Death-doom

Death/Doom metal
Stylistic origins	Death metal Doom metal
Cultural origins	Early 1990s
Typical instruments	Guitar − Bass guitar − Drums − Synthesizer
Subgenres
Gothic metal - Funeral doom
Regional scenes
United Kingdom, United States, Finland, Netherlands

Death/Doom is an extreme heavy metal subgenre. It is a fusion genre, and is typically characterised by a combination of the slow tempos and pessimistic or depressive mood of doom metal with the gruff vocal style and double kick drumming of death metal. The genre has its origins in the late Eighties, gaining a certain amount of popularity during the 1990s, but had become less common by the turn of the century. In turn, death/doom gave rise to the closely related genre of funeral doom as well as to the more melodic and romantic gothic metal.

History

The death/doom genre originated in the mid-Eighties when early progenitors like Dream Death began to mix traditional doom metal with the sounds of thrash and the nascent death metal scene. Other early practitioners of the sound include the Dutch bands Sempiternal Deathreign, Delirium and Asphyx, the Australian group diSEMBOWELMENT and the American bands Winter and Autopsy. Whilst many of these bands remained more death metal than doom, the style became more of a recognised metal subgenre with early records by such bands as Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Anathema (aka the Peaceville three due to the fact all three were on Peaceville Records at the time), which combined the sounds of mid-Eighties Celtic Frost and Candlemass with the use of female vocals, keyboards and, in the case of My Dying Bride, violins. The influence of these bands has been acknowledged by the likes of Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil, The Gathering, Celestial Season and Saturnus. During the Nineties the genre diversified with the incorporation of other influences such as symphonic metal (such as in the case of Crematory), psychedelia (as in the case of Unholy) or gothic metal. The tag of death/doom seemed to become less popular towards the end of the decade as many of the scene progenitors abandoned their early sound to embrace a more accessible or palatable direction. However, the style persists in the form of funeral doom, a highly related genre that emerged in the mid-1990s, particularly in the form of Finnish bands such Thergothon, Unholy and Skepticism.

Notable Death/Doom bands

• Amorphis (The Karelian Isthmus and Tales from the Thousand Lakes only)
• Anathema (Until Eternity)
• Asphyx (First couple albums)
• Autopsy
• Avernus (all but ...Of the Fallen)
• Beyond Belief
• Beyond Dawn
• Burning Witch (disbanded)
• Bolt Thrower (The IVth Crusade only)
• Celestial Season (Forever Scarlet Passion and Solar Lovers only)
• Cryptal Darkness (Later releases only)
• Daylight Dies
• Deinonychus
• diSEMBOWELMENT
• Em Sinfonia
• Esoteric
• Evoken
• Forest Stream
• Funeral
• The Gathering (Always... only)
• Katatonia (Brave Murder Day, For Funerals to Come & Sounds of Decay only)
• Lacrimas Profundere (Up to Burning: A Wish)
• Mar de Grises
• Mindrot
• Morgion
• Mourning Beloveth
• My Dying Bride
• My Shameful
• Necare
• Novembers Doom (Until The Pale Haunt Departure)
• Novembre
• Obituary (The End Complete through Frozen in Time only)
• October Tide
• Paradise Lost (Until Draconian Times)
• Paramaecium
• Pyogenesis (Until Twinaleblood)
• Rapture
• Saturnus
• Sentenced (Shadows of the Past)
• Swallow the Sun
• Theatre of Tragedy (Until Aegis)
• Thorr's Hammer
• Tristania (Widows Weeds only)
• Unholy
• Winter