Another Metal Playlist, This Time Mainly Old School Black Metal And A Few Songs From Other Genres That

Another Metal Playlist, this time mainly Old School Black Metal and a few songs from other genres that I find adjacent enough to the vibe of the playlist.

Non-Goth Music that Goths might enjoy

Along with what the title says, I will be elaborating on each. It’s mostly going to be metal because that’s my current interest but there will be non-metal recommendations, such as industrial rock or electronic music.

Epicus Doomicus Metallus - Candlemass

Not my personal favorite Candlemass album, that would be Nightfall, but it’s what I think would be most interesting to a Goth looking into other genres. To elaborate on why I think that, it’s the use of the vocals, subject matter, guitarwork, and keyboards. The vocals do an incredible job at communicating both storytelling and extreme emotions like anguish. The subject matter covers things like witchcraft, sorcerers, and wanting to die alone. The guitarwork and tone doesn’t sound anything like post-punk but it’s the way it complements the feelings of doom and anguish that might make it interesting to someone looking into other kinds of dark music.

TL;DR They’re slow, heavy, and dramatic.

I would like to highlight “Solitude” as my best recommendation to a Goth Rock fan, and “Under the Oak” as my personal favorite track.

Ministry

Not recommending any specific album, but specific songs from them. Hell, you might even consider some of Ministry’s work borderline Goth, but the overall genre is Industrial Rock/Metal, at least since they stopped making synthpop.

The tracks I’m recommending are as follows: “Every Day is Halloween” (single), “Golden Dawn” (from their album Land of Rape and Honey, which despite the name is actually referring to a plant and not the reprehensible act), “Cannibal Song” and “Dream Song” (both from The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste).

The first song is already kind of a goth music staple but I thought to include it anyways because I love that song.

DAF (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft)

This one might be a little hard to justify just because of how all over the place they are, but personally I think they really have that post-punk attitude when it comes to their music. They’re basically this really experimental electronic band, hell their early stuff even has noise rock elements. If you’re into the more industrial experimental stuff and don’t need conciseness or melody then this might be an interesting band to look at.

I would like to highlight the tracks “Kebab Träume”, “Ein Bisschen Krieg”, and “Muskel”

King Diamond

I’m going to be blunt, you’re not gonna like this one if you don’t like traditional heavy metal. Along with that, you might not like King Diamond’s vocals. Yes, the band is named after the singer. Anyways, if you like Gothic Rock for the “spooky” Halloween-esque aesthetic, you might just fall in love with King Diamond. He’s an acquired taste for most, due to the unusual falsetto he displays all across his career. 

Personally, I fucking love King Diamond. I think instead of recommending any specific song I’d rather recommend whole albums due to the storytelling aspect that King Diamond weaves into most of his discography. To paint you a picture, most of King Diamond’s discography is concept albums that tell horror stories, cleverly using vocals to switch characters, and using keyboards to really give that cheesy but lovable Halloween Horror feel, along with some of the coolest guitarwork in metal, done by the likes of heavy metal legend Andy LaRocque.

Onto highlights, I would like to highlight Fatal Portrait, notably one of the few albums not to be a fully concept album, particularly the tracks “The Candle” and “Haunted”, and Them, a concept album with my personal favorite story, and Conspiracy, the sequel to Them story-wise, which is my personal favorite album.

Celtic Frost

This one might be an odd recommendation if you’re only familiar with their popular stuff, but I’d like to highlight a few tracks that may be of interest.

“Mesmerized” (from their album Into the Pandemonium)

Recommending this one mainly because the vocals are very reminiscent of Rozz Williams from Christian Death, at least in my opinion.

“Os Abysmi Vel Daath” (from their album Monotheist)

This is kind of a risky recommendation, since this song and the album in general is just experimental extreme metal. It’s mainly the vocal performance here makes me want to recommend it, though it might be a bit of a stretch. I love this song but I know it might not be for everyone, though if it gives at least one person a new song to listen to then I’ll be happy.

Zoon - The Nefilim

Industrial Extreme Metal, by the same people behind Fields of the Nephilim. This one is a bit of an oddball in the discography of the people who made it, but personally it’s the only album I like by them anyways. Unfortunately, this was the only album they did in this style and under this name. They do, however, still occasionally perform songs from this album as Fields of the Nephilim. My personal favorite track being “Shine”, which is honestly a bit of a power ballad.

