Thank you as always for all the examples! I've finally compiled them, check out the master list here: docs.google.com/document/d/1Km5totG8EQY_ftVXbHtTDuhecQwxFTb1Sk28RIVg4nw/edit?usp=sharing
I've got one - how about the end-of-song fade-out from distorted section to the same section, but clean? See... Voivod - 'Sonic Mycelium' Moonsorrow - 'Jumalten kaupunki including Tuhatvuotinen perintö' Wyrd - 'My Ghosts'
Death - Perennial Quest and Moment of Clarity Death is usually a pretty common influence for a lot of technical/progressive metal bands. And I would be interested if there are any earlier examples.
Excellent video. Similar examples include: - Whitechapel - Father of Lies - Bloodbath - Hades Rising - The Red Chord - Seminar - The Red Chord - He was dead when I got there - The Acacia Strain - The Behemoth (again, an entire track, instead of a section) - The Acacia Strain - House of Abandon
My buddy and I call these "end of the world" or "shit hitting the fan" outros because of the way they usually sound stressful and dreaded and provide a feeling of finality. Great video as always dude. As a pea brain I rely on pure intuition and feeling to understand musical concepts like this, and it's cool to have actually knowledgeable people put it in real terms lol. I believe the last third or so of "An Order to Reclaim" by Gorod may fit in this category.
I feel like Nails' "They come crawling back" fits into this mold pretty well It's probably the slowest song in their discography, lots of layers and noise as they often do
I kind of think of these sections as being like the Final Act or an Epilogue. These terms are also quite vague, but these sections feel like they're there to punctuate everything that proceeded them even if they don't directly harken back to previous motifs, they do have this grand feeling of finality that you might get in the third act of a play. You probably already know, but this climactic idea also pop ups in quite a few symphonies, sonatas, concertos, and operas. Concertos especially seem to go for a big technical fireworks display at the end to show off the soloists prowess as well as wrap the whole thing up. I guess a similar thing could be said for tech death. Thanks for another great video!
Wouldn't The Philosopher fit in this trope? Especially the extended version, where after Chuck and Steve duel solos only the open chords and the shredding drums are left.
The ending of death atlas uses this trope with so much emotion. It's just heartbreaking brutality that makes the song what it is. The ending of A Vicious Reforming Of Features by After The Burial uses this trope as well.
I have always thought of these sections as a coda. I used to make playlists back in the day that would build to these songs. I think it feels different in tech death because the stark contrast between the otherwise fast paced note barrage that you've just subjected yourself to. The first song I thought of before you gave examples was Obscura's The Centric Flow. They aren't tech death, but I've been listening to Descend's The Deviant a lot lately and I think it qualifies for this as well.
Oh! Anata got a mention! I approve! Nile's Sarcophagus also sounds like an intepretation of this trope, but more in style of example from Opeth, youve provided. Axamenta - The Omniscient - actually more "proggy" coda after speedup and a solo, it goes into a slower tempo, solo and an outro. Behemoth - Christgrinding Avenue Decrepit Birth - Essence of Creation Dim Mak - Monolith Hieronymus Bosch - The Mime damn... there is so many
God of Emptiness by Morbid Angel could very well be a proto-version of this trope. It has many of the characteristics - except it has some vocals thrown in.
I think that totally counts! The fact that the vocals are clean I think enhance the "new riff" component, and are also a similar change in texture to the harsh vocals dropping out.
idk how you managed to pack so many bands i was obsessed with in high school into one video 😤😤🙏🙏 anyway, not tech death (but nonetheless a band with some chaos) but i randomly thought of Cold Lord Quietus by Shai Hulud. i think they do this kind of trope a lot, actually.
Firstly late asf comment lol. Secondly it's technically not the end of the song cause of the Esoteric Surgery motif but I'd personally say The Art of Dying's outro riff counts or as at least fairly similar to this kind of section. Great video as per usual
I feel like the hypnotic (much groovier than the rest of the song) riff at the end of Teitanblood's "Sleeping Thorats of the Antichrist" fits the trope
Definitely sounds like an ending, not sure if I'd say it sounds like the other examples of this trope (to me it sounds more claustrophobic than open, I guess)
I think Rivers Of Nihil’s “Dreaming Black Clockwork” does this as well but sort of subverts it by having it build into a noise section rather than fading out. Worth checking out because it fits some of the descriptors but not all especially because it’s only the second track on the album
While not tech death per se, the most immediate example that comes to my head (and probably my favorite of them) is the ending of Returning to the Source by Persefone. It's a fairly repetitive riff that ends up repeating for a good few minutes while slowly fading out, but somehow it never really gets old. Alkaloid also does something similar to this with their song Funeral for a Continent at the end of their debut album. Unlike the above example, this one contains a pretty sweet chain of solos to even further fit some of the stuff you outlined here as well.
thanks for giving it a name! I think "terminal climax" is more the way I hear it than "coda" or "closing section" - the Radiohead example was pretty important in forming this opinion btw.
Left Hand Path! Probably the first example of this trope I've ever heard. I've always found it odd that that was the end of the first track on the album and not of the entire album.
The very last section in Vildhjarta's "paaradiso" the final song on their latest album Maastaden Under Vatten qualifies as one of these sections, in a breathtaking send-off.
"Burning Desire to Draw Last Breath" by Gulch is the first thing that came to mind for this, which makes sense because they're a hardcore band that draws significantly from death metal.
