Jump to content

Thrash Metal VS Melodic Death Metal


BrVt3l F3IdZ

Recommended Posts

I find both difficult to choose which one is the best metal genre yet for me only both of them but both of them for me are the best genres of Metal music IMO. Thrash Metal because it has crazy fast riffs and fast shredding process that were popularized to make it as an outstanding genre but the problem was that Thrash Metal after 2000s had lack of creativity with that genre because of "0 0 0 0 0 0'' type of formula and technical riffs. However, it made influences on loads of extreme metal genres like Death Metal, Black Metal and others. The Thrash Metal bands that I love are Anthrax, Slayer, Havok, Megadeth, Municipal Waste (They're Crossover Thrash I know), Aura Noir (Blackened Thrash Metal), Revocation, Exodus, Sepultura, Skeletonwitch (Blackened Thrash Metal), Sodom, Toxic Holocaust (Also Blackened Thrash or Crossover Thrash), Testament, Vader and Violator. Melodic Death Metal because it's the only genre for me that it's more emotional, melodic and approachable to the audience which the formula of making this genre is 2 genres which are Death Metal + NWOBHM which I find it so interesting to hear. The Melodic Death Metal bands that I love are Arch Enemy, Arsis (Technical Melodic Death Metal), Be'lakor, The Black Dahlia Murder, Children Of Bodom (One of my Favourites and called it specifically Extreme Power because it has synthesizer in their music but normally it's Melodic Death Metal), Dark Tranquillity (Pioneers of Melodic Death Metal), Ensiferum (More of a mixture of Folk metal but Melodic Death Metal influences), Hypocrisy (One of my favourites because of their Lyrical Content about Space or sci-fi), Kalmah (One of my favourites because it's similar to Children Of Bodom), In Flames (My all time favourite melodic death metal band that maded allmost all their albums perfect until they made the album called "Siren Charms" which has poor style of this album and which changed alot differently because Jesper left the band due to Medical issues), Insomnium, Naildown (Similar to Children Of Bodom), Carcass (Pionners of Melodic Death Metal), At The Gates (My All time favourite because of their "Slaughter Of The Soul" album which currently never stays old), Scar Symmetry (All Time favourite aswell because of their lyrical content and their instrumentation which is about Space with sci-fi influences), Amon Amarth (My All Time favourite because of their lyrical content about Vikings), Wintersun (More like Extreme Power but my all time favourite aswell). Which one do you think it's the best genre for you or the metal community that remains the best in your opinion? There's also a poll to vote for everyone. Thank you -BrVt3l F3IdZ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You seem to have many "all time favourite" bands and a slight problem distinguishing genres. tbdm for example (a truly loathsome band) are deathcore, Vader are death metal, Carcass were pioneers of Goregrind. The two genres are not really comparable to be honest. I own all of two melodeath albums as opposed to I dunno fifty or sixty thrash albums.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I would have to say Thrash Metal, just because of the heritage, it has with the whole Bay Area Thrash scene from which many awesome bands emerged from, Metallica, Megadeth, Exodus etc.

That one scene produced a lot of bands, but a lot of mediocrity as well, and drew attention away from other scenes producing a higher degree of quality music. Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Melodeath wins over thrash for me in most instances. I admire good thrash, and let's face it not many Children of Bodom albums are really going to challenge a 'Master of Puppets' or 'Rust in Peace', but I don't usually find it particularly enjoyable. I know it's not very 'true', but I have no problem with the ear candy of melodeath over the workman-like labours of everyday thrash. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
Melodeath wins over thrash for me in most instances. I admire good thrash, and let's face it not many Children of Bodom albums are really going to challenge a 'Master of Puppets' or 'Rust in Peace', but I don't usually find it particularly enjoyable. I know it's not very 'true', but I have no problem with the ear candy of melodeath over the workman-like labours of everyday thrash. 

 

Children of Bodom are more of a power metal band than actual melodeath. Were it not for the vocals, it wouldn't even be a point of contention, and it shouldn't be anyway, since their music is completely devoid of death metal. I really love melodic death metal, and some of my favorites in the style eclipse a ton of thrash for me, but it didn't take long for the sound to shit the bed and basically become a power/gothic/groove/metalcore metal hybrid.

