Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres. Both the music and the lyrics are intended to evoke a sense of despair, dread, and impending doom. The genre is strongly influenced by the early work of Black Sabbath, who formed a prototype for doom metal. During the first half of the 1980s, a number of bands such as Witchfinder General and Pagan Altar from England, American bands Pentagram, Saint Vitus, the Obsessed, Trouble, and Cirith Ungol, and Swedish band Candlemass defined doom metal as a distinct genre. Pentagram, Saint Vitus, Trouble and Candlemass have been referred to as "the Big Four of Doom Metal".
Cathedral were a doom metal band from Coventry, England. The group gained attention upon release of its debut album, Forest of Equilibrium (1991), which is considered a classic of the genre. However, the band's sound evolved quickly and began to adopt characteristics of 1970s metal, hard rock and progressive rock. After releasing ten full-length albums and touring extensively for over two decades, Cathedral broke up after the release of The Last Spire in 2013.
Necrophagia was an American death metal band. The band is credited as one of the inaugural groups within the death metal genre, along with Possessed and Death.
Aborym are an Italian industrial black metal band from Taranto, Apulia, formed in 1993. The band have described their music as "alien-black-hard/industrial", whilst Allmusic described them as playing "a truly original brand of futuristic black metal [with] jagged samples, electronic drums, and industrial overtones, mak[ing] Aborym's peculiar sound very hard to pin down or define". The name of the band derives from Haborym Sadek Aym, overseer of the twenty-six legions of Hell in a seventeenth-century grimoire.
Psychedelic folk is a loosely defined form of psychedelia that originated in the 1960s. It retains the largely acoustic instrumentation of folk, but adds musical elements common to psychedelic music.
Sigh is a Japanese experimental metal band from Tokyo, formed in 1989. They gradually shifted from a traditional extreme metal sound to a more experimental, avant-garde style employing symphonic, world music, and progressive elements. Their most recent studio album, Shiki, was released in 2022. In 2023, Live album "LIVE: The Eastern forces of evil 2022" was released.
City is the second studio album by Canadian extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad, released on February 11, 1997. Frontman Devin Townsend assembled a permanent lineup of Strapping Young Lad to record the album, including prolific drummer Gene Hoglan, and Townsend's former bandmates Jed Simon on guitar and Byron Stroud on bass. The album was critically acclaimed, with Revolver naming it one of "the greatest metal albums of all time", and it is widely considered Strapping Young Lad's best work. The album was re-released in 2007 with several bonus tracks and altered cover art.
Dopesick is the third studio album by American sludge metal band Eyehategod, released on April 2, 1996. It was reissued in 2006 as part of Century Media's 10th Anniversary series with three bonus tracks that were recorded during the original Dopesick recording sessions.
Scenario IV: Dread Dreams is an album by the band Sigh. It was released by Cacophonous Records originally in 1999.
Hail Horror Hail is the third studio album by the band Sigh. It was released by Cacophonous Records originally in 1997.
Gallows Gallery is an album by the band Sigh. It was released by Candlelight Records originally in 2005.
Psychedelic pop is pop music that contains musical characteristics associated with psychedelic music. Developing in the mid-to-late 1960s, elements included "trippy" features such as fuzz guitars, tape manipulation, backwards recording, sitars, and Beach Boys-style harmonies, wedded to melodic songs with tight song structures. The style lasted into the early 1970s. It has seen revivals in subsequent decades by neo-psychedelic artists.
Eternal Elysium are a Japanese doom metal band founded in 1991.
Randy Holden is an American guitarist best known for his membership of the West Coast acid rock group Blue Cheer and performance on their third album, New! Improved! (1969). His solo album Population II (1970) is considered to be one of the earliest examples of doom metal. Holden is also a painter.
Vertebrae is the tenth studio album by Norwegian extreme metal band Enslaved. It was released on 29 September 2008 by Indie Recordings in Europe and on 28 October 2008 by Nuclear Blast in the US, Enslaved's first album on both labels. It was named as Album of the Year by Terrorizer and was awarded the Norwegian "Spellemannprisen" for best metal album. The album sold approximately 1,100 copies in its first week in the United States, reaching number 49 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart.
Stoner rock, also known as stoner metal or stoner doom, is a rock music fusion genre that combines elements of doom metal with psychedelic rock and acid rock. The genre emerged during the early 1990s and was pioneered foremost by Kyuss and Sleep.
Samuel Benjamin Cohen is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, artist, and producer based in Brooklyn, New York. A founding member of the psychedelic rock and pop band Apollo Sunshine, he released several albums with the group in the early 2000s. In 2009 he formed the solo project Yellowbirds, releasing the debut album The Color in 2011. This release was followed by Songs from the Vanished Frontier in 2013. The first Sam Cohen record, Cool It, was released on April 28, 2015, on Easy Sound Records, and primary featured Cohen playing all of the instruments. It was then re-released on Danger Mouse's imprint of Columbia Records, 30th Century Records, on June 3, 2016. Cohen is also known for his original collages on the Yellowbirds album covers, and his collage animation videos.
Japanese metal is heavy metal music from Japan. The country's first metal bands formed in the mid-to-late 1970s. The number of acts increased significantly in the next decade, but only a few saw their material released internationally, including Europe and North America with their pre-established metal bases. Domestic metal saw its commercial peak in Japan in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the top acts selling millions of records. Many metal bands from the visual kei scene toured and gained recognition in the West in the 2000s. The 2010s saw a boom of all-female metal bands form and gain mainstream attention.
In Times is the thirteenth studio album by Norwegian extreme metal band Enslaved. It was released on 6 March 2015 in Europe, 9 March 2015 in the UK and 10 March 2015 in the US by Nuclear Blast. As the title suggests, the album's central theme is that of time, considered philosophically, historically, and mythologically. The album sold about 2,950 copies in its first week of release in the United States, making In Times their highest sales debut to date. The album charted in some territories in its first week of release, including Norway and Finland. It is also the band's last album with keyboardist/vocalist Herbrand Larsen, who departed the following year.