I don't know if I ever settled on a term, but I always thought of these sections as the band "taking a bow" as the curtains close on the record and playing the audience out of the theater with one last riff
There's a bunch of Meshuggah songs written by Marten Hagstrom that have this feature; Nebulous, Lethargica, Obzen, Demiurge (kinda), Dancers to a Discordant system, etc. I hear it as Shoegaze influence coming through
@@matthewpowell2527 i almost feel like nebulous is more of a coda. obsidian is kind of ambient like the last vigil amd could be considered a bonus coda or an outro after the coda
Just off the top of my head, the end of Obscura - Cosmogenesis, Inferi - Cursed Unholy and Path of Apotheosis (both closing tracks), First Fragment - In'El outro (has vocals and the melody is a varation on a previous one, but definitely similar IMO, also closing track)... it's definitely a really cool trope, often a more mellow or contemplative closure to a super intense album (except the first fragment one).
I'll just keep coning here: Cthe'Ilist, Tales from the Majora Mythos part 1 outro (also album closer) although this one is more chatoic sounding, so maybe a far fetch
Not 100% sure these apply but here's what came to mind for me: Beyond Creation - Omnipresent Perception (this I personally feel makes the most sense of my other picks, especially as an "epic tech death coda" type thing) The Black Dahlia Murder - I Will Return Defeated Sanity - Dislimbing the Ostracized (I guess it's more of a brutal death decrescendo than what I understand of this idea, but it came to mind anyway) Periphery - Racecar The Project Hate MCMXCIX - Welcome the Judas Agenda
I think, name "Death coda" is good enough) Clotting the Vacant Stare by Guttural Secrete is a good example, how that thing can be done, when technicality is over the top: it's repetetitive and absolutely different riff, that fades out into some ridiculous synth ending, but with constant crashing in of chaotic tech stuff. And yes, it gives real feeling that something very big is ending (well, Nourishing the Spoil is pretty big for an album).
Non eggsactly tech death but: Ne Obliviscaris- Painters of the tampest and Pyrrhic(from the same album lol) Beyond creation-the great revelation the Aura
Dude I love Anomalous, prefer their Cognitive Dissonance EP but Ohmnivalent rips. Nice Origin shirt too, Antithesis is a pivotal and timeless album. Also, the ending of "Domain of the Eternal Paradox" by the band Odious Mortem from their album "Cryptic Implosion" (feat. Ron Jarzombek) definitely fits this topic/ element, if not doubly (you'll get what I mean when you listen to it). Either way, that album as a whole is utterly fantastic and more people need to hear it (highly recommend it man check it out). Love the FE material by the way, mind bending stuff. 🤘
Definitely on team ladder here, "coda" just describes these sections much more clearly in my opinion. As usual I can't think of any straight examples that weren't already in the video or comments but I do remember a trend of mathcore bands doing the final track version of this for many albums, the most notable one for me is always Ion Dissonance's Solace which ends with a sprawling 11 minute post-metal abyss (that always bugged me in high school since I bought the album for non-stop fast numbers, but has since made it more memorable than a lot of 2000s genre filler). DEP also does the "switch to a lower energy genre for the last song" variant for like the entire second half of their discography. Downgrading to nu metal gets us Slipknot's Iowa and going even further to post-hardcore has a full discography version with The Blood Brothers' Giant Swan capping off their entire career with a very dark and slow-paced song that has a partial example internally by following one last high-energy screaming section with an ambient fade out. I'm definitely bending the definition here though, probably more than a little past the point where it's useful. "Heavy music ending slower and quieter without losing any of the heaviness" is certainly all over the place though, especially if you broaden the scope to full albums.
I've always called these sections breakdowns, because I tend to process them the same way as a breakdown. Just a really heavy and dark version of them. That being said, I do think there is some merit to this idea. I could've sworn this trope shows up a lot in gorguts' music, but I could be wrong.
Yeah I think of breakdowns typically as something that happens in the middle of songs, and typically they use a lot of palm muting (unlike these things), but there is some similarity in feel
EDIT: Before I get to the meat of my comment, it looks like in the video you forced all audio to mono, including the songs. I noticed the songs sounded weird until I tried putting them in mono and it sounded like your video. I'm guessing since you wanted your mic track to be mono you might have merged all audio to mono instead of keeping the songs in stereo like you intended. Not sure if you can fix that without a re-upload to the video but at least might want to mention that in the video description. These kinds of outros have always been one of my favorite things in music, and it's interesting that it's so prominent in tech death, and your examples are some great ones, especially Ohmnivalent and Antithesis I love those. In regards to Anomalous though, I think they really like this kind of "Tech Death Terminal Climax" a lot on that album, although they tend to deviate from this form more some of the of the other songs that use it. I think Panacea's ending also fits this form just as well as Ohmnivalent. Binary Resurrection too is another great example even if it's a bit more uptempo and breaks the form a bit by briefly going into the rhythmic section at the end right before the fade out section. The Seraphim Veil also has it too, but feels a bit different, and breaks into another aggressive section at the end so I wouldn't consider this a strong example. I'm curious if you agree and just didn't want to overload the examples with Anomalous songs, or if you think there's enough structural difference to exclude the ones I listed. For a non-Anomalous example that instantly comes to mind that's probably my favorite in Tech Death is the ending to Portals to Canaan by Deeds of Flesh. It's definitely on the more aggressive side, but still feels very texturally different than the previous section in the song and I love that it's built as a call back to another riff earlier in the song. Funny thing is while