Track Of The Day - The Fallen Edition
An utterly amazing 37 minute single-track ambient sludge/doom metal excursion from this Washington-based grindcore outift.
RIP Peter Steele and Type O Negative. The dream is dead since exactly 10 years before today, but at least the music will live on. And it's on my mom's birthday (please don't ask about her age).
An utterly amazing 37 minute single-track ambient sludge/doom metal excursion from this Washington-based grindcore outift.
I keep meaning to listen to this one: I'm not a big grindcore fan, so I don't normally go for Pig Destroyer, but this one always sounds fascinating to me.
And RIP Pete Steele indeed! I think that was the first Type O song I ever heard, while out drinking at a club at University.
An utterly amazing 37 minute single-track ambient sludge/doom metal excursion from this Washington-based grindcore outfit.
I keep meaning to listen to this one: I'm not a big grindcore fan, so I don't normally go for Pig Destroyer, but this one always sounds fascinating to me.
And RIP Pete Steele indeed! I think that was the first Type O song I ever heard, while out drinking at a club at University.
Agreed with both points, Tymell!
I'm not a big grindcore fan which is why The Horde is now becoming a less suitable clan for me. Even with that 37-minute ambient sludge/doom metal track, I still won't go for that band because they have like the second-most offensive metal band name, behind A.C.
"I Don't Wanna Be Me" was also the first Type O Negative song I've fully listened to because of Trivium's cover of that song.
I won't lie, the title track of Paradise Lost's Gothic is THE beginning of many genres; the prominence of death-doom, gothic metal, symphonic metal, and operatic female vocals in metal. It has inspired many bands to expand those genres. Imagine what the metal world would be without this album, especially this song. Without them, those genres wouldn't exist or be forgotten; death-doom would fade away, gothic metal wouldn't be a thing, symphony and metal wouldn't coexist with each other, and metal would entirely be male. On top of that, power metal would remain part of speed metal which loses its epic appeal and wouldn't get me interested in DragonForce, the one band that got me interested in metal. And even with my metal taste starting elsewhere, I would be stuck in The Horde, The Infinite, and The Revolution forever. Fearing an alternate universe without Paradise Lost, I say we have to be profusely grateful for a band like them, especially if you love the genres that album spawned. So enjoy this amazing song and give Paradise Lost a massive "Thank you"!
Some very big calls there Andi.
I'd like to throw a cat amongst the pigeons here & suggest that Autopsy are as responsible as anyone for the birth of the doom/death sound. 1989's "Severed Survival" included a whole bunch of doomy Trouble influenced sections & it changed a lot of people's attitudes towards slower tempos in extreme metal. There's also a Dutch band called Sempiternal Deathreign that made a stir in the underground around that time & they released their first album "The Spooky Gloom" in 1989.
As far as gothic metal goes, Type O Negative would be my pick for the earliest exponents but there's a strong case for claiming that Celtic Frost were the inspiration for some of the more gothic & symphonic elements that popped up in the early 90's extreme metal scene.
Paradise Lost influenced power metal? Helloween are responsible for the evolution of speed metal into a separate European power metal subgenre in my opinion. "Walls Of Jericho" is the record that saw that transition taking place.
Excellent metal knowledge, Daniel! Of course, death-doom was born when Autopsy released their debut album a year before Paradise Lost released theirs. However, despite the doom influences, Autopsy is more into the death metal side of death-doom. Perhaps I was thinking too much of the doom side that I’m more comfortable with. Type O Negative had their gothic metal sound throughout their career, and the time between the recording and release of their debut Slow Deep and Hard is long and a bit confusing. It was released a few months after Paradise Lost’s Gothic in 1991, yet it was originally recorded as a demo under their original name Repulsion, sometime before Lost Paradise in 1989.
Also recorded and released at around the same time as Lost Paradise was Celtic Frost’s Vanity/Nemesis which is also an early example of gothic metal, though mixed with thrash influences similar to Slow Deep and Hard. That’s actually an interesting mix of genres to be honest, don’t know why that barely caught on. Celtic Frost’s first two full albums To Mega Therion and Into the Pandemonium are probably the very earliest albums to use symphonic elements in metal. But that’s more apparent in the latter album, with the former only using a French horn in a few tracks and inspiring the name of Therion, a band that started off as death metal before being one of the first bands to be fully symphonic metal.
Therion’s symphonic metal sound, partly inspired by Into the Pandemonium and possibly Paradise Lost’s Gothic, is what inspired many power metal bands to focus less on speed and more on symphonic, such as Rhapsody of Fire and Nightwish, though the latter band started as an acoustic folk project instead of speedy power metal. Even though bands like Helloween and DragonForce still focus more on speed, the symphonic influences of other power metal bands is what gives that genre the epic feel it deserves. That’s why I talked about power metal there, but that was a funny misunderstanding my statement caused. “Paradise Lost influenced power metal?” Lol no! If you want Paradise Lost-influenced symphonic power metal, try listening to Nightwish’s “Rest Calm”.