 

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 2017-6-26 at 0:53 AM, BlutAusNerd said:

 

Children of Bodom are more of a power metal band than actual melodeath. Were it not for the vocals, it wouldn't even be a point of contention, and it shouldn't be anyway, since their music is completely devoid of death metal. I really love melodic death metal, and some of my favorites in the style eclipse a ton of thrash for me, but it didn't take long for the sound to shit the bed and basically become a power/gothic/groove/metalcore metal hybrid.

 

I only just saw this post for some reason.

Yeah, maybe. There are definitely elements of power metal's songwriting approach in their music due to the guitar and keyboard theatrics, but Children of Bodom are ultimately more of a melodeath band when you throw the vocals into the mix - and I think we have to include the full package. The full package in my hands.

If they had a falsetto power metal vocalist then I'd have no qualms calling them straight power metal. Maybe we can split the difference and call them melopower. 

You're gonna hate this BAN, (and FatherA, Relentless - well, basically all the bullshit hating/old skool loving regulars) but this is for those who voted melodeath over thrash. Check out the last half of this track off their latest album 'I Worship Chaos'. The Wildchild downtuned the guitars!

Put on the black nail polish, down a bottle of Jack, get your bros together for some gang vocals, and pump this track up:

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2017-6-26 at 0:53 AM, BlutAusNerd said:  

Children of Bodom are more of a power metal band than actual melodeath. Were it not for the vocals, it wouldn't even be a point of contention, and it shouldn't be anyway, since their music is completely devoid of death metal. I really love melodic death metal, and some of my favorites in the style eclipse a ton of thrash for me, but it didn't take long for the sound to shit the bed and basically become a power/gothic/groove/metalcore metal hybrid.

 

I only just saw this post for some reason.

Yeah, maybe. There are definitely elements of power metal's songwriting approach in their music due to the guitar and keyboard theatrics, but Children of Bodom are ultimately more of a melodeath band when you throw the vocals into the mix - and I think we have to include the full package. The full package in my hands.

If they had a falsetto power metal vocalist then I'd have no qualms calling them straight power metal. Maybe we can split the difference and call them melopower. 

You're gonna hate this BAN, (and FatherA, Relentless - well, basically all the bullshit hating/old skool loving regulars) but this is for those who voted melodeath over thrash. Check out the last half of this track off their latest album 'I Worship Chaos'. The Wildchild downtuned the guitars!

Put on the black nail polish, down a bottle of Jack, get your bros together for some gang vocals, and pump this track up:

 

 

 

Not to be a dick about it, I just don't see how that could be a maybe. Children of Bodom was one of the first bands that I got into, I listened to their first 4 albums pretty heavily when I was getting into metal, and I have yet to hear anything to link them to death metal. Having harsh vocals (that also aren't really death metal sounding) wouldn't change that, at best it would make their old stuff power/speed metal with harsh vocals, which is typically how I would describe them anyway. I think people have a distorted vision of what melodic death metal is, which makes sense, since the progenitors of the style all either broke up or changed styles pretty quickly. Many of them, especially the likes of In Flames, Soilwork, and Arch Enemy, morphed into what many associate the genre with today, but that sound no longer contains death metal, so I don't know why people still use the label.

 

As far as the track you posted, it sounds a lot like the glam/groove metal that CoB has been peddling for the last 10+ years. They've spliced in a couple of thrash riffs over the course of their career, but as that sound is adjacent to speed metal and groove metal (which makes up both sides of their career), it's not really a surprising inclusion. Anyway, I still dig their old stuff, I even spun Hatebreeder for the few time in a while a few weeks ago. I just don't have any interest in anything past Hate Crew Deathroll anymore, it's a sound that spoke to me more as a teenager than it does now.

 

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If anyone were to actually attach the "melodic death metal label" with any sense of accuracy, it would probably be in regards to Dark Tranquility's Skydancer or At the Gates' first two albums rather than CoB's approach or later albums from other melodic death metal bands. 

2 hours ago, BlutAusNerd said:

As far as the track you posted, it sounds a lot like the glam/groove metal that CoB has been peddling for the last 10+ years. They've spliced in a couple of thrash riffs over the course of their career, but as that sound is adjacent to speed metal and groove metal (which makes up both sides of their career), it's not really a surprising inclusion. Anyway, I still dig their old stuff, I even spun Hatebreeder for the few time in a while a few weeks ago. I just don't have any interest in anything past Hate Crew Deathroll anymore, it's a sound that spoke to me more as a teenager than it does now.