listening to this example I realized that Xeno-Virus also fits really well, and I think in a lot of ways fits your described form a bit more closely due to is use of let ring chords, more moderate tempo, and a more prominant solo. Celestial Serpents also kinda has one right at the end, but it's very short so I'm not sure if that will count. Wormed also has an interesting example of this kind of section on Molecular Winds, and it's especially a break texture wise compared to the rest of Wormed's discography due to its use of wind and brass instruments holding long notes during parts of it. I think though, by far my favorite use of the "whole song" is Xenoverse Discharger: another example from Wormed. It sounds _very_ different than your given examples, and even mine, but I it adheres to the form you laid out quite well, and more importantly gives that kind of feeling of a terminal climax, but in a different way to me. It's hard to describe, but I just love it. It is a massive break in the texture from the rest of the album, mostly lacks vocals and here they're really just used as a texture for a brief section, has a moderate tempo, heavy use of spacious, let ring chords, layers of guitars, a fade out, and in the last part of the song especially a very repetitive structure that lasts two minutes, which almost feels like a terminal climax section within the song itself. I especially like how it's made up of sections from previous songs stiched together, but the way they flow is so purposeful so it doesn't sound disjointed or harsh, which a lot of Wormed music is, further reinforcing the break in texture idea. I think Xenoverse Discharger is in a lot of ways it's own kind of "tech death terminal closer" or "tech death coda", but really I just have never heard anything like it anywhere else, but like I mentioned it simultaneously adheres to the form you laid out while sounding really different than other examples given by yourself, myself, and a lot of the comments here. Honestly this song could use a whole video in and of itself. Anomalous - Panacea: ua-cam.com/video/uGNgsmPMOeY/v-deo.html Anomalous - Binary Resurrection: ua-cam.com/video/p8LGqatSzN8/v-deo.html Anomalous - The Seraphim Veil: ua-cam.com/video/lvgeiqJiPeE/v-deo.html Deeds of Flesh - Portals to Canaan: ua-cam.com/video/j76626MgHwc/v-deo.html Deeds of Flesh - Xeno-Virus: ua-cam.com/video/e_VDAisEjvA/v-deo.html Wormed - Molecular Winds: ua-cam.com/video/evEWaS618Hw/v-deo.html Wormed - Xenoverse Discharger: ua-cam.com/video/ISjT1wSaL_M/v-deo.html
Great examples! I agree the other Anomalous ones count, and I remembered a bunch more including those Wormed ones right after I posted (I have an early video about a different Wormed song if you haven't seen it). Good catch on the mono audio-I think I know why it happened, I'll have to remember to fix it next time.
I don't entirely know why, but I kind of want to lean towards "denouement" for the term. After an album of pretty dense tech death, as you observed, these sections are less dense. While they retain a decent level of energy, I feel like they somewhat act as a point of rest for the listener. If I want to go a little bit more pretentious as a former English major, the word apparently derives from ultimately from Latin and means "untie the knot." While the source I found that at says it refers to all plot points in a story being made clear to finish it off, I can't help but also feel the lessening of tension we both observe in that translation as well.
I like this! Yeah there is a sense of the drama being resolved, I hadn't really been thinking in terms of that but a lot of these comments point to that
Don't know if this is hitting your nail on the head but the end of Gorguts - Absconders? Love the whole song and outro. What about calling a climactic descendo Cynic - How could I Dodecahedron - Octahedron: Harbinger
not a tech death song but the ending coda of Finally Free by dream theater definitely feels somewhat related in the coda / repetitive / vamp / instrumental / moderate tempo and non-staccato timbre categories!
I think "coda" is a good way to describe this, maybe with a few modifiers like "melodic" or "climactic." I'd cite Emperor's The Wanderer as another example in the spirit of Infinite Misery. Hades Rising by Bloodbath might be another example, but I think it depends on how much build up you allow. Can it be this sort of climactic coda if there is a bit of transition? Using Revocation as an example, there's a transition riff leading into the end of Labyrinth of Eyes and a drum build before the heavy outro of That Which Consumes All Things. I'm also curious how an extended outro like in Opeth's Deliverance fits (or doesn't fit) into this framework.
Great questions! I think the transition/lack of transition doesn't change things much, and my feeling is that there's a difference between like an outro breakdown with a palm muted pattern ("Deliverance," "Remembrance" by Gojira, "Secrets Within" by Car Bomb, etc.) and what I'm talking about, but really I'm just making this up as I go along lol-eventually I'll probably try to be a little more systematic about mapping all the different features and see if anything comes of that. Great examples!
I would call this something like 'Eternal Stasis'. It isn't really a climax: it just occurs at the end. Most of these endings quickly give the listener that this could go on forever: 'suffering without relief'.
Portal do this on Abysmill (3:25), 13 Globes (2:57), Black Houses (4:12), and Sourlows (4:18) from Outre. They also do this on Awryeon (1:58, though in this case it is the majority of the song) from Vexovoid. Imperial Triumphant do it on Deus Est Machina (3:17) from Abominamentvm. Abyssal do it on Under the Wretched Sun of Hattin (6:14) from Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius (though, it could be argued every song on the album has a terminal climax). Geryon do it on To the Silenced (4:36) from their self-titled album. For a bizarre example I'll give Ehnahre's Birth Dues (3:50) from Taming the Cannibals. For a really bizarre example I'll also give Ad Nauseam's Human Interface to No God (4:44) from Imperative Imperceptible Impulse. (I'll state my case that, even though this section is undistorted, it follows most of the stipulations given except for number five and the band plays tech death.) Some of these might seem to start earlier, but I've selected the final riff from each as being the terminal climax and preceding sections with the same tempo, where they appear, as being bridges.
