The Melodic Death Metal Thread

At The Gates - "Slaughter Of The Soul" (1995)

I've been revisiting this little beauty this morning. Despite the fact that melodeath isn't exactly my cup of tea, this album has always managed to transcend that obstacle & sits amongst the best examples of that subgenre that I've ever come across. The crispness of the production, the precision of the performances, the spite in the vocal delivery & the urgency in the overall sound are big drawcards for me. I do find that some of the more melodic chorus sections take me further out of my comfort zone a little more than I'd like which is why I can't score it higher.

4/5

Carcass - "Heartwork" (1993)

This album has traditionally always been my favourite melodic death metal record but my recent revisit to At the Gates' "Slaughter Of The Soul" has forced me to question that. So what was the result? Wwwwwweeeeeellllllll…. it was very fucking close but I think I'm gonna have to go with "Slaughter Of The Soul" in a photo finish.

4/5

For this weekend's top ten list I thought I'd have a crack at my Top Ten Melodic Death Metal Releases of All Time. See what you think:

01. At The Gates – “Slaughter Of The Soul” (1995)

02. Carcass – “Heartwork” (1993)

03. Dark Tranquillity – “The Gallery” (1995)

04. Amorphis – “Tales From The Thousand Lakes” (1994)

05. Merciless – “Unbound” (1994)

06. Sentenced – “North From Here” (1993)

07. In Mourning – “The Weight Of Oceans” (2012)

08. The Breathing Process - “Odyssey (un)Dead” (2010)

09. Edge Of Sanity – “Crimson” (1996)

10. Be’lakor – “Of Breath & Bone” (2012)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/147

Here's mine, limited to one per artist

1. Veiled in Scarlet - Atonement (2018)

2. In Flames - Come Clarity (2006)

3. Insomnium - Above the Weeping World (2006)

4. Dark Tranquillity - Construct (2013)

5. Before the Dawn - Rise of the Phoenix (2012)

6. Edge of Sanity - Crimson (1996)

7. Carcass - Heartwork (1993)

8. Wintersun - Wintersun (2004)

9. Dark Lunacy - The Diarist (2006)

10. Be'Lakor - Coherence (2021)

My updated top ten list:

01. At The Gates – “Slaughter Of The Soul” (1995)

02. Carcass – “Heartwork” (1993)

03. Dark Tranquillity – “The Gallery” (1995)

04. Amorphis – “Tales From The Thousand Lakes” (1994)

05. Merciless – “Unbound” (1994)

06. Sentenced – “North From Here” (1993)

07. In Mourning – “The Weight Of Oceans” (2012)

08. The Breathing Process - “Odyssey (un)Dead” (2010)

09. The Chasm - "The Spell Of Retribution" (2004)

10. Edge Of Sanity – “Crimson” (1996)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/147

The Chasm - "The Spell Of Retribution" (2004)

This weekend's revisit to Mexican death metallers The Chasm's 2004 sixth full-length has seen my previous position waning a little as I've found that (despite the incredible cult following the band seems to have garnered from the underground scene over the years) "The Spell Of Retribution" is simply a little too melodic for my higher scores these days. It's a record that's generally tagged as Death Metal on other sites but I have to say that there's really very little in the way of your classic death metal sound included here. Instead I'd suggest that a much more accurate tag is Blackened Melodic Death Metal as there's way more Swedish melodeath & Dissection/Rotting Christ style melodic black metal evident in their sound than there is Death or Morbid Angel. There's also an enormous amount of complexity in the song structures that often hints at Technical Death Metal as well as a noticeable thrashiness to some of the riffs themselves. It's all very well done but I can't escape the feeling that I'm a little outside of my comfort zone a lot of the time with tracks like "Retribution of the Lost Years (I, The Pastfinder III)" & "Remains of the Covenant" pushing me a touch further in the accessibility stakes than I'd like so I subsequently find "The Spell Of Retribution" to be a bit of a step down from The Chasm's stronger efforts like 2000's "Procession to the Infraworld" even though it's generally an enjoyable listen.

