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grisly death metal

Grisly Death Metal

Sweden · 2010s
IntenseDarkEpicSentimentalSad

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Description

Grisly death metal is a particularly filthy, gore‑soaked strain of old‑school death metal that embraces the abrasive “buzzsaw” guitar tone, cavernous growls, and grim, necrotic atmospheres. It is heavily indebted to early 1990s Swedish death metal, but re-emerged as a modern revival aesthetic in the late 2000s and especially the 2010s.

Sonically, the style centers on detuned riffing through the iconic HM‑2 “chainsaw” distortion, stout mid‑tempo stomps with d‑beat and punky drive, occasional blasts, and songwriting that favors heft and mood over technical flash. Lyrically and visually it leans into morbid horror, rot, and cemetery imagery, with raw, unpolished production that amplifies a feeling of decay and menace.


Sources: Spotify, Wikipedia, Discogs, RYM, MB, user feedback and other online sources

History

Origins (1990s foundations)

Grisly death metal draws its core DNA from the early Swedish death metal scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Bands from Stockholm and Gothenburg popularized the HM‑2 “chainsaw” tone, d‑beat/crust underpinnings, and a morbid atmosphere—elements that became the backbone of the later grisly sound.

Revival and codification (late 2000s–2010s)

After a period in which technical, polished, or hybridized death metal styles dominated, a new generation of musicians resurrected the raw, fetid aesthetic. Throughout the 2010s, groups across Sweden, the broader Nordic region, and mainland Europe—soon joined by North American acts—re‑embraced filthy tones, blunt-force riffing, and simple, punishing song forms. The “grisly” tag came to signify this consciously macabre, HM‑2‑forward approach.

Global spread and scene identity

As labels, festivals, and online communities spotlighted OSDM revivalists, the grisly subset cohered into a recognizable micro‑scene. Its identity is equal parts sound (chainsaw guitars, cavernous vocals), feel (mid‑tempo stomp, punk propulsion), and aura (graveyard horror, rot), with production choices that reject gloss in favor of abrasion and atmosphere.

Aesthetic and legacy

By prioritizing texture and mood over virtuosity, grisly death metal reinvigorated interest in the primordial side of death metal. It helped catalyze a broader new wave of OSDM and reaffirmed the Swedish school’s enduring influence on extreme metal’s sound and iconography.

How to make a track in this genre

Guitars and tone
•   Tune low (B standard down to A or drop tunings). Use a Boss HM‑2/clone with Level, Low, High, and Distortion turned up for the archetypal “chainsaw” tone. Pair with a solid‑state head or tight high‑headroom amp; keep mids scooped at the amp to let the HM‑2 define the EQ. •   Double‑ or quad‑track rhythm guitars; pan hard for a wall of grind. Let pick attack be percussive—don’t over‑gate or over‑compress.
Riff writing and harmony
•   Build around simple, sinister motifs: minor scales, natural minor and Phrygian flavors, chromatic walk‑downs, and liberal tritones. Emphasize movement between power‑chord shapes and pedal‑tone tremolo patterns. •   Alternate mid‑tempo “stomp” riffs with faster tremolo-picked passages. Use palm‑muted chugs to set up drop‑into‑the‑grave breakdown feels without modern metalcore syncopation.
Rhythm section
•   Drums: anchor with d‑beat and “Swedish polka” mid‑tempo grooves (180–220 BPM feel), interspersed with blasts for impact. Keep snare sharp and kick dry/punchy; avoid hyper‑quantization. •   Bass: overdriven, gritty, and slightly behind the guitars for weight. Follow root motion closely; occasional simple counter‑lines add movement beneath tremolo passages.
Vocals and lyrics
•   Vocals are deep, chesty growls with a cavernous timbre—layered doubles and light plate/room reverb add depth. Sparse high shrieks can punctuate transitions. •   Lyrical themes: decay, graves, plague, body horror, apocalyptic ruin, or Lovecraftian dread. Keep lines visceral and concrete; avoid ornate metaphors.
Arrangement and production
•   Aim for 3–5 minute songs with clear sections: intro riff, verse churn, hook‑like mid‑tempo stomp, a short solo or lead motif, then a final collapse. •   Production should be raw but intelligible: limited editing, roomy drum overheads, minimal sample replacement, and a master that’s loud yet not brickwalled. Let grit, noise, and low‑end bloom remain part of the aesthetic.

Best playlists

The Sound of Grisly Death Metal
The Sound of Grisly Death Metal
Every Noise at Once
Grisly Death Metal
Grisly Death Metal
Chosic
Grisly Death Metal Mix
Grisly Death Metal Mix
Spotify
Best of Grisly Death Metal
Best of Grisly Death Metal
volt.fm

