Doom metal is a type of heavy metal music that usually has slow speeds, guitars tuned to lower pitches, and a sound that feels much heavier than other heavy metal styles. The music and lyrics are meant to make listeners feel sad, afraid, and like something bad is coming. This genre was greatly influenced by the early music of Black Sabbath, who created a model for doom metal. In the first half of the 1980s, several bands, including Witchfinder General and Pagan Altar from England, American groups like Pentagram, Saint Vitus, the Obsessed, Trouble, and Cirith Ungol, and the Swedish band Candlemass, helped establish doom metal as a separate type of music.
Characteristics
Doom metal is a type of music that often uses electric guitars, bass guitars, and drum kits. Keyboards are sometimes used, but the music is based on the same scales as blues. Guitarists and bassists usually lower the tuning of their instruments to create very low, deep sounds. They also use a lot of distortion, which makes the guitar sound thick and heavy. This heavy sound is a key feature of doom metal. Guitarists and bassists often play the same musical phrases together, creating a loud, powerful sound that is filled with low, deep tones. Another important feature is the use of slow tempos and minor scales, which create a dark and sad mood. Dissonance, such as the tritone, is often used, and the music focuses on repeating rhythms without following traditional musical structures.
Vocalists in doom metal often sing with a clean voice, expressing feelings of sadness, fear, or pain. Some singers imitate the high-pitched style of artists like Ozzy Osbourne, Frank Ferrara, Bobby Liebling, and Zeeb Parkes. In "epic doom," singers may use an operatic style. Bands influenced by extreme metal genres, such as death-doom, black-doom, and funeral doom, sometimes use growled or screamed vocals.
The lyrics in doom metal are important and often focus on dark, sad, or pessimistic themes, such as suffering, fear, death, and anger. These themes are influenced by blues musicians like Robert Johnson and Son House. Some bands write personal, introspective lyrics, while others use symbols or imagery inspired by occult arts and literature.
Some doom metal bands include religious themes in their music. For example, the band Trouble used Christian imagery early in the genre's history. Other bands use symbols from occult or pagan traditions. These themes are often used for artistic or symbolic purposes, such as describing the Last Judgment or using crosses to represent death.
Some bands also write about drugs or drug use. This is common in stoner doom music, which often describes hallucinogenic or psychedelic experiences.
History
The first signs of doom in rock music can be found in the Beatles' 1969 song "I Want You (She's So Heavy)." Black Sabbath is often considered the first band to create doom metal. Their music was inspired by blues, but they used loud and heavy guitar sounds by Tony Iommi and included dark, sad lyrics and moods. These choices helped shape early heavy metal and influenced many doom metal bands. In the early 1970s, Black Sabbath and Pentagram (also known as Bedemon) played heavy, dark music. By the 1980s, this style was called doom metal by musicians, critics, and fans. Pentagram's drummer, Joe Hasselvander, mentioned other bands like Black Widow, Toe Fat, Iron Claw, Night Sun, and Zior as early creators of the doom metal sound.
Other bands from the 1970s also helped shape doom metal. Blue Cheer is often called one of the first stoner metal bands. Their 1968 album Vincebus Eruptum used loud amplifiers and guitar feedback, setting an example for other artists. Uriah Heep released the album Demons and Wizards, which included the song "Easy Living" in 1972. Budgie, a Welsh heavy metal band, made some of the loudest songs of their time and influenced doom metal. Led Zeppelin's song "No Quarter" is seen as one of the earliest examples of doom metal by a rock band. Early doom metal was also influenced by Japanese psychedelic rock albums, such as Kirikyogen by Kuni Kawachi & Friends and Satori by Flower Travellin' Band. Bang's 1971 self-titled album is considered an important early step toward doom metal. Other notable bands from this time include Sir Lord Baltimore, Buffalo, Necromandus, Lucifer's Friend, and Leaf Hound.
In the early to mid-1980s, bands from England and the United States helped make doom metal a separate genre. In 1982, the English band Witchfinder General released their first album, Death Penalty. In 1984, two American bands—Saint Vitus and Trouble—released their first albums, Saint Vitus and Psalm 9. That same year, the American band Cirith Ungol (formed in 1971) released their second album, King of the Dead, which many consider an early influence on doom metal. The next year, Pentagram released their first album, Relentless. In 1986, the Swedish band Candlemass released their first album, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, which gave the subgenre "epic doom metal" its name. Pentagram, Saint Vitus, Trouble, and Candlemass are often called "the Big Four of Doom Metal."
