Confidence and sources

Data are current through 5 September 2026. Every node and edge was checked against at least one reference or primary source on 5 September 2026, and where sources disagree the map takes the studio's, label's or band's own account over a reference article, a reference article over a retrospective, and the album page over a band biography for any studio credit. Each node carries a confidence grade in the index and in the interactive map: High means an official, book or scholarly source, or three sources including press; Medium means a Wikipedia or Metal Archives entry or a single press report; Low means a detail still flagged as unverified. Of the 371 nodes, 143 are High, 227 Medium and 1 Low. The preferred evidence for each kind of claim is set out below; where a claim rests on a weaker tier than its preferred one, the wording says reported or in the usual account.

Work in progress and public disclosure policy

Work in progress. This map is not exhaustive. It presents the result of documented research at this release and changes as sources are added, corrected, or superseded. Every node is based on at least one public source and carries its sources and confidence class. Corrections and additions are received through the Corrections page of the map's site and checked against the evidence standard before anything changes.

Public disclosure policy. This map uses public business records, public corporate filings, property records, public calendars, public civic documents, public press coverage and public listings. It maps commercial infrastructure and documented civic activity, not endorsements, partnerships or private cultural behavior. Inclusion does not require participation, consent or approval. The map corrects factual errors promptly and considers removal requests case by case where a listing is outdated, an entity has closed, publication presents a material safety concern, or the entity is not conducting public facing commercial activity. Public commercial infrastructure is mappable; private cultural behavior is protected.

Terminology and names

Stylistic labels on the map are pragmatic classifications, not definitive ones. Death metal, technical death metal, brutal death metal, slam, death doom, melodic death metal, blackened death metal, deathgrind, deathcore and death n roll are used as the bands and the trade press use them. Old school death metal names the revival current of the 2010s and 2020s rather than a claim about age. Florida death metal and the Tampa sound are used interchangeably for the records made at Morrisound between 1988 and 1998; the Stockholm sound and the Gothenburg sound name the Sunlight and Fredman productions in the same way. Band names follow one house style: the band's own casing where it is distinctive (diSEMBOWELMENT, Assück), the ampersand avoided, and A and R written out. Compound descriptors are written without hyphens throughout (old school, fly in, second generation) as a house convention.

Open items

The following items are on the map with lower confidence or are deliberately left off it.

Source register

Ids are cited beside claims, tables and figures in this document, in the node panel of the interactive map, and in the Sources column of the workbook.

Written for The Music Cities™. BusinessFlare® and Street Economics® are registered marks of their owner. The interactive map and the node and edge workbook accompany this document.