The difference, by ear
Both are extremely slow and about despair. Funeral doom is ritual and vast; this is personal and small.
Both are growled or screamed, but funeral doom is much slower: 25 to 50 bpm against 60 to 140. Songs run longer in funeral doom: usually 10 to 25 minutes, against 5 to 10 minutes in DSBM. To hear the difference, play Shining next to Thergothon. They share a root in heavy metal, and funeral doom came first, by three years.
In figures
DSBM
Where it sits
Heavy metal › Black metal › DSBM
In short
Depressive suicidal black metal: slower tempos, wailing guitars and desperate vocals. The subject matter is heavy, and the genre is debated inside the scene itself.
How it sounds
- Slower tempos with repetitive riffs in mournful minor keys.
- Lo-fi production with distant, desperate vocals.
- Long, monotonous structures built on repetition.
Key acts
- Shining
- Silencer
- Lifelover
Start here
The pickLifelover - Pulver. The least monotonous record in the genre.
Full page →Funeral doom
Where it sits
Heavy metal › Doom metal › Funeral doom
In short
The slowest metal in existence: under 40 bpm, organ, guttural vocals and fifteen-minute songs. Music for a single chord.
How it sounds
- Tempos under 50 bpm, often under 40 - the slowest metal there is.
- Chords held for tens of seconds, with organ or keyboards underneath.
- Sparse guttural vocals, ten- to twenty-minute pieces, minimal structures.
Key acts
- Thergothon
- Skepticism
- Evoken
Start here
The pickSkepticism - Stormcrowfleet. Listen at night, on headphones, in one sitting.
Full page →