what makes a band death metal
You wanna take this one, Lat?
Not really. Now, I'm not an expert of death metal. But I do know death metal when I hear it. A majority of death metal derived from heavy influences of thrash metal. Incorporating fast riffs, often low tuned and distorted guitars, with some form of growling/shrieking (whether it be very guttural or high pitched). Also the use of blast beats is very common among most death metal.
Subject matter of most death metal usually deals with much darker topics, such as death, destruction, violence/war, occultism, etc.. And other often considered taboo subjects like satanism.
Things you do not see in death metal: Singers with whiney voices or who do any sort of screamo type vocals.
Lyrics that involve personal problems like losing someone you love or feeling alone.
Most attributes that makes up a metalcore/deathcore/screamo/FALSE METAL band.
A lot of what I said is summarized here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_metalhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_death_metal_bands