It's funny because I dug their earlier albums like Something Wild and Hatebreeder as a teenager due to the neoclassical affectations which is something that doesn't appear to be as much of a common sentiment. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Ecthelion said:

If anyone were to actually attach the "melodic death metal label" with any sense of accuracy, it would probably be in regards to Dark Tranquility's Skydancer or At the Gates' first two albums rather than CoB's approach or later albums from other melodic death metal bands. 

I agree with this, at least for that scene, though I'd add The Gallery in as well. It's kind of a shame that the "melodic death metal" tag is used the way it is today, because it makes it more difficult to speak concisely about death metal with strong melodic content that doesn't fit into that sound, and there's a ton of that - progressive death like Edge Of Sanity and early Opeth, more straightforward but still melody-driven stuff like early Cemetary and Necrophobic, the weird rock/folk/death fusion of "Tales From The Thousand Lakes". There's also a whole bunch of melody in unrelated bands like Anata, Psycroptic, and Carcariass, and several newer tech death bands (for instance Virvum, First Fragment, A Loathing Requiem) embracing melody in the past few years. But the second we say "melodic death metal" everybody thinks it means pedal point riffing in melodic minor with high-pitched harsh vocals. The only band I've heard that's pulling off an enjoyable version of the Gothenburg sound lately (to my ears) is Hyperion. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, BlutAusNerd said:

 

Not to be a dick about it, I just don't see how that could be a maybe.

It's a maybe because I believe there is a distinction within common parlance between death metal with melodic aspects - like the examples FatherA employs - and 'melodeath'.

The new God Dethroned album has aspects of death metal and also a lot of melody, so that's probably more likely to fit into the melodic death metal paradigm that you're touting, because it is actually death metal that is melodic. 'Melodeath' in 2017 is a much broader church and I think even the name 'melodeath' has come to mean more than just death metal with a few melodies here and there. Interesting, wikipedia states that Bodom are melodic death metal/power metal/thrash metal, which bespeaks of their multiplicity and cross-genre straddling. 

I'm not going to sit here on the internet and argue about which genre Children of Bodom fall into. But what I'm saying is that I can certainly see why Bodom are often shucked under the aegis of 'melodeath' in casual conversation. That you personally have the breadth of interests to listen to old school death metal and early Children of Bodom probably puts you in the minority, and thus supports your view, because while I do believe 'melodeath' works for Bodom, even my nan - were she still alive god bless her mothballed heart - can tell that 'Follow the Reaper' doesn't have a lot in common with 'Effigy of the Forgotten'. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, BlutAusNerd said:  

Not to be a dick about it, I just don't see how that could be a maybe.

It's a maybe because I believe there is a distinction within common parlance between death metal with melodic aspects - like the examples FatherA employs - and 'melodeath'.

The new God Dethroned album has aspects of death metal and also a lot of melody, so that's probably more likely to fit into the melodic death metal paradigm that you're touting, because it is actually death metal that is melodic. 'Melodeath' in 2017 is a much broader church and I think even the name 'melodeath' has come to mean more than just death metal with a few melodies here and there. Interesting, wikipedia states that Bodom are melodic death metal/power metal/thrash metal, which bespeaks of their multiplicity and cross-genre straddling. 

I'm not going to sit here on the internet and argue about which genre Children of Bodom fall into. But what I'm saying is that I can certainly see why Bodom are often shucked under the aegis of 'melodeath' in casual conversation. That you personally have the breadth of interests to listen to old school death metal and early Children of Bodom probably puts you in the minority, and thus supports your view, because while I do believe 'melodeath' works for Bodom, even my nan - were she still alive god bless her mothballed heart - can tell that 'Follow the Reaper' doesn't have a lot in common with 'Effigy of the Forgotten'. 

 

Indeed, that does seem to be the trouble, and also the distinction that I feel needs to be made. If something is to be called "melodic death metal" or "melodeath", should it not be exactly as that name describes? I'm fine with the broadening of the genre, but when it broadens away from death metal, it should no longer fall under that label, or the label should changed to not include death metal if these sounds are to be lumped together. As you said, even your grandma could tell that these sounds don't belong in the same genre, so I don't see how people could group them together with a straight face.

