Besides the vocals, what's the real difference between Death and Thrash Metal?

**Janszoon** · 09-22-2014, 05:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dylstew

Okay, so it's probably just because I've only listened to early Death bands so far.
But then again, modern versions of genres usually sound pretty different from their original counterpart, so my point on how early death sounds similar to early thrash still stands.

Well, like I said before, that's because it grew out of thrash. And not surprisingly only the heavier thrash bands resemble deah metal. Other thrash bands, like Overkill, do not resemble death metal:

Zack · 09-22-2014, 07:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hip hop bunny hop

You do light upon a very important point. Today, it is en vogue for a music fan to sit you down and tell you how they enjoy Einsturzende Neubauten and Nujabes and Emperor and Merzbow and Kanye and Mongolian Throat Singing and.....

The idea being that people who listen to one or a few genres are narrow minded, as opposed to the wordly cosmopolitanism exhibited above.

Definitely. And then most of those guys seem to have listened to, like ONE Throat singer on Youtube, and only know John Coltrane and Miles Davis for Jazz, and think Classical music died out with Brahms, and...

But yeah. There's something to be said for breadth of musical taste. It's pretty cool to be a little familiar with music from across the globe, from several centuries.

It's also cool to know one genre so extremely well that something like the timbre of the distorted guitar, or the pace of the vocals, or the rhythmic activity in the drums makes it seem like a completely different genre to you.

A lot of people listen to metal and literally, just hear noise. They can't tell what's going on, aside from distortion, thumping, and cymbals crashing.

It's the old Depth versus Breadth question. A great deal of metal heads fall into the Depth area, I think. My wife and most of my friends are like that.

I'm probably more of a breadth guy, but I do get VERY into classical music, and get really confused how someone can think Beethoven sounds like Mozart sounds like Wagner, or how someone could possibly NOT love the vast array of 20th and 21st century music out there...

The Batlord · 09-22-2014, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dylstew

Okay, so it's probably just because I've only listened to early Death bands so far.
But then again, modern versions of genres usually sound pretty different from their original counterpart, so my point on how early death sounds similar to early thrash still stands.

Like Janz said, they evolved from the same sources. Around the mid-eighties I don't imagine there was much distinction between thrash metal, death metal, and black metal, since most of the bands probably saw themselves as all part of the same wider movement. Distinctions between whether early Death was a thrash metal or a death metal band, or whether Sarcofago, was a thrash or a death or a black metal band, can be kind of vague, and not necessarily even important to make, but they became much more evident and defined as those genres developed and splintered into their own movements. Even someone who doesn't listen to any metal could make the distinction between Slayer and Dying Fetus.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zack

Definitely. And then most of those guys seem to have listened to, like ONE Throat singer on Youtube, and only know John Coltrane and Miles Davis for Jazz, and think Classical music died out with Brahms, and...

But yeah. There's something to be said for breadth of musical taste. It's pretty cool to be a little familiar with music from across the globe, from several centuries.

It's also cool to know one genre so extremely well that something like the timbre of the distorted guitar, or the pace of the vocals, or the rhythmic activity in the drums makes it seem like a completely different genre to you.

A lot of people listen to metal and literally, just hear noise. They can't tell what's going on, aside from distortion, thumping, and cymbals crashing.

It's the old Depth versus Breadth question. A great deal of metal heads fall into the Depth area, I think. My wife and most of my friends are like that.

I'm probably more of a breadth guy, but I do get VERY into classical music, and get really confused how someone can think Beethoven sounds like Mozart sounds like Wagner, or how someone could possibly NOT love the vast array of 20th and 21st century music out there...

I'm sort of an inbetweener at times. I'll listen to just metal for weeks, then decide I've had enough and bring out the alternative or the punk or the hip hop, and every once in a while I'll just need to cut myself off from metal entirely. I love really getting in depth into things like thrash metal and black metal, but if I didn't have something like Dead Prez or Iggy Pop or Townes Van Zandt to turn to I'd get pretty sick and tired of metal.

And I certainly know that modern classical exists. It's not something I listen but every once in a while, and not in much depth, but in the right mood I'd totally take Stravinsky or Philip Glass over Mozart.