Swedish Death Metal
Located in 2 routes
The Stockholm strain of death metal, instantly identified by its 'buzzsaw' guitar tone - heavily distorted, detuned guitars run through a maxed Boss HM-2 pedal for a chainsaw-like wall of sound far rawer and more crushing than Florida's clean attack. Riffing leans on grim, d-beat-derived punk momentum and rolling tremolo lines rather than technical riff-counts; tempos sit mid-fast with frequent rock-and-roll grooves, vocals are cavernous low growls, and the overall mood is murky, morbid, and physical. The Sunlight Studio production - thick, fuzzy, almost dirt-caked - is the scene's sonic fingerprint.
History
Swedish death metal grew out of the late-1980s Stockholm and Gothenburg underground, fed by Slayer, Autopsy, and British grindcore/crust. The Stockholm sound was forged at Tomas Skogsberg's Sunlight Studio, where the HM-2 buzzsaw tone (originated by Nihilist/Entombed guitarist Leif Cuzner) was committed to tape; Nihilist evolved into Entombed, whose Left Hand Path (1990) put the scene on the map. Dismember (Like an Ever Flowing Stream, 1991), Grave (Into the Grave, 1991), Unleashed (Where No Life Dwells, 1991), Carnage and Carcass-linked players, plus Earache and Nuclear Blast releases, made Stockholm a rival capital to Tampa - a distinct, filthier dialect of death metal whose template still defines the 'Swedeath' revival.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Daniel Ekeroth, Swedish Death Metal (book)
- Albert Mudrian, Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal and Grindcore
- Encyclopaedia Metallum (Metal-Archives) band/discography pages