Technical Death Metal History?

[SatanicToaster]

Hey guys, I have the opportunity to write a paper over any genre of music, and I have chosen tech-death, thing is, because it is so small culturally, finding it's history has proven rather difficult. Ive been looking into album history, and from what I can tell, things start with around Atheist, Death, and Cynic and their albums relating to this genre. Then it appears that things move to europe, where bands like Necrophagist, and Decapitated start laying the groundwork for the second, or more "modern" wave of tech-death, where you get either a greater seperation in bands, with on the more progressive side, theres The Faceless, Obscura, Gorod, and the Tech orientated bands such as Braindrill and Archspire. I could be wrong with my information, so all corrections and information pertaining to this topic are appreciated. Thanks for the info!

 

[eggy in a bready]

it starts and ends with Gorguts.

 

[prlgmnr]

Maybe you should write a paper on something you actually do know about?

 

[prlgmnr]

If that was needlessly harsh, maybe start with tech-thrash i.e. Watchtower, Voivoid as precursors of the genre, and then I would have thought you can identify at least 3 strands of 'technicality' as it might apply to death metal - harmonic complexity, rhythmical intricacy and sheer difficulty of execution on the instrument (I don't think EVERY tech death band necessarily does all 3 of those).

 

[SatanicToaster]

@prigmnr I have the knowledge in regards to the instrumentation, music structures, influences, etc, its the history part that's missing, which is due to the fact that this sub-genre is one of the smallest and most recent in the wide spectrum that is Heavy Metal, and therefore there isn't much information relating to it's history, hence why I'm here, asking this question

 

[Rosal76]

Then it appears that things move to europe, where bands like Necrophagist, and Decapitated start laying the groundwork for the second, or more "modern" wave of tech-death,

I would have to say bands like Broken Hope, Monstrosity, and Oppressor represent the second generation of technical death metal which is the 1990's. Death and Cynic representing the first generation and Decapitated and Necrophagist representing the third. Obviously, there are going to be overlaps in the years as Death started out in the 1980's and continued on into the 1990's and Monstrosity started out in the 1990's and continued on into the 21st century and so on.

 

[cip 123]

Just explore the old death metal scene, things are built on what was before, if you have Bands like Cynic, Death, Monstrosity things are only going to get more technical if people start writing like that. The digital age has meant its faster and easier for kids to learn that stuff and so what was once peak technicality, fades as so many people can learn it and write building upon it.

Write about original Death metal, the Florida Death metal scene and move forward.

You can't just talk about music because with modern styles like Tech metal the advancement of technology has helped so much (every genre to be fair). Not just in recording but in practice, and writing too.

 

[AdamMaz]

Montreal is a hotbed for tech-Death, would recommend doing some research on here.

 

[Necris]

Time to start digging through fan-zines.

https://sendbackmystamps.org/

 

[Ralyks]

I would probably include Pestilence towards the beginning

 

[Ralyks]

Sorry, accidental double post

 

[KnightBrolaire]

suffocation kind of fits into tech-death, though more so on their later albums. dying fetus is also pretty techy and would probably be 2nd/3rd wave.

 

[Ebony]

Demilich is obligatory aswell.

 

[B.M.F.]

You may want to look into a book called "Mean Deviation" by Jeff Wagner as a helpful resource. Many (but certainly not all) of the bands mentioned above as well as early technical pioneers (Coroner, Watchtower etc.) are profiled. You can find information on how national scenes sprouted up. Many of the people interviewed aside from band members are in newer bands or were in another band, or contributed to part of their international scene differently.
I'm a nut for this kind of metal and I was satisfied with that book, have fun with the research.

 

[Sammy J]

Tech death is a small but wide genre in scope.

The OG tech death bands were Death, Atheist, Cynic and Pestilence in the early 90's. You could argue that their technicality was influenced by the Watchtowers of the world. Second wave is Gorguts, Cryptopsy and Suffocation in the mid 90's - bringing a heavier brunt but certainly very technical, and in Gorguts' case, a little avant garde. Decapitated, Necrophagist, Anata, Origin and Spawn of Possession all fit into the early/mid 2000's as the next lot of boundary pushers. Decapitated always had that undercurrent of groove to their sound, Necrophagist and SoP are more neoclassical, Anata had perhaps a bit more melody and Origin were pure speed. Each of them has had their style copied by the next generation to some degree.

