Death metal is an
extreme subgenre of
heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as
palm muting and
tremolo picking, deep
growling vocals and
screams, aggressive, powerful drumming featuring
double kick or
blast beat techniques, minor
keys or
atonality, abrupt
tempo,
key, and
time signature changes and
chromatic chord progressions. The lyrical themes of death metal may invoke
slasher film-stylized violence,
religion (sometimes
Satanism),
occultism,
Lovecraftian horror,
nature,
mysticism,
mythology, philosophy, science fiction, and politics, and they may describe extreme acts, including
mutilation,
dissection,
torture,
rape,
cannibalism, and
necrophilia.