Gothenburg Metal
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The Gothenburg sound is the tightest, most melodic and most polished strain of melodic death metal: bright, harmonized twin-guitar leads in the Iron Maiden tradition layered over fast tremolo riffs and double-kick drumming, with a mid-range rasping bark for vocals. Tempos are brisk (roughly 170-210 BPM), arrangements are hook-forward and verse-chorus rather than sprawling, and acoustic/clean passages add melancholy. The defining studio is Fredman Studio with producer Fredrik Nordstrom, whose crisp, treble-bright, layered-guitar mix became the genre's calling card.
History
Named for the Swedish port city of Gothenburg, this scene was driven by a tight circle of musicians around In Flames, Dark Tranquillity and At the Gates in the early-to-mid 1990s. Members crossed bands constantly - In Flames vocalist Anders Friden originally sang on Dark Tranquillity's Skydancer (1993). The triad of At the Gates' Slaughter of the Soul (1995), Dark Tranquillity's The Gallery (1995) and In Flames' The Jester Race (1996), nearly all tracked at Fredrik Nordstrom's Fredman Studio, codified the template; Nuclear Blast and Osmose Productions carried it abroad. By the late 1990s In Flames' Colony (1999) and Soilwork pushed it toward a cleaner, hook-driven sound that fed directly into metalcore.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Metallum (Metal Archives) artist/album pages
- Daniel Ekeroth, Swedish Death Metal (Bazillion Points)
- AllMusic / Wikipedia: Gothenburg metal and Fredman Studio