Genres of Metal: Episode 3 - Doom Metal

Necrotic Nick (Thralls of Metal) and I are back again with one of the slowest, most depressing, yet heaviest forms of metal: Doom Metal. We get into the history of it, our favorite albums, favorite songs, and the current state today. So sit in the dark, alone, and cry or shake in fear and anxiety as we dive into the world of DOOM METAL. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Broken Record Player Podcast. I am so excited. We are still doing the genres of metal series. We are in episode three with my guest necrotic Nick from Thralls of Metal. And this time we are doing Doom Metal, the dark, depressing, slow, but still very heavy metal that you could argue went back to the very beginning with Black Sabbath. So I'm really excited for you to check out this episode. There's more to come. And apologies, uh, you're gonna hear me coughing a little bit in this episode. Apologies for that. Just ignore it. So, anyways, sit in the dark, maybe with some candles, maybe with some alcohol or not, as we dive into Doom Metal on this episode of the Broken Record Player Podcast. Alright, everyone, welcome back to another episode as we look into the genres of metal. I got with me again Necrotic Nick from Thralls of Metal. How's it going? He's back, third time here. We are doing Doom Metal. Uh we just did Gothic Metal, and now we're on Doom Metal, which is kind of fitting. I mean, it's they're very they're similar in ways. We'll get we'll get into it. They're very different in other ways, but they uh they both do something similar, and that's they're both dark, heavy, atmospheric types of metal, uh, and they don't rely on fast speed, and you know, not they're not always very aggressive, you know, like they can be slow and more melodic at times, although some doom metal is very um not very melodic. There's some out there that's just trying to make you feel miserable, and we'll get into that. But um, I got a quote here. We're gonna start off, as we always do, with a song lyric. I think you're gonna get this immediately. You've you've been really good so far. Um, I'm sitting here alone in darkness, waiting to be free. Lonely and forlorn, I am crying. I long for my time to come. Death means just life. Please let me die in solitude.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Oh god.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Is that candle mass? It is candle mass. Okay. What when when I was trying to find a a doom metal lyric or a part of a song, I was like, solitude. Solitude is so doom metal. It is just like the just the idea of solitude, first off, just being alone, being in miserable, please let me die in solitude. I mean, just that line in general. That's what Doom Metal's all about, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:56

I mean, doom is a is a mood, it's it's foreboding, it's ominous, it uh it talks about death like it's a a long acquaintance. Uh it's you know, all the dark things, but it doesn't necessarily worship all of it, it kind of just accepts it. Like this is the reality. Bleakness and tragedy will surround us throughout our lives, and it can be processed in different ways. You can either just welcome it, you could just be torn apart by it, but as long as it goes in the music and the riffs, yeah, you got the essence of Doom.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Right. And that's the thing about it that's so interesting is like, yeah, the lyrics and everything can talk about it, but the sound, the way it makes you feel, is really what it's all about, right? It's like it's it's that feeling of dread that Doom Metal is so good at conjuring up, you know.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

Uh, those big riffs, and it it has to feel like oppressive on some of them. Like it's like it's squeezing down, like weighing down on your shoulders. You you can't walk because the mud's too thick or something like that. It's just right, right.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

It holds you down, and I love it. Well, that's like let's get into what it is. We're talking about that right now. I I put a general feeling of doom, whatever that means. That could be foreboding, hopelessness, misery, depression, grief, anxiety, fear. Uh, doom metal is just about evoking these uncomfortable, dark feelings. That's just you know, that's a part of it. It kind of goes hand in hand with it. Now, there's more doom that's more like that can sound more like 70s rock doom, you know, that's the traditional Doom metal, but still, they've got they've got that in there, especially for the time. Um, you know, now we might look at that and go, that's a little tame for now, because we got funeral doom and death doom and all these other types of doom. But you know, Black Sabbath and that, you know, that's they're kind of the original Doom band. I mean, they're the ones that really brought that out to the forefront, right?

SPEAKER_02 4:59

It's it's well, the song Black Sabbath. There, that that is the first Doom Metal song, as far as I'm concerned. That triton, you know, tritonal little riff thing. It it descends down, it pulls you down in the murk and the darkness, and it holds you there. And you know, from there you get like you know, kind of like the proto-doom bands, Witch Finder General and Pentagram. Uh the other one I had. Oh, that those are the two I had uh that were kind of like four bears there. Um, they kind of took that foundation. I was like, okay, let's explore more because you know Black Sabbath had like a slightly more upbeat, more rocky side that showed up later, too. There were bands that just latched on to, I would say, that first album or even that first song and said, Listen, we can build an identity based on this one song. Yeah, I think they kind of did.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

They did. I mean, and that's the thing. Sabbath was known for their their chunky riffs, and that's what Doom also has is slower, chunky riffs. Don't have to be slow, slow. Some are some can be faster than others, but usually they've got to be very distorted and heavy as fuck. It's just kind of part of the territory, you know.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

You you want a a good like sustain on the guitar tone, like when you when you strum it, it has to just echo out into the vast fields of nothingness and fucking hellscapes and shit like that. It has to carry.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

There has to be that drone. It's gotta, yeah, it's gotta have a drone to it. Exactly. Another thing I've noticed, not all doom metal bands do this, but a lot do, and that's the occult themes. A lot of doom metal bands love the occult, pentagram, candle mass, electric wizard, right? A lot of these bands are really into that thing, and and Sabbath also kind of helped push that forward, even though Sabbath wasn't just all about the occult, and and you know, they always talk about well, we weren't really devil worshippers and everything, we were actually Catholic or whatever, but they were definitely talking about magic and you know the you know the dark side of things, so that's another part of it that I always see kind of crop up in in Doom Metal a lot.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

I mean, it's kind of across at least a lot of the classic Doom stuff. Like, I mean, you know, candle mass, you could almost say there was like an element of like wizards and warriors and warlocks and such. And um, you know, I think sometimes you could like almost cross over some of that with like power metal territory, except it's like the darker stuff. Like, no, we don't care about the the fairies and the mithril wearing good guys. We want to talk about Mordor and shit.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Right, right. Yeah, who wants to talk about the hobbits when you've got orcs? Come on, shave your feet. That's right. Come on, stop eating so much, too. What the hell? What's a second second breakfast? Yeah, come on. There's only one, yeah, and then there's brunch, whatever that is. Uh yeah, I mean, that's yeah, I brought it once or twice. The thing though about Doom Metal, the vocals, uh, there's no real rule to the vocals, is there?

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Not really, because I mean, again, as you're breath, like there's different subsets, fusions like Death Doom, Funeral Doom, there's Epic Doom, there's more traditional Doom Metal, um Stoner Doom. Yeah, and all of them kind of have different vocals, and honestly, some of them kind of cross over. Like I've heard Doom Metal with all harsh vocals, I've heard it with all clean vocals, I've heard it with kind of like thin, kind of like Aussie-ish vocals or more in the background. I've heard people belting out just our product vocals right out front. Yeah, so I mean it really does depend on the band.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Right, right. It depends on the band. Same with the instrumentation. I mean, the instrumentation's pretty standard, but I I do hear synths and strings in Doom when it's appropriate, right? It's usually in a bleak way, not the power metal way.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

But um, synths occasionally, I mean, again, it all has to stay in kind of like the minor chords, like yeah, nothing that climbs too much, nothing that reaches too much towards the sunlight because well, it's doom metal, we know it's out of reach. Only only death is within reach. Yeah, that's it. You know, death and misery and all that wonderful shit. All the things that you know Aaron Stanthorpe is ever saying about my dying bride, just all the misery. But uh again, it it's all about that mood, it has to be evocative and draw you into the darkness, and it does so with not only like just the heaviness, but also melody. Like, there's a lot of really cool melody throughout Doom Metal, regardless of like you know, where you're fusing it or if you're doing it more traditionally. Yeah, the riff work isn't just like heavy riffs, there's a lot of harmonies, a lot of like really like cool melodies and such that you know just get stuck in your ear.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Yeah, yeah, and I mean there's so many different types of of Doom Metal, like you just mentioned. There's the traditional, the epic death, doom, funeral doom, stoner doom. We're not gonna be able to get into every single one of them, but they're all kind of under this big umbrella that is doom metal, and um it it kind of shows, right, that doom metal is uh is one of those genres that has just evolved so much over time, and it's it's definitely one of the more prevalent styles of metal, it's one of those types of metal that I would say has always been kind of relevant, right? It's like it's never really gone away.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Yeah, I mean, honestly, like alright, I go to the you know Maryland Death Fest every year, and you know, despite it being predominantly like death, black metal, thrash metal, there's always doom metal bands, and the doom metal fans they congregate, they love it, and honestly, there's a lot of crossover. Like, I haven't met a lot of people that say, Oh no, Doom Metal is just fucking awful. Like a lot of them is like, oh yeah, I kind of like this band, this band. It's you know, it's an eclectic genre, and it kind of draws in people that you know are are big on riff worship, you know, kind of like stoner metal, too. Right. But because I think of that, it like it has a melodic appeal, it also has that atmosphere vibe, like it has a lot of stuff that can draw in, you know, metal heads of maybe kind of like I've kind of lurked on the boundaries, like I like Sabbath and shit, but haven't really explored all the other stuff.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

Yeah, and that's the thing, right? Doom metal, there's so much crossover. Um, there's a lot of bands that kind of go, you know, they're like heavy metal, but they also are doom metal. They might be gothic, but doom. They're sludgy, but doom. There's stoner metal, but they're doom. So I wanted to talk a little bit about what's the difference between all these different types of metal. Like, what's the difference between doom metal and just regular heavy metal? What's the big difference between that?

SPEAKER_02 11:34

Speed and vibe. Like, you know, doom metal is a little bit slower. That's something you can pick up, but like the vibe for doom metal, like you'll hear a lot of similar harmonies in like classic Doom Metal, again, like Witch Finder General, uh St. Vitus, and you know, a whole bunch of other match trouble. But when it comes down to like those harmonies and scales, they scale down more versus kind of soaring up. You know, that's kind of the big thing. But I feel like original Doom kind of took a lot from heavy metal, like the early Iron Maiden Angel Witch and stuff like that, and was like, all right, let's just make this gloomier. Yeah. You know, slow it down a half step, let's thicken up the guitars, give it a little bit more low end. And you know, vocals, at least in the early doom metal, kind of are in the same same thing, except like, all right, we'll instead of soaring up, we'll scale back down.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Right, right. I mean, like some of that epic doom metal, there's definitely that like operatic feel to it, right? I mean, you gotta be epic somehow. It's like, well, let's let the singer go wild. Right. Let's let him, let's let him, you know, scream like a banshee, you know. But yeah, heavy metal, I I would agree, it tends to be a little more faster. The vibe is usually a little bit more, I wouldn't not necessarily maybe uplifting, but it's definitely not always triumphant? Triumphant, that's a good way. Powerful, right? Yeah, we're wearing leather gloves with spikes on it and holding them up for no reason. Raise your raise your fist, right? Yeah, pump your fist into the air. Gothic metal. So we just did gothic metal. Um, I think what we talked about was how gothic metal tends to be a little bit more romantic, a little bit more mysterious and melodic, and less miserable.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

Yeah, there's also like a like a sexual tension with gothic metal because the vampire ladies and such, but you you don't really get like that much. It's like, no, I'm I'm too miserable to be horny. Like, okay, doom metal guy, that's that's good. Go get help.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Yeah, a lot of a lot of doom metal guys tend to be single. Uh I don't know. Just my kill that one. Um, no, I'm kidding. One of my one of my friends is a huge Doom Metal fan, and he's married, so there you go. Oh, wow. Yeah, there you go. He's got like CDs galore. I mean, well, not as many as you, but I don't think I don't think many people have as many CDs as you do.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

I don't have a problem.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Well, if you might have a problem, but it's a better kind of problem than most people. I'm not smoking crack. That's right. That would be a real problem. That's a real problem. That's a real problem. Because that's a financial problem and a health problem.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

So they can't collect much either. Like, oh, I can drop the little pipes, that's no one's something to show off. Right, right. Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Sludge metal. Um, so I sludge stone or doom kind of sometimes kind of all mix up sometimes. I always thought though sludge metal was a lot more just dirty sounding. It wasn't necessarily ominous, it was just dirty, it was just nasty.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

