Guest Article by Fiello
Death metal guitarists enterprise to develop musical arrangements that occupy the fretboard in varied ways. For some guitar players, a compositionally restrained approach to shred guitar juxtaposed with downtuned guitars whose high strings might not ever see play throughout entire albums is becoming of a frenetic style that combines a sense of melody with the most primitive sounds.
The stylistic origins of this musical approach are latent in early death metal bands like Suffocation and Atheist but the collective unconscious that their followers tapped into through worldwide conversation led to the implementation of a stripped down approach to composition. The prime example of this guitar trickery is the album Cranial Impalement by Disgorge, the band establish key melodies at the beginning that are mutated within different contexts to create new musical ideas; between these developments exists a departure from the majority of metal music:
Consider the song “Atonement”, the approach to composition herein opens the creative field for memorable variations of a given theme. At times Atonement relies on repeating the same lick in different contexts, this is an instance of evolution in metal music. Old and new complement each other, what was first an intro is given further development giving novel riffs a typical syntax in its resolution.
Re-intro without transition, new context and resolution
The following riff features consonant intervals that arise like a fish jumping from a water of tritones and a barrage of notes mere steps from each other repeating at high speed. Palm muted shredding like this often blurs the line between lead and rhythm.
Brutal death metal presents a radical departure from the staccato strumming of root notes that has held verses from Metallica (verses in Master of Puppets) to Mayhem (Necrolust intro). A consistent percussive element that hearkens back to the convergence of metal and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring exists. Regardless of tempo, an element of consistency contrasts the vocal deliveries in earlier heavy metal that brutal death metal has foregone. While shredding itself is not unheard of in earlier metal riffing styles, (Atheist, Megadeth) it is important to consider that the later death metal bands who implemented this technique used it as a common motif. They often act as a gestalt that delivers shades of opacity rather than clearly contrasted vocal lines; this liberates songwriting. Ostinato is often anathema to bands like Disgorge and, although repetition is common, riffs mutate into new ideas that invites new patterns to fit previously established motifs. Due to the lack of tonal variety in this music, it requires great skill to avert monotony and this is achieved through precise and ornamented accompaniment to verses. If a guitar player aims to include this technique in her or his repertoire, it is important to know the possibilities of this style, here are some examples that show how other bands used this idea during death metal’s silver age:
Pyaemia were experts at utilizing this chromaticism in their riffs. The verse in the song “Cerebral Cereal” is entirely carried by a short note progression.
This riff has been used by the likes of Hour of Penance as a form of maintaining rhythmic consistency in varied riffs such as in the intro riff of “Decimate The Ancestry of The Only God”
Defeated Sanity use thoroughly planned transitions that often flirt with improvisation. “Butchered Identity” is a great example of this.
