Known at first as "Swedish death metal" because most of its creators originated in Scandinavia, this style is more accurately known by its most vivid aspect of composition, which is the use of melodic styles to unify the thunderous sound of death metal, in contrast to the nearly exclusively chromatic/whole scale/diatonic riffing of the surrounding genre. It is distinct from the "New Wave of Swedish Melodic Death Metal," which is more realistically known as heavy metal with the stylings of death metal, and despite some tendencies in that area overcame them for the most part. What aided this compositional leap was the Swedish use of double distortion boxes to create a blistering, electric sound that sustained tone fluidly if used with the tremolo strum and songwriting techniques of phrasal death metal. The resulting columnar sound enabled smooth transitions between phrases and thus allowed bands to build melodies upon melodies, continuing the narrative style of death metal composition and demoting harmony to an effect applied on the ongoing change of theme. Extending the death metal concept, these bands hid the beauty of their composition behind battering and abrasive songs, and took lyrics to a new dimension of both literality (blood, gore) and cosmic concept, discussing philosophical and religious themes in the context of mortality. The flexibility of its melodic songwriting, and this tendency toward more abstract but realistic thought, made this style a fundamental influence on the black metal to follow.

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