Some doom metal bands were also influenced by the underground gothic rock and post-punk music of the 1980s. These styles share dark themes in their lyrics and moods. For example, the doom metal band Mindrot was often described as a mix of death metal and gothic rock.
Regional scenes
Doom metal, like other extreme metal genres, has regional scenes with unique features. In Finland, doom metal bands focus on creating a very sad and gloomy mood. They use very slow music and melodic tones to build a dark and sorrowful atmosphere. This scene began in 1987 with the band Rigor Mortis, which later changed its name to Spiritus Mortis due to a similar band in the United States. Well-known bands from this scene include Reverend Bizarre, Minotauri, Dolorian, Shape of Despair, Thergothon, Skepticism, and Unholy.
AllMusic considers New Orleans the birthplace of sludge metal. This scene started in the late 1980s and mixes punk influences, such as harsh vocals, distorted guitars, and low-pitched sounds. Exhorder was the first band to combine doom metal with a punk-influenced sound. In the 1990s, many sludge and stoner metal bands formed in Louisiana, influenced by bands like Black Sabbath and Melvins, as well as genres like hardcore punk and Southern rock. Notable bands from this scene include Eyehategod, Down, Exhorder, Crowbar, and Acid Bath.
A doom metal scene began in the early 1970s and was started by bands like Pentagram and the Obsessed. Many doom and stoner metal bands from Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia formed in this area, influenced by early hard rock and heavy metal bands such as UFO, Blue Cheer, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, and Sir Lord Baltimore. This scene is also called the "Hellhound sound" because it is closely linked to Hellhound Records, which signed important bands like Saint Vitus, Internal Void, Iron Man, Revelation, Wretched, and Unorthodox. Other notable bands include Evoken, Spirit Caravan, Earthride, and the Hidden Hand.
The Pacific Northwest region, including Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, has grown a scene for doom, sludge, and stoner metal since the 1990s. This scene is influenced by the origins of grunge music and the sound created by the Washington band Melvins. Visual themes often include the area’s cold, rainy, and forested environment, and many bands use psychedelic imagery inspired by groups like Sleep, Karp, and Harkonen. Musical styles sometimes mix with atmospheric black metal, drone metal, and post-metal. Examples include Oregon’s YOB, Agalloch, Witch Mountain, and Red Fang; Washington’s Earth and Sunn O))) ; and Vancouver’s Anciients, Astrakhan, and Aaron Turner’s project Sumac.
Palm Desert, California, is home to a strong desert rock and stoner metal scene. This music draws from psychedelic, blues, and hardcore punk influences, often featuring repeated drum beats, free-form improvisation, and "dreamy" or "sludgy" rhythms. Because of these shared traits, the terms "stoner rock" and "desert rock" are sometimes used interchangeably. Notable bands include Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, Dali's Llama, Slo Burn, and Brant Bjork.
Stylistic divisions
Black-doom, also called blackened doom, is a music style that mixes the slow, heavy sound of doom metal with the loud, shrieking vocals and twisted guitar sounds of black metal. Bands in this style share the dark, Satanic ideas from black metal but also include themes from doom metal, such as sadness, hopelessness, and nature. They use the slow pace of doom metal to create the intense, harsh atmosphere found in black metal. Examples of black-doom bands include Barathrum, Forgotten Tomb, Woods of Ypres, Deinonychus, Shining, Nortt, Bethlehem, early Katatonia, Tiamat, Dolorian, October Tide, and In the Woods…
Depressive suicidal black metal, also called suicidal black metal or DSBM, is a style that combines the sound of second-wave black metal with the heavy, slow feel of doom metal. Songs often focus on themes like sadness, self-harm, dislike of people, suicide, and death. DSBM bands use the simple, low-quality recordings and loud guitars of black metal but also include acoustic instruments and softer guitar sounds from doom metal. They mix slow, heavy parts with fast, repeated guitar patterns. The vocals are high-pitched but sound weak, showing feelings of hopelessness and despair. Many bands in this style are one-person projects. Examples include Xasthur, Leviathan, Strid, Silencer, Make a Change… Kill Yourself, and I Shalt Become.
Blackened death-doom is a genre that blends the slow speed and heavy drumming of doom metal, the complex, loud guitar riffs of death metal, and the shrieking vocals of black metal. Examples of blackened death-doom bands include Morast, Faustcoven, the Ruins of Beverast, Bolzer, Necros Christos, Harvest Gulgaltha, Dragged into Sunlight, Hands of Thieves, and Soulburn. Kim Kelly, a journalist from Vice, said Faustcoven is "one of the finest bands to ever successfully mix black, death, and doom metal into a clear, whole sound."