I always though that for about 30 seconds after 6:20 or so in Baying of the Hounds felt like the ending of a song, but the song has like 4 minutes left, and it isn't a coda or anything. At least, I don't think it is.
Demiurge > The last Vigil - Meshuggah. The Holy Mountain - Slice the Cake Ash and Rust IV - Slice the cake at least of ash and rust Song of the Crippled Bull - Black Crown Initiate THe Uniquity of Time - Replicant probably? Secrets within - car bomb is....well it's just a fade out, but it's about as consistent a riff as youll get with them Nebulous - Meshuggah maaybe? Ok ill stop now lol I think tech death resolution might be little more where you want to get? This trope sound more like a winding down AFTER the climax as you say. Resolution might be a little more immediately clear to the normal person than coda I think for the future, it would be better to share examples with an easily readable font, so that it's easy to find what songs you mean. Even if they are death metal songs! haha
For me, what feels like the most prototypical example of 'terminal climax' in metal is probably the end of BTBAM's 'Selkies: the Endless Obsession'. It's perhaps a lot more long-winded than what you're aiming for but it checks a lot of the boxes. And it's not even close to tech-death! It makes me think that this phenomenon is more applicable to metal or progressive music more broadly. You also mention that 'terminal climax' songs often occur at the end of an album, which I think you could expand into the concept of 'terminal climax song' as opposed to 'terminal climax section'. There are a lot of album-ending songs which *begin* with slower, more repetitive, and harmonically stable sections, or at least use these features throughout the song, regardless of whether there is a true terminal climax section. Anyway, here are a couple other examples I thought up: Extol - Nihilism 2002 Gojira - The Art of Dying Ulcerate - End the Hope Xenoblight - Virus
I think of that more as an outro breakdown, which I think is kind of a different thing... more palm muted and rhythmic instead of these like layered, harmonic things
This is an odd one to me. Off the top of my head, I can think of a handful of songs that have sections that "feel" similiar to the example sections you give, but none of them sufficiently meet the criteria listed imo and none of them are Tech Death songs. The closing section of Darkthrone's Forebyggende Krig would be one e.g..
Yeah this is a tricky one! Though I am realizing that it's definitely not just a tech death thing - that Darkthrone example definitely has the right kind of chord progression (i-VI-V) and all the solos, I'll add it to the list!
How about the bass solo section of Apparition by Spawn of Possession? ua-cam.com/video/7oT9_1zEDEA/v-deo.html Not "terminal", but I think it captures the right vibe.
I’ll second this motion. I have a hard enough time reading album covers to decide what to jam out to. Don’t make it difficult to read when I’m trying to get my learn on!
Haha I knew it would be illegible but I thought it would be in the spirit of the subject matter-I'm putting a list with all the original examples in the pinned comment
Thank you as always for all the examples! I've finally compiled them, check out the master list here:
docs.google.com/document/d/1Km5totG8EQY_ftVXbHtTDuhecQwxFTb1Sk28RIVg4nw/edit?usp=sharing
Now someone need to combine all of them into one video...
I've got one - how about the end-of-song fade-out from distorted section to the same section, but clean? See...
Voivod - 'Sonic Mycelium'
Moonsorrow - 'Jumalten kaupunki including Tuhatvuotinen perintö'
Wyrd - 'My Ghosts'
Death - Perennial Quest and Moment of Clarity
Death is usually a pretty common influence for a lot of technical/progressive metal bands. And I would be interested if there are any earlier examples.
Excellent video. Similar examples include:
- Whitechapel - Father of Lies
- Bloodbath - Hades Rising
- The Red Chord - Seminar
- The Red Chord - He was dead when I got there
- The Acacia Strain - The Behemoth (again, an entire track, instead of a section)
- The Acacia Strain - House of Abandon
Straws Pulled At Random outro has all of these but the fadeout and is obviously my favourite 😅
Ignominious & pale is one of my favorites due to its section after the solo. I think it fits this idea.
That is one of the greatest sections of music ever.
Yeah, though this one is kind of fun because it definitely sounds like it's going to be the last section of the song but then it isn't
Veil Of Maya - With Passion And Power
Especially once the vocals drop out and the fade out starts
Killer song and album
My buddy and I call these "end of the world" or "shit hitting the fan" outros because of the way they usually sound stressful and dreaded and provide a feeling of finality. Great video as always dude. As a pea brain I rely on pure intuition and feeling to understand musical concepts like this, and it's cool to have actually knowledgeable people put it in real terms lol. I believe the last third or so of "An Order to Reclaim" by Gorod may fit in this category.
"End-of-the-world outro" is a great name for these.
@@eliassimon666 glad you think so!
True
Archspire - A Dark Horizontal has this effect, even though the big ring out chord section is just the chorus again
I feel like Nails' "They come crawling back" fits into this mold pretty well
It's probably the slowest song in their discography, lots of layers and noise as they often do
Sapphire by Fallujah was maybe the first example of this sound crystallizing for me in the context of tech death
I kind of think of these sections as being like the Final Act or an Epilogue. These terms are also quite vague, but these sections feel like they're there to punctuate everything that proceeded them even if they don't directly harken back to previous motifs, they do have this grand feeling of finality that you might get in the third act of a play.
