Jump to content

The Official Doom Metal Recommendations Thread


RelentlessOblivion

Recommended Posts

Apostle of Solitude - Last Sunrise:

Apostle of Solitude are a newer doom metal band drawing influences from all over the doom spectrum. The songwriting and atmosphere are the main winning points here, but the vocals and riffs don't slouch either. This is an enjoyable album from a newer band, hopefully they'll do a better album cover next time though.

 

Ashes You Leave - The Passage Back to Life:

Ashes You Leave are basically My Dying Bride worship, at least on their first album, which is the only one I have. However, this is far from a bad thing, and they do put their own spin on it with their mainly clean female vocals, this song being one of the exceptions to that. Nice sad, emotional doom/death metal that should appease any fan of the genre.

 

Asunder - A Clarion Call:

Asunder is a band that I've had on my radar for some time, but only just acquired their first album. This is yet another instance of NTNR passing stuff down to me that he didn't like, which is inexplicable in most cases. This is no exception, as this is top notch funeral doom/death with huge crunchy riffs, thick vocals, and excellent nature like atmosphere. The violin melodies are a nice addition, as are the tortured sounding spoken/uttered vocal passages, this is really just a great album and I can't see why anyone into the genre wouldn't like it, unless of course you're NTNR...

 

Ataraxie - Slow Transcending Agony:

Ataraxie are a French funeral doom/death metal band, specializing in crafting some pretty bleak and depressing atmospheres. These guys seem to derive a bit more influence from bands like Bethlehem than their contemporaries, giving them a bit of a darker, if a bit less heavy atmosphere. They straddle the line between doom/death and funeral doom quite nicely, not quite being slow, minimal, or unearthly enough to be completely funeral doom, and still having a few speed bursts of death metal aggression mixed with a nice amount of melody.

 

Bethlehem - Dark Metal:

Speaking of Bethlehem, I know that I posted them in the suicidal black metal thread already, and they were one of the most influential bands to that sound. However, on their debut, they were pretty much a straight black/doom metal hybrid, sounding a bit like a much more evil version of Katatonia's Dance of December Souls. Overall, I would say that they fall more onto the black metal side of the spectrum, but they were certainly influential toward more extreme varieties of doom, especially funeral doom and doom/death. Songs like this should explain why, the melodies are extremely dreary, the atmosphere is tortured, the vocals are pained, and it's pretty damn heavy too. They retained the doom in their sound throughout much of their career, but this album features their doomiest material.

 

Black Hole - Land of Mystery:

Black Hole were an early Italian doom metal band, and had a different sound going for them than most other 80's doom metal bands. Their sound was very psychedelic, owing a great deal of their inspiration to prog rock and horror movie music. There are still plenty of riffs and passages to keep any fan of traditional doom metal satisfied, but with an atmosphere that invokes images of occult ceremonies and macabre horror scenes. This style seems to be experiencing a resurgence in popularity recently, but as usual, the early bands that explored it in the first place are better IMO.

 

Burning Witch - Towers:

Burning Witch were the first band to rise from the ashes of the crushing Thorr's Hammer, that unfortunately only gave us one EP before disbanding. Burning Witch's sound is pretty similar to Thorr's Hammer, but even more extreme and drawn out. These songs are longer, slower, and heavier, and this is definitely an even more tortured listen than Thorr's Hammer, or just about any doom album ever. The vocals do grate on some people's nerves, and while I would not argue about their quality not being great, they do fit the music. For depraved sounding and heavy as shit doom, look no further.

 

Church of Misery - The Second Coming:

Church of Misery are a Japanese stoner doom metal band who write songs pretty much exclusively about serial killers. They're known for having a sound centering around huge groovy riffs, pissed off sounding vocals, and a fun and swaggering catchiness. This definitely pulls more from the 70's side of doom than 80's, with some very rockish guitars and a more upbeat atmosphere, but with a great deal more heaviness and intensity. These guys are right up there with Electric Wizard and Cathedral as my favorite stoner doom bands, but they honestly shouldn't be missed for any doom fan.

 

Coffins - Mortuary in Darkness:

Coffins are another Japanese band, but these guys specialize in extremely sluggish and brutal doom/death. The guitars have a huge, raunchy, and thick tone, one of the heaviest I've heard, especially on this album. There's almost no melody to be found, and even their faster sections usually don't get past a mid-paced groove, it's just punishingly heavy the whole way through. There's not a ton of variety to be found, but it doesn't matter in this case, just sit back and let yourself get smashed under the massive weight of their songs.

Draconian - Arcane Rain Fell:

Draconian are a Swedish gothic doom/death metal band, with this album featuring their most doom/death material. There are still female vocals to be found, but this album has the least upbeat sections of any of their albums, and gets my vote as their heaviest (and best) as well. These guys still have a pretty integral sense of melody and beauty to their music, with a pretty elegant and serene atmosphere, despite the crunchy riffs and dark lyrics. My friend Ryan Henry actually wrote the lyrics for this song and performed spoken word for the next track on the album, not really related to their appeal, but a fun fact I guess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

To me, that didn't really sound like Xasthur, or black metal, at all. Honestly it sounded more ambient than anything, any doom in the sound was really more from the slow tempo and oppressive atmosphere than any actual doom passages. It almost reminded me a bit of the band Mordor, especially the ambient/electronic sounds and the atmosphere. Interesting stuff though, I did like that song.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Eyes of Ligeia - A Fever Which Would Cling to Thee Forever:

Eyes of Ligeia are a doom metal band from Georgia. Their first few albums are doom/death, but were released in super limited quantities, and I only know of one person who actually has them. On their last album, they picked up some members from a local black metal band (it was previously a solo project) and made this excellent black/doom metal album. Some mournful doom/death type melodies remain, but the atmosphere now has a much more black metal feel to it. This is dark, depressing, and wonderfully expressive black/doom metal, definitely something that fans of either or both genres can enjoy. Another one of those great albums that NTNR decided to get rid of, I'm happy to take stuff like this off his hands.

 

Funeralium - Funeralium:

Funeralium is a side project of Jonathan from Ataraxie. This band takes the funeral doom approach that Ataraxie has always hinted at and runs with it, or in this case, crawls with it. This is insanely slow stuff, and some of the bleakest and gloomiest funeral doom you're likely to hear. Jonathan's vocals definitely do get a bit more Bethlehem like in places on this album than with Ataraxie, but he still uses growls in addition to the schizophrenic sounding shrieks. This is not the easiest stuff to listen to, and will definitely ruin your day if you let it, but funeral doom should either be wholly unworldly sounding, or insanely depressing, and this is certainly the latter. It looks like these guys are finally doing a new album too, so hopefully we'll be hearing more from them soon.

 

Hierophant - Hierophant (EP)/The Tome (compilation):

As I mentioned when I posted their song, Catacombs is the band that rose from the ashes of this band, Hierophant. Hierophant was one of the first funeral doom metal bands in the US, and only recorded a couple of EPs before becoming Catacombs. You can definitely hear some similarities between the two bands, but this is in a much more primal and less sophisticated form. There is an album called The Tome that collects all of Hierophant's EPs together, and while some of it is pretty rough sounding and I wouldn't call it essential funeral doom, it is a cool addition to the collection of any Catacombs fan.

 

Hour of 13 - The Ritualist:

Hour of 13 are a newer band, playing old school heavy/doom metal. These guys are sort of similar to The Gates of Slumber in sound, as they don't sound like any one doom metal band from the 70's/80's, but sound as though they could have been contemporaries to the formative doom bands of those eras. The difference is the cheesy satanic/occult lyrical angle these guys go for, which sounds a bit silly to me, but it does sort of add to that campy 70's/80's atmosphere they're going for. Good heavy, catchy riffs, memorable songs, and doomy vocals, what else do you really need? EDIT: The song that I originally had posted is no longer available on Youtube. However, this great song is from the same album, enjoy.

 

In the Company of Serpents - In the Company of Serpents:

In the Company of Serpents are a newer doom metal band with whom we had the pleasure of playing at the Denver Doomfest. These guys were among the best bands that we saw there, super heavy sludge/stoner doom metal with repetitive songs conjuring a trance-like atmosphere. The vocals aren't really as pissed off sounding as many others in this style, but as I said, the music sort of lulls you into a fuzzy sort of mellow instead of bludgeoning you over the head like most sludge/stoner doom metal bands. Don't get me wrong, it is still angry and heavy, and we were more than a little impressed that they created such a huge sound with just two members. This is the band we're trying to release the split with, if we can ever get our shit together, but it sounds like they may still need some time too...

 

Isole - Born From Shadows:

Isole are a newer Swedish doom metal band, and one of the best bands playing more traditional doom metal around today. They play a more epic variant of doom metal that will remind you more of bands like Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus than Pentagram or Saint Vitus, but they do it in such a dreary, melodic way, it often times feels more like doom/death with soothing clean vocals. This is definitely a band that I can see appealing to both fans of traditional doom metal and extreme doom metal, combining the grindingly slow tempos and minimal, yet heavy guitars of the latter with the cleaner approach of the former. Awesome stuff.

 

Loss - Despond:

Loss is a newer doom/death metal band that's doing absolutely everything right. Their songwriting is absolutely magnificent, totally drenched in depression, sorrow, and darkness, but still brimming with melody and passion. Every melodic line keeps you lingering just a bit longer while you're being crushed under the weight of the riffs and the super low vocals. They alternate between heavy and clean passages seamlessly, and always with purpose, the changes in the song's mood, tempo, and atmosphere never feel arbitrary. Really, I can't think of any modern doom/death metal band (aside from Nevertanezra, of course!) that's doing the style such wonderful justice these days. This album was on my top 10 list for 2011, and hopefully they'll have a new album out this year for me to dote over as well.

 

Mistress of the Dead - Cryptic (demo):

Mistress of the Dead are a funeral doom band from the Czech Repulic, but very few people seem to know about them. They have released a number of albums now and I see them in stock with many different distros, but for some reason nobody seems to talk about these guys. It's a pity, because their music is wonderfully sad, melodic and beautiful funeral doom. All of the genres hallmark's are here, crawling pace, super low vocals, lots of atmosphere, and it's all written together pretty well, so I'm not sure why more people don't know of them. Anyway, give it a listen, as it will definitely satiate that funeral doom craving.

 

Mourning Beloveth - The Sullen Sulcus:

Mourning Beloveth are an Irish doom/death metal band that make good use of somewhat My Dying Bride sounding riffs and melodies taken in their own direction. For one thing, this tends to be much slower paced overall than My Dying Bride, with none of the speed bursts that they often used in their heavier material that this draws from. All of their songs tend to be quite long, with only a few songs on each album, but they're still very well constructed. They're also a very consistent band, with all of their albums being of high quality, full of heavy and melodic doom/death that any fan of the genre should enjoy, so give them a shot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: doom 101

Eyes of Ligeia - A Fever Which Would Cling to Thee Forever: 9DVt0NoOULs Eyes of Ligeia are a doom metal band from Georgia. Their first few albums are doom/death, but were released in super limited quantities, and I only know of one person who actually has them. On their last album, they picked up some members from a local black metal band (it was previously a solo project) and made this excellent black/doom metal album. Some mournful doom/death type melodies remain, but the atmosphere now has a much more black metal feel to it. This is dark, depressing, and wonderfully expressive black/doom metal, definitely something that fans of either or both genres can enjoy. Another one of those great albums that NTNR decided to get rid of, I'm happy to take stuff like this off his hands. Funeralium - Light Crisis: YexCa6h4qes Funeralium is a side project of Jonathan from Ataraxie. This band takes the funeral doom approach that Ataraxie has always hinted at and runs with it, or in this case, crawls with it. This is insanely slow stuff, and some of the bleakest and gloomiest funeral doom you're likely to hear. Jonathan's vocals definitely do get a bit more Bethlehem like in places on this album than with Ataraxie, but he still uses growls in addition to the schizophrenic sounding shrieks. This is not the easiest stuff to listen to, and will definitely ruin your day if you let it, but funeral doom should either be wholly unworldly sounding, or insanely depressing, and this is certainly the latter. It looks like these guys are finally doing a new album too, so hopefully we'll be hearing more from them soon. Hierophant - Forever Dying: kx1hw_yuWM4 As I mentioned when I posted their song, Catacombs is the band that rose from the ashes of this band, Hierophant. Hierophant was one of the first funeral doom metal bands in the US, and only recorded a couple of EPs before becoming Catacombs. You can definitely hear some similarities between the two bands, but this is in a much more primal and less sophisticated form. There is an album called The Tome that collects all of Hierophant's EPs together, and while some of it is pretty rough sounding and I wouldn't call it essential funeral doom, it is a cool addition to the collection of any Catacombs fan. Hour of 13 - Soldiers of Satan: aR7SJ5dR_gU Hour of 13 are a newer band, playing old school heavy/doom metal. These guys are sort of similar to The Gates of Slumber in sound, as they don't sound like any one doom metal band from the 70's/80's, but sound as though they could have been contemporaries to the formative doom bands of those eras. The difference is the cheesy satanic/occult lyrical angle these guys go for, which sounds a bit silly to me, but it does sort of add to that campy 70's/80's atmosphere they're going for. Good heavy, catchy riffs, memorable songs, and doomy vocals, what else do you really need? In the Company of Serpents - Malice: XSAK3YkGdng In the Company of Serpents are a newer doom metal band with whom we had the pleasure of playing at the Denver Doomfest. These guys were among the best bands that we saw there, super heavy sludge/stoner doom metal with repetitive songs conjuring a trance-like atmosphere. The vocals aren't really as pissed off sounding as many others in this style, but as I said, the music sort of lulls you into a fuzzy sort of mellow instead of bludgeoning you over the head like most sludge/stoner doom metal bands. Don't get me wrong, it is still angry and heavy, and we were more than a little impressed that they created such a huge sound with just two members. This is the band we're trying to release the split with, if we can ever get our shit together, but it sounds like they may still need some time too... Isole - Black Hour: XjzQsOF00bE Isole are a newer Swedish doom metal band, and one of the best bands playing more traditional doom metal around today. They play a more epic variant of doom metal that will remind you more of bands like Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus than Pentagram or Saint Vitus, but they do it in such a dreary, melodic way, it often times feels more like doom/death with soothing clean vocals. This is definitely a band that I can see appealing to both fans of traditional doom metal and extreme doom metal, combining the grindingly slow tempos and minimal, yet heavy guitars of the latter with the cleaner approach of the former. Awesome stuff. Loss - Open Veins to a Curtain Closed: xk78mkiMD78 Loss is a newer doom/death metal band that's doing absolutely everything right. Their songwriting is absolutely magnificent, totally drenched in depression, sorrow, and darkness, but still brimming with melody and passion. Every melodic line keeps you lingering just a bit longer while you're being crushed under the weight of the riffs and the super low vocals. They alternate between heavy and clean passages seamlessly, and always with purpose, the changes in the song's mood, tempo, and atmosphere never feel arbitrary. Really, I can't think of any modern doom/death metal band (aside from Nevertanezra, of course!) that's doing the style such wonderful justice these days. This album was on my top 10 list for 2011, and hopefully they'll have a new album out this year for me to dote over as well. Mistress of the Dead - The Saddest Autumn: rBag2D8HooM Mistress of the Dead are a funeral doom band from the Czech Repulic, but very few people seem to know about them. They have released a number of albums now and I see them in stock with many different distros, but for some reason nobody seems to talk about these guys. It's a pity, because their music is wonderfully sad, melodic and beautiful funeral doom. All of the genres hallmark's are here, crawling pace, super low vocals, lots of atmosphere, and it's all written together pretty well, so I'm not sure why more people don't know of them. Anyway, give it a listen, as it will definitely satiate that funeral doom craving. Mourning Beloveth - The Insolent Caul: G-wl3DVckkY Mourning Beloveth are an Irish doom/death metal band that make good use of somewhat My Dying Bride sounding riffs and melodies taken in their own direction. For one thing, this tends to be much slower paced overall than My Dying Bride, with none of the speed bursts that they often used in their heavier material that this draws from. All of their songs tend to be quite long, with only a few songs on each album, but they're still very well constructed. They're also a very consistent band, with all of their albums being of high quality, full of heavy and melodic doom/death that any fan of the genre should enjoy, so give them a shot.
Horns up! Nice post. :thumbup:
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
Just as always :) you say a band just suck and leave the thread, well.... maybe a reason why?.... Perhaps?... Oh, and I like frogs :)
Reason, I've said my peace. I suppose I could dumb it down further for you but I'm lazy. Frogs are alright, unless you mean the French.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: doom 101