It's it's getting well, I mean, I it feels like it has to embody its name. Like the tone is yeah, generally more grisly sounding. Like there's definitely overlap in terms of like the down tuning being like a thicker tone overall, but when you hear a sludge tone, like it's it's just grimy and filthy and ungodly heavy. Like, I still think crowbar is probably king of tones, yeah. Uh possibly king of reps, too. I don't know. Iomie's still around. Um, but yeah, the vibe is different, plus like the subject matter is I mean it's bleak in a different sense, like it's right fiercely personal, like like reading I hate god lyrics. Ooh, geez. Uh man, yeah, someone has lived a life. Yeah, um, but yeah, like it's it's not like the occult stuff at all, it's just it's human misery and uh bad coping mechanisms in song form.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Well, and it also you know crosses over with the hardcore scene more, and and it tends to be you you definitely feel that punk hardcore vibe in Sludge that you definitely don't hear in Doom.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Uh yeah, I mean Sludge's big inspiration, you know, kind of came from the Melvins, and then right everyone's just like, well, let's just keep kind of embodying this and make it more gross and twisted as we go.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

Yeah, and they did, they did a good job of that. This is where things get tricky. Stoner metal. Because a lot of bands cross over. In fact, there's stone or doom, so like Electric Wizard, right? Cathedral. Some even say sleep falls into that category sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Sleep is definitely stone or doom.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Yeah, so I mean, I always tended to think, besides the references to weed, that stoner metal a lot of times had more of a hard rock blues sound to it.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

You know, it it's it's the more like it's a contest of who's worshipping Sabbath which way. Yeah. Um Stoner Metal embodies like the fuzz, the riff, like like all master reality kind of like worship in general. I think like Stoner Metal comes down to that album, I think. Yeah, yeah. And but there is that weird overlap though, where it gets to Stoner Doom, where like the riffs you can sense are a little bit darker, they kind of overdrive the tone, so you get this combination of chunky and fuzzy. Yeah, Mono Lord might do it perfectly. Yeah, I've seen that band live, and I swear they folded space in front of me with how heavy they were. Oh wow, so good. But it's you know, it's about that monotonous drone, it has to feel oppressive, but also have that warmth because stoner metal has warmth to its riffs, right? And yeah, the bands that get that kind of crossover thing, like it's I mean, Electric Wizard does it just up perfectly, but then you got bands like The Sword, which occasionally they get a little bit doomy, but most of the time it's like, dude, these are just straight up Sabbath riffs. Holy shit, that's an Iron Maiden harmony. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Yeah, well, and and Stoner always like Stoner to me was uh a type of genre that you would want to get into a car and drive fast to. It was the riffs were driving rifts rather than creating a darker atmosphere that really wasn't what stoner was trying to do at all. Dusk in the desert. That that's that's what stoner metal is. There you go. I mean, and like sleep, even like sleep's first album was very stoner-y, like it wasn't very doomy, like Dopesmoker definitely was very doomy. Um, but I thought I always thought Holy Mountain had a very just straight up more stoner metal black Sabbath. Yeah, dry. Oh yeah, the the riff, the riff, right? The riff. That's the thing, like like doom has amazing riffs, but I feel like stoner, it was all about the riff. That's the focus, right? The the riff is the king.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

Yeah, I mean it it's it is it is Iomie worship, right? Right. He he's like kind of the master riffs, and it's not just about like being like heavy and oppressive, it's just about like coming up with catchy hooky riffs that you know, honestly, like there's a lot of stoner metal at Borders on Morse Order Rock that you know their tone just does the work, right? Like it's not necessarily like if you stripped off that tone, it's not the heaviest riff riff imaginable, but it's that tone, that fuzz that creates that whole sort of vibe there. It is like, yeah, this is like the heaviest thing I could possibly chill out to.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Right. And and Doom is not so much that way. Doom is a lot more there's a lot less chill to Doom. There's a lot more occasionally tears. There's tears and maybe sweating, I don't know. Yeah, anxiety, anxiety, yeah, curling up into a ball and going into the fetal position. I don't know. Um well let's let's talk about our Mount Rushmore, our four we had to have four bands uh for Doom Metal that you think really belong. If you were to make a Mount Rushmore of Doom Metal, what four bands would you have on that Mount Rushmore?

SPEAKER_02 19:43

Well, alright. I left off Black Sabbath because I feel like they're kind of like still like proto metal or you know, like the forefathers of it. Right. But right away, the first man I think of when it comes down to Doom Metal is Candlemass. Uh without a doubt, the kings of epic Doom Metal. Like, I don't think anyone does it better. Well, there's a there's an argument for another one, and I'll I'll bring it up here in a bit. Um, the next one I would say is St. Vitus. St. Vitus, you get a little bit of that kind of desert rock vibe too that's in there. But I mean it's straight up Sabbath worship, it's got a little bit of just kind of bluesy grit to it. Um that's another one that I always think of. Plus, I mean it's got wino. Scott Wine right if he's in your band, which there's a good chance he is because he's in so damn many. Yeah, you have rips instantly, they're they're just gonna be there. Um, the next one, also in the realm of Epic Doom, which is kind of a small subset, Solitude of Turnus. Uh God, dude. Robert Lowe is up there with, I think, best uh Doom vocalist out there. He's very evocative with his vocals. He's he's right up there with Messiah Markonen, I think. Uh, but they bring in a lot of the heavy metal gallops too. They get soaringly epic, they know how to bring it down to a nice miserable crawl, too. Beautiful, beautiful discography. Like I would say, even my least favorite in there is still a solid album. And the last one, probably see this one coming, trouble. You have to have trouble. The riffs, Eric Wagner's. He he was the Robert Plant of Doom Metal. If you break it to his vocal cell was always super planty, he had these, you know, kind of gruff vocals, but god, when it came down to like uh communicating the whole like darkness and gloom and everything, he was so good. And again, the riff work on like every album, even when they shifted to more stonery territory, they always had good hooks.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

Yeah, yeah. Good list, man. I our first two are in in lockstep, man. We're we're right there. I had to put Candle Mass at number one. You know, maybe that maybe they're not the first doom metal band, but Certainly, I think they set the standard for a lot of things. Uh that really drudgy, pained sound that became kind of synonymous with Doom Metal. And I think Epicus Doomicus Metallicus is maybe the most important Doom Metal album. I think it's such an important record.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

Man, those early ones, like Ancient Dreams is up there, Tales of Creation, of course, Nightfall. Yeah. But yeah, Epicus. Honestly, like most of their discography is just solid as hell. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Yeah. I mean, they're when I think of Doom Metal, they are like the first band that kind of pops into my head. And yeah, my second one was St. Vitus as well. Whether it's with Wino or not, to me, they represent kind of the epitome of a Doom Metal band. Uh slow, plotting, heavy riffs, songs about you know some pretty heavy topics, and uh clearly Sabbath worship. I mean, it's such Sabbath worship. But yeah, Wino. I mean, when you have Wino in the band, you're guaranteed to have some good riffs, some solid riffs. So yeah, St. Vitus is number two. My third, I had to put Pentagram in here. You know, they're one of the OGs, and I think they also just nailed that occult look with the combo with the psychedelic 70s rock style. They were around before most of these other bands, uh, but really found their sound in the 80s, and also Bobby. I mean, Bobby, Bobby. I mean, what can you say about Bobby, right?

SPEAKER_02 23:27

I have the pleasure of seeing him at MDF. Yeah, that man's got moves, man. He might be in his 70s. His hips are probably about in their 40s, though. Yeah, like he's just swinging around, and he's he's got presence.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

He does. I saw him uh earlier this year at a small venue, and you know, young chicks were getting up on the stage with him and dancing with him, and he's all he's all into it. And I'm just like, dude, you're like old enough to be my grandpa right now, you know. Like, but you're he's a meme now.

SPEAKER_02 23:57

Like, yes, he got memeed. I'm pretty sure some in the band probably had to explain. Was like, you're a meme now. Like, I don't know what the hell that is. I got a lot of drugs. Like, listen, I know, but here's what a meme is.

SPEAKER_00 24:09

But no, pentagram. Um, just another classic, classic uh Doom band. One of the I mean, these first three are very kind of old school. My fourth pick, though, I had to go with my uh probably my favorite doom metal band of all time, and they're kind of a crossover with Stoner. That of course is Electric Wizard. Um, you know, definitely newer compared to these other bands, but to me, they they were the best at the Stoner Doom crossover, in my opinion. Crushingly heavy, clearly fans of Sabbath and Witchfinder General and Pentagram. Um, Dope Throne. I I just that album, I can listen to that album over and over again. It is to me the it's the epitome of what I think stoner doom is Dope Throne. It's so good.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

I lean more towards come my fanatics. Oh, that's a good one too. I love that album. Uh but I mean Dope Throne, Dope Throne's a classic. That's how I heard of them. And then I picked up every album, and there's like pulls. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Yeah. I mean, just but like I just love their their presentation, uh, everything they do, uh, their album covers, they're just everything, their logo, they're they're just they're such a visual band. Um, and when you see them live, I just love how they have like those B horror movies playing in the background, you know. And they're just they're just a great, they're just a great show, great band, heavy as fuck.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

They're like the mental equivalent of like getting really high and watching like the Dunwich Horror.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Yes, yes, exactly. Right. Exactly. Ian Stockwell.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

Yeah. It was a great mustache he had.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

Oh, incredible, incredible. Now I want to watch that. I want to watch all those. Um, I can't believe that was actually a job. That's so crazy. A witch finder general. That was a real job back in the day. What a what a way to get paid. Uh, what are you doing today? I'm hunting witches. All right.

SPEAKER_02 26:07

So if they say they're not a witch, oh, that means they're clearly a witch.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

You just kill people, don't you?

SPEAKER_00 26:12

Well, you know, you have to you have to see if they weigh the same as a duck, right? There we go. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

Fine if anyone in the crowd's been turned to an inute recently.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

Right. Uh they probably got better. But burner, anyways. But doom metal. I I I think it's safe to say we like it, uh, right? I love it. I really do. Why do you love it?

SPEAKER_02 26:38

Uh again, it's about that certain feeling. Like, I I want to feel like just physically hit by a chord. And there's something about like the you know, down tuned, hyper distorted, slow nature where it gives every moment so much room to reverberate around wherever you're listening to it, even in your skull. Um, that that just huge, hefty sound that I don't know, it it's again, it feels ominous and dark. Like you can feel it. Yeah, I like that you know, like it's not just like, yeah, no, it's like the headbang to it, like good fucking rip. Like, no, I feel this music, it sucks you in the world of like darkness. You start thinking about hammer films with Peter Cushing and Vincent Price and shit like that. But and I like again how you know it's kind of all over the place, like you know, the fusions and such. There's just a certain vibe. Like, I mean, if if it was like you know, going into like the a whole incantation mint or something like that, when it gets those Death Doom breakdowns, that's a big moment in the song, like Doom, like again, those like slower moments, that open atmosphere, the dreary descending harmonies. There's just something about it that just transports you to it. I mean, it's yeah, yeah. How did you get into it? What what was your gateway? I mean, honestly, uh it would probably have to be Sabbath, but it was like certain Sabbath songs like Black Sabbath, um God, maybe Lord of this world, and oh shit. Um goddamn it. What was the last song on fucking um uh mass reality? The Riff. Oh, into the void. Into the void. Oh there we go. That's like one of my favorite riffs all time. Oh, yeah. There was that, and then you know, I finally got around to hearing like some bands like St. Vitus and then Candlemass, and it was like, okay, this is similar, but it's different, like it's kind of got its own thing. And you know, inevitably getting into death metal, I ran into Death Doom bands, you know, Hooded Menace, Incantation, at least kind of. Um, and yeah, sludge metal kind of led me towards that too. And yeah, as I started liking slower, more like monotonous, kind of like droning stuff, and again, that feeling of just you know, inescapable, fucking soul crushing doom. It's like, yeah, I kind of chased that dragon for a little bit. I was like, Yeah, dude, I need more of that. What's wrong with you? No, I'm kidding. Oh, we don't have time, we don't have time for that.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