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in this genre
Influenced by
Death Metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal defined by heavily distorted, low‑tuned guitars, rapid and complex riffing, blast beat drumming, and harsh guttural vocals. Its harmonic language favors chromaticism, dissonance, and tremolo-picked lines that create an ominous, abrasive atmosphere. Lyrically, death metal often explores dark or transgressive themes—mortality, mythology, anti-religion, psychological horror, and the macabre—sometimes with philosophical or social commentary. Production ranges from raw and cavernous to hyper-precise and technical, reflecting the genre’s many regional scenes and substyles. From the mid‑1980s Florida scene (Tampa) and parallel developments in the US, UK, and Sweden, death metal evolved into numerous branches including brutal death metal, technical death metal, melodic death metal, and death‑doom, each emphasizing different aspects of speed, complexity, melody, or heaviness.
Old School Death Metal
Old school death metal (OSDM) is the formative, raw strain of death metal that took shape in the mid-to-late 1980s. It emphasizes downtuned, palm-muted riffing, tremolo-picked lines, and thunderous drums that shift between blast beats, skank beats, and mid-tempo stomps. Vocals are guttural and cavernous, projecting themes of mortality, horror, occultism, and decay. Production is intentionally unvarnished: guitars are thick and abrasive, drums are natural and roomy, and mixes privilege heaviness and atmosphere over precision. US bands typically favored tight, chug-heavy riff chains and chromatic menace, while the Swedish branch popularized the infamous “buzzsaw” guitar tone driven by the Boss HM-2 pedal. Song structures often unfold as riff-suites rather than strict verse–chorus forms, creating an inexorable, subterranean momentum.
D-Beat
D-beat is a raw, fast, and politically charged subgenre of hardcore punk named after the signature drum pattern popularized by the British band Discharge. The style emphasizes a relentless, galloping 4/4 beat, overdriven guitars, gritty bass, and shouted vocals. Songs are typically short (1–3 minutes), mid-to-fast tempo (often 160–220 BPM), and built around simple, minor-key power-chord riffs. Lyrics are direct and confrontational, focusing on anti-war, anti-authoritarian, and social-collapse themes. Production values are intentionally rough, prioritizing impact and urgency over polish. Aesthetically, D-beat overlaps with UK82 street punk and anarcho-punk, and it laid key groundwork for crust punk and later extreme punk-metal hybrids. Global scenes flourished especially in Sweden and Japan, where the style became synonymous with a noisier, more abrasive “raw punk” sound.
Crust Punk
Crust punk is a dark, heavy, and politically charged offshoot of punk that fuses the speed and rawness of hardcore with the weight and bleak atmospheres of metal. It is characterized by abrasive, overdriven guitar tones, pounding D‑beat and double‑time rhythms, and harsh, shouted vocals. Lyrically, crust punk confronts themes such as anti-militarism, anti-fascism, environmental collapse, social decay, and everyday survival under capitalism, often presented through apocalyptic or dystopian imagery. Its sound and message are inseparable from the DIY ethic, squatter culture, and grassroots activism that nurtured the scene.
Death-Doom Metal
Death-doom metal is a fusion of death metal’s extremity and doom metal’s slow, crushing weight. It pairs down-tuned, monolithic riffs and oppressive tempos with death metal features such as guttural growls, occasional double-kick bursts, and abrasive distortion. The mood is bleak and melancholic, often enhanced by minor-key harmonies, sustained chords, and sparse melodic figures. Some bands add keyboards, violin, or clean guitar interludes to deepen the sense of tragedy and atmosphere. Lyrically, it focuses on grief, mortality, desolation, and existential dread. Arrangements tend to be long-form and dynamic: glacial passages anchor the music while strategically placed surges of death-metal intensity create cathartic contrast.
Thrash Metal
Thrash metal is a fast, aggressive, and riff‑driven style of metal characterized by high-tempo, palm‑muted downpicking; tightly synchronized rhythm sections; and abrasive, shouted or barked vocals. Songs typically sit in the 180–220+ BPM range, with rapid alternate picking, chugging power‑chord riffs, and precise double‑bass drumming. Harmonically, thrash favors minor tonalities, chromatic movement, tritone tension, and modal flavors such as Phrygian and Aeolian. Structures are riff-centric and often feature brisk tempo changes, sharp stops/starts, and technically demanding solos that draw on pentatonic, natural/harmonic minor, and modal runs. Lyrically, thrash is frequently anti‑authoritarian and socio‑political, addressing war, corruption, media manipulation, and personal alienation. Compared to speed metal, thrash is more percussive, staccato, and palm‑mute heavy; compared to death metal, vocals are generally less guttural and the riffing slightly less dissonant, but the intensity and precision remain core to the style.
Has influenced
New Wave Of Osdm
New Wave of OSDM (Old School Death Metal) is a 2010s–present revival movement that resurrects the aesthetics, riffcraft, and production ethos of late-1980s/early-1990s death metal. It favors down‑tuned guitars, chromatic riffing, guttural vocals, and an organic, unpolished sound that feels tactile and oppressive rather than hyper‑edited. Stylistically it triangulates the Floridian school’s technical menace, the Incantation/Autopsy murk and doom-laden crawl, and the Swedish HM‑2 “buzzsaw” bite—often within the same album. Songs pivot between d‑beat churn, mid‑paced stomps, lurching death‑doom passages, and short blasts, with bass prominent in the mix and drums captured with room ambience. Lyrically and visually, the movement leans on cosmic horror, rot, mysticism, war, and underground tape‑trader aesthetics, sustained by DIY labels and a thriving cassette/vinyl culture. Rather than museum‑piece nostalgia, the scene treats classic techniques as living practice: updating arrangement flow, atmosphere, and harmonic color while preserving the genre’s primal heft.

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