Originally Posted by Seltzer

Blackened death metal is quite a valid genre - if you listen to enough death metal, the need for that label becomes instantly obvious. A blackened death metal band like Abominator sounds quite different to a melodeath band like Dark Tranquillity.


They only sound virtually identical to the bands you already like (i.e. Slayer) if you're not very familiar with the genre. I have a wide taste in music, but I know I'm a reggae noob, and that's why a good deal of reggae sounds mostly the same to me. If I made an effort to explore the genre and listen to it a bit more, it wouldn't be that way. When I first discovered metal, I probably thought that DM sounded fairly close to BM on the grand scale of things. Since I actively listen to metal, I find that clearly isn't the case.