You probably already know, but this climactic idea also pop ups in quite a few symphonies, sonatas, concertos, and operas. Concertos especially seem to go for a big technical fireworks display at the end to show off the soloists prowess as well as wrap the whole thing up. I guess a similar thing could be said for tech death.
Thanks for another great video!
And what is tech death if not classical music with guitars
The Red Chord: “He was Dead when I got There” (whole track), “Seminar”, “ Sleepless Nights in the Compound” (always felt this one ends too quickly)
Wouldn't The Philosopher fit in this trope? Especially the extended version, where after Chuck and Steve duel solos only the open chords and the shredding drums are left.
Came to the comments to suggest this one as well, seems like an archetypical example
There is a definite pattern and I'm glad you're identifying it. As a casual death metal enjoyer its interesting to hear what the academics think.
Fallujah's 'Cerebral Hybridization' is one of the most powerful of these, I think, despite it being in the middle of the album.
The ending of death atlas uses this trope with so much emotion. It's just heartbreaking brutality that makes the song what it is. The ending of A Vicious Reforming Of Features by After The Burial uses this trope as well.
I have always thought of these sections as a coda. I used to make playlists back in the day that would build to these songs. I think it feels different in tech death because the stark contrast between the otherwise fast paced note barrage that you've just subjected yourself to.
The first song I thought of before you gave examples was Obscura's The Centric Flow.
They aren't tech death, but I've been listening to Descend's The Deviant a lot lately and I think it qualifies for this as well.
Oh! Anata got a mention! I approve! Nile's Sarcophagus also sounds like an intepretation of this trope, but more in style of example from Opeth, youve provided.
Axamenta - The Omniscient - actually more "proggy" coda after speedup and a solo, it goes into a slower tempo, solo and an outro.
Behemoth - Christgrinding Avenue
Decrepit Birth - Essence of Creation
Dim Mak - Monolith
Hieronymus Bosch - The Mime
damn... there is so many
Every single band in this video is so sick. This video is sick. Love this channel
yo, i just spent all day binging your videos and you upload a new one. the stars aligned
God of Emptiness by Morbid Angel could very well be a proto-version of this trope. It has many of the characteristics - except it has some vocals thrown in.
I think that totally counts! The fact that the vocals are clean I think enhance the "new riff" component, and are also a similar change in texture to the harsh vocals dropping out.
idk how you managed to pack so many bands i was obsessed with in high school into one video 😤😤🙏🙏 anyway, not tech death (but nonetheless a band with some chaos) but i randomly thought of Cold Lord Quietus by Shai Hulud. i think they do this kind of trope a lot, actually.
Immolation - Those Left Behind
Immolation - Christ's Cage
DEATH - The Philosopher
Firstly late asf comment lol. Secondly it's technically not the end of the song cause of the Esoteric Surgery motif but I'd personally say The Art of Dying's outro riff counts or as at least fairly similar to this kind of section. Great video as per usual
Of course the band I'm talking about is Gojira for anyone who is unaware.
I feel like the hypnotic (much groovier than the rest of the song) riff at the end of Teitanblood's "Sleeping Thorats of the Antichrist" fits the trope
Definitely sounds like an ending, not sure if I'd say it sounds like the other examples of this trope (to me it sounds more claustrophobic than open, I guess)
I think Rivers Of Nihil’s “Dreaming Black Clockwork” does this as well but sort of subverts it by having it build into a noise section rather than fading out. Worth checking out because it fits some of the descriptors but not all especially because it’s only the second track on the album
the end of the Warp Zone Album by Martyr, they dedicate an entire track which is kind of a mashup of parts of every song on the album
While not tech death per se, the most immediate example that comes to my head (and probably my favorite of them) is the ending of Returning to the Source by Persefone. It's a fairly repetitive riff that ends up repeating for a good few minutes while slowly fading out, but somehow it never really gets old.
Alkaloid also does something similar to this with their song Funeral for a Continent at the end of their debut album. Unlike the above example, this one contains a pretty sweet chain of solos to even further fit some of the stuff you outlined here as well.
thanks for giving it a name! I think "terminal climax" is more the way I hear it than "coda" or "closing section" - the Radiohead example was pretty important in forming this opinion btw.
Left Hand Path! Probably the first example of this trope I've ever heard. I've always found it odd that that was the end of the first track on the album and not of the entire album.
The Philosopher by Death could fit into this trope.
Lost Soul - Simulation is a great example
The end of saturaatio by oranssi pazuzu I think has a unique spin on the terminal climax.
The very last section in Vildhjarta's "paaradiso" the final song on their latest album Maastaden Under Vatten qualifies as one of these sections, in a breathtaking send-off.
Martyr - Nameless, Faceless, Neverborn comes to mind with this trope.
"Burning Desire to Draw Last Breath" by Gulch is the first thing that came to mind for this, which makes sense because they're a hardcore band that draws significantly from death metal.
I don't know if I ever settled on a term, but I always thought of these sections as the band "taking a bow" as the curtains close on the record and playing the audience out of the theater with one last riff
I like it! Yeah the theatrical/dramatic interpretation has come up a lot which I hadn't been thinking about!
The final section of Finally Free by Dream Theater may be another good example.
There's a bunch of Meshuggah songs written by Marten Hagstrom that have this feature; Nebulous, Lethargica, Obzen, Demiurge (kinda), Dancers to a Discordant system, etc. I hear it as Shoegaze influence coming through
Came here to say this, Meshuggah absolutely does this in many tracks.
