Favourite Doom Metal Bands

I've heard a criminally low amount of these, but Type O Negative has always been a favorite band of mine 

A shout out must also be given to the British cult band Solstice, who hover somewhere in the grey zone between Candlemass-style epic doom metal and Manowar-esque heavy metal with quite a few modern touches. They've also got a fantastic way of working in British folk music, but in an exceptionally subtle way that's nonetheless integral to creating the entire "pre-Christian Dark Ages Britain" aesthetic of their music.





I actually get a similar vibe from Solstice as from Bathory's Hammerheart, only rooted in British instead of Scandinavian cultural history as well as way more musically accomplished - there's some pretty damn impressive arrangements they pull off in their music.

Not to mention Trouble. This review of their debut LP touches on some of the same gripes with the contemporary doom metal subculture as you have, but goes into more detail with it.

Acrobat wrote: Too often I hear doom bands who really take the metal out of doom. There’s psychedelic rock bands masquerading as metal simply because they sing about witches and satan, there’s probably a whole spat of Rise Above bands who think Iron Maiden is “too cheesy” and don’t even know who Running Wild are and that’s not even to mention how many funeral or death-doom bands records have more in common with, say, ambient or goth rock than their supposed parent genre (not that that's a particular problem as Skepticism rule). Keith Richards once said that a big problem with rock music is that people forgot the “roll” part and when he listens to rock he needs that roll, too! Well, when I listen to doom, I need that metal part! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played a doom release and thought to myself “Yeah, it’s okay, but they could have really used a solo here or a tempo change here”. Doom nowadays often seems to have been a byword for “play slow, minimise your metallic leanings”. I’m not saying that there aren’t bands who are delivering what I want but it’s a sad state of affairs to listen to an otherwise ‘traditional’ doom metal album and hear nothing resembling a lead guitar part or an up-tempo break. Of course, Psalm 9 is the answer to my prayers as it has lead guitar and fast parts in abundance. Contrast is key to its success and every stomping, down-trodden riff is offset by a fast break. Trouble love playing slow, but damn, they’ll rip your f**king face off, too!

Solstice have covered Manowar, so they're obviously fans even if their aesthetic isn't anywhere as cartoony.

I think the influence is more apparent in Solstice's faster songs.







Maybe the inspiration is more "ideological", though, with the entire mythological epic angle to traditional metal songwriting, than regarding around specifically going for a Manowar "sound".

The singer in Warning is either the brother or cousin of Solstice's guitarist by the way, surprised you did not bring that up.

I like doom metal quite a lot. 

good poll!

Not really a doom metal fan. Anathema - The Silent Enigma was the only doom metal album that had a huge impact on me. 

There's an obsure doom metal album: Sobre Nocturne - Serpentine Dreamweaver. Cool symphonic doom metal album.

70's Black Sabbath.