History of Melodic Death Metal - Info for metalheads

Melodic death metal is a form of death metal music, which is itself a style of heavy metal. Melodic death metal is a lot like death metal but, as the name suggests, it is more melodic. Melodic death metal bands may use normal singing some times, where death metal bands nearly always use growling. Melodic death metal lyrics are also different to death metal lyrics. Death metal lyrics focus on death, war, murder and gore where melodic death metal focuses more on philosophy, religion and other less violent topics. Starting in the town of Gothenburg in Sweden it is sometimes referred to as the "Gothenburg Sound"

Melodic death metal started in Scandinavia, in countries such as Sweden and Norway. Many early melodic death metal bands wanted to mix the fast, brutal songs of death metal with the dual guitar harmonies and melodies of heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden and Saxon.

Famous melodic death metal bands include In Flames a Swedish band formed by Jesper Strombald, and Dark Tranquility, one of the oldest and highly listened to bands in the genre.

Credit for the popularity of melodic death metal can be attributed to the mid-90s releases of In Flames, At the Gates, and Dark Tranquillity, which laid the foundation for the Gothenburg metal scene.

Another key band in the definition of melodic death metal was the British band Carcass, who started out playing grindcore but morphed into a death metal style and helped pioneer the melodic death metal genre with their 1993 album Heartwork and define melodic death metal as an authentic genre.

Stylistic origins	Death metal, NWOBHM
Cultural origins	Early to mid-1990s, Scandinavia (particularly Gothenburg, Sweden) and Liverpool, England
Typical instruments	Electric guitar, bass guitar, drums (double kick), keyboard, acoustic guitar, vocals
Mainstream popularity	Underground in early–mid 1990s Increased popularity throughout 2000s
Notable Bands	In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, At The Gates
Derivative forms	Melodic metalcore