Death-doom, from the outside in. Each step is a genre and the single record this encyclopedia would put on first. Play them in this order and the last one should sound like a next step rather than a wall.
- 1 The way in
Heavy metal 1970
It split off from hard rock and blues rock when Black Sabbath tuned down and wrote riffs on the tritone. Volume, riff and a code of its own - every branch below starts here.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Black Sabbath - the song Black Sabbath. The first thirty seconds are the genre's birth certificate.
Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath (1970) - 2 Then
Death metal 1985
Guttural vocals, low tunings, blast beats and tremolo picking. Thrash pushed past the limit of legibility, with two founding schools: Florida and Stockholm.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Entombed - Left Hand Path. The first twenty seconds explain the entire Swedish sound.
Entombed, Left Hand Path (1990) - 3 What you asked about
Death-doom 1990
Guttural vocals at funeral tempo. Bands from Yorkshire invented the combination and then invented gothic metal too.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans. The violin matters as much as the guitar.
My Dying Bride, Turn Loose the Swans (1993) - 4 Where to go next
Stoner doom 1991
Stoner riffs played at half speed, with thick fuzz and subject matter drawn from witchcraft and cannabis.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone. The thickest guitar tone ever committed to tape.
Electric Wizard, Electric Wizard (1994)
Assembled from the tree: every genre Death-doom descends from, in order. Death-doom has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.