3.5/5

In Flames - "The Jester Race" (1996)

If the style of death metal I like most is a full-bodied & complex Barossa Valley red wine then "The Jester Race" is a simple, sweet-fruited & light-bodied Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc with a floral bouquet. There's no denying that it's a well composed & executed metal record but it's simply far too light-weight for my taste, particularly the rocky drumming which has very little to do with death metal. I can feel my manhood shrinking with every repeat listen so I've been left with little alternative other than to place this album back into the "not-for-me" box where it's resided ever since I first encountered it back at the time of release.

For fans of Dark Tranquillity, At The Gates & Soilwork.

3/5

Amorphis - "Tales From The Thousand Lakes" (1994)

It’s been many years since I’ve revisited the highly regarded 1994 sophomore album from Finland’s Amorphis. “Tales From The Thousand Lakes” was a very big record in my household back in the day but I recall it being a much more important release for my younger brother Ben than it was for myself. I certainly rmember finding it to be a very creative & inventive effort (particularly melodically) however I don’t think I was the target audience Amorphis had in mind when they wrote it, despite my being quite fond of their earlier work which was closer to your classic death metal model. If I had to guess at what score I’d end up awarding it though I would have been pretty confident of it being a 4/5 so I went into this re-evaluation exercise with the expectation of a rewarding outcome.

“Tales From The Thousand Lakes” kicks off with a beautifully executed darkwave piece by the name of “Thousand Lakes” which I really enjoy & it sets the scene nicely for what’s to come. The more melodic end of death metal has been something that I’ve had a rocky relationship with over the years though & it took me a few tracks to find my feet once the metal material kicked off to tell you the truth. I had no trouble recalling just about every note of the album once I got my teeth into it as the hooks entrenched themselves in me from a relatively young age but I think I’d forgotten that I didn’t buy into Amorphis as much as the metalheads around me did, at least not at that point in their evolution. Thankfully things start to really get cracking as we approach the middle of the record with the one-two punch of “First Doom” & album highlight “Black Winter Day” which saw my attention being fully engaged for the first time but despite the fact that there’s only one track of the ten on the tracklisting that I don’t get much out of (ironically one of the more popular tracks in the folky “The Castaway”) I’d be lying if I said that I ever find myself kneeling at the altar of Amorphis’ here.

So why is that? I certainly admire the record from a creative point of view as it sounded so unlike anything else that was around at the time & seems to succeed in most of its more expansive musical endeavours. I think it’s that some of those endeavours take Amorphis into more accessible territories that have me hesitating to jump on the train as it’s moving slowly out from the station though. You see, while “Tales From The Thousand Lakes” is generally tagged as melodic death metal, there are a lot more elements at play here. The doom/death metal sound of Paradise Lost is the most obvious point of reference & I really enjoy the more crushing doom sections. There are a few crunchy Swedish death metal moments too which can’t be a bad thing but there are also some less imposing influences on display. I really enjoy the clean vocals & think they add greatly to the infectiousness of Amorphis’ sound here. The prog rock influences are generally refreshing too but are a little hit & miss in their execution, particularly in the use of keyboards which can bounce from being a masterstroke to being a touch underwhelming in fairly quick time. Perhaps unsurprisingly though, the incorporation of folk melodies in several of the songs is something that I find a little difficult to stomach as folk metal has never been my bag. Tomi Koivusaari’s death growls aren’t particularly interesting either. In fact, I’m tempted to suggest that they sound pretty generic which perhaps goes a fair way to explaining why I enjoy the clean vocals so much.

Amorphis would go on to move away from death metal entirely over the next couple of records by focusing their attention on a more progressive sound. Their 1996 third album “Elegy” would be somewhat of a transition album in that regard but I’ve always remembered it as being a step up from “Tales From The Thousand Lakes” from a creative point of view. Perhaps that’s simply a case of misguided nostalgia & I might make a point of revisiting that album some time soon so as to see how it compares but there can be no doubt that its predecessor was a resounding success in its own right. It’s perhaps a touch too melodic for my taste but “Tales From The Thousand Lakes” certainly compares very well with other prominent melodeath releases & would still make my all-time top ten for the subgenre overall at this point.

