Daniel James "Danny" Howland (born June 29, 1993), better known by his alias Svdden Death, is a
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
-based DJ and producer from
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...
. He is known for his song " Sell Out", a collaboration with American
multi-platinum
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
artist
Marshmello
Christopher Comstock (born May 19, 1992), known professionally as Marshmello, is an American electronic music producer and DJ. His songs " Silence", " Wolves", " Friends", "Happier", and "Alone" have been certified multi-platinum in severa ...
Hot Dance/Electronic Songs
The Dance/Electronic Songs chart has been published weekly by ''Billboard'' since January 2013. It is the first chart to be published that ranks the most popular dance and electronic songs according to audience impressions, digital downloads, ...
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize t ...
before being introduced to dubstep in 2008, listening to such artists as Benga,
Skream
Oliver Dene Jones (born 1 June 1986), known as Skream, is an English electronic music producer based in Croydon. Skream was an early and influential exponent of the dubstep genre. After producing several singles, he released his first full-leng ...
, and
Rusko
Rusko () is a municipality of Finland.
It is located in Western Finland and is part of the Southwest Finland region. The municipality has a population of
() and covers an area of of
which
is water. The population density
Population densit ...
. He later moved to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
and began producing
electro house
Electro house is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by heavy bass and a tempo around 130 beats per minute. The term has been used to describe the music of many ''DJ Mag'' Top 100 DJs, including Benny Benassi, Skrillex, Steve Aoki ...
big room house
Big room house or simply big room is a fusion subgenre of house music (notably progressive house and electro house) that gained popularity in the early 2010s. Characterized by its simple instrumentation yet complex structure, big room house so ...
under a previous alias to work out his particular sound and style. He had experience playing in various
metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typi ...
,
indie
Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Gaming
*Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies
*Indie game, any game (board ...
, and
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...
bands, usually playing the
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
,
bass
Bass or Basses may refer to:
Fish
* Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species
Music
* Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range:
** Bass (instrument), including:
** Acoustic bass gu ...
, and
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...
.
Career
2017: "Prismatic" and ''Rott N' Roll Pt. 1: Remixed''
On June 2, English record label Never Say Die released Howland's song "Prismatic" as a single for their seventh ''Black Friday'' extended play releases on their ''Black Label''
sub-label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
. Bianca Silva of ''Bassrush'' praised the song as "effortlessly destructive in the best way possible", marking it as a song fit for mosh pitting.
2018: ''Junkworld'' EP, ''Voyd Vol. I'', and SoundCloud
On February 2, 2018, Howland collaborated with
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
-based dubstep producer Somnium Sound to release the song "Angel Style" through the record label Buygore. Writing for ''T.H.E. - Music Essentials'', Akshay Bhanawat described the song as a "sonic concoction" that was set to be an "instant classic in the world of dubstep" as well as the then-upcoming festival season, as the song had previously been played by various
electronic music
Electronic music is a Music genre, genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or electronics, circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromech ...
Dirtyphonics
Dirtyphonics is a French electronic music band from Paris, consisting of members Charly Barranger and Julien "PitchIn" Corrales. Their music style is based on dubstep, drum and bass, drumstep.
In 2008, Dirtyphonics signed on Shimon's label Au ...
,
Must Die!
Lee Austin Bates (born July 2, 1991), better known by his alias Must Die (stylized as MUST DIE!), is an American electronic musician, DJ, and producer. Born in Houston, Bates is associated primarily for his music in the dubstep genre. Bates is k ...
Slander
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
, and
Snails
A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Ga ...
.
On February 16, Israeli electronic dance music producer and DJ
Borgore
Yosef Asaf Borger ( he, יוסף אסף בורגר; born 20 October 1987), known professionally as Borgore, is an Israeli EDM producer, DJ, singer-songwriter and rapper. He is the founder of the label Buygore Records.
Biography
Yosef Asaf ...
collaborated with Howland to release the song "Svddengore" (a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words's Matthew Meadow heavily praised the extended play, stating that it was "easily one of the strongest dubstep releases of the year so far", noting its "crazy inventive"
sound design
Sound design is the art and practice of creating sound tracks for a variety of needs. It involves specifying, acquiring or creating auditory elements using audio production techniques and tools. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including ...
and
arrangement
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...
and individually reviewing the song "Caught in a Mosh" as being "incredibly unique" in its arrangement and sounds. ''This Song Is Sick'''s Langston Thomas premiered the song "Surrender", a collaboration with riddim producer Subtronics, writing Howland had taken his sound design "to the next level" and that the style of each artist "mix perfectly" in the song.
