Sweden

Sweden is a country known for many things such as meatballs, Ikea, and blonde haired women. Sweden had also put its name on the map for music too. Other than ABBA the biggest thing Sweden has given us is melodic death metal. Melodic death metal also known as the Gothenburg sound originated from Gothenburg Sweden in the early 90's. Inflames, At The Gates, Dark Tranquility, and Soilwork are given credit for creating melodic death metal. All four of these bands came from the gothenburg area and all the members of these bands all have almost played in the same band as each other at one time or another.So what separates melodic death metal from pain old death metal? Death metal bands usually all sound the same and you cant tell one song from another due to the brutally heavy and repetitive guitar riffs. This is where melodic death metal comes in, melodic death is filled with great harmony's and melodic riffs that are more pleasing to the ear. Melodic death hit its peak in the mid 90's and is now slowly dieing all of the original bands are still active other than At The Gates, but only Dark Tranquility would still be considered melodic death.
Matt Taylor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melodic_death_metal