3.5/5

And here's my updated Top Ten Melodic Death Metal Releases of All Time list:

01. At The Gates – “Slaughter Of The Soul” (1995)

02. Carcass – “Heartwork” (1993)

03. Dark Tranquillity – “The Gallery” (1995)

04. Merciless – “Unbound” (1994)

05. Sentenced – “North From Here” (1993)

06. In Mourning – “The Weight Of Oceans” (2012)

07. The Breathing Process - “Odyssey (un)Dead” (2010)

08. Amorphis - "Tales From The Thousand Lakes" (1994)

09. The Chasm - "The Spell Of Retribution" (2004)

10. Edge Of Sanity – “Crimson” (1996)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/147

In Flames - "Clayman" (2000)

I haven't heard Swedish melodeath gods In Flames' fifth album since around 2009 so I thought I'd fill this gap in my understanding of the band's back catalogue with an informed rating. This release is known as the band's last full-length before steering away from death metal altogether but I've always struggled with the concept of In Flames being labeled as death metal to begin with to tell you the truth as this stuff is just so unintimidating & easy-listening compared to my own concept of what the genre represents. The album gets off to a strong-ish start with the two best tracks kicking off proceedings but things descend fairly quickly from there with only the pretty decent title track showing any sign of resurrection. At their worst, In Flames sound oh so commercial to my ears. They're certainly a talented bunch but I need a bit more grunt in my death metal. I'd no doubt take In Flames most celebrated release "The Jester Race" over "Clayman" but there's not a lot in it as neither are really my cup of tea. If you're a die-hard At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity & Soilwork fan then you may get a lot more out of "Clayman" than I have although the first two of those bands always did this stuff sssoooo much better in my opinion.

3/5

Fires in the Distance - Air Not Meant for Us (2023)

I felt compelled to check out Air Not Meant for Us after it's opening track, Harbingers, appeared on June's Horde playlist and caught my attention. I'm glad I did too, because it is a release that adds a twist to a well-established metal trope. It is a combination of melodic death metal and death doom, which is not so unusual, but the twist is that the piano plays a prominent and integral part in the album's six tracks, to a degree I haven't had the pleasure of really hearing before. The result of this is that the melodocism is enhanced by the piano's refrains and it also often adds a wistfulness to the tracks with it's showers of gently tinkling notes falling upon the more solid and earthy doomy riffs.

The band prove themselves to be capable songwriters with the tracks being of perfect length to establish themselves and exhibit a degree of progression without falling into self-indulgence and becoming bloated. The riffs are melodic whilst still retaining a reasonable amount of hulking heaviness and there are one or two interesting solos. The vocals are fairly standard death growls and are handled perfectly capably without standing out as anything extra special. As a general comparison they kind of remind me of early My Dying Bride shorn of any of the gothic elements that the Yorkshiremen revelled in.

However, I am not really able to dish out the highest marks to Air Not Meant for Us because of the very things that I name above as being interesting. The melodicism and wistfulness that make it stand out from the crowd also makes the album feel a lot less threatening and ominous than I usually enjoy from the very best doomy death metal and so an upper echelon score is not going to happen. This is still, however, an interesting addition to the genre and is one that I thoroughly enjoyed discovering. It is a really good album in it's own right, even if it maybe does fall just a little bit short. As a postscript, it does feature a voiceover sample of Christopher Hitchens, one of the smartest individuals I have ever heard speak, on the track, Idiopathic Despair, reassuringly telling us how death is nothing to fear even as he himself faced it.

4/5

Saxy's review reminded me to check this one out at the beginning of the week and it's right up my alley with the added melodicism you alluded to, Sonny. I came to many of the same conclusions in that it's very well crafted and it'll definitely receive high marks and a few relistens from me this year as the atmosphere is something I really enjoy, but it lacks a bit of "excitement" throughout the runtime, even though Death Doom doesn't follow normal excitement parameters for it to be effective. Solid, but lacks a bit of that unquantifiable magic. 

