History Main / GothicMetal

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!!Gothic metal displays the following tropes

!!Gothic metal displays the following tropes:

* InternetBackdraft - The debate over whether certain bands belong to the genre or not. The most commonly-debated bands are probably Evanescence, Lacuna Coil, Within Temptation, After Forever, Epica, HIM, Nightwish and The Gathering.

* TropeNamer - Paradise Lost's ''Gothic'' album.

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<<|HeavyMetal|>>

'''Gothic metal''' is, naturally, a subgenre of [[Music/HeavyMetal heavy metal]], characterised by... well, YourMileageMayVary. It sounds dark, like gothic rock; it's got the sonic amplitude of metal; and it's depressing, like DoomMetal. Many of the bands have female vocalists; many also use the classic SopranoAndGravel trick. There are few bands that have never used either, though there are many that have a male vocalist as the frontman.

* Music/{{Epica}} - YourMileageMayVary, however; some think of them more as [[SymphonicMetal symphonic]] [[PowerMetal power metal]], albeit darker than the norm and with added death growls.

* Music/{{Evanescence}} - Mixed with a little AlternativeRock. [[strike:Probably]] Definitely the most [[YourMileageMayVary YMMV]] entry on this list.

* {{Anathema}} - TropeMaker, along with Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride. Later became a quiet atmospheric/progressive rock band.

* CradleOfFilth

* {{Epica}} - YourMileageMayVary, however; some think of them more as [[SymphonicMetal symphonic]] [[PowerMetal power metal]], albeit darker than the norm and with added death growls.

* {{Evanescence}} - Mixed with a little AlternativeRock. [[strike:Probably]] Definitely the most [[YourMileageMayVary YMMV]] entry on this list.

* TheGathering - YMMV, once again. They eventually moved away from metal altogether to focus on a strange blend of trip-hop and progressive rock, but it's debatable whether their actual metal material was ever gothic metal. They certainly played a major part in the rise of female-fronted goth metal, either way.

* {{Katatonia}}

* LacunaCoil - Since around ''Karmacode'' they moved away from gothic metal to more of an alternative rock/metal sound that [[BrokenBase divided the fanbase]].

* MyDyingBride - TropeMaker, along with Paradise Lost and Anathema. Later became a straight-forward doom metal band with frequent flashes of their earlier gothic metal and death/doom.

* TheatreOfTragedy - TropeCodifier, the ones who pioneered the SopranoAndGravel technique (Paradise Lost, CelticFrost and The Gathering had all used it before, but Theatre of Tragedy were the ones who made it popular). If you encounter a gothic metal(-ish) band that has two vocalists, one male and one female, then they ''will'' be strongly influenced by Theatre of Tragedy.

* {{Tiamat}}

* TypeONegative - One of the {{Trope Maker}}s.

* WithinTemptation - Definitely with their debut album, ''Enter''; their material afterwards is only debatably part of this genre (in fact, there are even some that question their later material's metalness).

* TheScrappy - Cradle of Filth and, depending on whether you count them as part of the genre, Evanescence.

* {{Nightwish}} - Like Epica, they're often considered more of a symphonic power metal band; they started showing elements of gothic metal with ''Century Child'', and have got slightly darker with each album since.

* After Forever

* TheGathering - YMMV, once again. They eventually moved away from metal altogether to focus on a strange blend of trip-hop and progressive rock, but it's debatable whether their actual metal material was ever gothic metal.

* The Gathering - YMMV, once again. They eventually moved away from metal altogether to focus on a strange blend of trip-hop and progressive rock, but it's debatable whether their actual metal material was ever gothic metal.

It is hugely popular in Europe, especially Scandinavia, where many of the bands are from. Possibly as a result of its popularity, and the stigma brought on by the false idea that "gothic metal = metal for goths", many bands have fought against being categorised as gothic metal, though it doesn't have the same stigma as [[NuMetal other]] [[{{Metalcore}} names]] [[emo would]]. In addition to this, there are also countless arguments as to which bands actually count as gothic metal, due to the rather vague definition of what gothic metal is. Expect there to be arguments should you refer to Evanescence, Lacuna Coil, Within Temptation, Nightwish, Epica or HIM as part of this genre.

It is hugely popular in Europe, especially Scandinavia, where many of the bands are from. Possibly as a result of its popularity, and the stigma brought on by the false idea that "gothic metal = metal for goths", many bands have fought against being categorised as gothic metal, though it doesn't have the same stigma as [[NuMetal other]] [[{{Metalcore}} names]] [[{{emo}}would]]. In addition to this, there are also countless arguments as to which bands actually count as gothic metal, due to the rather vague definition of what gothic metal is. Expect there to be arguments should you refer to Evanescence, Lacuna Coil, Within Temptation, Nightwish, Epica or HIM as part of this genre.

