The Scandinavian Metal Scene

The most dominant countries which have provided bands as exponents of the Scandinavian metal genre are Sweden, Finland and Norway. Denmark has had fewer bands. The Scandinavian death metal scene has a more melodic and symphonic influence and hence is markedly different from the death metal bands from the rest of the world. Bands like Carcass and Emperor began on the continent as the first bands in the genre, but today most bands which have any prominence in the field are from a Scandinavian country.

Influences varied in the bands here as well, as Finnish and Swedish bands played the speed and thrash metal kind of sound while the Norwegian bands played with a more atmospheric sound with more keyboards and riffs. The Swedish bands gained the most popularity as they stuck to the traditional formula of black metal, while the other bands experimented around to no real success or response.

It all began with bands like Carnage and Nihilist, the bands that evolved in to Entombed and Unleashed. Using the trademark sound of the guitar popularized by "Sunlight Studios" the sound of these bands centered around creating a mechanical, electric buzz. Using tremolo picking and faster riffs than most death metal, they represented the greatest success of the genre outside America.

Band like Dark Tranquility, and In Flames took the genre forward and enhanced the features giving the sound a more worldly outlook and gaining more fans in the process.

Today, the Scandinavian metal scene has exponents in bands like Children of Bodom and Cradle of Filth and there has been wide spread debate on all aspects of the genre.