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Doom metal is a subgenre of Heavy Metal that emerged in the late seventies/early eighties. It's slow, dark, depressing and pessimistic, and is characterised by a thicker guitar sound than other genres of metal. The music and lyrics are meant to evoke a sense of dread, but of course Your Mileage May Vary on that one.
A simpler description of doom metal: a genre consisting of metal bands that looked at Black Sabbath, thought "Hey, that's pretty doomy, but we can do better!", and subsequently took the doomy metal of Sabbath to its logical extreme. Hence, doom metal.
The genre technically started right at the beginning of metal, with the aforementioned Black Sabbath, who were the first metal band. Another classic metal band, Pentagram, was also a key part of doom metal, though the genre was not truly formed until a tiny bit later on, with several other influential bands including Saint Vitus, Pagan Altar, Trouble and Witchfinder General. Possibly the most influential of doom metal bands was Candlemass, who released their debut album Epicus Doomicus Metallicus in 1986. It was this album that marked doom metal as a genre to be reckoned with. It's also possibly where the name of the genre came from ("Doomicus Metallicus" = "Doom Metal"). During the eighties, doom metal was a deeply underground subgenre, metal being dominated commercially by Hair Metal and in the less-underground-than-doom-metal underground by Thrash Metal.
At the beginning of the nineties, the band Cathedral released their debut album Forest of Equilibrium, which fused doom metal with more aesthetics from extreme metal, making doom slower and heavier. Cathedral themselves later moved onto a more uptempo, groove-oriented style, but their early material resulted in doom metal gaining more recognition. By now, there were a couple of doom metal subgenres: "epic doom", which fused traditional doom with operatic vocals and (often) Heavy Mithril; and "sludge metal", which fused doom with Hardcore Punk and in some cases southern rock, and started off in New Orleans. In the early-to-mid nineties, doom metal diversified, and quite a few new subgenres were created, including "stoner metal", "death/doom", "black doom", "funeral doom" and "drone doom".
Another form of doom, known as "post-metal" or "atmospheric sludge metal", combined sludge metal with Post Rock. Certain post-metal bands, such as Isis, Neurosis and Pelican, have gained recognition in the metal scene, but this success has been met with backlash from certain people, who refer to it as "hipster metal" (and, for some reason, lump them in with Mastodon, who are not a post-metal band despite taking influences from sludge metal). It is, however, debatable whether post-metal even qualifies as a doom metal subgenre (or even a metal subgenre at that), and most doom purists are likely to consider it as merely "heavy post-rock", claiming that these bands take very little influence from the doom style. Your Mileage May Vary on this of course, but more and more people are starting to agree with this, including fans of the style.
There's also Gothic Metal, a subgenre of metal that evolved from death/doom thanks to three British death/doom bands, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Anathema, known as the "Peaceville Trio" due to all three bands being signed to Peaceville Records. Some gothic metal bands also count as doom, but overall, gothic metal is not a subgenre of doom, despite evolving from it.
Although doom is not well-known in the mainstream, it's had quite a history.
List of doom bands, categorised by subgenre: Traditional Doom and Epic Doom Technically they are different subgenres, however the distinction is frequently very hard to grasp, so they've been lumped in together. (A basic guide: traditional doom = Saint Vitus, epic doom = Candlemass.)
As mentioned above, sludge metal is doom fused with hardcore punk, possibly with southern rock influences. Sludge metal is typically aggressive and abrasive, often featuring shouted vocals, heavily distorted instruments and sharply contrasting tempos. Later gave rise to the post-metal genre.
Stoner metal, also known as "stoner rock" and "desert rock", is essentially doom fused with Psychedelic Rock. It is characterised by often being bass-heavy and making much use of guitar/bass effects such as fuzz, phaser or flanger. The main stoner metal scene is in the Palm Desert. There is a difference between stoner metal and stoner rock (stoner rock is more groove-oriented, stoner metal is slower and heavier), but there's enough overlap that bands of both genres can be listed here.
As described above, this is what happens when sludge metal is fused with post-rock. Also known as "atmospheric sludge metal". The term "post-metal" is sometimes (though less frequently) used as a much broader term for metal bands with post-rock tendencies, eg. Sunn O))), Agalloch and Wolves in the Throne Room.
A fusion of doom metal and drone music, also taking influence from ambient and minimalist music. Typically, the electric guitar is performed with a large amount of reverb or audio feedback, while vocals, if present, are usually growled or screamed. Songs often lack beat or rhythm in the traditional sense and are typically very long. The genre was started by the band Earth, though the most well-known drone doom band is Sunn O))), who modelled themselves after Earth (their name is even a reference to Earth, as well as to the Sunn amplifier brand). This genre could be described as doom taken Up to Eleven; it's minimalistic and brutal, and extremely fucking creepy.*
Evolving from death/doom (particularly due to the death/doom band Disembowelment), funeral doom can be described as "death/doom Up to Eleven". Taking some cues from dark ambient, it is played at a very slow tempo (even for doom), and places an emphasis on evoking a sense of emptiness and despair. Typically, electric guitars are heavily distorted and keyboards or synthesizers are used to create a "dreamlike" atmosphere. Vocals consist of mournful chants or growls and are often in the background. Needless to say, it's among the scariest and most depressing music ever created.
Doom fused with Black Metal. Typically, vocals are in the form of high-pitched shrieks and guitars are played with much distortion, which is common in black metal. But the music is played at a slow tempo with a much 'thicker' guitar sound, which is common in doom metal. Lyrics often involve themes of nature, nihilism and depression. Often overlaps with Depressive/Suicidal Black Metal.
Doom metal displays the following tropes:
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alternative title(s): Sludge Metal; Stoner Metal
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