 

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with BAN on this one. There's a huge amount of 'melodeath' which doesn't contain any death metal elements these days. In Flames and Dark Tranquillity spring to mind immediately. It's a similar discussion to one we've had elsewhere. Essentially the evolution of bands to whom the label once applied has dragged the definition of that genre along with them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I don't think melody works well with death.  Obviously all music has melody but

Deiacide slayer and death are great. 

There is a time for COF  and evanescence too.   

Symphony's and women singing just isn't going to cut it in death or thrash  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Join Metal Forum

    joinus-home.jpg

  • Our picks

    • Whichever tier of thrash metal you consigned Sacred Reich back in the 80's/90's they still had their moments.  "Ignorance" & "Surf Nicaragura" did a great job of establishing the band, whereas "The American Way" just got a little to comfortable and accessible (the title track grates nowadays) for my ears.  A couple more records better left forgotten about and then nothing for twenty three years.  2019 alone has now seen three releases from Phil Rind and co.  A live EP, a split EP with Iron Reagan and now a full length.

      Notable addition to the ranks for the current throng of releases is former Machine Head sticksman, Dave McClean.  Love or hate Machine Head, McClean is a more than capable drummer and his presence here is felt from the off with the opening and title track kicking things off with some real gusto.  'Divide & Conquer' and 'Salvation' muddle along nicely, never quite reaching any quality that would make my balls tingle but comfortable enough.  The looming build to 'Manifest Reality' delivers a real punch when the song starts proper.  Frenzied riffs and drums with shots of lead work to hold the interest.


      There's a problem already though (I know, I am such a fucking mood hoover).  I don't like Phil's vocals.  I never had if I am being honest.  The aggression to them seems a little forced even when they are at their best on tracks like 'Manifest Reality'.  When he tries to sing it just feels weak though ('Salvation') and tracks lose real punch.  Give him a riffy number such as 'Killing Machine' and he is fine with the Reich engine (probably a poor choice of phrase) up in sixth gear.  For every thrashy riff there's a fair share of rock edged, local bar act rhythm aplenty too.

      Let's not poo-poo proceedings though, because overall I actually enjoy "Awakening".  It is stacked full of catchy riffs that are sticky on the old ears.  Whilst not as raw as perhaps the - brilliant - artwork suggests with its black and white, tattoo flash sheet style design it is enjoyable enough.  Yes, 'Death Valley' & 'Something to Believe' have no place here, saved only by Arnett and Radziwill's lead work but 'Revolution' is a fucking 80's thrash heyday throwback to the extent that if you turn the TV on during it you might catch a new episode of Cheers!

      3/5
      • Reputation Points

      • 10 replies
    • I
      • Reputation Points

      • 2 replies
    • https://www.metalforum.com/blogs/entry/52-vltimas-something-wicked-marches-in/
      • Reputation Points

      • 3 replies

    • https://www.metalforum.com/blogs/entry/48-candlemass-the-door-to-doom/
      • Reputation Points

      • 2 replies
    • Full length number 19 from overkill certainly makes a splash in the energy stakes, I mean there's some modern thrash bands that are a good two decades younger than Overkill who can only hope to achieve the levels of spunk that New Jersey's finest produce here.  That in itself is an achievement, for a band of Overkill's stature and reputation to be able to still sound relevant four decades into their career is no mean feat.  Even in the albums weaker moments it never gets redundant and the energy levels remain high.  There's a real sense of a band in a state of some renewed vigour, helped in no small part by the addition of Jason Bittner on drums.  The former Flotsam & Jetsam skinsman is nothing short of superb throughout "The Wings of War" and seems to have squeezed a little extra out of the rest of his peers.

      The album kicks of with a great build to opening track "Last Man Standing" and for the first 4 tracks of the album the Overkill crew stomp, bash and groove their way to a solid level of consistency.  The lead work is of particular note and Blitz sounds as sneery and scathing as ever.  The album is well produced and mixed too with all parts of the thrash machine audible as the five piece hammer away at your skull with the usual blend of chugging riffs and infectious anthems.  


      There are weak moments as mentioned but they are more a victim of how good the strong tracks are.  In it's own right "Distortion" is a solid enough - if not slightly varied a journey from the last offering - but it just doesn't stand up well against a "Bat Shit Crazy" or a "Head of a Pin".  As the album draws to a close you get the increasing impression that the last few tracks are rescued really by some great solos and stomping skin work which is a shame because trimming of a couple of tracks may have made this less obvious. 

      4/5
      • Reputation Points

      • 4 replies
×
×
  • Create New...