On March 30,
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
-based electronic music producer AFK collaborated with Howland to release the song "BZZRK" via the record label Bassrush. Bella Bagshaw of ''
Dancing Astronaut
Dancing Astronaut is an American media platform founded in 2009 that primarily covers the electronic dance music industry. The website covers concerts and festivals, reports on entertainment news, reviews music, and publishes original content sy ...
'' described the song as a "screeching, chop-heavy
riddim
Riddim is the Jamaican Patois pronunciation of the English word "rhythm". In the context of reggae and dancehall, it refers to the instrumental accompaniment to a song and is synonymous with the rhythm section. Jamaican music genres that use the ...
tune", in colouration to the "blast heat" vocal sample used in the song. A 5-track remix extended play for the song was later released on December 5.
On July 30, Howland self-released his third extended play ''Voyd Vol. I'', featuring three solo tracks and two collaborations with fellow producers MVRDA and SampliFire. Jordan Mafi of '' Nest HQ'' stated that the extended play will stand as a benchmark of the dubstep sub-genre riddim, noting that the songs featured on it had been well-known
dubplate
A dubplate is an acetate disc usually of 10 inches diameter, traditionally used by Recording studio, studios to test recordings prior to Audio mastering, mastering for the subsequent pressing of a vinyl record, but pioneered by reggae Reggae sound ...
s that have previously only been heard by his collaborators as well as being prominently featured in his live-sets months before release.
On September 14,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...
-based "vomitstep" producer
Snails
A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Ga ...
released a 10-track remix album of his album ''The Shell''. The album featured Howland's remix of the song "Smack Up", featuring
Foreign Beggars
Foreign Beggars were an English hip hop and dubstep group. Since their formation in 2002, the group's trajectory had seen them evolve from an underground hip hop group to an electronic crossover act. The group consisted of four artists individ ...
as vocals, alongside various other electronic dance music artists such as
Virtual Riot
Christian Valentin "Val" Brunn (born 20 July 1994), better known by his stage name Virtual Riot, is a German DJ and electronic music producer. He has released seventeen extended plays and two studio albums, most notably his 2016 extended play '' ...
FuntCase
James Hazell (born 29 July 1986), better known by his stage name FuntCase, is an English dubstep and drum and bass producer and DJ, from Bournemouth, England. Hazell first released drum and bass, under the alias DJ Dose in 2007, and in 2009 rel ...
.
In mid-November 2018, multiple bass music producers had most or all of their songs removed from online audio distribution platform and
music sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include ...
website
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming s ...
for wrongful copyright claims. Among these producers were Howland, who had all of his tracks falsely copyright struck and removed from his account. Speaking in a statement to ''Your EDM'', Howland spoke on the matter, stating that "SoundCloud is ruining the dubstep community by allowing anyone to claim a song as their own and remove it from existence. Until they fix their takedown policy, I will no longer be uploading songs to this platform."
On November 30, American
electronic music
Electronic music is a Music genre, genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or electronics, circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromech ...
producer and DJ
Marshmello
Christopher Comstock (born May 19, 1992), known professionally as Marshmello, is an American electronic music producer and DJ. His songs " Silence", " Wolves", " Friends", "Happier", and "Alone" have been certified multi-platinum in severa ...
released part two of the remixes to his song " Happier", with Howland being featured as the second song on the extended play, alongside
Jauz
Sam Vogel, also known by his stage name Jauz ( ), is an American DJ and electronic dance music producer based in San Francisco, United States. He founded his own record label, Bite This, in 2017.
Early life
Vogel grew up in Northern Californi ...
, West Coast Massive, Matt Medved, Hikeii, and Tim Gunther.
2019: "Sell Out", "Ichor", and subsequent releases
On January 4, 2019, Howland collaborated with dubstep producers Oolacile and Ubur to release the song "Savceboys" as a free download. ''Bassrush'''s Chris Muniz called the riddim song "laser-focused and razor-sharp throughout each section" and sounds like it was not just designed to "showcase the vibe and sound of each producer but is determined to take listeners on a proper journey through the underbelly of this beast."