Is this thread still open? It is taking me a while to get used to this website and I don't really want to talk about thrash or black metal in one of the other threads. Doom = superior
There aren't any closed threads here that I know of, and even the dead ones can be revived. Doom is awesome, what styles of it do you favor? Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • Join Metal Forum

    joinus-home.jpg

  • Our picks

    • Whichever tier of thrash metal you consigned Sacred Reich back in the 80's/90's they still had their moments.  "Ignorance" & "Surf Nicaragura" did a great job of establishing the band, whereas "The American Way" just got a little to comfortable and accessible (the title track grates nowadays) for my ears.  A couple more records better left forgotten about and then nothing for twenty three years.  2019 alone has now seen three releases from Phil Rind and co.  A live EP, a split EP with Iron Reagan and now a full length.

      Notable addition to the ranks for the current throng of releases is former Machine Head sticksman, Dave McClean.  Love or hate Machine Head, McClean is a more than capable drummer and his presence here is felt from the off with the opening and title track kicking things off with some real gusto.  'Divide & Conquer' and 'Salvation' muddle along nicely, never quite reaching any quality that would make my balls tingle but comfortable enough.  The looming build to 'Manifest Reality' delivers a real punch when the song starts proper.  Frenzied riffs and drums with shots of lead work to hold the interest.


      There's a problem already though (I know, I am such a fucking mood hoover).  I don't like Phil's vocals.  I never had if I am being honest.  The aggression to them seems a little forced even when they are at their best on tracks like 'Manifest Reality'.  When he tries to sing it just feels weak though ('Salvation') and tracks lose real punch.  Give him a riffy number such as 'Killing Machine' and he is fine with the Reich engine (probably a poor choice of phrase) up in sixth gear.  For every thrashy riff there's a fair share of rock edged, local bar act rhythm aplenty too.

      Let's not poo-poo proceedings though, because overall I actually enjoy "Awakening".  It is stacked full of catchy riffs that are sticky on the old ears.  Whilst not as raw as perhaps the - brilliant - artwork suggests with its black and white, tattoo flash sheet style design it is enjoyable enough.  Yes, 'Death Valley' & 'Something to Believe' have no place here, saved only by Arnett and Radziwill's lead work but 'Revolution' is a fucking 80's thrash heyday throwback to the extent that if you turn the TV on during it you might catch a new episode of Cheers!

      3/5
      • Reputation Points

      • 10 replies
    • I
      • Reputation Points

      • 2 replies
    • https://www.metalforum.com/blogs/entry/52-vltimas-something-wicked-marches-in/
      • Reputation Points

      • 3 replies

    • https://www.metalforum.com/blogs/entry/48-candlemass-the-door-to-doom/
      • Reputation Points

      • 2 replies
    • Full length number 19 from overkill certainly makes a splash in the energy stakes, I mean there's some modern thrash bands that are a good two decades younger than Overkill who can only hope to achieve the levels of spunk that New Jersey's finest produce here.  That in itself is an achievement, for a band of Overkill's stature and reputation to be able to still sound relevant four decades into their career is no mean feat.  Even in the albums weaker moments it never gets redundant and the energy levels remain high.  There's a real sense of a band in a state of some renewed vigour, helped in no small part by the addition of Jason Bittner on drums.  The former Flotsam & Jetsam skinsman is nothing short of superb throughout "The Wings of War" and seems to have squeezed a little extra out of the rest of his peers.

      The album kicks of with a great build to opening track "Last Man Standing" and for the first 4 tracks of the album the Overkill crew stomp, bash and groove their way to a solid level of consistency.  The lead work is of particular note and Blitz sounds as sneery and scathing as ever.  The album is well produced and mixed too with all parts of the thrash machine audible as the five piece hammer away at your skull with the usual blend of chugging riffs and infectious anthems.  


      There are weak moments as mentioned but they are more a victim of how good the strong tracks are.  In it's own right "Distortion" is a solid enough - if not slightly varied a journey from the last offering - but it just doesn't stand up well against a "Bat Shit Crazy" or a "Head of a Pin".  As the album draws to a close you get the increasing impression that the last few tracks are rescued really by some great solos and stomping skin work which is a shame because trimming of a couple of tracks may have made this less obvious. 

      4/5
      • Reputation Points

      • 4 replies
×
×
  • Create New...