Also, the ending of Sum, the end of Into Decay and in a way, the last section of Past Tense
I think the final riff of Demiurge is a great example. It has all 9 features. To me, the last vigil is kind of a bonus coda
@@cmusard3 Yeah the Last Vigil, and kind of Obsidian too. Maybe Straws Pulled at Random?
@@matthewpowell2527 i almost feel like nebulous is more of a coda. obsidian is kind of ambient like the last vigil amd could be considered a bonus coda or an outro after the coda
The Faceless' 'Planetary Duality' too.
Vitriol - Pain Will Define Their Death
Just off the top of my head, the end of Obscura - Cosmogenesis, Inferi - Cursed Unholy and Path of Apotheosis (both closing tracks), First Fragment - In'El outro (has vocals and the melody is a varation on a previous one, but definitely similar IMO, also closing track)... it's definitely a really cool trope, often a more mellow or contemplative closure to a super intense album (except the first fragment one).
And yea I also thought of something something Death when I watched this, often tropes like this can be semi-traced back to a single occurence
I'll just keep coning here: Cthe'Ilist, Tales from the Majora Mythos part 1 outro (also album closer) although this one is more chatoic sounding, so maybe a far fetch
Not 100% sure these apply but here's what came to mind for me:
Beyond Creation - Omnipresent Perception (this I personally feel makes the most sense of my other picks, especially as an "epic tech death coda" type thing)
The Black Dahlia Murder - I Will Return
Defeated Sanity - Dislimbing the Ostracized (I guess it's more of a brutal death decrescendo than what I understand of this idea, but it came to mind anyway)
Periphery - Racecar
The Project Hate MCMXCIX - Welcome the Judas Agenda
I believe I have a couple examples that fit your standards.
Through the Depths - Inferi
And plague flowers the koleidescope - Ne Obliviscaris
Lots of NeO probably
I think, name "Death coda" is good enough)
Clotting the Vacant Stare by Guttural Secrete is a good example, how that thing can be done, when technicality is over the top: it's repetetitive and absolutely different riff, that fades out into some ridiculous synth ending, but with constant crashing in of chaotic tech stuff. And yes, it gives real feeling that something very big is ending (well, Nourishing the Spoil is pretty big for an album).
Non eggsactly tech death but:
Ne Obliviscaris- Painters of the tampest and Pyrrhic(from the same album lol)
Beyond creation-the great revelation
the Aura
Dissolution by Spectral Voice in Eroded Corridors
Dude I love Anomalous, prefer their Cognitive Dissonance EP but Ohmnivalent rips. Nice Origin shirt too, Antithesis is a pivotal and timeless album.
Also, the ending of "Domain of the Eternal Paradox" by the band Odious Mortem from their album "Cryptic Implosion" (feat. Ron Jarzombek) definitely fits this topic/ element, if not doubly (you'll get what I mean when you listen to it). Either way, that album as a whole is utterly fantastic and more people need to hear it (highly recommend it man check it out).
Love the FE material by the way, mind bending stuff. 🤘
Thanks so much! Added to the list!
@@metalmusictheory5401 Right on! I also emailed you about another project too. Sooo many goodies out there.
Definitely on team ladder here, "coda" just describes these sections much more clearly in my opinion.
As usual I can't think of any straight examples that weren't already in the video or comments but I do remember a trend of mathcore bands doing the final track version of this for many albums, the most notable one for me is always Ion Dissonance's Solace which ends with a sprawling 11 minute post-metal abyss (that always bugged me in high school since I bought the album for non-stop fast numbers, but has since made it more memorable than a lot of 2000s genre filler). DEP also does the "switch to a lower energy genre for the last song" variant for like the entire second half of their discography. Downgrading to nu metal gets us Slipknot's Iowa and going even further to post-hardcore has a full discography version with The Blood Brothers' Giant Swan capping off their entire career with a very dark and slow-paced song that has a partial example internally by following one last high-energy screaming section with an ambient fade out.
I'm definitely bending the definition here though, probably more than a little past the point where it's useful. "Heavy music ending slower and quieter without losing any of the heaviness" is certainly all over the place though, especially if you broaden the scope to full albums.
Exactly! It's so slippery once you start trying to find where the edges are
I've always called these sections breakdowns, because I tend to process them the same way as a breakdown. Just a really heavy and dark version of them.
That being said, I do think there is some merit to this idea. I could've sworn this trope shows up a lot in gorguts' music, but I could be wrong.
I found an example near the end of forgotten arrows.
Yeah I think of breakdowns typically as something that happens in the middle of songs, and typically they use a lot of palm muting (unlike these things), but there is some similarity in feel
EDIT: Before I get to the meat of my comment, it looks like in the video you forced all audio to mono, including the songs. I noticed the songs sounded weird until I tried putting them in mono and it sounded like your video. I'm guessing since you wanted your mic track to be mono you might have merged all audio to mono instead of keeping the songs in stereo like you intended. Not sure if you can fix that without a re-upload to the video but at least might want to mention that in the video description.
These kinds of outros have always been one of my favorite things in music, and it's interesting that it's so prominent in tech death, and your examples are some great ones, especially Ohmnivalent and Antithesis I love those.
In regards to Anomalous though, I think they really like this kind of "Tech Death Terminal Climax" a lot on that album, although they tend to deviate from this form more some of the of the other songs that use it. I think Panacea's ending also fits this form just as well as Ohmnivalent. Binary Resurrection too is another great example even if it's a bit more uptempo and breaks the form a bit by briefly going into the rhythmic section at the end right before the fade out section. The Seraphim Veil also has it too, but feels a bit different, and breaks into another aggressive section at the end so I wouldn't consider this a strong example. I'm curious if you agree and just didn't want to overload the examples with Anomalous songs, or if you think there's enough structural difference to exclude the ones I listed.
