Scandinavian death metal

Scandinavian death metal concerns the death metal bands of Scandinavian origin. The most dominant countries of the genre are

Scandinavian death metal concerns the death metal bands of Scandinavian origin. The most dominant countries of the genre are Norway, Sweden and Finland. Many bands that fall under this category are associated with the melodic death metal movement, thus giving Scandinavian death metal a very different sound from other variations of death metal. However, Scandinavia (particularly Norway) is more notorious for its quantity of black metal as opposed to "true" death metal, though Gothenburg in Sweden is regarded as the capital of melodic death metal, leading melodic death metal to be named "Gothenburg" by many.

In the early 1990s, a distinctively new death metal scene arose, centered primarily around Gothenburg and Stockholm, Sweden, though also incorporating Finnish and Norwegian bands. The Swedish and Finnish bands, inspired mainly by 1980s thrash metal bands, were more popular than the Norwegian bands, who were influenced strongly by black metal and included keyboards and chaotic riffs. The first wave of "Swedish death metal" consisted primarily of the bands Carnage and Nihilist, who fragmented later into Entombed, Dismember and Unleashed. These bands used a trademark "Sunlight Studios" guitar sound formed by linking together two distortion boxes to create a mechanical, electric buzz. Using tremolo picking and faster riffs than most death metal, they represented the greatest success of the genre outside America. Later, the Gothenburg sound was pioneered by bands such as At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity, Arch Enemy and In Flames. As the 1990s progressed, the Norwegian and Swedish scenes continued diverging, with the latter's center moving from Stockholm to Gothenburg, where New Wave of British Heavy Metal influences became prominent, and Finnish acts continued this trend into the next millennium as Finnish rock began to break into mainstream European audiences. As of 20th century was nearing its end, were Finnish death metal bands, most notably Children Of Bodom and Sentenced, popularizing concept of scandinavian melodic death metal in European metal scene for the first time.