That's a whole separate podcast, man. We'll do that next time. Um, sweet. Yeah, I no, I definitely like it a lot. It took me a while. Uh, when I was younger, I was much more interested in faster, angstier metal, like new metal, black metal, uh thrash metal, thrash metal. Do metal was just a little too slow for me. And as I got older, I think not older, but when I got more into like later high school years, I really started to appreciate it more because I saw how Black Sabbath pretty much pioneered this type of metal, and I was a huge fan of Sabbath, and I was like, wait a minute, I love Black Sabbath. These guys are just taking that and they're making it darker, heavier, sometimes slower. Um, but the band that really made me fall in love with it was Electric Wizard, and like I said earlier, the combination of the Dune and the Stoner with their over-the-top kind of occult theme just clicked with me instantly. And um like I went off from there and I went into St. Vitus and Pentagram and and uh a little bit of trouble, but mostly St. Vitus, Pentagram, Candlemass, um, you know, my dying bride, the death doom stuff, and um some of the newer stuff that's come out recently, which is great too. But like that's that was kind of my gateway into Doom was through Electric Wizard Um after Black Sabbath. And uh, like I said earlier, I'm not really into I'm not really into funeral doom. Some Doom's just a little too slow for me and a little too miserable. Uh but overall, it is one of my favorite styles of music because or of metal, because a lot of it keeps the original spirit of Black Sabbath alive. Um, you know, it's dark, dreary, and and despite it not being the fastest type of metal, it you could argue it's one of the heaviest types of metal.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

That is true, and I mean it took me a while to get into slow music too, because I was like big thrash kid, thrash and death metal, like I want to hear blast beats and like slayer machine gun riffs, yeah. And you know, it took man's yeah, like some of the doom man's black sabbath, and even like neurosis, too, which they're generally kind of slow, but it was just kind of reimagining what I thought was heavy, like okay, this is just big open space and droning noise, and it's like, dude, this just I feel all of this. Yeah, viewer boom took some time too, too, because I was like, Man, this is too slow. Like, I own most of esoteric's discography, and almost all of their albums are double disc albums. Uh, but they are incredible to watch live. Oh, really? Yeah, ahab absolutely incredible.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

Oh, yeah. No, ahab, ahab is cool. They are they are good. I yeah, I don't know what it is about funeral doom. I just think some of it I do like, some of it I'm just like, uh no. Like some of it's just too plodding for me.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

I and and the the riff work is generally very samey because there's only so many different ways to execute a funeral dirge, and that is the bulk of the sound. So I like the bands that explore the atmosphere a little bit more, yeah, instead of just like just the dirge, because I mean Ahab Ahab's got riffs.

SPEAKER_00 32:25

Oh, yeah, definitely, definitely. Well, let's let's get into our favorite albums of Doom Metal, our five favorite Doom Metal albums. I imagine this was painful. Um this one changed around a bit.

SPEAKER_02 32:38

And I was like, All right, because some of them are some are a little bit deep cut, and there's one on here that well we can argue is maybe more stone or doom. Okay, I'm all for it. I'm all for it.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

You wanna you wanna go back and forth? Let's go back and forth. Okay, like the lead-off or I'll lead off. I'll lead off with my my number five here. I got a classic, definitely not a disputable one. I have pentagram or relentless, as it's sometimes called by pentagram. I don't know why it's called different things, but it's their debut, I believe. That's that's fair. Yeah. Um, I don't know. They have a weird some of these bands, like uh, I think Trouble as well with Psalm 9, they kind of changed the title of it. Um, I don't know why, maybe it's a UK thing. I don't know, but although they're from the US, right? Both of these. But no, every song on here Maryland, right? Somewhere over there. Somewhere there, yeah. Somewhere somewhere over there. They're closer in ocean. Somewhere closer to the White House, yeah. Uh, which you don't want to be near right now. Um that reflecting pool, man. You're gonna get some crazy disease.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

Fucking swamping fucking scam.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

But no, uh Pentagram's album, Pentagram or Relentless, from start to finish, it is like it's Black Sabbath, you know, inspired metal. Um, it's not doomy in the sense of like it's gonna crush your soul type of doom. It's just heavy riffs and Bobby, you know, singing it in his more traditional rock vocal style. He even, you know, says he's not really a doom metal uh musician. He's just a rock and metal musician. Actually, I don't even think he says he's a metal musician, I just think he says he's a rock musician. He does the Lemmy thing. Yeah, he's and I understand where he's coming from. I mean, he's clearly a fan of Sabbath, but um, he's trying to kind of capture that 70s rock vibe, you know, and they do that really well here. Death Row is one of my favorite songs from them, All Your Sins. Um, what else here? The Relentless, the title track, Run My Course, uh, just one after another, just killer, occult-themed, heavy rock songs, um, and a great album cover with the pentagram and the goat, you know, like just uh just a classic. It's it's something you can put on and drive to. It's something that you can rock out to. It's not like uh it's not an oppressive doom metal album, but it's just a good, fun, heavy metal record. I guess.

SPEAKER_02 35:26

It's got that spooky fuzz.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

Yeah, it's got that spook, that's a good way to put it, spooky fuzz, right? And it's one of the it's one of those albums that came out early in the scene, and like I said, pentagram has been around since like the 70s. I mean, they were around uh like when Black Sabbath was doing their thing, so they were not far behind Black Sabbath.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

Um, but I don't know what I don't know the history of why it took them so long to put out a record, but well, I mean uh it's a good watch out there called Last Days Here, or that's the documentary about Pentagram and Bobby. It's a tough watch. That's what I've heard, yeah. Um, but it's very informative as to why Pentagram went the way it did for a while. Yeah, but Bobby has lived a life.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

I I I've heard, I'm guessing substances were a little involved, just a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 36:20

Oh, yeah, quite a bit. Like yeah, and then there's some other stuff that makes Bobby not very likable. Yeah, yeah. But again, it gives some explanation as to why Pentagram, you know, I feel like there was a misarpreneur to become like the next big thing there. Yeah, uh, because I could have been, but yeah, yeah. All right, my number five here, kind of a deep cut from Finland. Reverend Bazaar. Oh to Crush the Insects. It's a great album. Oh my god. Slow brooding, uh, some of the most theatrical vocals out there, like they are like more of a baritoneish range occasionally. I don't know, there's occasionally some tenor stuff in there, but it's the way this guy sings, he's telling stories of woe and misery, slow droning riffs. But occasionally you get like some you know good up-tempo rockers. The opening track is one of my favorite doom metal songs, doom over the world. You will hear it, it'll get stuck in your head, it's catchy as hell. But a lot of a lot of this is just gloomy as hell. By this axe, I rule fucking wizard. That is the name of the last track, and it's legit about a wizard that you know does the deed. Um Slaves of Satan, Council of Ten. Like these songs are so fucking bleak. Yeah, absolutely love the execution here. If you've never heard uh Reverend Czar, this is probably their most famous one. I don't know. Their first one, oh god, what is the name of that one? I think I think in the rectory of the Bizarre Reverend or something. There it is, the one with the Goya painting on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That one's also really good, but I don't know. I've always preferred this one a little bit more. I still need to get their third one, which is harder to find, but great, great band. Whatever happened to them. They kind of just flaked out after the third album. It's like, yeah, no, I guess we're just done. I think you know the other guys have like different bands and such, but they bring back Reverend Bazaar. Uh Marilyn Death Wish list.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

Bring it back for a set. You haven't seen them live? Nope. No, yeah. Me either. I haven't seen I saw Pentagram live. I have not seen my number four live, and it is Candlemass, Epicus, Dumicus, Metallicus. Um I mean, I don't know what to say about this album other than that it's uh it kicks ass. It's uh from when I th when I think of Epic Doom Metal, this is the one that comes to mind, and Solitude is the album opener. So I mean, it's just like come on, you know, you right off the bat, you've got this epic, bleak, you know, heavy as fuck opener. And it's very it's very theatrical, it's very operatic. It's got this like that's why they call it epic, right? Like, what the hell is epic doom? Well, listen to that.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

It's like a Shakespearean tragedy on every track.

SPEAKER_00 39:17

Yeah, you you imagine him holding the skull, right? Holding that skull up as he's singing uh with his big uh curly hair, right? His big uh his big hair that he had back in the day. What was his name?

SPEAKER_02 39:29

Oh, Messiah wasn't on that one. This one was Johan. Johan was on the ball. Oh, Johan. Wait, yeah, that wasn't Messiah.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

Yes, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 39:38

That's right. He's the he's the more gruff one, he's the current vocalist.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

Yeah, that's right, that's right. Demon's Gate, Crystal Ball. Crystal Ball is so fucking good. I mean, the whole album, these songs are also longer than you know your true your typical metal songs. I mean, some of these are going for nine minutes, so um, definitely more epic and drawn out, and uh, you know, they they leave a lot of room for the theatrics and the presentation. It's not just about the riffs here with Candle Mass. They want they want a show, they want more of a spectacle. Um, and that's why it's epic. But I mean, yeah, it also says it on the album, too. That helps right. I mean, that that's a giveaway, right? Yeah, but I think um no, I just if you haven't heard this album uh and you're into Doom Metal, well, I don't think that's possible, first off. Yeah, if you're into Doom Metal and you haven't heard this album, I think that's it's probably not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 40:35

Uh it's in your Doom 101 course, I think. Like this this is where you should kind of start.

SPEAKER_00 40:41

Yeah, even if even if it's not your favorite Candle Mass album, at least it's a starter. Give it a listen for me. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

That's my number five. My number four uh is a man we've brought up, though. This is not necessarily some of their classic material, like you know, the more 80s stuff, it's more 90s, and that's same vitas with die healing. This is my favorite St. Vitus album, probably. Uh, so they're catchiest songs. This one does not feature Wino, which I know it's that's kind of taboo. In fact, I don't think Wino is on nope, not on any of my albums. Sorry, Wino. Love you all. Love you though, love you. You're you're a fucking awesome The Obsessor. Um but uh this one has always been just one I come back to frequently because again, it's riffs, it's melodies, it's hooks. And this is like it's not epic, it's more rooted in like the big blues riffs, you know, these gravelly but woeful vocals, all telling stories of just like hey, shit's fucking bleak, but hey, check out this bluesy lick here. Isn't that slick? Yeah, there's just so much good song around here. Uh Trail of Pestilence, uh the opening track, Dark World, fantastic. Uh yeah, Sloth, the whole album. This is one mind. Yep, there we go. Another one. Oh, like it's the whole album. This this is like the one I come back to the most, like, you know, children of doom is fucking awesome too. And uh what is the what was the one with the fucking paint cover? I always forget it. Oh, you'll you will get there soon. Oh, okay, all right. Well we'll get it. But yeah, this this is, I think, in my opinion, St. Binance's Spinous Hour, Grey Rifs, great songs, everything. Great vocals, too.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

Holy shit, it's it's a that's a great one, and that almost made my list. Oh almost made my list. So far, we have no crossovers. Oh, all right. All right, well, we'll see.

SPEAKER_02 42:38

We might have a band crossover here.

SPEAKER_00 42:40

We might have a band crossover, but not an album yet. Not an album yet. My number third is a newer album, um, and it is one we talked about on the last episode, and it is I I can't get enough of this record, and I can't get enough of this band, and it is Mesa with the spin. Oh, this album has rocked my world. It is um, yeah, I've been listening to it on repeat, right, for over a well a year now. Um, man, it is just it's not pure doom, but there's enough doom in here to make it a doom metal album. There's other elements too. There's goth, there's some jazz in here, even. I mean, it's all post-rock, right? It's kind of all over the place. But the the song that always gets me is the dress.

SPEAKER_02 43:29

Yep, that's the one.

SPEAKER_00 43:31

Holy shit.

SPEAKER_02 43:32

That one Fire on the Roof in emulation, too. But the dress is a centerpiece song. Like you can just tell like this is the biggest song on there.

SPEAKER_00 43:42

Yeah. And it's, you know, it is she has a very like she does have a doomy kind of vocal style. She's very there's a lot of melancholy there. There's a lot of sadness in her voice. Um, she's got a powerful voice, though.