For a non-Anomalous example that instantly comes to mind that's probably my favorite in Tech Death is the ending to Portals to Canaan by Deeds of Flesh. It's definitely on the more aggressive side, but still feels very texturally different than the previous section in the song and I love that it's built as a call back to another riff earlier in the song. Funny thing is while listening to this example I realized that Xeno-Virus also fits really well, and I think in a lot of ways fits your described form a bit more closely due to is use of let ring chords, more moderate tempo, and a more prominant solo. Celestial Serpents also kinda has one right at the end, but it's very short so I'm not sure if that will count.
Wormed also has an interesting example of this kind of section on Molecular Winds, and it's especially a break texture wise compared to the rest of Wormed's discography due to its use of wind and brass instruments holding long notes during parts of it.
I think though, by far my favorite use of the "whole song" is Xenoverse Discharger: another example from Wormed. It sounds _very_ different than your given examples, and even mine, but I it adheres to the form you laid out quite well, and more importantly gives that kind of feeling of a terminal climax, but in a different way to me. It's hard to describe, but I just love it. It is a massive break in the texture from the rest of the album, mostly lacks vocals and here they're really just used as a texture for a brief section, has a moderate tempo, heavy use of spacious, let ring chords, layers of guitars, a fade out, and in the last part of the song especially a very repetitive structure that lasts two minutes, which almost feels like a terminal climax section within the song itself. I especially like how it's made up of sections from previous songs stiched together, but the way they flow is so purposeful so it doesn't sound disjointed or harsh, which a lot of Wormed music is, further reinforcing the break in texture idea. I think Xenoverse Discharger is in a lot of ways it's own kind of "tech death terminal closer" or "tech death coda", but really I just have never heard anything like it anywhere else, but like I mentioned it simultaneously adheres to the form you laid out while sounding really different than other examples given by yourself, myself, and a lot of the comments here. Honestly this song could use a whole video in and of itself.
Anomalous - Panacea: ua-cam.com/video/uGNgsmPMOeY/v-deo.html
Anomalous - Binary Resurrection: ua-cam.com/video/p8LGqatSzN8/v-deo.html
Anomalous - The Seraphim Veil: ua-cam.com/video/lvgeiqJiPeE/v-deo.html
Deeds of Flesh - Portals to Canaan: ua-cam.com/video/j76626MgHwc/v-deo.html
Deeds of Flesh - Xeno-Virus: ua-cam.com/video/e_VDAisEjvA/v-deo.html
Wormed - Molecular Winds: ua-cam.com/video/evEWaS618Hw/v-deo.html
Wormed - Xenoverse Discharger: ua-cam.com/video/ISjT1wSaL_M/v-deo.html
Great examples! I agree the other Anomalous ones count, and I remembered a bunch more including those Wormed ones right after I posted (I have an early video about a different Wormed song if you haven't seen it). Good catch on the mono audio-I think I know why it happened, I'll have to remember to fix it next time.
I don't entirely know why, but I kind of want to lean towards "denouement" for the term. After an album of pretty dense tech death, as you observed, these sections are less dense. While they retain a decent level of energy, I feel like they somewhat act as a point of rest for the listener.
If I want to go a little bit more pretentious as a former English major, the word apparently derives from ultimately from Latin and means "untie the knot." While the source I found that at says it refers to all plot points in a story being made clear to finish it off, I can't help but also feel the lessening of tension we both observe in that translation as well.
I like this! Yeah there is a sense of the drama being resolved, I hadn't really been thinking in terms of that but a lot of these comments point to that
The end of O Father O Satan O Sun by Behemoth
Don't know if this is hitting your nail on the head but the end of Gorguts - Absconders? Love the whole song and outro. What about calling a climactic descendo
Cynic - How could I
Dodecahedron - Octahedron: Harbinger
Absconders is a great example for this
@@arms7260 such a great riff
not a tech death song but the ending coda of Finally Free by dream theater definitely feels somewhat related in the coda / repetitive / vamp / instrumental / moderate tempo and non-staccato timbre categories!
You ever do a video on internal suffering from
Colombia ?
I think "coda" is a good way to describe this, maybe with a few modifiers like "melodic" or "climactic." I'd cite Emperor's The Wanderer as another example in the spirit of Infinite Misery. Hades Rising by Bloodbath might be another example, but I think it depends on how much build up you allow. Can it be this sort of climactic coda if there is a bit of transition? Using Revocation as an example, there's a transition riff leading into the end of Labyrinth of Eyes and a drum build before the heavy outro of That Which Consumes All Things. I'm also curious how an extended outro like in Opeth's Deliverance fits (or doesn't fit) into this framework.
Great questions! I think the transition/lack of transition doesn't change things much, and my feeling is that there's a difference between like an outro breakdown with a palm muted pattern ("Deliverance," "Remembrance" by Gojira, "Secrets Within" by Car Bomb, etc.) and what I'm talking about, but really I'm just making this up as I go along lol-eventually I'll probably try to be a little more systematic about mapping all the different features and see if anything comes of that. Great examples!
Definitely heard Death do it first
I would call this something like 'Eternal Stasis'. It isn't really a climax: it just occurs at the end. Most of these endings quickly give the listener that this could go on forever: 'suffering without relief'.