Here's my updated Top Ten Melodic Death Metal Releases of All Time list after being thoroughly impressed with Stortregn's excellent "Finitude" album which has seen Edge of Sanity's "Crimson being knocked out of my list altogether:

01. At The Gates – “Slaughter Of The Soul” (1995)

02. Stortregn - "Finitude" (2023)

03. Carcass – “Heartwork” (1993)

04. Dark Tranquillity – “The Gallery” (1995)

05. Merciless – “Unbound” (1994)

06. Sentenced – “North From Here” (1993)

07. In Mourning – “The Weight Of Oceans” (2012)

08. The Breathing Process - “Odyssey (un)Dead” (2010)

09. Amorphis - "Tales From The Thousand Lakes" (1994)

10. The Chasm - "The Spell Of Retribution" (2004)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/147

I've updated my Top Ten Melodic Death Metal Releases of All Time list after deciding that Amorphis' "The Karealian Isthmus" is worthy of a dual tag with conventional death metal which has seen The Chasm's "The Spell of Retribution" dropping out of the list. I've always based these lists on the Metal Academy database position of genre-tagging so if you disagree with "The Karelian Isthmus" being tagged as melodeath then feel free to vote against it at the release page if you're a member of The Horde.

01. At The Gates – “Slaughter Of The Soul” (1995)

02. Stortregn - "Finitude" (2023)

03. Carcass – “Heartwork” (1993)

04. Dark Tranquillity – “The Gallery” (1995)

05. Merciless – “Unbound” (1994)

06. Sentenced – “North From Here” (1993)

07. In Mourning – “The Weight Of Oceans” (2012)

08. The Breathing Process - “Odyssey (un)Dead” (2010)

09. Amorphis - "The Karelian Isthmus" (1992)

10. Amorphis - "Tales From The Thousand Lakes" (1994)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/147

Dark Tranquillity - "Skydancer" (1993)

While there were a few different players in the race for the earliest example of the sound we now know as melodic death metal, I can definitely tell you that Sweden’s Dark Tranquillity were the first exponent that I encountered personally. I can say this with confidence as I can still remember being impressed with how fresh & exciting their approach was, even if their overall sound didn’t sit that comfortably within my wheelhouse. I think it may have been Dark Tranquillity’s 1992 “A Moonclad Reflection” E.P. that first graced my ears but it wasn’t until I discovered the band's very solid 1991 “Trail of Life Decayed” demo that I started to pay attention. Their debut album “Skydancer” would cross my radar shortly after release too & I found myself being thoroughly impressed with the level of compositional complexity on show. I've often wondered whether that might have skewed my opinion on the record a little though as I’ve always seemed to rate it a touch more highly than other metal enthusiasts with the common opinion being that it was merely a blip on the timeline that saw Dark Tranquillity’s popularity exploding with their 1995 sophomore album “The Gallery” two years later. This concern has seen me revisiting “Skydancer” with fresh ears this week & I’m glad that I have because it’s seen me drastically adjusting my position on this seminal yet divisive record.

Let’s get one thing straight from the offset, “Skydancer” isn’t the super-polished product that the melodic death metal scene would start producing in the coming years. It’s still very much a product of the underground scene at the time with the production job having a rough edge to it & the performances lacking the precision that the subgenre would eventually make one of its major calling cards. It does, however, sport a sound that was already clearly identifiable as Swedish melodic death metal, even if it does stand out a little in the Dark Tranquillity back catalogue given the additional layer of rawness its managed to maintain. The vocals of current In Flames & former Ceremonial Oath & Passenger front man Anders Friden already possess that raspy blackened edge that has become part & parcel of the Gothenburg sound while the complex melodic interplay of future HammerFall guitarists Niklas Sundin & Mikael Stanne (Grand Cadaver/The Halo Effect) weaves in & out of the interesting bass lines of Martin Henriksson. Despite some pretty fast blast-beats for the time, I’d have to suggest that the drumming of Anders Jivarp is the weaker component of the groups offering as he can’t boast the power & control of the modern-day exponents of the melodeath sound.

