Gothic Metal

[thekeeper]

Of the melodic death/doom variety specifically



This is probably the best gothic doom song, in my opinion. This album is My Dying Bride's best.

Anyone else into this kind of stuff? Old Peaceville bands like My Dying Bride, Anathema, and Paradise Lost, Katatonia, On Thorns I Lay, Tiamat, Lacrimas Profundere, mid-career Rotting Christ, etc

I'm currently in the writing process of a gothic death doom project of my own. Should be putting out a demo tape sometime in spring, hopefully.

[Ananoriel]

Been a fan from the genre for a long time. It was one of the first metal genres where I got into. Hopefully I will see MDB live in April at Roadburn. Was wanting that for 7 years or so.

Lately I got a lot into Tiamat. I have the Wildhoney album in my car.



I always get triggered at the Gothic metal word by the way. Reminds me of Within Tempation, Delain and those kinds of bands. I loathe them hahaha.

[Profoundemonium]

Paradise Lost's Gothic is one of my favourites. Children of a Lesser God are also great.
Here's something more obscure:

[thekeeper]

These are kool, good recommendations. I've actually heard Chapel of Rest before, but only the first demo tape.

This album is incredible, lots of death and funeral elements, too:

[thekeeper]

Have been listening to Draconian's The Burning Halo a lot lately. The opening track is superb. Love the sung vocals.

[DieuxDesCimetieres]

IMO, when it comes to gothic-tinged death/doom, absolutely nothing tops Katatonia's debut. I love MDB and the likes, but that album is just perfect.

[thekeeper]

Jun 10, 2017 13:57:30 GMT -5 DieuxDesCimetieres said:

IMO, when it comes to gothic-tinged death/doom, absolutely nothing tops Katatonia's debut. I love MDB and the likes, but that album is just perfect.

Early Katatonia is great, but I actually think I like later Katatonia a bit more, post-doom Katatonia. Discouraged Ones is still one of the most depressive albums I've ever heard. I think Viva Emptiness might be my favorite, I prefer the re-released edition more than the original. I still like their newest stuff, too. After the second listen of The Fall of Hearts, I was pretty into it. Great band all around.

[DieuxDesCimetieres]

I don't like any Katatonia after the debut, even Brave Murder Day was just meh to me, and the later stuff does absolutely nothing for me. But that one album, a little slice of perfection.

[crystallogic13]

Well besides Scarlet Heavens song, I wouldn't in any case classify Katatonia anywhere near the Gothic Metal tag or stuff..

I really really liked Katatonia back in the day, Discouraged Ones brings great memories and is their top for me, after that it all went downhill, I can't even listen to newer stuff, i find them just boring.. Brave Murder Day was mentioned, imho it is a GREAT mini album and it's actually even more depressive than Discouraged Ones..

And to continue the ball rolling, since besides Sisters Of Mercy and a few classic stuff I'm not that much into "classic" Gothic, I'll go along and throw the best for me Gothic - Metal album ever, the masterpiece that is Moonspell's Irreligious .. Another masterpiece and also too bad they ALL went downhill after that (and mediocre before that) and again imho they haven't released anything worthwhile after that..

[pendraig]

Guess I didn't realize the sub distinction in this style. I always associated Gothic metal with bands like Tristania and Theatre of Tragedy, both of which started as operatic/neoclassical tinged bands before embracing more industrial aspects. Many of these groups were solid, although usually I was turned off by the "beauty and beast" formula of classical soprano and harsh male vocals.

[thekeeper]

pendraig, I like both of those bands, at least the earlier albums. I think eventually some bands kind of lost more of their doom and death aspects and were just considered 'gothic metal'. Like how the first The Gathering album was very dark and moody doom metal but they dropped the outright doom elements (still stayed relatively heavy as times) when they made Endymion, at that point people considered them more 'gothic metal'. I suppose the term is a bit nebulous and attributable to many bands. I'd still consider My Dying Bride a gothic metal band even if they're very much a doom metal band. I'm quite certain they've stated their acceptance of the 'gothic' tag, according to interviews.

[pendraig]

Interesting. I realize that my perception of what Gothic is comes much more from literature than from music, too, as I wasn't really aware of what 80s goth rock (and related genres) were until much later in life. So I always associated the sound with a more classical Victorian sound without really being aware of the proper usage of it at least as connected to rock-derived musics. Of course now I see even the later more alternative focused stuff of bands like The Gathering as being a direct connection to Goth and New Wave, but when I first heard Souvenirs, I had never heard anything like it - until digging further and discovering the connection.

Tiamat is a bit of an outlier in this regard in that their progression has been a bit different than other like-minded artists - do you think that's fair to say? Or at least that they had a bit of a psychedelic detour before settling into their full on goth metal mode.

at any rate, sounds like i need to spend some time listening to the videos on this thread!

[thekeeper]

Everyone needs to listen to this:


Huge album. Painfully beautiful. Caught me at the first song, but I'm admittedly weak to good gothic doom guitar harmonization.

[zerointerno]

I used to listen to this kind of music, but forsook the most of it, as the gothic vibe grew old for me.
Still, I consider early The 3rd & The Mortal an overlooked masterpiece. Wish there would be more music like this:




Then again, I'd recommend "Ludi Oseni" - a gothic-doom russian act. No Beauty & Beast vocals here - all the male voice + there is a viola. Very specific autumnish mood.

[thekeeper]

Kool EP from last year that I had not known about until recently. I had seen the cover of Dying Beauty & The Silent Sky floating around at times, which looks just like a hand-drawn death metal cover, but I didn't realize they sounded like this. There are still tapes on the label's bandcamp. Great violin.