This is a list of occult rock bands. Occult rock is a proto-metal style of rock music.
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, featuring double kick and blast beat techniques; minor keys or atonality; abrupt tempo, key, and time signature changes; and chromatic chord progressions. The lyrical themes of death metal may include slasher film-style violence, political conflict, religion, nature, philosophy, true crime and science fiction.
Manowar is an American heavy metal band from Auburn, New York. Formed in 1980, the group is known for lyrics based on fantasy and mythology, as well as numerous songs celebrating the genre and its core audience. The band is also known for a loud and emphatic sound. In an interview for MTV in February 2007, bassist Joey DeMaio lamented that "these days, there's a real lack of big, epic metal that is drenched with crushing guitars and choirs and orchestras... so it's nice to be one of the few bands that's actually doing that". In 1984, the band was included in the Guinness Book of World Records for delivering the loudest performance, a record which they have since broken on two occasions. They also hold the world record for the longest heavy metal concert after playing for five hours and 1 minute in Bulgaria in 2008. They also have been known for their slogan "Death to false metal".
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".
Integrity is a hardcore punk band originally from Cleveland, Ohio, but based in Belgium since 2003. It was formed in 1988 by lead vocalist Dwid Hellion.
Dopethrone is the third studio album by British metal band Electric Wizard, released on 25 September 2000 by Rise Above Records. Following the release and tour of their previous studio album Come My Fanatics... (1997), the group was asked by Rise Above owner Lee Dorrian to create a follow-up. Vocalist and guitarist Jus Oborn has stated that drug issues and other personal problems led to the production of Dopethrone being a "difficult process". The group entered Chuckalumba Studios in May 2000 with only three tracks written: "Dopethrone", "Funeralopolis", and "We Hate You". The album was recorded in three days. Oborn, who wrote all of the album's lyrics, spoke of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard as influences in his own writing while the group disagreed during the mixing sessions about how the overall record should sound. The music on the album has been described as both doom metal and stoner rock, with influences of British groups like Black Sabbath and Motörhead.
Hymns is the sixth studio album by English industrial metal band Godflesh. It was released on 23 October 2001 through Music for Nations and was the band's final album before breaking up in 2002. In 2010, Godflesh reformed and in 2014 released their comeback album A World Lit Only by Fire. Hymns had a troubled production and was intended to be distinct departure from Godflesh's intensely regimented industrial sound to something more traditionally hard rock. It was the band's second and final album to feature a live drummer rather than a drum machine.
Witchcraft is a Swedish doom metal band founded in 2000.
Pagan Altar is an English doom metal band formed by Terry Jones and his son Alan in 1978 in the borough of Brockley in London.
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.
Witch Mountain is an American doom metal band from Portland, Oregon.
Blood Ceremony is a Canadian rock band formed in 2006 in Toronto, Ontario. Blood Ceremony's style has been described as "flute-tinged witch rock" and their lyrics are filled with black magic imagery and references to classic horror films. Their music has been also characterized as hard rock, psychedelic folk, progressive rock, and doom metal.
Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats are an English rock band, formed in Cambridge by Kevin Starrs. The band have released five albums – the most recent, Wasteland, was released in October 2018 – as well as a number of singles. The band appears regularly at festivals around Europe.
Orchid is an American doom metal band founded in San Francisco, California, United States, in 2007. The band consists of Theo Mindell, Mark Thomas Baker (guitar), Keith Nickel and Tommy Rickard (drums). They are named after the Black Sabbath song of the same name.
Kadavar is a German rock band from Berlin, founded in 2010. It currently consists of guitarist/lead vocalist Christoph "Lupus" Lindemann, drummer Christoph "Tiger" Bartelt, bassist Simon "Dragon" Bouteloup, and guitarist and keyboardist Jascha Kreft. Their retro style, incorporating psychedelic rock and stoner rock, has been compared to bands of the 1970s hard rock/heavy metal era such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Bartelt and Lindemann formed Kadavar as a trio with bassist Philipp "Mammut" Lippitz. When Lippitz left the band in July 2013, he was replaced by Bouteloup. After releasing six studio albums, Kadavar became a quartet in March 2023 with the addition of Kreft.
Khemmis is an American doom metal band from Denver, Colorado, that formed in 2012. The band's music combines doom and traditional heavy metal with elements of death and black metal. The band released their first two studio albums, Absolution and Hunted, through independent label 20 Buck Spin. Their third album, Desolation, and subsequent mini-LP, Doomed Heavy Metal, were licensed for all territories outside of North America by Nuclear Blast and were co-released with 20 Buck Spin. In November 2021, the band released their Nuclear Blast worldwide debut record Deceiver. They are named after an ancient city located in Egypt, now known as Akhmim.
Wizard Bloody Wizard is the ninth studio album by English stoner/doom metal band Electric Wizard, released on 17 November 2017, three years after their previous album Time to Die. Recording took place from April 2016 to February 2017 at the Satyr IX Recording Studios with production duties on the album shared between lead singer Jus Oborn and guitarist Liz Buckingham. Though some music critics noted an overall change in the band's sound from their usual doom formula towards a slightly more hard rock approach, the album received generally favourable reviews. With a running time of 43 minutes and consisting of only six songs, Wizard Bloody Wizard is the band's shortest studio album to date.
Occult rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the late 1960s to early 1970s, pioneered by bands such as Coven and Black Widow.
Lucifer is a heavy metal band formed in Berlin in 2014 by frontwoman Johanna Sadonis. Following several member changes, vocalist Sadonis remains the only constant member, with the current line-up featuring drummer Nicke Andersson, guitarists Martin Nordin and Linus Björklund, and bassist Harald Göthblad. Currently based out of Stockholm, the members are Swedish with the exception of the German Sadonis.
Green Lung is a British rock band formed in 2017 in London, currently signed to Nuclear Blast Records.