Scandinavian death metal concerns the death metal bands of Scandinavian origin. The most dominant countries of the genre are Finland and Sweden . Many bands that fall under this category are associated with the melodic death metal movement, thus giving Scandinavian death metal a much different sound than other variations of death metal.

In the early 1990s, a distinctively new death metal scene arose, centered primarily around Gothenburg and Stockholm, Sweden, though also incorporating Finnish and Norwegian bands. The Swedish and Finnish bands, inspired by Bathory and other 1980s thrash metal bands, were more popular than the Norwegian bands, who were influenced strongly by black metal and included keyboards and chaotic riffs. The Gothenburg sound was pioneered by bands such as At the Gates, Dark Tranquility, and In Flames. The Swedish (and Finnish) bands used grindcore-influenced riffs and soon added prog rock-style flourishes. As the 1990s progressed, the Norwegian and Swedish scenes continued diverging, with the latter's center moving from Stockholm to Gothenburg, where New Wave of British Heavy Metal influences became prominent, and Finnish acts continued this trend into the next millennium as Finnish rock began to break into mainstream European audiences.

Bands

• Amon Amarth
• Amorphis
• Arch Enemy
• At The Gates
• Children of Bodom
• Dark Tranquillity
• Darkane
• Demigod
• Demilich
• Dimension Zero
• Dimmu Borgir
• Dismember
• Ebony Tears
• Entombed
• Eternal Tears of Sorrow
• Everdawn, The
• Exmortem
• Gates of Ishtar
• Haunted, The
• Hypocrisy
• Illdisposed
• In Flames
• Iniquity
• Kalmah
• Meshuggah
• Norther
• Noumena
• Old Man's Child
• Opeth
• Panzerchrist
• Skyfire
• Sentenced
• Soilwork
• Susperia