Q 01/05

What are death metal's harsh vocals commonly called?

A) Death growls

B) Fry screams

C) Death chants

D) Throat drones

Answer · why

A) Death growls

Death growls are a trained technique, not just shouting: vocal coach Melissa Cross, whose 2005 video The Zen of Screaming teaches harsh singing, has s...

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

Cookie Monster vocals sound like a joke, but done badly they are no laughing matter: in 2007 a Dutch hospital reported treating several singers of the...

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 train beat

Answer · why

C) The blast beat

The blast beat was named by the grindcore band Napalm Death, but punk and hardcore drummers had been playing it for years before metal took it up.

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

Newcastle's Venom also named a genre by accident: their 1982 album Black Metal lent its title to the whole black metal style that followed.

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

Reign in Blood lasts barely 29 minutes, and its release was held up over the opening track, 'Angel of Death', about the Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele...