---
title: "Old School Death Metal"
type: "MusicGenre"
url: "https://themetalnet.com/genre/old-school-death"
parent: "Death Metal"
bands: 4
era: "late 1980s"
---

# Old School Death Metal

**Old School Death Metal** is a metal sub-genre, formative in the late 1980s. TheMetalNet maps 4 bands and 1 albums under it.

Old-school death metal is the founding form of the genre from the late 1980s and early 1990s, built on chunky, mid-tuned riffing, growled vocals, and a rawer, murkier production than the polished styles that followed. American bands like Death, Morbid Angel, and Autopsy and the buzzsaw-toned Swedish scene of Entombed and Dismember set the template. It favors groove, atmosphere, and songcraft over extreme speed or technical flash. Themes run to horror, death, and the macabre.

## Facts

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Genre | Old School Death Metal |
| Level | Sub-genre |
| Parent genre | Death Metal |
| Formative era | late 1980s |
| Bands | 4 |
| Albums | 1 |
| Formation span | 1996 to 2023 |

## Bands

- [Incarceration](https://themetalnet.com/band/incarceration) (2010)
- [Viraz Ahalan](https://themetalnet.com/band/viraz-ahalan) (India, 1996)
- [Ominous Moon](https://themetalnet.com/band/ominous-moon) (2022)
- [MAULER](https://themetalnet.com/band/mauler-2159c126) (2023)

## Where it is played

- [India](https://themetalnet.com/country/in): 1 bands

## Bands formed by decade

| Decade | Bands formed |
| --- | --- |
| 1990s | 1 |
| 2010s | 1 |
| 2020s | 2 |

---

Source: [TheMetalNet https://themetalnet.com/genre/old-school-death](https://themetalnet.com/genre/old-school-death). Catalog data from MusicBrainz and Metal Archives. Full site index: https://themetalnet.com/llms.txt