nd and 64th note riffs with almost inhuman precision.

Also a style of music whose detractors refer to as "satanic" or "evil," despite the fact that the vast majority of them either have never actually heard any death metal.

one of the many forms of "extreme metal" alongside genres such as black metal and grindcore, death metal is characterised by heavily downtuned and distorted guitar riffs, extremely fast drumming (drum patterns such as blastbeats are often used, and harsh, guttural low pitched vocals, occasionally alongside high pitched screaming.

death metal comes in many sub-genres: brutal, technical, blackened, melodic, deathcore, etc etc, with the most "mainstream sound" coming from more melodic bands such as in flames or arch enemy.

brutal is a genre that is commonly associated with bands such as cannibal corpse, hate eternal and devourment. this is arguably the most heavy form of death metal with heavily downtuned guitaring, frequent blastbeats and extremely harsh guttural vocals. subject matter ranges from rape to necrophilia and everything in between.

technical/progressive death metal is a subgenre most commonly recognised by its extremely technical guitaring, with frequently changing song structures and uncommon time signatures. Examples include Necrophagist, Cryptopsy and to some extent Opeth.

Blackened death metal is a sort of fusion between death metal and some of the more melodic aspects of black metal, aswell as the subject matter such as satanism, the occult and general evil. Some early influences to the subgenre include deicide, immolation aswell as black metal bands such as marduk, bathory, burzum and mayhem, and prime examples of the subgenre are bands such as Behemoth, belphegor and zyklon.

melodic death metal is a fusion of heavy metal, death metal and other musical genres. The genre includes less harsh vocals although guttural growls are used sometimes, as well as blastbeats and uses downtuned/ distorted guitars less liberally. Started in scandinavia, or more specifically Gothenburg, Sweden, with the first bands that dubbed the genre as the "Gothenburg Sound". Pioneers of the genre are namely in flames and at the gates, and other examples include dark tranquility, amon amarth, arch enemy, entombed and nihilist.

deathcore is a fusion between death metal and "metalcore". As metalcore became more popular thanks to bands such as killswitch engage, other bands began to fuse metalcore already heavy aspects with a more death metal orientated sound; for example job for a cowboy. Many deathgrind bands are confused for deathcore.

deathgrind is a fusion between death metal with certain aspects of grindcore, such as the high pitched screaming, complex song structures and irregular time signatures. Some examples of deathgrind include cephalic carnage, pig destroyer, rotten sound and annotations of an autopsy.

Grinding dark, brutal sounding music that shatters windows and makes ears bleed. This music has very fast solos, insane drumming, demonic vocals, and heartpounding bass.

A slighter more extreme, (but perhaps not so visually) version of a 'Metalhead'. Appearance and attitude do not really differ much from that of a normal 'Metalhead'. (However there are of course exceptions). The stereo-typical extremities that I have observed are usually; a more blunt/brash attitude towards things, wear clothing promoting heavier bands, tend to be more violently inclined and a lot more temperamental and of course, primarily listen to death metal. (Though not just that style, they do listen to other styles of music, no one listens to just one genre.)

On the contrary to dick behind the genius that is the only other definition, Death Metallers are not anti-social. Quite the opposite, many of them either spending their time with friends or families, or down the pub. They also attend concerts and festivals quite regularly which entails being in contact with thousands of other people.

In short, a Death Metaller is a slightly more violent and free willed version of a Metalhead. Visually almost identical to a metalhead, (the only way to tell the difference is if your into metal.)