The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails

C’mon. You knew this one was coming. It’s an industrial rock album, and if you haven’t listen to them already you’re most likely going to LOVE “Closer”.

Sacrificed - Edge of Sanity (from The Spectral Sorrows)

It’s a straight up Sisters of Mercy-esque Goth Rock track that’s towards the end of a Death Metal album. The vocalist would go on to start a Goth Rock band, Nightingale.

I’m Going Slightly Mad - Queen (from Innuendo)

You may be confused. That Queen? Yes, same one that made “We Will Rock You” and “Bohemian Rhapsody”. This song is called Gothic Rock on wikipedia, but I’m including it anyways because Queen is not a Goth band.

Surprise - The Garden (Single)

This one might confuse you if you’re familiar with this band. From the instrumentation, to the vocals, to the subject matter, it just screamed to me “put me next to Goth music”. Listen to it for yourself and tell me if you get it. For some strange reason it was taken off streaming platforms unfortunately.

Deinonychus

This one is a black metal band with doom metal influences. Another riskier recommendation, what gives me the impression that a Goth might love this is a mix of the use of keyboards, the anguished harsh vocals, and the deep clean vocals. The best example I want to give is “The Weeping of a Thousand Years”, it’s like a bearded vampire speaks the clean vocals and someone tortured in the dungeon of a castle screams the harsh vocals.

Call from the Grave - Bathory (from Under the Sign of the Black Mark)

Another Black Metal band, this one even harder to justify. Bear with me, listen to the song and pretend that a zombie is the one singing. The song starts with this spooky ambience and then goes into this evil groove and later on has a solo that sounds like a funeral dirge, it’s awesome. I have no idea if anyone’s going to get why I’m putting this here along with the others, but if someone does that’ll be awesome.

Give Me Your Soul - Countess (from The Book of the Heretic)

Another Black Metal one, yes, but hear me out. This song is literally goofy spooky Halloween music, and it’s literally from the perspective of a demon who kidnapped someone. I fucking love this song, I just think if you kept an open mind you might love it as much as I do.

Floods - Pantera (from The Great Southern Trendkill)

Okay okay, hear me out again. This is literally borderline Southern Gothic, at least thematically, and topic aside it’s one of the best power ballads out of all of metal with one of the coolest solos literally ever.

Buried Alive - Venom (from Black Metal)

This song is hard to describe, it’s not quite a power ballad, but it’s definitely some sort of ballad. It’s catchy, it’s got a dramatic build up and it’s got groove (it has one of my personal favorite solos ever). Tell me what you think!

Black Sabbath

I find it a little funny that Black Sabbath had a literal “Living in a Box” moment by naming their first song on their first album after themselves. Anyways, this song, “Black Sabbath”, is dramatic and evil. It’s basically the first heavy metal song, and yet it has more doom in it than a lot of modern doom metal bands. Side note, Type O Negative has a fantastic rendition of this song, I could not more HIGHLY recommend giving it a listen.

I also recommend “After All (The Dead)” off of their album Dehumanizer. It’s got the doom and gloom but with that heavy metal oomph to it, so I hope you appreciate this song as much as I do.

Black Mummy - Death SS (from In Death of Steve Sylvester)

I must clarify again, the “SS” part of the name has nothing to do with the Nazis and is short for the singer Steve Sylvester. Anyways, this song has a more traditional heavy metal sound but in a bit of a spooky horror approach. You might ask if it’s anything like King Diamond, I can assure you it’s not.

Scream of the Butterfly - Acid Bath (from When the Kite String Pops)

This one is a bit of a ballad in an otherwise Sludge/Doom Metal album. Unrelated, but if you’re into metal with interesting textures I would definitely recommend this album.

Ghosts - Japan (from Tin Drum)

It feels like cheating to put a New Wave artist on here, but they’re still technically not Goth so I’m putting them anyways.

Filth - Swans

Noise Rock, it’s extreme music that isn’t metal. I’m including this one for a similar reason with DAF, because despite its genre it definitely has a bit of a post-punk attitude to things.

