Q 01/05

What are the genre's deep, coarse roaring vocals commonly called?

A) Death growls

B) Fry screams

C) Death chants

D) Throat drones

Answer · why

A) Death growls

They are often assumed to be vocal fry, but experienced singers produce the real thing with a different technique entirely.

Q 02/05

Death metal vocals are jokingly compared to which Sesame Street character?

A) Oscar the Grouch

B) Cookie Monster

C) Big Bird

D) The Count

Answer · why

B) Cookie Monster

The tongue-in-cheek label stuck because the guttural delivery really does resemble the puppet's voice.

Q 03/05

Which drumming technique, alongside double kick, defines death metal's rhythm?

A) The shuffle

B) The paradiddle

C) The blast beat

D) The bossa nova

Answer · why

C) The blast beat

Death's founder once left a Bay Area lineup partly because a drummer who used the technique was, he felt, playing too fast.

Q 04/05

Venom, whose first two albums shaped extreme metal, came from which English city?

A) Birmingham

B) Sheffield

C) Manchester

D) Newcastle

Answer · why

D) Newcastle

Welcome to Hell and Black Metal, released in 1981 and 1982, gave thrash, death and black metal their shared starting point.

Q 05/05

Which Slayer album does AllMusic credit with inspiring the entire death metal genre?

A) Reign in Blood

B) Show No Mercy

C) South of Heaven

D) Seasons in the Abyss

Answer · why

A) Reign in Blood

Their previous record, Hell Awaits, is also credited with inventing much of the sound and fury that followed.