Technical death metal

Technical death metal (sometimes called tech-death, progressive death metal) is a musical subgenre of death metal that focuses on complex rhythms, riffs and song structures.

Technical experimentation in death metal began in the late 1980s and early 1990s by bands such as Death, Atheist and Cynic. In 1990, Nocturnus released their debut album, The Key, which was followed by Sarcófago's third album, The Laws of Scourge, featuring a change in their musical style from black metal/thrash metal to technical death metal. Atheist's second album, Unquestionable Presence; Pestilence's third album, Testimony of the Ancients; and Death's fourth album, Human, were all released the very next year. Human and later Death albums have proven especially influential on later '90s technical death metal bands. In 1991, New York's grindcore-influenced Suffocation released their debut album Effigy of the Forgotten, which focused on pairing speed and brutality with a "sophisticated" sense of songwriting. The album subsequently became groundbreaking in the genre. Swedish band Edge of Sanity would move on to a more progressive and melodic style with their albums The Spectral Sorrows and Purgatory Afterglow, but when the band released the one song 40-minute album Crimson in 1996 and the 43-minute/9-part sequel Crimson II in 2003, they left an impact on later progressive/technical death metal bands. Another Swedish band Opeth are a highly important band to this subgenre with albums such as My Arms, Your Hearse, Still Life, and Blackwater Park all combining death metal with progressive rock.