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Heavy Metal Thunder Technical Death Metal

Genres Heavy Metal Speed Metal Thrash Metal Death Metal Technical Death Metal

Technical Death Metal

For the players rather than the pit: shifting time signatures, impossible runs, and songs that reward a second listen far more than a first.

Active years
1988 – present
Origin
USA
Family
Death Metal
Bands here
14

Before you press play

Explicit content

Graphic lyrics and artwork are a defining feature of this genre rather than an occasional accident — which of violence, gore or sex depends on the band. Worth knowing before you put it on in a room with other people in it.

Start here

Four records in order of how easy they are to get into — which is not the same as best first.

  1. Focus Cynic, 1993

    The easiest way in and the least like the rest. Jazz fusion chords, a vocoder, and Sean Reinert playing drums like someone who has read the manual — beautiful rather than brutal.

    Listen to Focus

  2. Unquestionable Presence Atheist, 1991

    Death metal with a fretless bass and no interest in staying in one time signature. Made by people who plainly wanted to be in a jazz band and could not stop writing riffs.

    Listen to Unquestionable Presence

  3. Epitaph Necrophagist, 2004

    The technical peak and the least human-sounding. Muhammed Suiçmez writes guitar parts as classical exercises, and the whole record is over in thirty-two minutes.

    Listen to Epitaph

  4. Obscura Gorguts, 1998 The landmark

    The deep end, and it is a long way down. Guitars tuned to intervals that have no name, songs that refuse to resolve, and a record almost nobody enjoys on first contact — which is why it is fourth and not first.

    Listen to Obscura

What it sounds like

Riffs that behave like puzzles. Time signatures shift constantly, the fretboard is used end to end, and passages that would be a solo elsewhere are simply the riff. Bass is audible and often doing something independent, which is rare anywhere in metal. The vocal stays a standard death growl, which is part of the effect: extraordinary playing under an unchanging howl. Jazz and classical harmony turn up regularly. It rewards attention and punishes background listening, and whether it moves you or merely impresses you is the honest dividing line — plenty of listeners find it astonishing and cold at once. Compared with death metal proper it trades weight for dexterity — the tuning is higher and the riffs are busier, so it hits less hard and says considerably more.

  • Heaviness 4 out of 5
  • Speed 5 out of 5
  • Aggression 4 out of 5
  • Technicality 5 out of 5
  • Darkness 3 out of 5
  • Melody 2 out of 5

Where the name came from

A descriptive label emphasising the technical proficiency demanded of its musicians. The 'technical' prefix borrows from jazz and progressive music to signal complexity — sometimes shortened to 'tech-death.' It gained traction in the early 1990s as Cynic, Atheist, and Gorguts pushed death metal's boundaries.

The bands

Hear these first

  • Cynic USA
  • Atheist USA
  • Necrophagist Germany
  • Gorguts Canada
  • Obscura Germany

And 9 more

  • Suffocation USA
  • Decrepit Birth USA
  • Spawn of Possession Sweden
  • Brain Drill USA
  • Psycroptic Australia
  • Portal Australia
  • Nile USA
  • Origin USA
  • Ulcerate New Zealand

If you liked this

Closest in sound outside this family, leaning towards the similar or the gentler rather than straight into the deep end.