On February 8, Howland collaborated with Marshmello to release the riddim track " Sell Out" via the latter's record label
Joytime Collective
Christopher Comstock (born May 19, 1992), known professionally as Marshmello, is an American electronic music producer and DJ. His songs " Silence", " Wolves", "Friends", "Happier", and "Alone" have been certified multi-platinum in severa ...
. The track was marked as Marshmello's first collaboration with a "serious" dubstep producer to make a dubstep track, with Svdden Death being known as having "some of the heaviest sets around right now" as described by a writer of ''Your EDM''. Although the song did attract favourable reviews towards the song, such as ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'''s Kat Bein review of the song, Christina Hernandez of ''Dancing Astronaut'' gave the song a much more negative and critical review, describing its production as extremely "cookie-cutter" and that the song was simply "an easy cop-out to increase variety and maintain Marshmello’s hold over the EDM world at large."
On April 19, Howland self-released the song "Ichor" featuring American
rapper
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
Ace Savage as vocals. ''ThisSongSlaps Brian Bonavoglia praised the song, stating that it served up "masterful production" and wrote that it sounded as if it was to simply "created to deliver devastating damage wherever it may make an appearance."
On June 7, American dubstep artist Space Laces released the remixes of his extended play ''Overdrive'' via Never Say Die, with Howland being featured as one of the remixers alongside various other electronic music producers such as Kompany and Gammer. Writing for ''EDM.com'', Sarah Kocur reviewed Howland's remix of the song "Choppaz", noting it as one of the most distinctive on the extended play, writing that he gave the original song a "heavy twist for which he's known."
On August 2, Howland self-released the single "Modern Sorcery" as a digital download, with Brian Bonavoglia of ''ThisSongSlaps'' noting the song as a "coveted" within the
bass music
Bass music is a term used to describe several genres of electronic dance music and hip hop music arising from the 1980s on, focusing on a prominent bass drum and/or bassline sound. As one source notes, there are "many different types of bass mus ...
scene before its release and describing it as a "relentless chest-thumping anthem that was bred to destroy."
Artistry
Howland had stated that Svdden Death was a desire to do "more advanced things with production", specifically choosing to produce dubstep as the genre is "much more technical than other genres" and gives him more freedom in his production. Originally using Ableton Live, he later switched to
Reason
Reason is the capacity of Consciousness, consciously applying logic by Logical consequence, drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activ ...
to produce music and moving away from software synthesizers Serum and Massive to Reason's Malström as he wanted to move away from digital audio workstations and synthesizers that are commonly used by other dubstep and riddim producers.
Howland takes on a significantly darker, more metal-influenced style whenever he releases a ''Voyd'' project, leading some of his fans to see Voyd as a side-alias of Svdden Death. In an interview with ''Run the Trap'', Howland clarified that " oyd ismore of a continuation of like a darker and heavier style of my music. With Svdden Death I want to branch out and do more melodic stuff. I still think Voyd is the kind of music I get into when I'm mad or really stressed."
Howland had been included in various "artists to watch" lists by several online electronic music magazines. ''Billboard Dance'' had listed Howland, alongside Elley Duhé, Detlef, Kittens, and Artbat, in their August 2018 edition of "Ones to Watch". Writers for ''Your EDM'', ''Noiseporn'', and ''EDM Sauce'' had included him in their respective "artists to watch in 2019" lists, placing him alongside such artists like
1788-L
1788-L is an electronic music producer. He rose to fame in 2018 with a remix of Virtual Self's "Particle Arts" uploaded onto his SoundCloud account. Other releases following this include "Multiverse" (with 4AM) and a remix of Daft Punk's "Rinzler ...
* ''Spelljam EP'', June 12, 2017 (Never Say Die: Black Label) digital download
*''Junkworld EP'', February 26, 2018 (Never Say Die), digital download
* ''Voyd Vol. I'', July 30, 2018 (self-released), digital download
* ''Bzzrk Remixes'' (with AFK), December 5, 2018 (Bassrush), digital download
* ''Voyd Vol. 1.5'', August 9, 2019 (self-released), digital download
* ''Voyd Vol. II'', March 18, 2022 (self-released), digital download