In conclusion, Paradise Lost may be considered a pioneering influential force of death-doom, gothic metal, and a small bit of symphonic metal, but there a few other bands responsible for creating their respective genres. We got a lot more bands to thank for all those metal styles....
Aaaahhhh…. I see what you were getting at with that power metal reference now. I'm certainly no expert on European power metal but it's worth mentioning that US heavy metal bands like Savatage & Warlord were already experimenting with symphonics back as far as 1983/84 & I'd be surprised if they weren't some sort of influence on the symphonic elements that appeared in European power metal a little later on.
I guess I've always thought that people make too much of Paradise Lost being the first to the table as far as death/doom goes. Particularly as "Lost Paradise" didn't exactly set the world on fire. Winter's 1990 album "Into Darkness" was a stronger release in my opinion & it was more influential on the various scenes that I was connected to at the time. I guess the point I was trying to make in my last post was that there were other bands doing the death/doom thing during that 1989/90 period & they were rarely influenced by Paradise Lost so it's a pretty good bet that the subgenre would have developed whether "Gothic" came along or not. Having said that, "Gothic" was a massive improvement on the debut. I can't say that I've ever thought of the first few Paradise Lost albums as gothic metal though. Gothic influenced? Sure! But they were definitely more death metal based & that was why I was suggesting that Type O Negative might be a more accurate starting point for the subgenre with Celtic Frost being a major influence. I used to socialize in the Sydney gothic scene back in the early 90's (mainly for the hot goth chicks & the drugs) but I can't remember Paradise Lost making all that much of an impact outside of the metal scene until "Icon". Type O Negative, on the other hand, were a huge reason why the goths started to appear at metal shows & that was further exacerbated by black metal bands like Cradle Of Filth a bit later on.
With regards to Celtic Frost (& Hellhammer for that matter), the thrash metal tag never really sat all that comfortably with me to be honest. It's been used more as a catch-all because it sounds a little more accurate than the black metal, death metal or doom metal tags do but Frost really don't sound much like the rest of the thrash bands out there. They always had a fair bit of doom metal about them so "Monotheist" wasn't a huge surprise.
Upon reviewing Icon, I can now see how much of an impact Paradise Lost made in and out of the gothic metal scene. It is one of the greatest gothic doom albums I've ever heard and the band's best album tied with Draconian Times! Here's an epic song from Icon (that's right, another track of the day in The Fallen thread):
Yeah "Icon" is my favourite Paradise Lost record too. I bought it on release & it took me a few listens to overcome my initial shock at their transition however the new sound was so full, vibrant & authoritative that it won me over pretty quickly. It was a massive comeback after "Shades Of God" which I found to be a bit disappointing after "Gothic".
One of the earliest examples of traditional doom metal from London's NWOBHM masters. For fans of Ozzy-period Black Sabbath, 70's Pentagram & Manilla Road.
A crushing and visceral slab of "true" doom from Oakland's criminally overlooked Cardinal Wyrm. From their debut album, Another Holy Trinity.
A true gothic doom anthem from the Portuguese masters of gothic metal:
Extremely heavy stoner doom from San Jose, California. The main riff is clearly influenced by "Sabbath Bloody Sabbat" before an "N.I.B." bass line kicks in around the halfway mark & the lead guitar work goes all "Electric Funeral" on your ass. For fans of Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard & "The Ethereal Mirror" period Cathedral.
I just became more interested in two of the bands from The Fallen Gothic Metal Modern Era Clan Challenge, and they were two bands that I tested out listening to a few songs from them in my earlier epic metal taste but wasn't into them until now. I've finally realized their gothic glory!
I finally got to listen to that My Dying Bride single "The Sexuality of Bereavement", and what an incredible piece of death-doom! Thanks Ben for kind of reminding me to listen this great work of art that I didn't until now.
A rare track from Cathedral now only available on the Serpent's Gold comp, the briliant Schizoid Puppeteer, twelve minutes of WTF?? Stoner Doom:
The longest and doomiest track on Count Raven's final album Mammon's War.
For lovers of Ozzy, Sabbath and any good true doom metal:
A long doomy track from Draconian's debut Where Lovers Mourn. This one's for fans of true "beauty and the beast" gothic death-doom, specifically Swallow the Sun and the early gothic death-doom eras of The Gathering and Theatre of Tragedy.
Something very different to their usual stoner doom from Electric Wizard as they try their hand at ritualistic drone:
Good choice Sonny. I've always really dug "The Processean" E.P. & think it's one of the Wizard's most underrated releases.
An unmitigated drone metal classic of the highest order from the Japanese masters of the sound.
Always struggled with the vocals on gothic metal Sentenced albums. North From Here is where it's at for me!
Never heard these guys before listening to the MA playlist.
This track is amazing: