I listen to Death Metal. I'd like to listen to classical, too. Where do I start?

[vers la flamme]

Man, you guys totally failed to ask this guy his top 10 death metal albums. Gotta discern his musical values, ya know?

I imagine that, if the OP, like me, preferred Demilich, Incantation, The Chasm, Dead Congregation, early At The Gates, and so on, I'd have different words for him than your standard fan of Death, Cannibal Corpse, and Dying Fetus.

Death definitely belongs in the category of Demilich, Incantation et al rather than with Cannibal Corpse and Dying Fetus. Cmon.

[Mirror Image]

I'm not sure why anyone is responding to this OP's question as he hasn't been active since September of 2015.

[steve ridgway]

So what sorts of classical music do people who like any sort of death metal enjoy? Is there any correlation?

Me - post war Avant Garde.

[greg]

So what sorts of classical music do people who like any sort of death metal enjoy? Is there any correlation?

Me - post war Avant Garde.

Yeah, me, too. The gloom and doom, complexity, and the dissonant aspects seem to overlap. I was listening to a lot of Penderecki and Xenakis, Second Viennese School stuff before getting into death metal. I just had the craving for more and more dissonant music.

(a fun little bit to check out- one of the most respected death metal bands of all-time, Necrophagist, doing an homage to Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet at the end of this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oBGixxuu2E&ab_channel=HomicidalTerror
)


I also think prog metal and late Romanticism is highly linked. Both have some of the most intensely soulful passages of music, while also being extremely variety-oriented (Haken, BTBAM, Leprous, for example)... they remind me what would a modern incarnation of Mahler would be like...

And of course, the countless neoclassical stuff in metal (Fleshgod Apocalpyse, etc.)


I really want to go to a metal show again, it's been one year since last time when I saw Nile live. I really want to see Cannibal Corpse next. The vibe that you get from the music being played is just unrelenting evil, and I love it lol, it's so much fun.

[Daverz]

I'm not sure why anyone is responding to this OP's question as he hasn't been active since September of 2015.

It seems to be a common occurrence: someone gets drunk/high and decides to query the classical longhairs about music, then promptly forgets it the day after.  That doesn't mean we can't have fun with the topic among ourselves.

[steve ridgway]

(a fun little bit to check out- one of the most respected death metal bands of all-time, Necrophagist, doing an homage to Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet at the end of this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oBGixxuu2E&ab_channel=HomicidalTerror
)

That was fun. Were they perhaps likening romantic love to the blackest of demons corrupting the innocent?

[greg]

That was fun. Were they perhaps likening romantic love to the blackest of demons corrupting the innocent?

Haha, maybe.

But yeah, the story of that band is utter disappointment... it was like 15 years of teasing a new album after their smash hit, and then they officially disband with nothing released. The main band member/guitarist Muhammed Suiçmez works at BMW as an engineer nowadays and doesn't seem to do anything with music anymore. And they could have had a career, being the band that actually created the tech death genre and being loved very much by fans.

[jessetr]

What a great question!

[Valentino]

The Boulez piano sonatas. Messes with your head like death metal does, but with different means.
Also the original metal riff, the already mentioned first track (ha!) of Wagner's Die Walküre, is essential. Wagner's Ring is of course metal through and through. And lots of death too.

Cool way of introducing yourself. Welcome!

[(poco) Sforzando]

I'm not sure why anyone is responding to this OP's question as he hasn't been active since September of 2015.

That's precisely why; we all like to talk to ourselves.

[Valentino]

Somebody's got to.

[steve ridgway]

It's a forum - you're supposed to post stuff.

[Rinaldo]

So what sorts of classical music do people who like any sort of death metal enjoy? Is there any correlation?

Me - post war Avant Garde.

The whole metal–classical connection puzzles me. I find worthwhile, transcendent stuff in both of these musical worlds but I stray into them for entirely different experiences. Sure, the Turangalîla or descent into Nibelheim can overpower me just as this new Dakhma track (listener's discretion highly advised) recently did, but aesthetically, these seem as wholly different beasts. The only correlation that is evident to me are people who seek virtuosity first and foremost – a lot of metal/classical overlap there. And a lot of uninteresting music as well...

[greg]

The whole metal–classical connection puzzles me. I find worthwhile, transcendent stuff in both of these musical worlds but I stray into them for entirely different experiences. Sure, the Turangalîla or descent into Nibelheim can overpower me just as this new Dakhma track (listener's discretion highly advised) recently did, but aesthetically, these seem as wholly different beasts. The only correlation that is evident to me are people who seek virtuosity first and foremost – a lot of metal/classical overlap there. And a lot of uninteresting music as well...

Death metal is more in line with the second Viennese school. Example: Blotted Science, which uses tone rows. Often death metal can be atonal. If you like atonal/dissonant stuff, there's not many other music, apart from maybe some jazz which is like this. That's the link, and why I love both. Fearless musical exploration, fearless aggression in both.

And prog rock/metal is more in line with late Romantic music. Neoclassical metal = baroque/classical. etc.

[Rinaldo]

Death metal is more in line with the second Viennese school. Example: Blotted Science, which uses tone rows.

Even if bands do borrow methods of old, does it sound / feel anywhere near Schoenberg and co.? Not to my ears.

Often death metal can be atonal. If you like atonal/dissonant stuff, there's not many other music, apart from maybe some jazz which is like this.

Heaps of electronic and industrial music is atonal or disonant but now that I think about it, for someone coming from classical spheres, metal might be more accessible than even milder abstract stuff like, say, Autechre.

Fearless musical exploration, fearless aggression in both.

That's a solid link, but again – the aggression in metal goes to levels rarely (if ever) heard in a concert hall. So to circle back to the original question of this thread... Maybe some wild cluster-based pieces or guys like Mosolov when they're really going for it?

[Opus131]

Probably no point in replying to this after so long, but as someone who also started with heavy metal when growing up and only approached classical later on, i would personally recommend to just accept classical music for what it is and not try too hard to force it to fit a particular preference, be it "hard" music or anything else.

Yes, you can actually find some corrispondences here and there and looking for classical compositions that are closer to your current tastes is not a bad way to ease yourself into the genre but eventually you'll have to come to terms with what classical music is, and not what you want it to be.

[KevinP]

I agree. Trying to identify the classical works that might speak the most to a death metal listener and treat them as gateway drugs is futile, or at least is for some people. Often when I discovered a completely new-to-me genre of music, it was the works that were most different to what I was already familiar with that drew me in.

[Scion7]

it appears that 'death metal' does not actually lead to death for you listeners .....

[Opus131]

Sometimes it can kill... with cuteness: