Exploring Doom Death

[abraxas]

I was just on Wikipedia looking for some new bands to listen to, which is actually a great way to find bands, you can search for your favorite style of music and you can find links to similiar bands. You can do the same with places like Amazon.com etc.

So I went through a list of Doom/Death metal bands and found some interesting candidates.

Here are some of the bands that Ive come across, later Ill give a little review of each, if their worth listening to that is.

The Gates of Slumber
Cathedral
Virgin Black
The Gathering
Pagan Alter
Bedomon (Pentagram side project)
Abhorrence (pre-Amorphis)
Candlemass
Trouble
Witchfinder General
Amorphis

Anyone else heard of/listened to these bands.

[HNT]

Oh, Cathedral and Candlemass are both very much worh listening to. Especially Cathedral. Great doom sound, and Lee Dorian started that project almost immediately after leaving Napalm Death. Hard to believe that a grindcore vocalist has that kind of vocal ability, but he does. Excellent stuff

[abraxas]

From what Ive read the first two albums from Cathedral and the first album from Candlemass are some of the pioneering Doom Metal releases, but Cathedral after the first few album starting to play more Stoner metal type stuff.

[HNT]

Yeah, that is basically right, except for the pioneering Doom metal part. While that is certainly true inasmuch as they were one of the first bands to be called "Doom Metal one listen will make it clear that Doom metal as a genre is really all about replecating the sound on the first four or so Black Sabbath records

[abraxas]

Oh lol, yeah I definitely see that, particularly the very first Sabbath album. I think maybe they were referring to the modern wave of Doom, or what became the modern wave. I think My Dying Bride had a lot to do with it as well, but I already listen to them.

[GL]

To me, straight up Doom Metal was the exact definition HNT gave earlier, worshiping the first four Sabbath albums, and since I've already gave my thoughts there, you should know how I feel about them. Mixing the two, kinda like what Obituary used to do a good job of, is where I fall into, that's more my style. I think you might like this Finnish band in a similar style, Swallow the Sun. Heard a couple of songs and they're not that bad.

Though, these are the ones I really like:
Alchemist
Celestial Crown
Ceremonium
Divine Eve
Dusk
Evoken
Godgory
Infester
Monumentum
Obscurant
October Sky
Sea of Tranquility

And I generally lump Asphyx and Bolt Thrower into this as well, so there's a couple more.

[abraxas]

I didn't like any of the ones I listed, I'm interested in more Death/Doom rather then Doom/Death, if you get my meaning. I already listen to Amorphis, haven't heard Trouble, or Candlemass yet. All the rest weren't very good that Cathedral album was of such low production quality that I couldn't even get through it to form any opinion, hopefully their second and third albums are better, after that though they went into Stoner rock, which I don't like much. Actually I hate the singer from Candlemass, but this first album has the original singer, so I want to check it out.

Thanks for the list GL, Ill check those bands out as well.

[HNT]

Yeah, Cathedral's recordings were not of the highest caliber to say the least. I have a soft spot for them, though, because I was a huge Napalm Death fan back then. Also, I saw them live which was a great experience and totally different than the lo-fi records they were making.

That said, it was a different era. Studio time was obscenely expensive, you couldn't just mix albums on your PC back then. Most of the records from that era (including the classics from Morbid Angel, Carcass, Deicide, Death and bands of that caliber) just weren't recorded all that well at the time. Still, they are great records

[GL]

A couple of the ones I mentioned, Abraxas, are Doom/Death, but the majority of the ones are Death/Doom. It's a negligible difference, as none of them are anywhere near the top of the rotation for stuff I listen to, but it's all the same to me. Those Death/Doom ones are a little higher up, but I generally go after the more traditional ones anyway.

[abraxas]

Yeah well that can be said for most bands in the early days, many times they were self produced and so they didn't have the facilities to record their albums properly, this is one of the things that the Black Metal bands were complaining about concerning Death becoming to well produced, which to me makes no sense. I like to be able to enjoy my music, thats why I don't listen to much Black Metal, nor do I particularly care for bands like Kataclysm, Impaled Nazarene etc.

I like lyrics so its nice to be able to comprehend at least some of them. A wall of noise doesn't appeal to me. No doubt those albums were great, but that Cathedral album was of particular low quality, an album like Scream Bloody Gore is on the high end of production by comparison. I mean that one was barely Demo quality

I like the style of early Amorphis, Anathema, My Dying Bride, even bands that use both Death and clean vocals, but plain Doom style of singing doesn't appeal to me, at least not on a huge scale.

[GL]

Hey, think you might be interested in this:

From blabbermouth, there was a new band that got signed, Tethra from Italy, very much in the style of what you like.

TETHRA, the new Italian death/doom metal project featuring former members of GORY BLISTER, VEXED and MALUS VIVENDI, is currently writing material for its debut mini-CD. The effort will be recorded with producer Ossian, better known as the mastermind of the long-running Italian band OPERA IX.

According to a press release, TETHRA "is a project formed by musicians already known in the Italian metal scene for many years. The band revisits that particular sound dear to old MY DYING BRIDE and CANDLEMASS, in a modern and original way, also adding the wickedness typical of the first wave of Swedish death."

Here's their MySpace page.

[abraxas]

Sounds interesting Ill check out the myspace site, thanks for suggesting Asphyx I really liked the first two albums of theirs that Ive listened to so far. Ill listen to more of their albums tonight while I'm at work, I'm also downloading the other bands you suggested.

[GL]

Cool, man. Let me know what you think.

[abraxas]

Ceremonium
Divine Eve
Monumentum
Obscurant
Sea of Tranquility

Couldn't find anything from those bands, but I liked Asphyx they had some really cool death/doom grooves in their music, nice tempo changes also. Still downloading the others.

[GL]

Huh, kinda shocked at that. I really like Obscurant and Ceremonium which is why I put them up there, but to each their own I guess.