Late 2000's was when Obscura, Decrepit Birth, The Faceless and Defeated Sanity became the next wave - Obscura building off the neoclassical shred of SoP/Necro (and featuring former members) but amping up the proggy side, The Faceless featured a more "core" sound at that point in time (that has also had its imitators) but certainly borrowed from Decapitated on the groove front, and Defeated Sanity was a chunkier, heavier, slammier version of Suffocation. They also have roots in the early 90's tech death scene, and imitated the style incredibly well in the second part of their EP, Dharmata. I remember when Decrepit Birth dropped 'Diminishing Between World' - it blew my mind. Was like a sped up, brutal version of Death's Human, Cynic's Focus and Suffocation's Pierced from Within all in one.

2010 onwards is where the Archspire's, Beyond Creation and Rivers of Nihil type bands start to come to the fore. The former trying to "out tech" their obvious heroes in SoP and Necro, while Rivers of Nihil's "Monarchy" was like a homage to "Organic Hallucinosis" era Decapitated - but with a proggier edge.

It's a small genre, but when you see the tag "technical death metal" on something - you really don't know what you're gonna get. Is it a 90's style homage? or something more modern, sleek, speedy?

The sound is also defined a lot by geography. Californian Tech Death? Probably more Unique Leader style, copied from Decrepit Birth or early Faceless. New York style? Slammier, more hardcore influenced. Polish? Decapitated, Vader, Behemoth, Dies Irae - a militaristic precision and groove. French? Probably a little more groove and carnivalesque like Gorod or Pitbulls in the Nursery. Canadian? Cryptopsy lead the charge, but don't forget bands like Martyr, Neuraxis, Augury or First Fragement. Hyper technical.

Love this genre and looking forward to how the style develops over time. I don't think the well is dry yet.

 

[chopeth]

The sound is also defined a lot by geography. Californian Tech Death? Probably more Unique Leader style, copied from Decrepit Birth or early Faceless. New York style? Slammier, more hardcore influenced. Polish? Decapitated, Vader, Behemoth, Dies Irae - a militaristic precision and groove. French? Probably a little more groove and carnivalesque like Gorod or Pitbulls in the Nursery. Canadian? Cryptopsy lead the charge, but don't forget bands like Martyr, Neuraxis, Augury or First Fragement. Hyper technical.

Love this genre and looking forward to how the style develops over time. I don't think the well is dry yet.

You forgot Spanish? Wormed would be there, though nobody cares bout them here

 

[Sammy J]

Love me some Wormed. Much like Defeated Sanity, Wormed are easily one of the leaders in the Brutal Technical Death Metal sphere.

I'm not overly familiar with other Spanish death metal bands - Human Mincer probably the only other one that immediately comes to mind.

Sweden was the other obvious one that I didn't put in the initial post either. It gets even more confusing when you have Swedish bands like Soreption that sound Polish

 

[Cynicanal]

Pretty simple, really -- Morbid Angel and Immolation went against the prevailing "extreme metal" styles that tended towards primitivism, we got some cool stuff like Demilich and Gorguts, Cryptopsy released that really awful third album that brought a bunch of spastic hardcore nonsense along for the ride, and then Necrophagist released their debut album and tech-death sucked forevermore, doomed to be happy pro-tools pop played a bit too fast.

 

[Durtal]

this sub-genre is one of the smallest and most recent in the wide spectrum that is Heavy Metal

Not sure I agree with this.

 

[AdamMaz]

Someone above mentioned Coroner which reminds me...

Thrash metal, as a paradigm precluding Death metal, even trended towards technicality into the late 80s. I'm sure you could look at these two phenomena (the progression of Thrash towards Death, AND raw playing towards technicality) as they synthesized over time together.