Death-doom

Death-doom is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It combines the slow tempos and pessimistic or depressive mood of doom metal with the deep growling vocals and double kick drumming of death metal. The genre emerged in the mid-1980s and gained a certain amount of popularity during the 1990s, but had become less common by the turn of the 21st 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-1980s when early progenitors like Dream Death began to mix traditional doom metal with the sounds of thrash and the nascent death metal scene. Early records by such bands as Autopsy, Winter, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Anathema (Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Anathema are also known as the Peaceville Three due to the fact all three were on Peaceville Records at the time) combined the sounds of mid-1980s 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. 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.