The new wave of Melodic Death-Doom

For the past couple of years I have been gravitating to a certain form of melodic death metal, with hints of doom on the side.

Bands like In Mourning; Fires in the Distance; Counting Hours; Hanging Garden; Enshine; and Nailed To Obscurity have been on heavy rotation and I don’t see that changing any time soon.

I never really thought about why, but the folks over at Forgemaster Metal on YouTube have spotted a trend in this new breed of dark, heavy but still emotionally available metal.

I love nearly everything on their list, but the ones I don’t I just haven’t gotten around to yet.

As my tastes have developed, it appears I’m a sucker for an emotional hook. Music that manages to be heavy without being noisy or one-dimensional; music that isn’t scared to space out the heavy with a quieter interlude.

Despite starting out with thrash in the early 90s, I struggle to listen to it now. To my ears, Metallica’s last three albums just have the same song repeated over and over, for hours and hours. They were a lot more patient and progressive in their earlier years. Megadeth has been re-releasing the same album since the mid-80s and I can’t get into the Joey-era Anthrax at all.

Melodic Death/Doom just has everything I could want. Melody for days, but with crushing riffs, drums and a mix of growling and clean vocals. I think the secret ingredient, as the video points out is patience. Here’s a handy Qobuz playlist to get you started.

Many of these bands will feel right at home to fans of Insomnium and other melodic death, or even progressive death metal bands such as Rivers of Nihil or Fallujah. Arguably the genre matters less than the feelings they invoke with their songwriting.

It is rare that a video I’ve found on Youtube speaks so directly to me and I just wanted to share it.

I’m on Mastodon