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Heavy Metal Thunder Death-Doom Metal

Genres Heavy Metal Speed Metal Thrash Metal Death Metal Death-Doom Metal

Death-Doom Metal

Death metal’s weight at doom’s pace. Enormous, slow and genuinely mournful rather than merely brutal.

Active years
1990 – present
Origin
UK / USA
Family
Death Metal
Bands here
13

Before you press play

Explicit content

Graphic lyrics and artwork are a defining feature of this genre rather than an occasional accident — which of violence, gore or sex depends on the band. Worth knowing before you put it on in a room with other people in it.

Start here

Four records in order of how easy they are to get into — which is not the same as best first.

  1. Turn Loose the Swans My Dying Bride, 1993 The landmark

    The most beautiful record in this family and the right place to start despite the length. A violin, a piano, a death growl and a genuinely miserable Yorkshireman — it should not work and it is the best thing here.

    Listen to Turn Loose the Swans

  2. The Rack Asphyx, 1991

    The death metal end of the style, and the least romantic record here. The title track crawls for eight minutes and Martin van Drunen sounds genuinely aggrieved about it — closer to Autopsy than to My Dying Bride.

    Listen to The Rack

  3. Serenades Anathema, 1993

    The most romantic of the Peaceville records and the one that shows where the band were heading. Slow, clean-toned and only occasionally heavy.

    Listen to Serenades

  4. The Morning Never Came Swallow the Sun, 2003

    The modern reference point. Finnish, hour-long, and beautifully recorded — proof the style did not stop when the English bands turned into something else.

    Listen to The Morning Never Came

What it sounds like

Death metal's weight at a funeral's pace. The tuning, the growl and the crushing guitar tone all come from death metal; the tempo, the space and the sense of dread come from doom. Clean vocals and keyboards often appear alongside the growl, and violins are not unusual. Songs run long and build slowly. What separates it from doom proper is the extremity of the vocal and the low tuning; what separates it from death metal is that it is mournful rather than violent. This is grief music, played at a volume that makes the grief physical. The English bands who defined it came from the same label and the same few towns, which is why so much of it shares one specific and very rainy atmosphere.

  • Heaviness 5 out of 5
  • Speed 1 out of 5
  • Aggression 4 out of 5
  • Technicality 2 out of 5
  • Darkness 5 out of 5
  • Melody 2 out of 5

Where the name came from

A hyphenated portmanteau coined by the UK music press and Peaceville Records' fan base in the early 1990s to describe the fusion of death metal vocals and guitar tunings with doom metal's glacial tempos. The label stuck as Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema defined the sound.

The bands

Hear these first

  • My Dying Bride UK
  • Paradise Lost UK
  • Anathema UK
  • Swallow the Sun Finland
  • Autopsy USA

And 8 more

  • Winter USA
  • Asphyx Netherlands
  • Runemagick Sweden
  • Esoteric UK
  • Triptykon Switzerland
  • 1914 Ukraine
  • Hamferð Faroe Islands
  • Thorr's Hammer USA

Where it happened

Counting this genre and everything descended from it.

  • Bradford The Peaceville Three — UK Gothic Doom 3 bands

If you liked this

Closest in sound outside this family, leaning towards the similar or the gentler rather than straight into the deep end.