…so, which are the main differences between black metal and death metal?
These two genres may sound very similar, that’s why this is a typical, common question asked by people who don’t listen to metal and they’re clearly not music expert.
You can find hundreds of answers at this question on the web, they’re more or less persuasive; some people take into account the lyrics and the topics discussed only, others focuses more on the technical side and then there are the ones who give importance to the typical bands’ image who play these genres.

As a matter of fact the three mentioned characteristics have a bit of differences one another… the topics of lyrics differ quite a lot, to start with. Black metal texts are dark, evil, philosophical, introspective, they mainly touch on anti-Christian and pagan issues, both focused on Satanism, on misanthropy and on mysterious and captivating side of death unlike death metal, let’s take, say, death, it’s seriously celebrated and described by a splatter vision, straightforward and bluntly, definitely less intellectual; moreover, death metal often addresses anti social matters, issues of anger, of hate, of violence and of destruction.
The technical and executive aspects are very different, as well. The main element that distinguishes the two genres is the voice which is squeaky and cold, agonizing and sharp in black metal; on the other hand it’s rough, throaty, caveman’s and sick in death metal. Talking about the general sound, the black metal makes use of very distorted and “buzzing” guitars with kind of minimalist musical phrases (riffs), while the guitar distortions in death metal are rather heavier, full-bodied, defined and well-groomed, with more technical and more articulated and complex riffs. The rhythm section is quite different, too with very fast drums and the bass guitar almost never dominated in black metal; on the other side, in death metal, drums have more complex and incisive rhythms and the bass guitar plays more articulated parts with more powerful sounds.
…not to mention the image which is something completely different or, at least, it was! At the end of the ’80s and the early ‘90s, talking about the outfit, the black metallers were using clothes in black leather, studs, chains, necklaces with inverted crosses and face-painting while the death metallers mood was a little more sober with sneaker, jeans and t-shirts.
Here are the deep differences between these two musical genres, which have only one thing in common… both of them are everlastingly pissed off.

Basically, these are the notions you find on the website, the information of whom wants the matter to be clear and needs dutiful technical explanations to which we’d like to add a huge emotional distinction, that is what these two genres left us inside after the first listening.

We headed deeper into these two dimensions in 1994; we grew out of rock from AC/DC, Guns n’ Roses, Aerosmith, from grunge of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam. The very first initiation of the metal world was listening to “Vulgar Display of Power” of Pantera, “Chaos A.D.” of Sepultura, “Game Over” of Nuclear Assault and “Pleasure to Kill” of Kreator… all of them outstanding injection of powerful and thrilling thrash metal that were well beyond rock. While continuing of listening to a bunch of rock, the power that was coming out from the CD player listening to Pantera, Sepultura, Nuclear Assault and Kreator was unbeatable, without taking anything from anyone, but… the step to go further was very quick.
We happened to have “The End Complete” of Obituary and after that the very rotten “Reek of Putrefaction” of Carcass and that was the peak… just our skull to be crushed against the wall. Never heard anything like that before… the power was even higher and the impact of these first steps towards death metal was extremely exhilarating. We were capture by the strength and the heaviness of those sounds and by the evil of those voices which drove us crazy… but, the step to go further was very quick, once again.
We got soon in contact with black metal thanks to a friend of ours who brought to us a duffel bag chock full of CDs and there was no turning back for anyone. This music genre which is a real entity for us, was able to attract us towards it and to bewitch us more than any other genre known before… we were deeply impressed in front of the perfect mishmash given by the coldness and the speed of the instruments, the huge wickedness of the voice and the mystic, icy, evil, hellish atmosphere.
Starting from this point, we wanted to get to know as many bands as possible related to this genre and not only, even the musicians who played it, the land where they came from and the unusual stories in which they were involved.

It even fascinated us the strong connection between the music and the nature, the mood of medieval mark, the countless references to Satanism and paganism and all that didn’t left the death metal excitement at all, anything but wishing to jump and smash our head against the wall… feelings were far deeper, much more thoughtful, much more magical and obscure, in this case.
We were completely absorbed and inspired by this terrific and dark dimension, which never stops to attract us, to seduce us, it never let us go since we discovered it.
That’s it, this is the biggest difference between black metal and death metal.