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DOOM GATE is a sort of online magazine/journal whose attempt is to introduce and explain the whole world of doom metal sound to people, since this is the most occult and dark kind of metal music, from it's genesis, in late '60.
Our target is not to teach something to someone, but to give a 360° view upon the world of this kind of music as we've learned, without giving personal judgments but reporting just the facts.
This web journal is edited and managed by and all the articles and reviews posted are property of HARDSOUNDS.IT webzine.
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If it's true that the kick off of all the movement was done by a UK band from Birmingham, called BLACK SABBATH, in the early 70's with their monolithic slow and sorrowful sound (the top of heaviness in those happy times), we cannot still call it DOOM METAL for this kind of music.
The slow and dark sound and magic, occult and mystic related themes were new features for the music of those times that was labeled, for this reason, as DARK rock, with a slightly different meaning than we mean today with this term.
BLACK SABBATH
Also other bands like BLUE CHEER (with their top heavy version of 'Summertime Blues' by J. Cochran) and moreover PENTAGRAM (from Arlington, VI) with their frontman Bobby Liebling, being very influent for all the scene that was going to born and develop soon right after.
However during the whole 70's only the aforementioned bands, joined with a bunch of few others, could keep on this kind of music between all the flavours and happiness of such a shining period.
Only in the early 80's with the explosion of the so called metal music as we know today, we can talk about something more serious and less blues/rock related.
80's took with themselves the first true doom metal bands.
In this period in the UK the NWOBHM movement was developing (Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Saxon, just to name a few of them), that kind of metal music borned at the end of 70's that bringed life to the modern heavy metal as we know today.
In the years following other sub-genres started to develop from this main one, being very different one from each other, and in the middle of the 80's we can briefly sum up the metal music landscape in these big groups: NWOBHM, the big thrash/speed bands (Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer in the U.S.A., Kreator, Destruction and Sodom mostly, in Europe), and glam/rockers (Poison, L.A. Guns, Cinderella, Motley Crue, W.A.S.P.) that based most of their fortune and fame more on sexy look and shocking images.
Magazines then used to label "heavy metal" any bands in a random way with no reason and moreover with no musical critics: long hairs, leather and you were going to become a true metalhead!
In general in this period metal music was meant to be something fast and aggressive (of course dealing with each sub genre), so the opposite to whatever kind of doom sound.
TROUBLE
ne of the leading bands of that period was TROUBLE from Chicago (IL, USA) born in 1979 that gain popularity from 1984. Dark and slow heavy metal, it reminds soon the masters Sabbath, in fact here we have songs that have much in common with those 70's tunes, even if the lyrical themes are very different: one of the main (if not THE) characters of this band was the use of religous (christian) themes towards their music, in future this will lead to the birth of the so called white metal.
SAINT VITUS
SAINT VITUS, another of the first bands that we can call doom metal (doom for themes, atmospheres and mood, metal for the sound itself and technique) it had a great influence on many contemporary bands. Their first releases, for SST Records, with Scott "Wino" Weinrich as frontman, are admired since then. Soon Wino became a true icon for this kind of music, so strange and fascinating, with its slow and magic rhythms.
Today Wino with his band Spirit Caravan plays stoner rock (a softer version of classic doom metal, with psychedelic and rock features).
CANDLEMASS
During 1986, a young swedish band, CANDLEMASS recorded their debut album, 'Epicus Doomicus Metallicus' (Black Dragon - 1986), a real milestone in the history of Doom Metal. They were soon labeled as 'the heaviest band in the Earth' and started their path were Black Sabbath left in 1976.
The songs and in general the architecture of the debut album is more or less the same style of 1976 Sabbath's, but with modern influences from contemporary heavy metal music.
The best period for Candlemass was the one with Messiah Marcolin as frontman, a man with an extraordinary strong and clean voice, but in each Candlemass's album you can find the real doom metal music essence, in its purest and uncontaminated form, especially in the album 'Nightfall' (Active - 1987).
PARADISE LOST
At the end of 80's the death metal genre was born in Europe and U.S.A. as well. This new heavy metal sub-genre, way faster and more aggressive than thrash itself (until then Thrash metal was considered the top of aggressiveness in metal music) had a major influence also on doom metal. In this period a young band from Halifax (UK) called PARADISE LOST recorded their debut album for Peaceville records after two well acclaimed demos in the underground audience. 'Lost Paradise' (Peaceville - 1990) shows the dualism between doom's slowness and heavyness on one hand, death's sound and grunts on the other.
Of the same year there are also three demos from Cathedral: 'In Memorium', My Dying Bride: 'Towards The Sinister' and Anathema: 'An Iliad Of Woes'.
