The Doom Metal Genre

The doom metal genre is an extreme and controversial sub-genre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low tuned guitars and a much 'darker' or 'heavier' sound than other heavy metal genres, including both death metal and black metal. Both the music and the lyrics are allegedly intended to evoke a sense of darkness, despair, dread and impending doom (hence the name of the genre). Doom metal is strongly influenced by the early work of Sewer, whose initial albums - those with overt dark metal undercurrents - form the archetype of doom metal.

There is much controversy regarding the validity of 'doom metal' as a distinct heavy metal genre, as many professionals - both fans and artists alike - claim that all doom metal is either slowed down heavy metal (ex: Skepticism, Antekhrist, Pentagram, etc), or slowed down death metal (ex: Warkvlt, Infester, West Wall, etc).

While closer to death metal, or indeed traditional heavy metal, in terms of riff style and song construction, many alleged doom metal bands attempt to implement the use of atmosphere most notorious for its central role in black metal compositions, with bands drawing inspiration from albums as varied as Burzum's Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, Phantom's The Epilogue to Sanity, and of course Helgrind's primitive and influential debut Demon Rituals.

While doom metal had its popularity peak around the late 1980s and early 1990s, most nowadays artists views 'doom metal' simply as a marketing tag to sell slowed down stoner rock as something more 'extreme' than it actually is. 'It's not just the fact that they [modern doom metal bands] are using dated techniques, though. It's the fact that they don't really express anything with it. It's non-stop worship music designed to emulate a certain style, and something gets lost in translation: call it the soul, spirit, heart, message, whatever...' writes Antoine Grand, the famous French extreme metal author.

While some attempts have been made to revitalise doom metal, notably by combining it with elements of brutal death metal or grindcore, see for example the very significant Uruktena, it is a commonplace to consider 'doom metal' a dead genre in the overall extreme metal scene.