Battle of the Bands: Swedish vs. Finnish Melodeath.

In the past year, I've really come to enjoy melodic death metal. It's riddled with paradoxes. Musically, it's beautiful, yet crushingly heavy--like power metal, but more "power"ful. Heh. Unlike garden-variety death metal, it pioneers the art of the awesome guitar solo, pumping out compositions that can rival those of classic metal. Lyrically, it tends to be fascinating, from introspection on the human condition to fantasy/mythology to epic fishing to Wintersun. Arguably an improvement over the cheesiness power metal can aspire to, and certainly over ultra-gory death metal lyrics that could have been penned by a disturbed twelve-year-old boy.

Melodic death metal (MDM) bands hail from all over the world--Anterior in the UK, Eluveitie in Switzerland, Nightrage from Greece, or Universum from Australia. I actually don't have any from America, though apparently they exist. But undoubtedly the throne of melodic death metal is Scandanavia--specifically Sweden and Finland (Norway tends more towards black metal). Which takes me to a quick history lesson.

MDM got started in the mid 1990s in Sweden. The new trend of death metal had caught on there with bands like Carnage, Dismember, and Unleashed--you can tell they were pretty typical death metal fare just from the names. Then something new happened. In 1995-96, In Flames, At the Gates, and Dark Tranquillity all released landmark albums that changed the face of death metal. They dropped the gore-obsessed lyrics of their forebears and changed their sound from death metal's earlier extreme thrashiness to something more akin to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal of 15 years earlier. This became known as the "Gothenburg sound" (after the bands' hometown) and quickly became a successful and popular (for death metal) side genre.

This, then, is the Gothenburg sound. Interweaving twin-guitar melodies, brutal-yet-catchy riffs, amazing guitar solos, and often a mixture of clean vocals along with the usual "cookie monster" style. To me, no band has embodied it better than In Flames. (Their earlier albums; they're tending more toward alternative metal nowadays, but it's still good) Other exemplars include the similar Soilwork, Viking band Amon Amarth, or the rather interesting Scar Symmetry. I highly recommend all of those bands.

Before long, MDM had the world's attention--and nowhere more so than Sweden's neighbor Finland. Before long they had hacked out a sizeable place in the growing scene, with usual Finnish style. (i.e. lots of keyboards) Its influence comes through in several ways. Some bands are as heavy as ever but have a keyboard-tinged sound like Kalmah. Others like Mors Principium Est let it share the melody line. I've already written about Wintersun's masterful use of keyboards to create beautiful, atmospheric music. (Skip to the last minute of that song to see) The result can sometimes sound a lot like angrier power metal with extreme vocals. (Not that it's a bad thing)

Extreme metal has gained a bad rap as a haven for violence and Satanism--understandable, as the music that helped define it was largely about these things. But as just about every genre--punk, grunge, and rock itself--inevitably outgrows the scene of its birth, so death metal has advanced far beyond its origins. I think extreme music tends to attract extreme-minded, creative people, which helps make it a rewarding genre to explore (carefully, of course). I hope your interested has been piqued.