SPEAKER_02 43:57

Oh, it's not it's it's a little raspy, too. I've seen her smoke clove cigarettes. God, she's attractive. I'm talking about a big fan, is what I mean.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

Yeah, that's what he meant. That's what I meant. That's what he meant. He just likes her voice. Um, that's it. Uh no, I makes me want to smoke clove cigarettes again. Um but uh aren't those illegal in America now? I don't well, they're from Italy. They they can't. Oh, yeah, that's right. They're Italian. Damn it. Um, no, this album just uh yeah, I've been listening to it non-stop. And it's just um yeah, when I was putting together this list, I was like, oh it's a little too new, but no, it's it's one of my favorites. It really has like I'll be listening to this for the foreseeable future, and um yeah, it's it's quality, so I gotta have it there.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

I'm with you. Like that album like kind of came out of nowhere for me. Actually, like my a fellow YouTuber, a buddy of mine, Dreadful Rick at the Dreadful Minutes, is absolutely obsessed with that band too. And he pointed me in the direction. I was like, Holy shit, this is cute. Oh, yeah. The song emulation, like how it's like half piano ballad, and then it gets into that big rocker song. Like, oh my god, dude.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

Yeah, yeah, beautiful. Yeah, it's it's gorgeous.

SPEAKER_02 45:16

All right, number three. We're getting into some old shit here. Oh classic stuff. Trouble the skull. This is probably my favorite trouble album. Riffs a plenty on here. Again, Eric Wagner, rest in peace. Uh, he was the Robert Plant of Doom Metal. He had that kind of same delivery, but it was again raspier, darker, and god man, they had amazing riffs, dude. Wickedness of man, the big centerpiece song in here, dude. The the tone they had too was this like god, it's hard to describe. It was just it was thick, but it had like kind of a sizzle to it. It was just amazing. This is a remaster too in Hammerheart, which if you can find these, I recommend for all of their albums. But this, I think, is some of their finest songwriting. Honestly, like a lot of their earlier stuff was so good. I I even again like they're more like Stoner Return with the self-titled and uh Manic Frustration, but this right here, in terms of that gloom and doom, but done with melody and a lot of great songwriting dynamics, great leads on here, too. Like, this is the one that you know, I would say like a style that borders a little bit on that traditional heavy metal stuff, too. So, I mean, if you just like riffs and leads and harmonies and all the stuff you get in traditional heavy metal, except you want a hefty dose of depression and you know bleakness, yes, yes, the skull. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 46:46

You know, I'm gonna admit it. Trouble, I've never really given them too much of a chance outside of uh a few of their tracks. I don't know why. The skull. Okay, I'm gonna do it. That's the one do it. Yeah, I don't know what it was. I think um I don't know. I just never, I never did, I never saw I never really saw their albums around either.

SPEAKER_02 47:06

I found out of them uh because Century Media used to put out samplers back in the 90s, they were called um identity, the identity comps, and they would feature like a whole bunch of their artists, and Trouble was one of the ones I got into like earlier. I was like, Oh, this is kind of cool, like this slow and brooding. I think it was like the first album, Solemn 9, that I heard, and was like, Yeah, now I dig this. This is cool. They were kind of a Christian band too earlier on. Right, that's what I heard, and that I think maybe that's on the album, which was like, All right, they're spicy Christians.

SPEAKER_00 47:38

Yeah, they're not uh they're not Creed. No, um okay. My number two is the album that you were trying to think of earlier. It is Saint Vitus, and it is Born Too Late. There we go. Um, yeah, it's a very purple cover. It's a very interesting use of space. Yeah, it's very it's a very odd album cover. It's like the whole thing is purple, except for this teeny tiny little window. It's got a golden cross in it. And um it when I say teeny tiny, I mean tiny. It is a tiny little window. And I don't know what the hell they were trying to say with this, but maybe it was a prison cell or something. Somebody I don't know. I have no idea. Maybe they didn't have time to do an album core, like, oh, that's what we forgot to do, we were too high. Maybe you know, like, you know, sometimes when you um when you click on an image on Google, yep, and the image is so tiny, and you're like, oh whatever, I'm gonna save it anyways, and put it on my whatever you're making. Like if you're making like a poster or something, you put it on anyways. Well, that's kind of what they probably did here, you know, even before that. But um, yeah, it just looks it's not the nicest looking album cover, it's kind of shitty, I'll admit it. But it's but the logo's cool. I love their logo. Saint Midas up there in the black. But no, this has Wino on it. I think this was his first album with I think that's right. Yeah. Um, but no, it born too late, the title track. I mean, come on. That's such a doomy title, too. I was born too late, you know, just like it's a very the whole album is very sorrowful and just kind of like it's it's a miserable, miserable album. Dying inside, um, the lost feeling. Like, come on, like these these title, these tracks are just giving it away, right? For what the theme is here. It's just a you know, um it's not a wino's lived uh a kind of a rough life as well, I would say. I mean, he um he likes that bottle, let's just put it that way, right? Yeah, he does.

SPEAKER_02 49:48

He brings it to different bands, too. I yeah, I I I always like that one because like you can hear again that kind of warmth and fuzziness and the riffs, like it's still so closely rooted to Black Sabbath. Like yes, production-wise, it's almost a mirror image of certain albums.

SPEAKER_00 50:05

Yeah, I mean it it is, and and that's the thing with Vitus is St. Vitus is they always had you know, the riffs were always a very important part of it. Oh um, you know, and and they were definitely Iom just worshippers. I mean, Wino, um you know, himself will just talk endlessly about Sabbath. And uh they all will. A lot of these bands that we're talking about right now, when we get into the history of how this whole started, they're gonna just kind of gush over Black Sabbath. It really is a love fest for Black Sabbath. So should I mean and why wouldn't it be? Right?

SPEAKER_02 50:42

All right, number two here. We've brought up this band, but again, a different album. Uh, we got Candlemass's Nightfall. Uh, this is Messiah's era, and one of the first songs I think I ever heard by Candlemass, and such a goofy fucking video, too. Bewitched. Yes, my god, I love dude. First off, that dude's hair defied gravity. Yeah, Messiah's hair is I mean, I think it's still pretty poofy. Like, it's like him and Buzz Osborne from the albums. Yeah, but uh my god, these songs. This is this is where I really felt the epicness. Like, I love the first album, it's amazing, it's downtrodden, it's gloomy. This one, Messiah just ramps it up to like 11 with his vocal delivery. It's so over the top, but he nails every note. His and his vocal performance is live. Holy shit, he is good. Oh wow. Um, but I mean, Bewitched, uh God, the well of souls. Holy shit, what a song! Um Dark are the veils of death. Yeah, like the these songs, like to me, like I feel like they really just kind of got their sound just absolutely nailed on here. It's so hard for me to say if this is my favorite because again, Tales of Creation, Ancient Dreams, and the debut in this one are all kind of in lockstep with almost that number one, but they were all that good. But yeah, in terms of like when I think of Candlemass, this is this is honestly the one I think about probably the most because I'm I just got more into the Messiah era than anything else. Like, I love Johan. Johan's got this gravelly voice that is just yeah, awesome. Um, the song they did with uh Tony Iomi Australic Australicus or whatever it was, I think it was about like some octopus god or something. I don't know, it was cool. But they had Tony Iomi on there to do a lead, and was like, dude, this song is just all fucking ripping. But yeah. The bewitched shit. Oh, yeah, dude. It's so good.

SPEAKER_00 52:40

It's and it's it's kind of campy, but I love it. It reminds me of like yeah, that 80s, like almost like kind of not power metal, but kind of going towards like like sabotage and stuff like that. Like, just very there's a lot of camp to it. There's a lot of cheese at times, but it's it's epic, it's heavy, it's like it's so heavy.

SPEAKER_02 53:03

Yeah, there's an interesting, like, it's a contrast, but also a meeting point between the vocals and the music itself. Like the music itself is bleak and heavy. Yeah, just the the tone of the guitar in that is so fucking good. Yeah, and then you have this floating vocal, like a the ghost of a fucking court jester or something like that. It's like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 53:27

First off, messiah, calling yourself messiah. I mean he dressed apart.

SPEAKER_02 53:32

He had the the the robes, and he was like the the fuzzy headed vicar.

SPEAKER_00 53:36

Yeah. No, he was he is a character. Oh, love it. Alright, time for number one. My number one is from my favorite doom metal band. It is Electric Wizard, and it is Dope Throne. Um the album cover alone. When I first saw this album cover, I was like, I must own this album. I must have this. It's like a satanic looking, I don't know what is a goat smoking a bong. Yeah, maybe a Seder. There's some weird hooded figures in the background that look really creepy. Uh looks like there's a forest behind him. It is one of the coolest looking album covers. Um, I love this album cover, but that's not the only reason. Uh the music. Come on. It's it's all about the music. And when I first heard Funeralopolis, holy shit. Um, when I heard that live, oh man, like that that song is so fucking heavy, muddy. Um and the the break the middle part where it changes tempo and the riff comes in even more. It's got that like driving riff. I love it. It's so fucking good. Um, I the Witch Finder, We Hate You, the title track, Weird Tales. I mean, the whole album is just uh Stone or Doom Perfection. I just I I can't get enough of this album. They played most of it when I saw them a while ago, and I was all for it. I was like, yeah, like play the whole fucking album from start to finish.

SPEAKER_02 55:21

That is one of the most fuzz-drenched production I think I've ever heard, too. It's so fuzzy. It's an electric blanket.

SPEAKER_00 55:28

Yeah, it's insane. Like, sometimes you I listen to it and I'm like, man, it's like it's so distorted. It is so fuzzy that you're just like, you know, uh I can't remember if it was him or somebody else said that um it hides you hides your mistakes, right? Yeah, when you would you have when you have it that fuzzy, you don't have to play well, right?

SPEAKER_02 55:53

I mean, like it does sound like someone has like a TV on with just static and like someone's frying bacon right next to that TV. But I mean that is true, like and a lot of like you know, like Son of Doom, like you just you play it slow, yeah. It's that repetitive, trance-inducing darkness that yeah, this band has. I prefer like again, uh Come Mind Fanatics just because there's a little bit more production value on it, but yeah, yeah, I get like I get the vibe there. Well, and also one. Oh sorry.

SPEAKER_00 56:23

I was just gonna say which cult today is another one that I really love by them. That maybe is more doomy. Let us pray. Yeah, low let us pray. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But um, but no, I I just this is the one I listened to the most. This is my this was my gateway into them, and it's definitely very stonery, but I think there's enough doom in it as well.

SPEAKER_02 56:47

I I left them off just because, like, you know what, we're gonna get to stoner metal, and like how much more stone can you get than Electric Wizard? That's like couch paralysis stoned right there, right? Right. So, but for my number one, I kind of went to one that's oh man, it's kind of a bridge between doom metal, stoner metal, and almost post metal. That would be Yab. Oh, clearing the path to ascend. First off, I'm gonna echo the occult speak of Yab. Yab is love. Um, this is my favorite album by them. There are only four tracks in here, they are all over the 10-minute mark, and oh my god, they are monolithic. They are glacier-sized songs sliding across the earth, rumbling it as they go. Uh, the marrow. No, is it the marrow or just marrow? It's just marrow. Marrow. Yeah. Oh my god, that is one of the best songs they've ever written. The slow builds on there, the atmosphere, the sense of longing and depression, but also just pulverizing riffs. Mike's guitar tone is otherworldly. Uh, like it's so thick, it's so resonant, and there's so much heart put into every song, too. Like, this is like more personal. Like, this isn't about the occult necessarily. This is about you know, a person just going through life and you know, uh talking about all the hardships. Uh, god, what was the other one on here that's just an absolute beast of a song? Um, yeah, unmask the specter. Again, these slow, like almost post-metal builds where they build up the song to the huge crescendos, then shrink it back down, build back up. Like, this is like an emotional attachment listen. Like, I am vested if this is on. Like, don't fucking bother me. This is my moment with the band. Also, playing an MBF next year. Holy shit, I'm excited. I think it's the second time I've seen them, and coming out with a new album. Nice, nice, very happy. But yeah, Yab. Um, I don't know, we'll probably bring him up again on Stoner Metal, but this band is so good. There's there's nothing they put out that has been lacking in quality, like uh stupid good.

SPEAKER_00 59:08

What's so funny is that album is literally sitting back behind me, and it almost made my top five. So we almost had one cross-up album. We were close. I I think the reason I left it off was um I wanted to move make room for Mesa because I love that album so much. That's a great album, too. Yeah, I would have put that one on there though, just because of how heavy it is, it's so fucking heavy.