I have to admit that my initial thoughts upon my first revisit of “Skydancer” weren’t all that positive. It’s fair to say that I was caught off guard by just how far the early tracks fell beneath the shelf my nostalgia had placed them on all these years & it wasn’t until the third song “A Bolt of Blazing Gold” that things started to look up. The triple play of “Skywards”, folk number “Through Ebony Archways” & “Shadow Duet” (my album highlight) saw Dark Tranquillity hitting a more consistent flow through the middle of the record but things take a sharp curve towards the negative at the end of the album with both “My Faeryland Forgotten” & “Alone” failing to connect with me. There’s simply not the consistency I’ve come to expect from the more premium examples of the Gothenburg sound here & I've struggled to identify the appeal that the album had on me the last time our paths crossed a good fifteen years ago now.

The use of a duel clean vocal delivery at various points across the album was misguided in my opinion. Engineer Stefan Lindgren takes on the male cleans with guest female singer Anna-Kajsa Avehall also making a contribution on a few songs. I don’t think it’s a surprise that neither have gone on to anything of significance in the future as the efforts of both parties lack a level of professionalism & are noticeably pitchy at times, particularly that of Avehall which goes against the usual arrangement of dodgy male metal vocalists being backed by more capable female singers. I generally enjoy the clean folk guitar sections but unsurprisingly struggle a bit with the more metallic folk influences. Interestingly, it's the slower & more atmospheric parts of the tracklisting that offer me the most consistent appeal which isn't the norm for this hard-nosed ol' extreme metaller.

Look, “Skydancer” isn’t a horrible record by any stretch of the imagination but it clearly isn’t everything I’d pumped it up to be over the years either. It presents Dark Tranquillity as very much a work in progress & I think I'm gonna have adjust my position on the album significantly by suggesting that newcomers to the band &/or the Swedish melodeath scene might want to skip past the band’s first couple of proper releases & jump straight into “The Gallery” because it took a good couple of steps up from “Skydancer” & “A Moonclad Reflection”.

For fans of In Flames, At The Gates & Insomnium.

3/5

My updated Top Ten Melodic Death Metal Releases of All Time list with Amorphis' "Tales From The Thousand Lakes" dropping out:

01. At The Gates – “Slaughter Of The Soul” (1995)

02. Stortregn - "Finitude" (2023)

03. Carcass – “Heartwork” (1993)

04. Dark Tranquillity – “The Gallery” (1995)

05. Merciless – “Unbound” (1994)

06. Sentenced – “North From Here” (1993)

07. In Mourning – “The Weight Of Oceans” (2012)

08. The Breathing Process - “Odyssey (un)Dead” (2010)

09. Unanimated - "In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead" (1993)

10. Amorphis - "The Karelian Isthmus" (1992)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/147

Sentenced - "North From Here" (1993)

Finnish death metallers Sentenced were a minor hit with me during my early tape trading days with their 1992 debut album "Shadows of Past" giving me quite a bit of replay value & subsequently leading me to seek out the band's three earlier demo tapes (1990's "When Death Join Us...", 1991's "Rotting Ways to Misery" & 1992's "Journey to Pohjola"), the latter two of which I really enjoyed. This would lead to me showing a keen interest when word of a sophomore album hit the underground & I'd quickly pick up a high-quality rip of the album through one of my two Blue Mountains based traders who owned a CD copy. I'd very quickly realise that the "North From Here" album was a very different prospect to anything Sentenced had delivered previously though &, on paper, it could have been one that left me a little hesitant. The quality of the music it contained was of such a high standard though that I was immediately taken aback & would spend a lot of time with that cassette over the next couple of months. You see, Sentenced had undergone & significant transformation in the time since "Shadows of Past" & it would prove to be one that would make "North From Here" the band's crowning achievement.

The building blocks of the "North From Here" sessions were very similar to those that produced "Shadows of Past" strangely enough. Sentenced had returned to the same recording studio in Tico-Tico Studio in Kemi & the process was overseen by the same producer/engineer in Ahti Kortelainen who has worked with a long list of Finnish metal bands. There had been no changes to the band line-up that produced the debut either so Sentenced would seem to have been in a very stable place when they produced their second effort. The thing is though, it sounds nothing like anything Sentenced had produced previously. The meat-&-potatoes death metal sound of their earlier work has been completely replaced with a complex & quite technical brand of melodic death metal that immediately impressed me with its increased scope & ambition. It's very easy to tell that the band members had been obsessively listening to Atheist while perusing this record as there are so many clear signs of worship across the eight-song tracklisting. The similarities to the Floridian legends' riff structures is unmistakable & suits Sentenced really well too. There's a clear European feel to the melodic component though & one would have to suggest that "North From Here" belongs in the discussion when talking about the earlier examples of the melodic death metal sound. The musicianship on display is outstanding with guitarists Sami Lopakka (KYPCK) & Miika Tenkula weaving a rich tapestry of melodic counterplay while the vocals of bassist Taneli Jarva (Impaled Nazarene/The Black League/Friends of Hell) showcase a blackened snarl that I find to be quite incisive. There are even moments where the band veer into melodic black metal territory at a time when that the subgenre was still yet to be properly defined so it's fair to say that "North From Here" is a dazzling display of creative intent.

Now look, I've never shied away from admitting that the more melodic brand of death metal is much more of a struggle for me than the traditional one but there's something about the sheer class that Sentenced deliver their product with that leaves me unanimously impressed. The tracklisting is invariably consistent with all eight pieces offering enough quality to keep my attentive gaze from wavering. There are a couple of tracks that are less fully realised than others though with "Awaiting the Winter Frost" & the more conventional closer "Epic" coming across as merely acceptable rather than being particularly impressive like the other six inclusions which are all very solid. I wouldn't say that I find any of them to be genuine classics though which keeps Sentenced in the second tier as far as the overall death metal scene goes. There's no doubt that my position changes on that when I limit myself to just the melodic death metal subgenre as "North From Here" is one of the absolute cream of that crop in my opinion. I have to admit that I find it a little strange that the album isn't referred to as technical death metal all that often though as it very clearly falls under that banner as far as I can see. I mean, if Atheist are tech death then this release is too because it so obviously draws upon the same techniques & feel.

"North From Here" was the very definition of a pleasant surprise & would quickly become the jewel in the Sentenced crown. It still sounds fantastic today but seems to have slipped under the radar a little bit over the years as it's rarely talked about when referring to the elite examples of the melodeath sound with people tending to look solely at Carcass & the Swedes. That shouldn't be the case though as "North From Here" competes on that level very comfortably & should be essential listening for those with a penchant for that sound.

For fans of Atheist, Stortregn & Enfold Darkness.

4/5

Orphaned Land - "Sahara" (1994)

I revisited the debut album from Israeli melodic/progressive death metal outfit Orphaned Land this week & found that my review from many years ago still represents my feelings perfectly. I will add that I was surprised at just how much of an Atheist influence I found across the first few tracks though:

I hadn't heard this one since the mid-90's & was interested to see how I felt about it these days. It features a fairly progressive & melodic death metal sound mixed with traditional Israeli folk music. That combination spawned some pretty interesting ideas as you can imagine but you can tell they were still developing their sound at this stage. Some of the more melodic death metal sections remind me quite a bit of early Amorphis & the death vocals sound similar to Aaron Stainthorpe's on the first couple of My Dying Bride releases. While it does tend to maintain my interest due to the unusual nature of the sound I still find "Sahara" to be a bit flat. I think it could do with a little more class in the production & musicianship departments to be honest. Orphaned Land certainly deserve credit for creating an album with a strong point of difference though.

3/5