It is hugely popular in Europe, especially Scandinavia, where many of the bands are from. Possibly as a result of its popularity, and the stigma brought on by the false idea that "gothic metal = metal for goths", many bands have fought against being categorised as gothic metal, though it doesn't have the same stigma as [[NuMetal other]] [[{{Metalcore}} names]] would. In addition to this, there are also countless arguments as to which bands actually count as gothic metal, due to the rather vague definition of what gothic metal is. Expect there to be arguments should you refer to Evanescence, Lacuna Coil, Within Temptation, Nightwish, Epica or HIM as part of this genre.

* XJapan is mostly here for post 1996 works, where it isn't GothRock or ballads, for ''Dahlia'' and the post reunion 2007 onward work.

* {{The Smashing Pumpkins}} mix this with {{grunge}} and {{shoegazing}} to create their signature angsty sound

* {{Anathema}} - TropeMaker, along with Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride. Later became a quiet atmospheric rock band.
* Before the Dawn - Combines elements of gothic metal and MelodicDeathMetal.

* The Gathering
* Graveworm - Also a [[BlackMetal melodic black metal]] band.

* TheatreOfTragedy - TropeCodifier, the first ones to pioneer the SopranoAndGravel technique (Paradise Lost, CelticFrost and The Gathering had all used it before, but Theatre of Tragedy were the ones who made it popular). If you encounter a gothic metal(-ish) band that has two vocalists, one male and one female, then they ''will'' be strongly influenced by Theatre of Tragedy.

* WithinTemptation - Definitely with their debut album, ''Enter''; their material afterwards is only debatably part of this genre (in fact, there are even some that question their later material's "metalness").

* GenreShift - Gothic metal bands are renowned for doing this. The genre itself was created thanks to several death/doom bands doing this. Several goth metal bands then moved into other genres - Paradise Lost and Theatre of Tragedy into electronic rock, Anathema and The Gathering into [[AlternativeRock alternative]]/[[ProgressiveRock progressive rock]], Tiamat into some strange brand of experimental goth rock, My Dying Bride into traditional doom metal, Lacuna Coil into AlternativeMetal... the list goes on and on.
* InternetBackdraft - The debate over whether certain bands belong to the genre or not. The most commonly-debated bands are probably Evanescence, Lacuna Coil, Within Temptation, After Forever, Epica and Nightwish.

* TropeCodifier - Type O Negative and Theatre of Tragedy, and to a lesser degree Tiamat, Katatonia and The Gathering.
* TropeMaker - The Peaceville Three, though it was mainly Paradise Lost that got the genre going.

Gothic metal has its roots in DeathMetal, which is the general explanation for why the death growl is used so frequently. The death metal band Autopsy had combined death metal with the slow gloom of DoomMetal to create the idiotically-named "death/doom", or "doom/death" (nobody knows the real name of the genre). This slow version of death metal evolved into gothic metal thanks to three British bands, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema.

It is hugely popular in Europe, especially Scandinavia, where many of the bands are from. Possibly as a result of its popularity, many bands have fought against being categorised as "gothic metal", though it doesn't have the same stigma as [[NuMetal other]] [[{{Metalcore}} names]] would. The genre often mixes with PowerMetal and SymphonicMetal.

Examples of bands generally agreed to be gothic metal:

* CradleOfFilth - A more extreme variant.

* {{Epica}} - YourMileageMayVary, however; some think of them more as [[SymphonicMetal symphonic]] [[PowerMetal power metal]], albeit darker than the norm.

* HIM - Though they call themselves "love metal", which presumably means "stop asking us about our fucking genre".

* LacunaCoil

* Music/ParadiseLost - The main TropeMaker, as well as the TropeNamer with their album ''Gothic''.

* TheatreOfTragedy - A TropeCodifier, the first ones to pioneer the SopranoAndGravel technique (Paradise Lost and The Gathering had both used it before, but Theatre of Tragedy were the ones who made it popular).

* TypeONegative - A TropeCodifier, possibly the most iconic of the lot.

* WithinTemptation

* Katatonia

* {{Nightwish}} - Like Epica, they're often considered more of a symphonic power metal band; they started showing elements of this genre since ''Century Child''.

* CradleOfFilth - A more extreme version of gothic metal with influences from [[BlackMetal other]] [[DeathMetal genres]].

* {{Epica}}

* {{Nightwish}} - Fused with PowerMetal; they have shown their gothic metal side since their album ''Century Child''.