Great description!
Portal do this on Abysmill (3:25), 13 Globes (2:57), Black Houses (4:12), and Sourlows (4:18) from Outre. They also do this on Awryeon (1:58, though in this case it is the majority of the song) from Vexovoid.
Imperial Triumphant do it on Deus Est Machina (3:17) from Abominamentvm.
Abyssal do it on Under the Wretched Sun of Hattin (6:14) from Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius (though, it could be argued every song on the album has a terminal climax).
Geryon do it on To the Silenced (4:36) from their self-titled album.
For a bizarre example I'll give Ehnahre's Birth Dues (3:50) from Taming the Cannibals.
For a really bizarre example I'll also give Ad Nauseam's Human Interface to No God (4:44) from Imperative Imperceptible Impulse. (I'll state my case that, even though this section is undistorted, it follows most of the stipulations given except for number five and the band plays tech death.)
Some of these might seem to start earlier, but I've selected the final riff from each as being the terminal climax and preceding sections with the same tempo, where they appear, as being bridges.
Nice, yeah maybe there should be a separate sub category for these dissonant ones...
Meshuggah also has one of these in the song sum from catch 33 from 1:25 to 2:45 and then they ruin it with the clean ramble after
I always though that for about 30 seconds after 6:20 or so in Baying of the Hounds felt like the ending of a song, but the song has like 4 minutes left, and it isn't a coda or anything. At least, I don't think it is.
I feel like Necrophagist does this..
Ps. Love the Nile example.
What about TWO "Tech Death Metal Climaxes" in one long crazy track "Quantum Catastrophe" by Brain Drill (3-33 and 4-46)
Final riff of Demiurge by Shugg?
as a kid i always called this the "sudden melodeath section" even if that wasnt entirely accurate
I like that name! It does sometimes feel like a sudden shift of subgenre
Demiurge > The last Vigil - Meshuggah.
The Holy Mountain - Slice the Cake
Ash and Rust IV - Slice the cake at least of ash and rust
Song of the Crippled Bull - Black Crown Initiate
THe Uniquity of Time - Replicant probably?
Secrets within - car bomb is....well it's just a fade out, but it's about as consistent a riff as youll get with them
Nebulous - Meshuggah maaybe?
Ok ill stop now lol
I think tech death resolution might be little more where you want to get? This trope sound more like a winding down AFTER the climax as you say. Resolution might be a little more immediately clear to the normal person than coda
I think for the future, it would be better to share examples with an easily readable font, so that it's easy to find what songs you mean. Even if they are death metal songs! haha
What's the guitar on the left? Body paint job looks crazy
My first Ibanez RG, did the paint myself with fabric paint in high school lol, surprised at how well it's held up and that I still like it
Prog metal example, scarred by dream theater
For me, what feels like the most prototypical example of 'terminal climax' in metal is probably the end of BTBAM's 'Selkies: the Endless Obsession'. It's perhaps a lot more long-winded than what you're aiming for but it checks a lot of the boxes. And it's not even close to tech-death! It makes me think that this phenomenon is more applicable to metal or progressive music more broadly. You also mention that 'terminal climax' songs often occur at the end of an album, which I think you could expand into the concept of 'terminal climax song' as opposed to 'terminal climax section'. There are a lot of album-ending songs which *begin* with slower, more repetitive, and harmonically stable sections, or at least use these features throughout the song, regardless of whether there is a true terminal climax section.
Anyway, here are a couple other examples I thought up:
Extol - Nihilism 2002
Gojira - The Art of Dying
Ulcerate - End the Hope
Xenoblight - Virus
The Art Of Dying is a great example I think
Does "The Sentinel" from Car Bomb counts?
I think of that more as an outro breakdown, which I think is kind of a different thing... more palm muted and rhythmic instead of these like layered, harmonic things
This is an odd one to me. Off the top of my head, I can think of a handful of songs that have sections that "feel" similiar to the example sections you give, but none of them sufficiently meet the criteria listed imo and none of them are Tech Death songs. The closing section of Darkthrone's Forebyggende Krig would be one e.g..
Yeah this is a tricky one! Though I am realizing that it's definitely not just a tech death thing - that Darkthrone example definitely has the right kind of chord progression (i-VI-V) and all the solos, I'll add it to the list!
How about the bass solo section of Apparition by Spawn of Possession? ua-cam.com/video/7oT9_1zEDEA/v-deo.html
Not "terminal", but I think it captures the right vibe.
Definitely!
How about "Afterglow" where you contemplate with joy what just happened instead of "Terminal Climax"?
I really like that!
Isn't the correct name "exit music"?
Torture Killer - Forever Dead
Let me know what you think
cynic - how could i
I don’t mean to sound rude, truly, but isn’t this just an “outro”?
Well, yes, but the trope is one specific type of outro
@@metalmusictheory5401 aight. gotcha, master :)
Amazing video as always, however just as a graphic artist, I'd recommend using a more clear font to present what band and what song is being played.
Side note where can I get that font
I say make it less legible
I’ll second this motion. I have a hard enough time reading album covers to decide what to jam out to. Don’t make it difficult to read when I’m trying to get my learn on!
Haha I knew it would be illegible but I thought it would be in the spirit of the subject matter-I'm putting a list with all the original examples in the pinned comment
It was free, I forget what it's called but I just googled death metal fonts... think the font name started with an X maybe?
Definitely heard Death do it first