SPEAKER_02 59:33

It's it's between that and the cessation. That's another favorite of mine from yab. I love all their albums, like there isn't one. I almost uh got our uh our raw heart, the last one, uh, just because the beauty in falling leaves, I think, is one of the most beautiful songs he's ever written. But yeah, um, all things yab, yab is love, yab could have been all five my spots.

SPEAKER_00 59:56

Well, let's talk about just how this whole thing started, the history of Doom Metal. I mean, it's a tale as old as time or as old as metal itself. We talked about this Black Sabbath, right? I mean, they started not just heavy metal as a whole, but the arc they're the architect behind a few subgenres, specifically Doom, right? Um, however, you kind of brought this up. You said Black Sabbath is more of a proto Doom band, they're not really a Doom Metal band because they did so many other things, and also, you know, at the time there wasn't really any heavy metal either when they first started. It was just kind of it was a new thing. So um, you can't really call them Doom Metal in the in the way that we would call like Candlemass or St. Vitus Doom Metal.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:41

Yeah, I mean, again, they're like the the forebearers of all, yeah. So that's a lot of responsibility, like because they influence every single subset that came out. But the two I'd say Stoner Metal and Doom Metal are the ones like we don't need to go much past this, like we don't need to be influenced by many more bands, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:57

That'll do right, right. And I mean, after volume four, they really went into more experimental territory, like Sabbath play Sabbath, sabotage, and then whatever they did on Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die. I don't know. Um, not very doomy, not very um, you know, not very like some art, there's some doom on there, but not like for example, um the song um what is it? Um uh Symptom of the Universe. Yeah, pretty pretty fucking heavy. Yeah, but like, but like you know, you listen to like a hard road or never say die or um spiral architect and all these songs, they're not they're not doomy, they're not very doomy.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:42

Um no, well, I mean they were kind of you know all over the place in terms of the vibes and the feels, and then the music started catching up, like, oh this makes sense. We're talking about fairies from boots now. Yeah, before it was a little weird, it was heavy, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:57

No, but the riffs of Tony Iomi, I mean, really laid the groundwork for the the doom metal guitar style, especially that classic sound. Uh the grooves of geezer and Bill, and just the the vocals of Ozzy, like because Ozzy was kind of wailing on his on the songs early on.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:16

Yeah, he started off as more like a like a blues crooner, like yeah, always on the riff. And then I mean he he really started to like kind of like just grow as a vocalist. Let's say like around volume four, he was really doing some like cool stuff with his vocals, and yeah, more of that atmospheric filter on there, like stuff you would hear on you know, um got solitude or uh planet caravan, yeah, like kind of willing to manipulate the vocal to make it more part of the atmosphere and kind of again convey that feeling a little bit more.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:46

Yeah, yeah. But every doom metal band, at least the OGs, especially, they talk about Sabbath, you know, and how they inspired them. Here's a few examples. Bobby Liebling of Pentagram saw them right after they released their debut. He called them a 10 with a bullet. Whatever that means, but uh a ten with a bullet. That's that's Bobby for good. Ten with a bullet. Scott Weinrich, or Wino, as he's called, uh said seeing Sabbath live in the 70s, quote, changed my life. I was completely dumbfounded. They were playing their instruments so hard, there was no doubt in my young mind that the concert would have to be stopped. I was convinced they were going to destroy their instruments. So pretty pretty important uh impression left on a young Wino.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:44

Um clearly had no impact on him at all.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:46

Yeah, none, none whatsoever. Uh he's such a gentle soul. Um, Candlemass, bassist, is it Leaf Edling? Leaf Leaf. Yeah, so obsessed with Black Sabbath, he collects variants of their debut album. He owns over 70 copies of the first album. He said, quote, Black Sabbath's first album was so important, it had an impact on everybody at the time. If you were interested in hard rock and heavy metal, heavy rock music, you couldn't ignore it. I grew up with it and it had a huge impact on me. Nothing sounded like it at the time. That's very true. But when it comes to Sabbath worship, I you know, Electric Wizard is up there at the top. It's obvious. Their name alone, right? It's a collect combination of two Sabbath songs, and um, I can't I never pronounce his name right. Is it use just Osborne Oborn? Use Oborn, I can't remember.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:43

I forget how it I heard it pronounced once in an interview and then I immediately forgot it.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:48

Yeah, anyways, the lead singer and guitarist of Electric Wizard said, quote, it all extends from Black Sabbath, they created that sound. So every one of these bands, pretty much that we mentioned, they all they all point back to Sabbath. Makes sense. Absolutely. I mean, it's the root of all evil. Yes, the root of all evil. There's another band, and there's another band that came around in the 70s, um, and then and then put out some important albums in the early 80s that you know I don't I hear about, but not often enough, and that is a band you mentioned, Witchfinder General, right? Oh, Friends of Hell.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:25

Uh, what a great album. What a great album. I know, I was just about to say that. Amazing album guards. Just it really just draws your eye. Oh, yeah. I wonder, I wonder what it was about. Uh it's people playing dress up in the cemetery. Some of them aren't dressed very well at all. Yeah, she's clearly clearly having a wardrobe malfunction.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:44

Yeah, a huge war. It makes Janet Jackson's uh malfunction look like uh tame, very tame because you can see both of them, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:50

Right, right. But no, yeah, that that band took Sabbath worship. I mean, it was exactly that. No, um, I do think maybe the follow up was like a little. Bit more refined, but that first album, like that might be arguably like the first doom metal album, maybe because I mean it was definitely more on the metal spectrum, like it had more of that dark foreboding sound. It felt like the guitars were a little bit more centered on that. You know, I wouldn't say like new album sound, but they were heavier. Yeah, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:20

Well, and it's an important band and album because they came around at a time when Sabbath had kind of shifted away from that sound. Ozzy was going through some rough times, you know, Dio would replace them soon after, and the bands were getting faster, you know, like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, all those bands. They weren't really playing slower songs. And not only did uh Witchfinder General have the Sabbath-like riffs, but they really went all in with the occult and the horror themes, like a lot of future Doom Metal bands would do. So, you know, you can see where Electric Wizard uh and a lot of these types of bands got inspiration to do that kind of Witch Finder General theme. Um, and you know, through through them.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:04

And stayed dirty and smuddy too, just like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:07

Exactly. Love it, love it.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:09

I I mean, I'll I'll be lying if I didn't say the album covers, well, mainly the one, were a big reason why I bought their albums.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:16

Sure. I mean, that's where every yeah. I mean, I remember seeing that album cover and going, hmm, okay, interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:22

All right, I don't even really care if this sucks now.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:25

If it sucks, I'll just put it on my wall, right? Yeah, but no, the there like Thrash, there's also a big four of Doom, and we've mentioned all four of these bands Candlemass, St. Vitus, Pentagram, and Trouble. These four bands, um, I mean, it's like this is Doom 101, right? These four bands really laid the groundwork for what Doom Metal was. Um I don't know which one is technically the first to do it. They're all kind of around the same time period, but you know, they're all they're all different in their own way. They don't sound the same. They all do things a little bit differently, but they're all very influential on doom metal and and you know, creating that classic doom metal sound.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:17

Again, it's all about the vibe, and all of them found again, like a different way to do it and make like standout like you know, like bands out of it. Like they they they don't seem like they overlap too much, where it's like, yeah, they just sound like copies of one another. Like I love that about you know, like a lot of these main bands.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:34

Yeah, like Candlemass, you know, Lee uh Leaf said we wanted to be the heaviest band in the world, we wanted to be heavier and more metal than anyone. So they were wanting to really push that envelope of how heavy could they get, how you know dark could they get. Uh, they wanted to merge Black Sabbath with opera and darker themes. And like we talked about with Messiah, he dressed up like a medieval monk. Uh, he gave it that moody atmosphere along with his crazy vocals. And uh, I mean, from the debut, they were just off and running with the heaviness. So it was just uh they were they they came out swinging. So oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:14

That again, that original run of albums is just borderline untouchable, like some of the best doom ever made.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:21

Um, St. Vitus, why know? I have a good quote here from him. He says, It comes from the gut, the music has that low tone, and it hits you in those emotional places. I've always tried to make the lyrics just as interesting as the music. It's always been a little bit dark, but I'm not drawn to the happy stuff. I like music that grabs you by the balls. Hey, that's fair. That's fair, and that's that's and relatable. Relatable, and that's also something Wino would say. I mean, that's that's him. So St. Vitus, you know, they were all about you know those heavy riffs and uh you know not telling any lies. They weren't interested in uh fluff, you know, they were they were gonna tell it like it is, and they were gonna do it in a in a heavy as hell dark kind of way, but always tuneful, like again, very great hooks, great riffs.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:14

That's the thing they like about doom. Like there's you know, so many heavy riffs, like just riffs that weigh as much as all of your like seasonal depression and an avalanche on top of that, yeah. But melody, like stuff that you can just really attach to, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:32

Pentagram, we talked about them. Uh, I mean, Bobby, another legend, really brought the occult energy as well, gave it that 70s style, one of the direct descendants of Sabbath for sure, and then trouble band that you've mentioned a number of times here. You you mentioned Eric Wagner a number of times. When I when I heard I was listening to more of them recently just uh for the podcast for sure. Um, and I gotta say, like, there were times when I was like, Man, he reminds me of like you you said Robert Plant, yeah, absolutely, or Rob Halford at times. A little bit, and I don't know if you're gonna like this one, but sometimes I even got little King Diamond vibes from him just because he has a high, he has a really high-pitched whale.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:15

He can for me, it does sound like it's more in key and more natural than King's. I know, I know the King Diamond is like son of a bitch, he's making fun of our Lord. Uh but you know, I I love all of King Diamond's register except for one, but uh yeah, Eric. I don't know, again, like how he was able to convey the mood and everything. Like I again, he did it with that gritty, kind of like bluesy gruffness to his vocals, and yeah, he he he's a standout vocalist for me in terms of doom metal.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:45

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I I was impressed with them, so that's why I gotta listen to more of their stuff. Um yeah, I'll check, I'll check that one out. 90s, we get to the 90s, and then we get the branching off. We get the stoner doom, the death doom, the funeral doom, all these different types of doom. But I would say like the doom metal, when I think of doom metal, doom metal, um, it's those big four. It's the big four, and it's that classic doom metal sound. Um, the other stuff is also I think about it like Cathedral, of course, my dying bride. You can argue Catatonia's in there with the Death Doom. Um you re you mentioned Solitude Eternus, uh Reverend Bazaar, you know, all these other types of bands. But um for me when I think of Doom, I think of the big four. Like that's that's they're like the they're like the the uh you'd say the beginning of it, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:42

I mean, no, I I I think that's totally fair. Like when you say just like flat out doom metal, you don't specify like oh funeral doom, death doom, starter doom, you say doom metal. Exact same bands I'm thinking about too.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:54

Yeah, so yeah, yeah. It's weird, it's like thrash with the big four. It's like yeah, you think of the big four, we think of thrash metal, you think of the big four. Um when you think of grunge, you think of the big four. You know, that's like when you think of uh like there's all there's these different types of rock and metal that have like a weird big four category, and it's like everyone kind of thinks of the same four bands.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:16

Yeah, I mean there's like like a little bit of a I mean, even with death metal, I don't know, mostly I think of like, well, it's either Florida, New York, or Sweden.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:22

Sure, yeah. Well, yeah, yeah. That's hard. There's a hard it's hard for a big four with death metal because of so many different scenes. Um but like with Doom Metal, it was like originally it was just these, you know, it was like the 80s classic Doom sound. There weren't all those offshoots yet. So that would come later. But um we talked about how Doom Metal really sets a mood. Um and so now we're gonna talk about five of the most evocative songs in Doom Metal, five songs that really show that Doom Metal can set a tone, a mood, whatever mood it is for you. Um, these are these are the five that we're gonna talk about. So what do you got? What do you got? Painful, huh?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:14

