Death 'n' Roll and Black 'n' Roll

This week we are going to be talking about two closely related heavy metal subgenres. A recent trend among metal bands has been to combine extreme metal with rock ‘n’ roll music. This has led to the creation of two separate subgenres known as death ‘n’ roll and black ‘n’ roll. 

Musically speaking, death ‘n’ roll is death metal that incorporates elements of hard rock. Guitars are detuned and vocals are still deeply growled, as they would be in normal death metal. However, the songs themselves are structured similarly to hard rock tunes. Black ‘n’ roll is the exact same thing as death ‘n’ roll except the songs are rooted in black metal instead of death metal.

The term “death ‘n’ roll” was first used to describe the band Entombed. The band's third album, Wolverine Blues, was considered to be a stylistic departure from its death metal origins, and earned Entombed the “death ‘n’ roll” label by critics. Since then, the band has continued to experiment with that style and has influenced other bands such as Gorefest and Six Feet Under to experiment with the style as well.

Black ‘n’ roll is a more recently created subgenre than death ‘n’ roll, and wasn’t stylistically popular until the 2000s. Currently, two of the most successful bands of the subgenre are Kvelertak and Vreid, the latter of which is composed of the surviving musicians from the popular black metal band, Windir.

Death ‘n’ roll and black ‘n’ roll are subgenres that are still emerging, but are gaining sizable followings. Black ‘n’ roll in particular has recently gained some major attention as a subgenre due to the critical acclaim for Kvelertak’s second album, Meir. Both subgenres are much more popular in Europe than they are in the US, but hopefully in time that will soon change.