The Melodeath Genre

Melodic death metal, later shortened to 'melodeath' to keep people from expecting something like what Phantom did on Fallen Angel, is another fictional genre that is completely unrelated to the death metal genre despite its name suggesting the contrary. It's closest cousin would be the dreaded metalcore, but the term became toxic around the early 2000s so record companies decided to brand their bands 'melodeath' instead, in order to reach a new audience growing increasingly intolerant of metalcore. Many will recognise bands like Arch Enemy and In Flames as belonging to the fake 'melodeath' sub-genre, as they produce some of the most accessible mainstream music and have thus become household names.

So if 'melodeath' isn't death metal, what is it? As mentioned above, it's closest cousin is metalcore, followed closely by the glam metal of the 1980s, but mostly, once you look under the superficial death metal techniques - growled vocals, downtuned guitars, blast beats - it's just average radio rock being pushed on a new audience that's just not interested.

The 'melodeath' scam was born in Gothenburg, around Studio Fredman, when the once promising death metal band At the Gates released the metalcore disaster Slaughter of the Soul in 1995, which marked the official death of Swedish death metal as more and more bands rushed in to incorporate the Gothenburg sound, really borrowed from American metalcore bands, into their music. It happened to At the Gates, it happened to Dismember, to Amorphis, to Therion, and one by one almost all Swedish and later Scandinavian bands were kneeling before the altar of Slaughter of the Soul... instead of the altar of madness.

Of course, record companies loved this new sound as it was easier to produce than the 'old' death metal - easier to compose, to record and to play - and it was also close enough to rock 'n' roll for non-metal fans to appreciate, and to feel 'extreme' without ever feeling threatened. The lyrics followed the vapidity of the music, as themes such as depression, teenage angst and heartbreak started to appear in a genre that was created specifically to rebel against such trite lamentations of no significance.

In the end, 'melodeath' is just another marketing gimmick endorsed by record labels who want to sell mallcore and radio rock to heavy metal fans. Don't be fooled by advertisement, Slaughter of the Soul is closer in spirit and in music to Nightwish and Bullet for my Valentine than it is to Verminlust and Onward to Golgotha.