I was thinking about some artists releasing music that has common aspects with doom - in terms of imagery, general feeling, harmony... - but without guitars (or at least without metal guitars). What's your opinion on this ? Would you say these bands play "doomy" stuff ? I was thinking about :

Swans - until "children of god", probably one of the most "heavy" bands ever, without using usual distorted guitars.

Bohren & der klub of gore : they are sometimes labelled as "jazz-doom" - I pretty agree on that...

In Slaughter Natives - dark-ambient, apocalyptic-industrial ? "a mix of heavy electronics, martial percussions, religious chants, orchestral samples and gruesome demonic vocals."

there would be much more band to be added to that list, but I thought these three were pretty representative (I almost added Coph Nia but I thought they were too close to In Slaughter Natives)

Swans for sure. Leonard Cohen has written some of the doomiest music ever. Neil Young's On The Beach and Tonights The Night albums are very bleak. Some Pink Floyd, King Crimson is dark and doomy. Apart from that the only other stuff is movie soundtrack kind of music like Goblin is doom in its own way.

Yeah I was going to mention Cohen. He has written stuff that makes some funeral doom sound like The Beatles, very dark and depressing music indeed.

Yeah, there are a lot of "doomy" bands out there, or bands that have gone through some "doomy" periods. As mentioned Swans, Goblin, and Cohen are all great examples. Even though I'm not really a fan, Diamanda Galas has some pretty bleak tunes. I'd also say Joy Division can be pretty doomy and even The Cure's album "Pornography" is pretty dark and atmospheric.

Christian Death has the doomy atmosphere... and more gothic rock bands

I was going to say SWANS but I was beaten to the punch.

I have been giving this some thought and here is a few albums I would consider very dark and doomy that are not metal in any way.

Berg - Lulu
Robert Fripp - Gates of Paradise
Arvo Part - Te Deum
Coil - Cant remember the name of the album though
Tangerine Dream - Zeit

Berg & Pärt, yes ! In the fields of "classical" music I'll add :

Gyorgi Ligeti - Requiem / Lux Aeterna
Penderecki - Polish Requiem

The inclusion of Leonard Cohen absolutely makes sense... Then I'll add Nick Cave, who never hid the Cohen influence, and whose songs can be very doomy and morbid - songs like Red Right Hand, The Mercy Seat or the VERY unsettling SOng Of Joy...



Listen to this one. The lyrics are blood-freezing.

And I guess if I'd have to pick ONE doomy "goth" band, it would be - no offense meant to Christian Death, I love the stuff with Rozz Williams and some other songs - the gloomy Fields Of The Nephilim. Amazing atmosphere, guitar work, and a completely mesmerizing voice.



this is a 1987 song...

a band like LOW is for me the perfect example of non-doom band with a real doomy feeling !!!!



http://youtu.be/XXIT5ALPOew

A lot of the proto-metal bands have a somewhat doomy sound, especially the more psychedelic/progressive ones.

I'm thinking of bands like Fraction, Jodo, Procol Harum, Bulbous Creation and the like.

Take this song for example:
Bulbous Creation - End of the Page

I just thought of another "jazz-doom" kind of thing, Tuxedomoon's "The Waltz" (this track only, anything else by Tuxedomoon is "just" art-rock)

Good call with LOW. I've actually seen them live a couple of times and it's a way better experience than anything they've ever recorded. The highlight was a killer cover they performed of Pink Floyd's Fearless. I was blown away.