A Beginner’s Guide To Doom Metal In 10 Bruising Albums
Doom might seem intimidating from the outside - but the rewards are too great to ignore.
Of all the sub-genres of metal, perhaps none are as punishing — or as difficult to get a grips on — as doom metal.
There are general frameworks for the style, sure: doom metal albums tend to be long, slow and loud. But how to define cornerstone terms of the genre like, “heavy”? What does a “heavy” record even sound like?
Add to that the fact that, as it goes with metal, doom splinters off into a variety of sub-genres itself. There’s sludge, death-doom, blackened death-doom, stoner metal, and the deeply portentous-sounding “epic doom”. Each of these universes is wide and wild, filled with its own embracing and dismissal of certain rules of the genre.
In essence, there is no “essence” to doom; no easy way to sum it up. But that’s not to say that it isn’t worth trying to typify the genre, an exercise in enjoyable futility that can only be achieved at pointing at the ways different bands have embraced or challenged the style.
So let’s do just that, picking ten of the genre’s highlights, arranging them in chronological order, and proving, in a round-about way, that there are as many different doom styles as there are bands making doom.
#1. Saint Vitus — Saint Vitus
Saint Vitus’ self-titled record is usually seen as the originator of the doom metal. Following in the footsteps of such disparate bands as Black Sabbath and The Beatles (‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ is seen as an early demonstration of the thick and overwhelming sounds of doom), the band harnessed wild guitar noise, ominous lyrics and lengthy running times to create something strange and beautiful. ‘Burial at Sea’, the album closer, is still one of the most punishing listens in the doom canon.
#2. Trouble — Psalm 9
Trouble don’t get enough credit these days — the rollicking doom metal act have been around for decades, quietly carving out their own very specific metal niche. But their magnum opus is, without a doubt, their debut, the punishing Psalm 9. Soaked in biblical imagery, and filled with sounds that seem to be dredged up from Hell itself, the record is the platonic ideal of the doom album; a statuette carved out of ebony. ‘Endtime’, a vicious instrumental, feels like wading through molasses and broken glass.
#3. Witchfinder General — Death Penalty
Named after a classic Vincent Price horror film, Witchfinder General are one of the early heroes of doom, known for their sluggish riffs and expansive sound.
There’s nothing quite like ‘Death Penalty’, the titular track of one of doom’s early classics; it’s an impossibly giant thing, opening with a kind of Hellish summoning and then collapsing under its own weight a mere five minutes later. Without Death Penalty, the British doom genre would have taken a lot longer to kickstart itself into terrifying life.
#4. Candlemass — Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
Doom metal wasn’t its own genre until the release of Candlemass’ epic (no pun intended) debut album Epicus Doomicus Metallicus — the style takes its name from the record. Filled with slow, hideous ballads — some of them as long as nine minutes — it is the blueprint for an entire way of making music.
It hasn’t lost any of its ingenuity or skill, either: the thing sounds as alive and hideous today as it did almost forty years ago. ‘Solitude’, the opening track, is a masterclass in doing a lot with very little, switching up tones like a vicious magician.
#5. Cirith Ungol — King of the Dead
Cirith Ungol aren’t, strictly speaking, a doom metal band — for the most part, their music is fast rather than lumbering; narrow like a knife rather than wide as a horizon.
But their 1984 album King of the Dead is the exception that proves the rule, an experimentation in form that holds you up to a feeling and then nails you there. Its directness have led some to call it a power metal record, rather than doom, but there’s no mistaking the hideous dread of the seven minute-long ‘Master of the Pit’, a ghoulish exercise in tension release that sounds like nothing else around.
#6. Pentagram — Relentless
American doom metal had a slightly slower start than its sister genre over the pond — while British bands were making giant leaps forward, the Yanks were only just getting started. But that tardiness doesn’t detract at all from the skill of the scene’s early classics, and Pentagram’s Relentless rapidly made up for lost time.
Taking the sludgey intensity of Black Sabbath to a new level, the band combined wit and witchcraft into something extraordinary, cycling through ideas at a speed the genre had not yet seen. At a mere five minutes in length, ‘The Ghoul’ contains more ingenuity than some bands muster up over the course of their entire career.
#7. Katatonia — Dance of December Souls
Katatonia would eventually move past the stylings of doom, evolving their sound into a more melodic direction, in no small part due to the devastation screamed vocals were inflicting upon lead singer Jonas Renkse.
But their first two albums, Dance of December Souls and Brave Murder Day, are high-points of European doom, full of strange muttered curses and titanic guitar solos. There’s something enjoyably simple about a song like ‘In Silence Enshrined’, the brutal chorus repeating itself over and over again, like a curse. And that album cover!
#8. Crowbar — Obedience Thru Suffering
By the early nineties, doom had begun to evolve and shift, leaving behind the drugged-out tempos of the early British influencers and combining the genre with hardcore and punk. Of all these experiments in genre-blending, perhaps none are as impressive or as odd as the work of Crowbar, the originators of what tends to be called “sludge metal” (although the band themselves would reject the term.)
Their debut album, Obedience Thru Suffering, is a knotted collection of screams, smothered in the thickest of guitar tone and pricked with blood. ‘My Agony’, one of the album’s high points, can be seen as a re-invigoration of the genre; a desperate restructuring of its terms.
#9. Acid Bath — When The Kite String Pops
It feels like something of a cheat to call Acid Bath’s When The Kite String Pops a doom metal record. In fact, it’s something of a mosaic, rifling through the rubbish bins of metal’s entire history to form something that leeringly rejects easy categorisation. There are smatterings of punk in here, brushing up against death metal, psychedelic pop, and even ska.
The record doesn’t stay still for a second, forever abandoning styles in favour of something new, and glimmering. But if ever you wanted proof that doom can be used in unique and fresh ways, then When The Kite String Pops is the album for you.
#10. Spiritus Mortis — Spiritus Mortis
Spiritus Mortis initially formed way back in 1987, but it would be many years before they put out their debut masterpiece, a thrumming self-titled collection of invocations.
Clearly, all that time honing their skill on Finnish stages paid off — this is doom metal of the most direct and nasty kind, full of tonal left-turns and shrieked promises of destruction. Spiritus Mortis haven’t slowed down since, either — their 2016 album The Year Is One, released after the departure of core member Vesa Lampi, is just as spirited and original as their debut.
Joseph Earp is a doom metal aficionado and staff writer at Music Junkee. He tweets @JosephOEarp.
For more on the history of metal, read this piece on the seven great stoner metal albums.