Gothic metal

Gothic metal (also called Goth metal) is a genre of music that is often mistaken for a crossover between heavy metal music and gothic music itself. It developed in the early 1990s in Europe. Gothic metal is a pretty linear genre but due to much debate amongst non gothic metal fans, its actual definition is not commonly known. The fans and musicians have a firm concept of the genre having been around through its growth and nuturing, but newer fans reject such categorization as limiting or useless on the pretense it is not what they want it to be.

Sound and lyrics

gothic metal first appeared in the early 1990s. It grew from the doom metal scene in parallel with a subgenre of doom metal, gothic doom metal. Its first origins were with bands such as The Gathering, Sweet Nightmare, Moonspell and Theatre of Tragedy. These bands created the first symbiotes of gothic doom metal, which later went on to further gothic metal. Over time gothic metal was knocked back in its growth several times, the most reknown being the surge of symphonic metal bands in the mid 1990s and the surge of nu metal bands using keyboards in the early 2000s.

Gothic metal is a relatively loose genre; the overall sound in gothic metal plays only a minor role in differentiating between it and other genres. Gothic metal tends to lend itself musically to both doom metal and gothic metal. Bands often tend to take their musical influence from doom metal bands or black metal bands, taking the melody ideas from these genres. Thus, added in with gothic metal's unique use of dual vocalists, keyboards, and acoustic guitar help distinguish the music. Keyboards in gothic metal often play a major role in the music, and many gothic metal bands have one guitarist and a keyboardist rather than two guitarists. Acoustic guitars are often present in gothic metal; gothic metal bands with two guitarists often have one of them playing an acoustic guitar. Bass guitars in gothic metal pays akin to the deep lowness of doom metal, and the brash harshness of black metal.

Lyrically gothic metal is concerned with Romanticism and fantasy. The time setting for lyrics is often in the New Age or Dark Ages, but can also be in Victorian, Edwardian, Roman, or modern eras. Gothic metal bands often write their albums in the form of books, with each song being a chapter in the book. Thus, they use this strategy so that listeners will want to listen to their whole album in order.

Vocalists in gothic metal borrow from two notes. First, the male vocalist often uses vocals akin to black or death metal. The second vocalist is usually female, often singing soprano or providing harmony; the female vocalists never use black or death metal vocals. Drums are used to complement the music and use a wide variety of influences. Atmosphere is tailored to fit the song, warm and energetic, empty and enclosing. The atmosphere does not share the morbidity of doom metal, however.

History (1990-present)

In the 1990s, a group of young bands in Northern England borrowed from the early gothic rock sound of the 1980s and incorporated it with the slow, down-tuned guitar dirges of Black Sabbath. Gothic doom, as it is known, was the first stage of the genre. Bands most notable for this style included Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema. Gothic metal originated from this, with bands such as The Gathering taking the gothic Doom sound that had arisen and making Romantically-themed bands that borrowed from black metal.

Although the Scandinavian region was known more for its death metal and black metal fertility, many bands who started in either genre had progressed and conformed more to gothic doom styles - Tiamat, and Theatre of Tragedy, being two examples. Although Paradise Lost, Anathema used some female vocals in their music, Norway's Theatre of Tragedy was the first gothic doom band with a leading female singer, Liv Kristine Espenaes Krull (later replaced by another female singer, named Nell). Using two vocalists, as Theatre of Tragedy did, later became a signature of gothic metal.

A softer genre known as symphonic metal had evolved in the mid-late 1990s. These bands focused on female vocals as well, although not necessarily operatic ones, with no doom metal elements and little use of male death vocals. These bands include Within Temptation (Netherlands), Epica (Netherlands) and Lacrimosa (Germany), focusing more on opera and classical music themes than those akin to gothic metal. Some of these bands also combined electronic sounds and mainstream rock music with the traditional symphonic metal sound to create a lighter and more accessible form of the genre. During this time the divide between gothic Metal and symphonic metal became greater, gothic metal becoming more aggressive, and incorporating elements of death metal into the music.

In 2004, Lacuna Coil and Evanescence, alongside gothic metal band Tristania, power metal band Nightwish and symphonic metal band Within Temptation agreed to start a new form of music called nu-goth. The idea of this was to add symphonic metal and gothic metal elements to nu metal to create a more easily accessible, and marketable form of the two genres. This sent the gothic metal and symphonic metal scenes into fits of rage, creating a spoken treaty amongst the worldwide scene that as long as nu-goth was in existance, bands would refuse to play at any festival or be on any music channel, that featured a nu-goth band. The gothic metal scene also grew a strong hatred for nu-goth the site Goth-Metal.net, that laid claim to the title of the genre. This inspired many savage attacks from the gothic metal scenes fans, most travelling to places where nu-goth bands were playing and attacking them and the fans.

The gothic metal scene is currently very developed in Europe after its problematic past, most notably in England and France.

Common misconceptions

Although the style has seen much more controversy than other metal genres, some arguments have gone on in regards to bands that have sported a gothic "image" in the eyes of the media versus those with direct genetics to the gothic metal genre.