Once death metal established itself as a distinct subgenre, ambitious musicians - most of whom had learned to play by emulating the classics of speed metal - took to death metal with the same spirit that embraced "progressive" rock in the 1960s: they added technique from jazz and rock, wrote complex melodies in the style of classical music, and strapped it all to the death metal form of chaotic or chromatic tonality and narrative (story-telling; poetic) song structure. The result was some fascinating music, but it was never quite able to resolve the split between rock/jazz and classical styles, resulting in often uneven results which made for schizophrenic listening (much as progressive rock had been). The best, like King Crimson generations before, retained the barest elements of the genre and its influences, composing within that for the sake of whatever spirit inspired them, and as a result created something that, apart from its guttural vocals, could belong to a progressive offshoot of almost any technical genre. Most fans at first were inclined to reject this music because it did not have the clarity of basic statement for which death metal was legendary, but over time, after the middle generations of death metal faded out and were assimilated, longtime fans began gravitating toward progressive death metal as it offered the most room for expansion and continuation of the genre, which still occurs today.

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