Death-doom is a style that combines the slow speed and sad atmosphere of doom metal with the deep growling vocals and fast drumming of death metal. This style was influenced by early work from Hellhammer and Celtic Frost and became popular in the late 1980s and 1990s. Bands that started this style include Winter, Disembowelment, Paradise Lost, Autopsy, Anathema, My Dying Bride, and Novembers Doom.
Funeral doom is a genre that mixes death-doom with funeral dirge music. It plays at an extremely slow speed and focuses on creating feelings of emptiness and sadness. Electric guitars are heavily distorted, and dark, dreamlike sounds from keyboards or synthesizers are often used. Vocals are usually quiet, sad chants or growls that are in the background. Bands that started this style include Mournful Congregation, Esoteric, Evoken, Funeral, Thergothon, and Skepticism.
Drone metal, also called drone doom, is a type of doom metal defined by long, repeated notes or chords that stay the same throughout a song. Electric guitars are played with lots of reverb and feedback, and drums and vocals are often not used. Songs are very long and do not follow traditional rhythms. This style was influenced by drone music, noise music, and minimalist music. It began in the early 1990s and was started by Earth, Boris, and Sunn O))).
Epic doom has a strong influence from classical music. A key feature is the use of clean, operatic, or choral singing, often accompanied by dramatic keyboard and drum playing to create a grand, "epic" feeling. Lyrics and themes are usually inspired by fantasy or mythology. Examples of epic doom bands include Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus, Solstice, While Heaven Wept, and Doomsword.
Gothic-doom, also called doom-gothic, mixes traditional doom metal with gothic rock. Bands in this style play at slow or medium speeds and use instruments from classical music alongside traditional doom metal instruments to create dark, thoughtful atmospheres. Lyrics mix the dramatic, romantic ideas of gothic rock with the sadness and sorrow of doom metal, often focusing on personal themes like love, grief, and loss of faith. Unlike gothic metal or death-doom, gothic-doom bands usually use clean vocals instead of growls, though some may use harsher vocals. Examples include Weeping Silence, the Foreshadowing, Grave Lines, Artrosis, Ava Inferi, Draconian, and Type O Negative.
Progressive doom, also called technical doom, combines elements of progressive rock, progressive metal, and doom metal. Some bands in this style may also include parts of death metal, black metal, post-metal, stoner metal, folk metal, and gothic metal. Notable bands include King Goat, Below the Sun, Sierra, Oceans of Slumber, Confessor, and Green Carnation.
Sludge metal, also called sludge doom, mixes doom metal with hardcore punk. Many sludge bands create slow, heavy songs with short, fast sections. Some bands play faster throughout their music. Instruments are heavily distorted and use lots of feedback to create a rough, sludgy sound. Drumming is usually slow and heavy, but may include fast, repetitive beats during faster parts. Vocals are often shouted or screamed, and lyrics focus on pain, drug use, politics, and anger toward society. This style was started in the late 1980s by the Melvins and in the 1990s by bands like Eyehategod, Crowbar, Buzzov*en, Acid Bath, and Grief.
Sludgecore mixes sludge metal with hardcore punk, using a slow pace, dark, low sounds, and a heavy, grinding feel. Some bands add Southern rock influences. Bands labeled as sludgecore include Acid Bath, Eyehategod, Soilent Green, Black Sheep Wall, Admiral Angry, and The Abominable Iron Sloth. Crowbar combined "tuned-down, slow, heavy metal with hardcore and Southern rock elements."
Stoner metal, also called stoner doom, is a style of doom metal that includes elements of psychedelic rock and acid rock. Stoner metal uses heavy distortion, bass-heavy sounds, and guitar effects like fuzz, phaser, or flanger. Bands usually play at slow or medium speeds and use melodic vocals and a "retro" sound. This style was started in the early to mid-1990s by bands like Kyuss, Sleep, Acid King, Electric Wizard, Orange Goblin, and Sons of Otis.
Desert rock mixes the psychedelic sounds of stoner metal with hard rock. Bands in this style include Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Queens of the Stone Age, Earthlings?, and Yawning Man.
Traditional doom metal is influenced by 1970s and 1980s heavy metal. These bands often use higher guitar tunings and play at slower to medium speeds with a thick, heavy sound. The electric bass follows the melody
Reception
In 2016, the staff of Alternative Press Magazine referred to doom metal as one of the strangest types of heavy metal.