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Heavy Metal Thunder Funeral Doom

Genres Heavy Metal Doom Metal Funeral Doom

Funeral Doom

So slow it stops registering as rhythm. Vast, glacial, and closer to sacred music than to rock.

Active years
1990 – present
Origin
Finland / UK
Family
Doom Metal
Bands here
13

Start here

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

  1. The Call of the Wretched Sea Ahab, 2006

    A concept album about Moby-Dick, and the way in. Clean singing, actual melodies and a sense of narrative, which no other funeral doom record bothers with.

    Listen to The Call of the Wretched Sea

  2. Angels of Distress Shape of Despair, 2001

    Female vocals and keyboards over the slowest riffs in Finland. Beautiful rather than crushing, and the record that showed the genre could be pretty.

    Listen to Angels of Distress

  3. Antithesis of Light Evoken, 2005

    The American answer, and much heavier. Death metal tunings at funeral tempo, with an organ underneath — this is the genre at its most oppressive.

    Listen to Antithesis of Light

  4. Stream from the Heavens Thergothon, 1994 The landmark

    The record that invented the genre, recorded by three Finnish teenagers who had split up before it came out. Barely produced and historically essential — which is why it is placed last rather than first.

    Listen to Stream from the Heavens

What it sounds like

So slow the beat stops registering as a beat. Tempos drop below thirty beats per minute, chords are held until they decay, and a single song can run twenty minutes with perhaps four changes in it. Keyboards and organ carry as much as the guitars. The vocal, where there is one, is a distant subterranean groan. It is closer to ambient or sacred music than to rock, and it works on a listener the way a long drone does rather than the way a riff does. The dread here is total and entirely unhurried. Compared with death-doom it is slower still and far less concerned with heaviness; the weight here comes from duration rather than from tuning.

  • Heaviness 5 out of 5
  • Speed 1 out of 5
  • Aggression 3 out of 5
  • Technicality 2 out of 5
  • Darkness 5 out of 5
  • Melody 2 out of 5

Where the name came from

Named for the evocation of a slow, solemn funeral procession — tempos so slow they mirror mourners walking to a graveside. The Finnish band Thergothon, active 1991–92, are widely credited with establishing the template with their demo Stream from the Heavens.

The bands

Hear these first

  • Thergothon Finland
  • Skepticism Finland
  • Mournful Congregation Australia
  • Shape of Despair Finland
  • Ahab Germany

And 8 more

  • Evoken USA
  • Asunder USA
  • Colosseum Finland
  • Bell Witch USA
  • Worship Germany
  • Nortt Denmark
  • Tyranny Finland
  • Loss USA

If you liked this

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