I have five of these songs that I think are particularly just harrowing darkness. You feel them, you can't escape them. They pull you in with the gravity of their riffs and mood and all that. And I also have just ten favorite ones, too. Just because okay, there we go. Oh, I went down a rabbit hole. Like, I love this too much. Let's do the five evocative ones. All right, start off with a very familiar one here off of your candle mass album, Crystal Ball. Oh, I love that because like you can actually kind of see the whole like gleaming the scrier into the crystal ball and see nothing but bleakness and just tragedy and all that, and it's described so well. Again, not Messiah, Johan, but Johan does a great job, you know, kind of like painting a story, and it's it's already miserable, there's already so much weight and gloom upon it. It's a beautiful song, and it's weighty with those riffs and that ominous, occult-y vibe. Like, I don't know, like all the cool stuff that leads up to seeing the headless horseman and the original Disney stuff, like it's all of that. All that wrapped up, and then the chorus is the headless horseman. I don't know, that's the best way I can describe it. Like it just hits that classic, yeah, like horror story sort of vibe.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:33

My number five is um it's from a band who kind of crosses over Doom, Death Doom, Gothic Metal. It's Catatonia, and it's the song Saw You Drown. Um what a depressing song. What a depressing song. It is slow, at times it's very melodic, but it's the perfect title for a doom metal song, and it it gives that doomy atmosphere for sure. I remember hearing this and just being like, My god, like I I don't know, man. I don't want to get out, I don't want to leave the house today. I don't want to do anything. It is it is moody as hell.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:14

It's like the cure for metal heads, yeah. Yeah, it's it's bleak. You get that kind of like like shimmering guitar tone on there, too. It sounds it sounds damp, maybe too. Like, I don't know. Like it is a song that just it's like someone giving up and just letting the water take them down.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:32

Yeah, yeah. And that's why I have it here in Doom because even though it's not maybe as crushingly heavy in terms of like the riffs and everything, it's more so the atmosphere, it's more sort of the mood. Um, it just really makes you feel pretty miserable. So I mean, catatonia are great at that. Oh, they are masters of that. Oh they're they're cool because they they could change their sound a lot, like they were able to do some very melodic alternative metal at times. They were able to do the gothic metal, death doom, doom. Like they're they're they've done so much stuff over there over the years.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:09

So I'm a huge category fan. Yeah, not so much the last one, the one before it, though. Oh my god, I think it was one of their strongest. Oh, yeah, Sky Boy to Stars. Yeah, oh so catchy. Yeah. All right, next one for me, and in terms of capturing the essence of Doom and dying, uh the song The Hour of Death by Reverend Bazaar, off of their debut album in The Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend. This is this is about a person on their deathbed. I don't know how much more doomy and gloomy it can get. Besides, I mean, it's slowed down to like the tempo of a snail race. It's it's all single droning riffs. The vocals are literally describing the last moments of life of this person. It it's all vibe, it's all like this is this is that moment, and it's stretched out with each droning note. It sounds miserable and so heavy. I I love the production on that album. I love the production on both the albums I have by him. I'm sure the third one sounds really good too. I just gotta find it. But man, uh like it that's like the essence of Doom, right there. Like that there's the the ominous presence, that thing that's you know, it's death's been chasing you down all your life, and it's finally crept up to these last moments. It's at the finish line, and they fucking nail it on that song. Yeah, I'll listen to that one. Oh, it's so fucking bleak.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:38

Maybe I'll listen to it on uh tomorrow. Not before you go.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:41

Don't listen if you're stuck in traffic, like I'm just gonna jerk the fucking wheel.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:45

Yeah, yeah. Oh, geez. Uh, my number four is a newer song. Um, but when I heard this the song, I was just um I mean it was it was depressing as hell. It's by the band Tribunal. Um it is the song Incarnadine. Um oh my god. This was this was a depressing song. Um, it's slow, it is haunting. And they know how what instruments to use. They've got a really depressing cello in here. Is it cello? I think it's a violin or cello, right? Cello cello.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:24

Holy shit. She's amazing. In terms of an instrument, if you you already have the doomy riffs, like how can I make this sadder? Yeah, the answer is a cello.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:34

Yeah, a cello. And you've got male, female vocals trading off. It is a bleak track. The music video for this song is so dark and it is just like I mean, it is like there's no sunlight to be found. Um, there's there's a scene, there's uh a part where the woman is walking on a beach, but the beach is all black. Um, it it's just in the videos. Oh, it is bleak, man. It is bleak.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:02

I have both of their albums. I think this is the first time I joked about R-Tex dying in a review just to fuck with uh John. That's been an ongoing theme. Anytime we go over something sad, it's like, guess what? I'm gonna bring up.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:14

Don't do it, man. No, it's it's a bleak ass song, and when I heard it, I was like, this is so doom. Uh to me, this is the epitome of doom, and so this is one I had to put on the list, even though it's a newer one, and there's probably so many others I could have included. This one just made made it for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:33

I mean, I almost throw them in funeral doom, like it's it's very close. Like it's it's also got gothic vibes, too. Yeah, um, really solid band. Um, me, I I've started to venture out a little bit, you know, into different kinds of doom after these first two. Um, next one I have is Paul Bearer, the ghost I used to be off of Foundations of Burden, which is my favorite Paul Bearer album. Uh, they just came through and played this entire album and my local club, and I fucking missed it because my basement flooded. Um, yeah, yeah, it's it's so much fun. Uh, but this band, uh, there's something about this band that you feel every ounce of emotion that goes into it, and everything they write is so fucking sad. Like, holy shit. I tried reading the lyrics to some of their stuff like you know a while ago while listening to music. I can't gonna cry. Oh god, fight it back. Nope, think about something funny. Uh, but the ghost ESP is it's it's darkly personal, it's about you know battling depression, suicidal thoughts, uh, your place in the world. And it's that like relatability that I like. Like it's it's it's so human, but they also have these again, like big, lush soundscapes. Everything is so fucking drenched in melody as much as it is drenched in these big droning guitars. Um, Paul Bear is a very special band. Like, I I love this band. I'm fucking kicking myself for missing them again, but um, hopefully they come back around again.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:08

Yeah, they're cool. They're on my list for another for the other one. Oh, uh yeah, they're they're great, they are great. My number three is a classic. I've brought it up before. I I had to include it just because when I think of songs that to me are evocative for Doom Metal and creating that sound. This is like, I mean, this is one of the OGs, and that's Solitude by Candlemass. I just think like the whole idea of it is just perfect for Doom Metal. Isolation, misery, um, the way that um that he's singing, it's just got this very whaley kind of sound to it. It's just m it's just the dude is clearly miserable. Um, and that's what Doom Metal is all about for me. So yeah, when I think of Doom Metal, I don't Doom metal to me is not a type of metal where you're I mean you listen to it with your friends, sure, but it's more like you'll it's more of that like solitary metal. It's like I'm gonna listen to this alone in the dark, and solitude is a great example of that. It's just got that vibe to it, and yeah, I had to include it.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:18

Yeah, yeah. I mean, even even in a live, you know, setting, like you're you're you're kind of alone amongst a lot of people, but headbanging in a dark room, like it's yeah, it's kind of the vibe there. Yeah. This next one I kind of went, all right. We're going more into like death, doom, funeral doom, that sort of territory, because I feel like some of it had to be covered. I didn't want to cover it in my you know, Mount Rushmore favorite albums because it's it's kind of separate, but in terms of oppressive darkness and just being absolutely crushed by the weight of heaviness of a song. Uh, I went with A Burial at Ornans by the band Disembowelment off of their album Transcend into the Peripheral. They're alone full length. Uh, you can find ex-members of them in the band. Oh, god damn it, was the name of them. Inverlock. There we go. This is kind of close to Death Doom, Feel Doom. It's slow, it's plotting. The riffs are monotonous and distant. The vocals range from screams to reverb growls that sound almost inhuman, and the weight of the music and how slow and plotting it is. You you feel like you're just being folded in half by it. Like it's so oppressive, it's so dark. It squeezes every ounce of joy out of your fucking body and replaces it with a fucking stank face. Um, it's it's it again, like one of the heaviest one-off albums, I think, ever. There's occasionally moments where there are like layered synths and such, but you know, when they're at their heaviest, it is disgusting. You might even get like an almost kind of grindish freak out every now and then, and then boom, right back to the most lurching, disgusting riffs. And again, you just feel like a like a tidal wave of tar. It's it's so gross. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:14

I mean, yeah, that that uh I've only I've listened to that like once. It was um, yeah, it was it was something else, man. It was something else.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:23

Emberlock's gonna be around again, so stay tuned for that, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:28

Number two is not, you know, I put this on here and I questioned why I put it on here. Um, I needed my dying bride on here, just because I feel like when it comes to like doom metal and creating that mood and that atmosphere of doom, they do it really well, even though they kind of cross over a lot of different styles. The song, though, is an interesting choice. I went with for you. Um and for you, it comes, it's it's from their album Um uh Like Gods of the Sun. And it was definitely more of a gothy song because it had clean vocals. Um, he had ditched kind of the growls on this one, but it is so fucking like it's melodic, but it's very, very dreary. It is very um melancholic, and and it just creates an atmosphere of like, you know, I I don't know if he's singing about somebody that was lost or somebody that he's still with, but it has this very much like it's a heart-wrenching song. And uh to me, like Doom, like when it comes to like creating a feeling of despair or depression, like that that stuff does it really well too. Whenever it's talking about lost loves or lost uh relatives or friends, man, like Doom Metal, like when when Doom Metal does that right, it's fucking heavy, it's fucking bleak.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:56

I mean, Aaron's Aaron's a pro at yeah, the most just miserable lyrics.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:03

Yeah, like yeah God. But these lyrics are the funny thing about these lyrics is they're kind of pretty at times, so they're not comp like my dying bride is great at that. Like they're they're great at making you feel horrible, but in a weird sort of like you know, there's a there's a beauty to it, there's a misery to the beauty, right? Yeah, and uh that's that's just what they're all about.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:28

So my well, I mean, this were kind of out of order, I don't know, but uh this one it was kind of important. Um, we have Hooded Menace, Never Cross the Dead off of Never Cross the Dead, and this was my first Death Doom album. And I picked that song in particular because musically it embodies everything I love about Doom Metal mostly. Like honestly, the riffs feel more akin to stuff you would hear on you know, candle mass or even like trouble. You know, the death aspect is mostly covered in the Long, drawn out, gurgly fucking reverb vocals, which I absolutely love. But they have all that occult horror. I mean, all their stuff is still loosely, you know, at least in terms of the art, there's always the uh tombs of the blind dead guys. Uh, that was the first thing I recognized from is like, oh shit, I know that movie. There's lots of fucking uh zombies and lesbians in it. That's amazing. Uh a Spanish movie trying to protect it, it's an Italian movie, too. Um, but the rift work again, like it it's still you can hear that Sabbath root. Yeah, like that was a thing I instantly latched on to. And this was coming at a time where it's like, ah, slow music. I mean, I don't know. I kind of want to hear more blast beats, but it's got good grooves to it, it's got a bit of a swing to it, and it still has that death kind of just vibe to it, especially in the more breakdown sections. But I think the song is kind of a standard for like Death Doom. Like if you want to really showcase the Doom side, right there.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:00

Hell yeah, man. Hell yeah. Um my number one. You know how I said I didn't really like Funeral Doom? Well, it's a funeral doom song. Oh, alright. Well, funeral doom is very evocative. Oh, it is. And I my my pick here is the band Evoken. Oh with their song None, which came out recently. Uh my god, this song is dark. Holy shit. But it's it it's not like you know, I shit on Bell Witch a little bit. This is dark, heavy, and slow, but it's over in about nine minutes, right? That's doable. That's doable. Any longer, any longer? And I would have been like, Come on, guys, let's wrap it up. Come on, come on. But they they are really oh my god, this the music video too, it it just feels like you're on a slow march to your death. Um when I first thought of this list when we were talking about doing this list. This was the first song I thought of because it is so fucking bleak. It is like it it I mean it it gave me chills the first time I listened to it because it was just so damn miserable. And yeah. Song this year at MDF.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:24

Oh, really? Oh, dude, unbelievably. I've been a fan of Evoken for a number of years. Uh that new one might be a new favorite of mine. Uh, I think it was the song Sex, though, that was probably my personal favorite. But man, dude, the whole album. Yeah. Bleak, ominous, dissonant. Yep. Every second feels drenched in atmosphere, too. Yeah. But it's not like overdone where it overtakes the songs. Like it's still very musical, lots of dynamics to the song. Yeah. There's in like blast beat sections occasionally, but it still has those monotonous, like it's almost cathartic to listen to.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:01

