death metal

noun

Definition of death metal

: a type of heavy metal music that is characterized by the use of dark, violent, or gory imagery

Examples of death metal in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Semantics of Music Listeners who can get caught up in the beautiful sadness of a ballad or the intense anger of death metal know music carries meaning. — Jonathon Keats, Discover Magazine, "Science of Music," 15 June 2018 At a time when police SWAT teams have become known for training videos soundtracked by death metal, seeing an aircraft such as this buzzing outside your apartment window might not immediately inspire dread. — Geoff Manaugh, The Atlantic, "Drone Cops Take Flight in Los Angeles," 8 June 2018 Over 10 episodes, the charm of each death metal song (Retsuko’s preferred genre) doesn’t fade even as the music becomes less of a coping mechanism and more of a reflection of her true personality. — Janelle Okwodu, Vogue, "Aggretsuko on Netflix: Adorable Anime, or Subversive Millennial Messaging?," 1 May 2018 Psychotic melancholia sounds horrifying, like a German band that plays an obscure subgenre of death metal. — Yusef Roach, Los Angeles Magazine, "The Communal Experience of Going to the Symphony for the First Time," 31 May 2018 Many of her customers are singers of death metal, grindcore and other offshoots of heavy metal rock. — James R. Hagerty, WSJ, "Screeching in a Metal Band Takes Lozenges, Tea and a Patient Vocal Coach," 18 May 2018 Now, an Icelandic website design agency called Viska has created a web version of Gilfoyle’s death metal alert — which is just as startling as promised. — Shannon Liao, The Verge, "Someone made that Silicon Valley alert that plays death metal whenever bitcoin’s price moves," 29 Apr. 2018 Finally, an excuse to start that death metal project. — Sophie Weiner, Popular Mechanics, "How To Make A Gorgeous DIY Skyline Diffuser," 27 Mar. 2017 The last few years have seen the group shift their interests towards various forms of extreme metal, and incorporate moments of death metal, black metal, and pummeling Sepultura-style nu-metal into their punk framework. — Luca Cimarusti, Chicago Reader, "With Posthuman Harm’s Way deliver one of the scariest, heaviest records you’ll hear this year," 16 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'death metal.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about death metal

Dictionary Entries near death metal

Statistics for death metal

Look-up Popularity

Time Traveler for death metal

The first known use of death metal was in 1984

See more words from the same year

Comments on death metal

What made you want to look up death metal? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).

WORD OF THE DAY

rebuff

to reject or criticize sharply

Test Your Vocabulary

Words from Greek and Roman Mythology Quiz

Boreal comes from the name of the ancient Greek god of which wind?

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

TAKE THE QUIZ

SCRABBLE® Sprint

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.

TAKE THE QUIZ

Words at Play

Ask the Editors

Word Games