Since it was clear that a new style was going to be developed as fusion between classic doom and death metal, the works by these bands (and by many more in future) were labeled as death influenced doom metal or briefly death/doom metal.
CATHEDRAL
Also Lee Dorrian's CATHEDRAL (formerly in Napalm Death) soon showed to be massive influenced by Black Sabbath, but at the same time also by the whole extreme scene made in U.K. that at the time meant Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower and Carcass.
Songs of inhuman slowness, dark sounds for guitars and bass and an aggressive but melancholic voice transformed the demo they belonged to and the band that recorded it into the new doom metal sensation.
The second release by Paradise Lost, 'Gothic' (Peaceville - 1991) was very interesting: in this album the band tried new solutions and experimented a lot like anyone else attempted before. Apart from primordial death/doom, they used more keyboard parts as a way to increase dark and sad atmospheres, female vocals and acoustic parts, alltogether combined with tons of melodies.
This album is now considered the forefather of what we use to call Gothic metal, even if it was still rooted on death/doom.
MY DYING BRIDE
MY DYING BRIDE too showed to have originality and a personal approach to music, given by early 19th century british romantic literature, coupled with a well organised style, the death/doom metal genre that make big (and rich) Peaceville Records in the early 90's.
In this album we can find also unconventional instruments for a metal band, such as a violin, for instance, female vocals and keyboards.
Same for ANATHEMA, that, after two majestic demos, recorded their first EP 'Crestfallen' (Peaceville - 1992) in which their personal approach to doom metal music was starting to grow into something completely developed on future recordings: elegant, melodic, sad and beautiful.
The biggest contribute to the high quality of all the early 90's releases of the band is given by the alchemy between the two Cavanagh brothers (Daniel and Vincent, on guitars) and Darren White on vocals.
From Sweden another great band, born with the classic Paradise Lost's Gothic's sound deep in mind, started its long and rich career. This band was KATATONIA.
Their first EP (a re-recording of their demo) 'Jhva Elohim Meth... The Revival' (No Fashion - 1992) soon showed how much this band was in debt towards Paradise Lost's sound.
KATATONIA
But it was clear another aspect too: their lyrics were dealing most of the time with anti christian and satanic themes, and this was a sort of contradiction with the "normal" themes that lyrics used to deal with, because even after the birth of death/doom they were not changed quite at all from their classic topics, that were depression, oscurity and sadness.
Moreover with their first full lenght album, 'Dance Of December Souls' (No Fashion - 1993) they set the roots for what will become their own version of doom metal, being sure influenced by Paradise Lost, but with a personal touch given by the guitars of Anders Nystrom (AKA Blackheim).
Another great influence for doom metal music was Black Metal. Born and developed cronologically in the northern Europe after Death metal brought its evil aura, blast beats on drums and an use of vocals in contrast with the classic growls used in death metal songs, since in black metal were mostly used screaming vocals.
Bands such as the german BETHLEHEM or the dutch DEINONYCHUS or FORGOTTEN TOMB from Italy are the best representatives of this dark kind of sub-genre, that's probably the blackest and most obscure of the whole metal music.
THE GATHERING
In the middle of the 90's doom metal was evolving even more towards Gothic metal field, that was a well organised and independent genre: bands like the early THE GATHERING that started as death/doom metal band with much melody and innovation in their songs to then become in their middle period (with the album 'Mandylion' that introduced their new female singer Anneke van Giersbergen) one of the best examples of what we can label as gothic/doom, the ideal bridge between the father (genre) and the son.
There are also bands that have embraced doom metal sounds only in certain times and/or in certain albums of their discography: examples could be the sweden TIAMAT during their awesome 'Clouds' (Century Media - 1992) album, AMORPHIS from Finland in 'Tales From The Thousand Lakes' (Nuclear Blast - 1994) or MOONSPELL from Portugal during their second demo, but moreover on their brilliant 'Wolfheart' (Century Media - 1994), but in these cases we can find little traces of doom sounds, most of the time on some songs more than on the whole album.
Recently, at the end of 90's, a new scene born and developed in Finland captured people attention, being the main character of what we label as funeral doom, the most claustrophobic and terribly slow of the whole genre: from the forefathers THERGOTHON in the early 90's (true pioneers for those times) to SHAPE OF DESPAIR, MY SHAMEFUL and SKEPTICISM, players of mournful songs, this kind of music is difficult to be fully listened from start to end.
MOURNING BELOVETH
Now there are a lot of more recent bands from the wide 90's that starting from the style and music of the forefathers, have built up a solid pit of fans and are a strong choice for the future of this kind of music: MOURNING BELOVETH from Ireland, NOVEMBER'S DOOM from Chicago (IL) and SATURNUS from Denmark, just to name a few because it's impossibile to list them all.
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