Yeah, it kind of is. This song was actually really like I want to listen to it over and over again because even though it's long and slow and miserable, there is something beautiful about it that is like it's very appealing. Um, and yeah, the music video is weird as hell. I haven't watched the music video.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:19

I reviewed that last album. It was a year-ender for me. I I didn't know that one, dude. The with the whole the cover too with the fucking dude gutting himself in front of the the thing that told him to do it. Yep, there's a whole story behind that cover too. I was like, oh really? Oh, yeah, it's like some sect of priests that did that shit to themselves or something like that. I don't know. A Vulcan's dark. Yes. I love him for it.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:45

Yeah, definitely. Oh, is that it? That's my five provocative ones. I still have I have like 10 other songs. Oh, we'll we'll get to that in a minute. I want to talk so doom metal is like we said earlier, it's it's one of the more prominent types of metal. The current state, I mean, we've been listing bands that are pretty recent. It's alive and well, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:32:12

It's pretty live, and it's and it's integrated itself into like other, you know, uh avenues of metal. Like I don't know if we're gonna hear like Doom Grind or Thrash Doom or anything like that, but in terms of where it can be utilized effectively, Death Doom, Phenal Doom, you know, more atmospheric Doom metal. I mean, some ambient bands kind of get into that too. Yeah, it's it's awesome. Uh it's gonna be there as long as metal has a requirement or a need to sound dark and foreboding. Yeah, you're gonna need Doom. It has to be there.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:47

Right, it's gonna be there, and the amount of Doom Metal bands out there is nuts. Like, we talked about that with death metal too. There's so many death metal bands, there's so many doom metal bands. Oh, there's tons of them, and there's tons, and it's like, you know, I I feel like maybe there's so many as well. Like, I know you talked about death metal, it's like, come on, there's there's a little bit maybe too many. Doom metal, I feel like is the same way in some regards. It's like there's a lot, like, there's a lot out there, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:16

And and again, much like death metal, there's again, you know, Death Doom, yeah, so they have they have places oh no, we're not trying to crowd up this section of Doom. We're we're headed towards this section of Doom, which doesn't have as many bands. Well, no, right, they do right.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:30

But no, it's I think it's again, it's one of those that's here to stay, it's not going away.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:36

No, I mean it's rooted to the earliest band, right? So, how can it go away? Yeah, unless we all decide that Black Sabbath sucks, and I don't think that's going to happen. If that happens, I don't want to be alive. No, no, I'm I'm done with this planet.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:50

Yeah, so that's perfect for Doom. Um let's talk about our ten favorite songs. These are our ten favorite Doom Metal songs. Let's trade off, let's go back and forth. Okay, I'll kick it off. Go for it. Um, my number 10 is definitely, you could argue, a stone or doom. Actually, it is stone or doom. It is the band Wind Hand, and it is the song Red Cloud. Um, dude, chunky, distorted riff, really cool atmosphere. Um, enough doom for it to be included. Definitely stonery, but enough of that doom sound to be on the list. I I love it. It's Sabbath, it's again Sabbath worship for sure. It's fuzzy and lush.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:31

I love her vocals too. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that it's it's almost kind of like hypnotic. Again, good good stoner doom and stoner metal. Gonna be there's like a sense of calm that comes with it. I love it. Yeah, this is just the heaviest thing I could chill out to. Yeah, yeah. Um, I don't really have these things in an order. That's all right. So we're just we're just gonna go down. Um, I'm gonna start with uh Trouble, Wickedness of Man off the Skull. Uh already kind of brought up this one, but this is the big long song on there. It's not super long, I think it's like maybe close to seven minutes, but riff changes, bleak atmosphere, great vocals. It's melodic, but it's so downtrodden. And I I I love every single second, but it is, you know, like one of those songs. Like, if you think of just Doom period, like this is one, I think of like, yeah, that one right there.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:24

Nice. I got another classic at number nine, pentagram with death row, classic doom metal, very hard rock, uh inspired. Love the riffs, but I think Bobby has the perfect voice for this music. Um, just like the what he's doing with the band, what their sound is. He he definitely has that more 70s rock voice that I think is perfect with it. Um, very Sabbat-y as well. It's got a very Sabbath uh drive to it. So death row pandemic.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:55

Yeah, always welcome. Yeah. All right. Next one. We're going for the big sad here. Uh, warning. Oh, there's some bridges off of Watching from a distance. Now, I've only recently just got in this. I reviewed their last album, which you know, apparently this band releases an album, breaks up, waits a while, reforms, releases album, breaks up, reforms. Um, last one I really enjoyed. I picked up uh Watching from a Distance because I'd heard both people complain about it and praise it. And after reviewing the new one, it's like, all right, I really want to check out this album. And oh my god, like the tears almost just get pulled from your body. Like, you fall, this guy's he has a unique vocal delivery, and I can see where it's not everyone's thing, but in terms of being evocative, in terms of uh just expressing grief and loneliness and desperation, and just being at absolute rock bottom. He conveys like no one else. The the riffs are dreary, the guitar tone is uh it's almost murky and cloudy sounding. Like, I don't know, like there's something about this band that I just feel like this album has a gray cloud that rains on it as it travels, like yeah, forever.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:15

Yeah, warning warning and uh what's the other band? Winter. Oh, yeah. Winter's crime.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:22

I love that. Oh, I love that album.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:25

They're they I always I got them mixed up sometimes because they had similar album covers. Uh they they both had this like not very clear image of a guy wandering around, and I was like, oh, warning, winter, which one is it? Um but yeah. Alright, my number eight. I'm going back to Stoner Doom. I have Cathedral with Cosmic Funeral. Um starts off very doomy and slow, and then it gets into a groove, becomes a stoner metal song. Cathedral's weird. Um I always I don't know, they're just a weird band. Love their artwork, their album artwork. But man, like some of their stuff is like it they I mean I Electric Wizard is my favorite Stoner Doom band, but to me, Cathedral is like they're another one of those bands. It just is up there with like being able to cross over so well and uh do both. Like sometimes they're just kind of goofy, and other times it's like fucking heavy. It's like what the fuck is going on here?

SPEAKER_02 1:38:30

I have such a love-hate relationship with Lee Dorian's vocals. You'll hear a little bit here soon, but okay. He's uh he's good at what he does, but I don't necessarily like it every time he does it. Yeah, but in certain songs it does work, like yeah, you sound like some creepy fucking ogre, uh, just yeah, drunkenly you know, talking over Doom Riffs, and it it works. Yeah, yeah. Uh my next one, Candlemass, but not from album neither one of us discussed. Oh, uh Dark Reflections off of Tales of Creation. Like one of the few up tempo songs I actually have in here because you have that good classic heavy metal gallop, but everything is so downtrodden and dark and evil and occult. This is the first album I picked up that had uh Messiah on vocals because I got Epicus because you know that's the first one. Yeah, and I was like, oh my god, dude, this guy's vocals are like perfect for this. Like I feel like you know, all four horsemen are galloping along to this song into my fucking house. And you know what? They're welcome. It's pretty fucking cool. Uh the riffs are savage, it's dark, it's melodic, it's it's got again that old school heavy metal energy, but it's again focused on the darkest aspects of it. Yeah, and yeah, I I absolutely love a song. Probably top five candle mass songs.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:57

Nice. It's cool when you have when you love a band that much, you can draw from all these different albums and songs, and find ones that are just like not even, you know, like the not even from the the album they're most known for, or the song they're most known for. It's uh testament of how much of a fan you are.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:17

So the wealth of riffs.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:20

My number seven is I already mentioned the song on the evocative one. It's tribunal, incarnadine, or incarnadine. I don't need to go into it, it's just fucking bleak. I love it though, because it's got a it's got a melody to it, even though it's so dark and depressing, and that fucking cello. So I'll just leave it at that. That fucking cello.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:40

Oh, dude. I I still remember when we said that and reviewed that one, uh, John and I. Just as the cello came on, it was like, dude, that's so sad. Yeah, oh my god. Yeah, yeah. Like the end of old yeller, just over and over again. Well, we love that comedy though, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. This is this is a doom metal thing. Dark humor is totally yeah. Um, all right, uh, my next one getting into one of my favorite funeral doom bands here, Ahab, and uh the divinity of oceans, the title track off of their album, The Divinity of Oceans. Um, this album in general might be my favorite Ahab album. Song structure. These guys write funeral doom in almost the vein of like opath. It's almost progressive. There's lots of cool movements in it. When it slows down, again, it it feels like like watching the waves in the ocean in slow motion, like you know, beating down a ship and dragging it down to a fucking watery grave. Uh, it's monolithic, it it moves fucking mountains with every fucking melody. You get these huge, I guess you can almost call them Ackerfeltian style vocals, like those deep roars are so fucking awesome. But even these clean, chanting, like baritone vocals, this this band is remarkable. Like I think I think Ghost and the Glenn Kerrig, I think that's the name of them. That one that's that's close to that top mark too, but Ahab doesn't have a bad album. I'll just go ahead and say that. So yeah, for any listeners out there, just go get Ahab. Doesn't matter which one you get.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:20

Just get them all. Just get them all. Get them all. Uh, my number six, actually, you mentioned this band uh in the Gothic metal episode, and I think it is you can definitely cross over. It is God Thrim, uh, and is their song Devils. Oh, dude! Yes, yeah. I you know, I think it could go both ways. I think it there's definitely enough here for it to be doom. It can be gothy too. To me, it was really doomy, uh, but with that atmosphere you'd hear in gothic metal, but just fucking heavy. It was heavy, and it was like, you know, there was a part where the bass came in and it was just like plot, it was like a doomy, kind of like dun, dun, you know, just like a really sort of sabbathy like throwback where it was just like a sort of a slow march. Um, and it yeah, man. This album uh was it Titans? What was that song called or the album called?

SPEAKER_02 1:43:13

Um Reflections?

SPEAKER_00 1:43:15

Reflections, yeah. Reflections.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:17

Or Distortions.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:18

Distortions, that's the name of the album. Reflections was the one before it, I think. That's right, the one before it. But man, the whole album was just killer. And um I think I actually I think it might have been from you guys that I heard about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:29

Uh we did go over it and we praised it for highly. I I still jammed the hell out of that one. Devils is devils was like the single track, like, all right, this one's short enough, yeah. But it's got a good hook, but man, it's heavy. It's Hamish Glencross. He was in um you know My Dying Bride for a long time. He was on The Dreadful Hours, which is like I think one of the best albums that features him. Yeah, uh, yeah, great, great fucking risk, great fucking band. Yeah. Um, let's see. My next one band we haven't brought up and a newer band, kind of. Well, no, they've been around for a little while now. Chemists. Oh, yeah, okay of Colorado. Uh Shroud of Leath off of their album Deceiver. Some of the best fucking clean vocals on any track I think I've ever heard. They are evocative in terms of telling the tale of woe, but god, he's so tuneful, he is so damn good, and that chorus hits like it's it almost soars, but it's so melancholic and dreary and like kind of defeated sounding. And you also have the vocal dynamics when the guitarist gets on vocals and just growls his guts out, but you get these huge, doomy riffs. I mean, we're talking like very candlemass-esque, lots of dreary guitar harmonies. Um, possibly my favorite song by this band. I don't know. They've written a lot of great songs. I think all of their albums are awesome, their new ones are really good. But this this album's probably still my favorite. I don't know, I might be haunted. I don't know. Uh, love this song though. Like, if I was to recommend one song by this band, listen to this one. It's like a nine-minute epic, it's worth every second.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:06

Nice. Yeah, I just saw their uh albums at the record store the other day, and I was like, hmm. I know you're yeah, I know you had it. Okay, all right, I'll get it. Um, my number five pick, I got Paul Bearer here, uh, with the song Fear and Fury. And um, this is from that EP that they did. Um, such a moody song, such a miserable song. Love how slow it is, but it's definitely melodic and it's very lush as well. Also has a progginess to it. That's what I love. Paul Bearer has that proggy aspect to them as well, and a lot of their stuff. But yeah, I just I love it. It's clean vocals, but it's just really dreary shit. It's just like really like man, like the Paul Bearer, what a perfect name for this band, you know. Just like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:57

Tear in my beer. Like, like, don't read the lyrics and listen to music at the same time. Yeah, it's oh god, dude. Uh, next one, this one has some crossover with our last one in terms of gothic metal. We have Paradise Lost. Oh, with the opening track on Medusa Fearless Sky. Uh, I think this is one of their doomiest, bleakest songs, like right from the rip. This opening track has almost like an HM2 sizzle thickness to the guitars. It's almost entirely growled vocals from Nick, and he sounds ghoulish and ominous. The riffs are droning, it's slow, it's brooding, it's everything I love about the heaviest side of like one of my favorite, you know, Death Doom, Gothic Doom bands, whatever. It's an amazing song. It's just nice, like it kind of came out of nowhere, too, because like I expected something, you know, I agree. They were still writing a lot of heavy music around this time. It's like later half of their career, but right out of the gate, the song's over seven minutes long, and it is punishing.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:03

Love it. That's cool about Paradise Lost is they can they can cross over many different little subgenres of metal, and uh yeah, they can be very doomy. Alright, my number four, I already mentioned this song. It's Mesa with the dress. Um, yeah, don't need to go really go into it. I've we've talked about this enough. There's a couple songs on this list. The one after this, too, which I don't really need to talk about, but Mesa, the dress, epic, incredible bridge, um, lover vocals. You know, just just her vocals, though. You know, just her vocals, not everything else. Not everything else, you know. Not her long black hair. No, not the long black hair, not her tattoos. Nope, don't not her clove cigarettes.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:49

Nope, nope, you can't smell them right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:51

Nope, nope, nope, none of that has nothing to do with that.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:54

Anyway, totally, totally not. I'm right there, not with you. Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah, yeah. Uh, next one for me, and one of the few bands in terms of like newer bands doing epic doom metal. Uh, we have Crip Sermon with Keys of Solomon off their album The Ruins of Fading Light. Um, this band following in the footsteps of Candlemass and Solitude Eternus in terms of delivering like very again, theatrical melody-driven, but very heavy doom metal with that big epic vibe, like sprinkling dashes of Iron Maiden throughout their stuff. The riff work in this band is so fucking good. Like, that's their big stand, and I love their vocalists. I think this dude has this amazing, raspy, but really good, solid, clean vocal. But the riff work and the solos fucking steal the show. They, you know, the chorus hooks are there, the epic vibe is there, the atmosphere has gotten even better with their most recent album, honestly, because they added a keyboardist and he adds every spooky effect that wasn't there before. Um, in terms of newer Doom Bands, quite possibly one of the best ones out there. I still desperately need to see this fan live because I've heard oh, excuse me, I've heard their incredible live. I think I've heard of them. I can't remember. Uh, all three of their albums and their new EP, which they do a full-on Doom metal cover of a mayhem song. Oh, oh yeah. Okay. Um interesting. Uh wait, they go uh Doomsteris. They do the Mysterious. Oh. And and Doom Form. Okay. There's your intrigue.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:36

All right, there we go. There we go, right there. Um, my number three is a song. I'm just gonna say it and we're gonna skip right over it. It is Candlemass Solitude. Done. Go.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:47

I don't think we've talked about this one enough. No, we haven't. All right. Well, this one we've brought up this band, and I loosely brought up this song. It is Reverend Bazaar Doom over the world off of two crush the insect, because This is the Doom Party song. But don't worry, just because it's a party, it doesn't mean it has to be happy. This is a party that's celebrating the end of everything. You know? As it should be. It's a little upbeat. It's probably the fastest song I think they've ever released. Uh, but it's got the gloom and doom to it, and it's just it's celebrating darkness and misery. It's like, yes, all over. You too. All the children. All the children get plenty of doom too. It's everyone, doom for everybody. I I I love Rare Bazaar. Underrated band.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:32

Uh, my number two is uh Saint Vitus, and it is a song off the album that you had for your one of your favorites. It is one mind. Oh my god, one mind, incredible riffs. Wino, uh sadly, Wino is not on this album, not on this song, but these riffs are incredible. Um even without oh yeah, even without Wino, right? Great vocals, um, incredible, incredible doom, but also just very hooky. Like the riff is hooky as hell. Like it's just like man, it makes me want to play it right now. And in my head, I can hear it. It's like one of those riffs where you're just like, I know the riff, I know you know, it just sticks in your head. Um, kind of lives uh rent-free. And yeah, one of my favorite uh doom metal songs, my favorite St. Vitus song. One mind.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:24

My favorite St. Vitus album, at least. I don't know. It's it's dude. That there's something about that album that is just incredible. Like every song there is just hooks. Yeah, yeah. Uh, number eight here. We're gonna go with, and I know I make fun of them a lot, Cathedral. Enter the worms off of the ethereal mirror. Uh Dreary, slow start, you know, these lurching, monotonous riffs, and then you get into like the Sabbathy territory. Like it gets a little bluesy, it gets a little you know, fuzzy, and then Lee comes in and all over it. Uh that's that's that's that's that's him. I know. I make one of them a lot on the field. Yeah, that's him. That's him. It is. There's words occasionally. Uh he has a thing, and at least in this era of the band, I think he does it well. Like later on, when we started to get a little bit more like you know, straightforward, like kind of like you know, less doomy, lurchy, and more like, hey, let's write a good, like, fuzzy hook. Lee, can you sing over this? Not a chance. Okay, well, we're gonna record it anyway. Uh, but the early stuff, like Ethereumirror, uh static magic, the early EP. Uh, I I kind of still dig that stuff because their vocals work and they match up with these just ugly riffs, but they're they're catchy. Like, I just like how they kind of like ooze and undulate.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:51

Yeah. Well, it's funny because when you said when you when you did Lee's uh impersonation there, I was remembering the song that I picked, Cosmic Funeral, and there is a part where he comes in and does that, and these are this is what he says. He says, Ooh, disco supernova, do the Martin Casanova. What the fuck is that? What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_02 1:53:16

I mean I mean sometimes you show up to the studio hi. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:21

Well, he so he goes like that whole song, it's very like you know, winged disciples of the nocturne dream descend upon the fortress of the tyrant's creed. You know, it's this kind of stuff, it's poetic. Then he goes in and he's just out of nowhere. It says, Ooh, disco supernova. What what the fuck are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 1:53:38

Like a borrowed lyric from Rob Zombie. Yes, exactly. There's not like a couple of yeah sprinkled in there. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:49

My god, what a character.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:52

Yeah, like I love Ely, but sometimes you're just a bit too much.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:56

Did I so you said that was your number eight, right? That was actually that'd be number nine. Okay, good. I was making sure I wasn't I didn't skip one. My number one, it is Electric Wizard, but it is not a song from one of their more uh acclaimed albums. It is the song Sadio Witch from Time to Die. Um, which, you know, was had had a mixed reviews. I like it. But this song I love. Um this one has it all. It's got the doom, it's got the heaviness, it's got the occult, it's kind of sexy. It's about a witch, I think. Uh hot music video, um, but kind of creepy, doomy. Uh but yeah, it's just it's super fucking heavy. Super grimy, um, fuzzy, but not quite like it's not fuzzy like the dope throne album. It's definitely it's definitely a lot cleaner. Yeah, that's why people didn't like it as much. Maybe it was clean too clean.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:02

Uh yeah, I I know they um what is it? Um Wizard Bloody Wizard, they did not really. I I bought that one too, and I was like, well, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:13

Uh Sadia Witch is really a groovy, it's groovy, but it's also incredibly heavy, and it definitely has a doomy feel to it, like the witch is about to bring a curse upon all humanity, which you know, I wouldn't have earned it. I think we've earned it. I think we need another Black Death. Yeah, just yeah, there's my there's my 10. You got one more.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:38

Yeah, one more here, and you know what? We're we're going back to an album I brought up, uh, and a song I brought up. Uh, we're going with Yab and Marrow off of uh Clearing the Path to Ascend. Uh I mentioned I love this album. Like there's just I love this band period, but uh God Marrow is it's probably the most pretty song in there. It's a little bit more straightforward, like it has this you know good, solid build where it wells up from clean tones into the big heavy riffs, and the entire time, like the atmosphere feels lush, it's it's like smoke dancing in front of you. But there's this again weight to it, and a lot of the weight to the song is emotional, it's it's very uh melancholic and dreary, but also very heartfelt and earnest. Like that's another thing I absolutely love about Yab. Like everything Mike talks about is something that is in his life. Um, the song is beautiful, and again, this is one that builds to like grand heights and then shrinks back down and builds again, like just waves, like yeah, fucking tidal waves of misery and riffs. The song's beautiful. Yabba's love. There we go.

SPEAKER_00 1:56:51

Yabba's love. Well, and there we go. Those are our 10 uh almost a death metal, ten doom metal songs. Um, but like with death metal, we we are gluttons for punishment uh with metal. Doom metal is not it's not a very feel-good type of metal, uh, or music in general. Why the hell do we listen to it? I mean, it's so it's so miserable.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:20

I don't know. Like it makes my head and neck area move. I don't get that very slowly, albeit slowly. But there's something about riff worship. Um like the riffs you they get stuck in your head. There, there's a mood, there's a vibe. It embodies like you know, like a lot of just like metal's imagery and you know, you know, like all the skulls and you know creatures and such. Like I feel like it all kind of originates from this style of music, yeah, in terms of like what Sabbath gave us, and these bands just said, yeah, we're we don't need to go much past this. I think we can make a whole career out of this.

SPEAKER_00 1:57:58

Yeah, Sabbath found the formula here.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:00

Yeah. And and metal has just been kind of variations of that since. But doom metal is probably like like the closest, maybe stone or metal to, in terms of like to the root sound.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:10

Yeah. Um with death metal, we we agreed that it wasn't really a good starter uh for people. Uh with gothic metal, I think we were kind of in agreement. It was one of the better uh ways to get people into metal. What about Doom Metal? Is that a good gateway into metal for people, or is that still too extreme, would you say?

SPEAKER_02 1:58:32

Um, I mean, it's still kind of niche, like like you'd have to like tell them that listen, it's depressing and dark throughout, but it's not as much screaming, yeah. Or maybe there isn't because you know, like vocals are generally kind of like a deal breaker for some like oh I like me, it's accepted the vocals, you know. Unless it's Lee Dorian, unless Lee Dorian well, unless the Lee Dorian is the bird of a generation. Um I don't know who I could sell that one on, other than people that are already fans of Cathedral, right? Um, but yeah, it it might be a little bit trickier because I mean it's it's very sonically heavy and robust, but you know, if they hear more melody in it, like melody is almost always the key to get at least your foot in the door. Doom metal is at least uh as far in terms of what we've gone through so far, yeah, it's it's in second place behind goth metal, and then death metal is just still like not starter stuff at all.

SPEAKER_00 1:59:30

Yeah, no, it's not even close. Kind of on that cusp. Death metal is like at the bottom. Oh, yeah. It's close. Like, I mean, there's there's maybe a couple genres that could go under it, but uh drawing core black metal, yeah. Yeah, although some black metal you could put above it if we're talking like the melodic stuff or the symphonic stuff, it might go above maybe death metal.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:52

I don't know. Again, they have to get past like do they all have to sound like ghouls and goblins? Like, yes, they do. It's in the bylaws.

SPEAKER_00 1:59:59

Yeah, it's part of the code. But let's sign it in blood, yeah. Yeah, of course. In a forest, right? Yeah, of course it's not their blood, too. It's their murder victims. It's their murder victim. Yeah, right, right. Well, let's see. We're at the wheel. I'm at the wheel here. We're gonna see what we got next. What do we got next? Spinning the wheel. And we have got oh, you're gonna love this. What do we got? Black metal. Oh, we are using for this. We are doing black metal next. I am so excited. Okay, cool. We're getting we're doing the dark ones uh all here. First, I mean, I thought I was gonna select thrash metal. That's why I said you're gonna love this one, but then it it just barely just tipped over. But I was like, man, like we're are beginning. We don't there's not we don't have a lot of positive metal genres on this wheel. There are some, but um, it's funny. We're doing the heavy hitters all here pretty close, pretty up front. Um, so okay, black metal is next. So stay tuned for that. Uh hail Satan. So that'll be fun. I'm gonna burn a church tonight. I mean that's that's right. That's a that's a crime. That's a nineties thing. Yeah, okay, 90s thing.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:26

I'll just get drunk and follow my own vomit.

SPEAKER_00 2:01:29

There you go. That's better. Okay. All right, guys. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next time on the Broken Record Player Podcast.