L’Eau Rouge/Red Water - The Young Gods

Industrial Rock with Dark Cabaret elements, oh my god this album is my baby I fucking love it so much. The fact more people don’t know about it feels like a crime. 

Gloomy Sunday - Billie Holiday

This is technically not her original song but I enjoy her version a lot. Thematically it’s very dark, so if you are into darker music I would definitely recommend this.

The Devil is an Englishman - Thomas Dolby (Single)

Again it feels like cheating to include a New Wave artist but there’s no way in hell anyone considers Thomas Dolby “Goth”. Though I will say this song was composed for a movie called “Gothic”. Regardless, I would definitely recommend this, it’s dark synthpop.

Auburn and Ivory - Beach House (from Beach House)

Feels like cheating to include dreampop, but why not. I have this song on a playlist with music that makes me feel like a French mime, if that helps give you an idea of the kind of song it is.

Kate Bush

That’s all.

Anna - K.U.K.L. (from The Eye)

This is from one of the bands Björk was in before. Very experimental rock, I would personally recommend the music video version that’s up on youtube instead of the Spotify version.

Einzelhaft - Falco

This album is mostly known for “Der Kommissar”, but I find that there’s other good songs on this album, particularly “Ganz Wien” and “Auf der Flucht”.

An Angel of Great and Terrible Light - Uboa (from The Origin of My Depression)

I’m gonna warn you, this song along with the album this is from may be a very emotionally heavy album for some. However, I’m built different. Anyways I fucking love this particular song from the album.

End of Recommendations

That’s all I have for now, if anyone has any suggestions I’d love to hear them! I hope this helps someone find new music to love!

So, you want to get into Italian Metal?

Who the fuck has ever asked for that? Anyways, here’s some recommendations:

Mortuary Drape

Old School Black Metal band, I highly recommend the albums “All the Witches Dance”, “Tolling 13 Knell”, and “Secret Sudaria”. 

Sadist

Excellent Progressive Death Metal. Extremely technical and yet soulful.

Death SS

Despite the unfortunate name, they are NOT Nazis. The “SS” is short for “Steve Sylvester”, as in “The Death of Steve Sylvester”. Now since that’s out of the way, their music is more in the vein of traditional heavy metal with a tinge of doom, that sonically wouldn’t be too unbefitting next to First-Wave Black Metal.

Abysmal Grief

Doom Metal that’s heavily reliant on the “Church Organ” setting on keyboards. If you’re looking for something slow and yet spooky, this might be up your alley (although personally I’d just listen to some of the doomier Type O songs).

Cultus Sanguine

Doom Metal. I like to think of this band as a cousin to Abysmal Grief, in that they’re instrumentally similar with the main difference being the anguished vocals. Same appeal as Abysmal Grief, although the songs do get a bit same-y.

Gargoyle

A mix of extreme metal and traditional doom metal. Would definitely highly recommend. Unfortunately they’re not on Spotify, so I can’t put them on my playlists as much as I’d want to.

That’s all I have for now! You might ask, “Wait, where’s [blank]! They’re widely known and important to the Italian metal scene!” and the answer is they probably suck ass (I’m looking at you, Lacuna Coil). This is mainly just my personal taste, anyways.

Tutorial for Exploring Metal

New to the genre? Already familiar and just curious? Regardless, I’m here to give a short guide and some tips. Mind you this isn’t a strict thing, more so some suggestions and some (hopefully) helpful advice!

Genres

Now, you might be under the impression that genres are stupid, but in a lot of people’s experiences those labels can be very helpful when describing and finding what sounds you like and don’t like. You want something with keyboards with spooky church organs or choir-like effects? Maybe something more Gothic might be up your alley!

I’m not going to go and describe every genre for you, I’d rather you give a listen and learn the history of genres and to form your own opinions. Wikipedia, despite its flaws, can be a very helpful resource for learning the history of genres and getting at least a vague idea of what a genre might sound like. Hell, you might even find a new band you like out of the bands mentioned on a given genre’s article.

Also, remember, this is all made-up and held only by consensus, form your own opinions on what a genre is and isn’t! It’s okay! Even if someone might call you stupid for your opinion, as long as you’re educated on the history you’re still going to have an understandable opinion.

If someone ever asks you what the first black metal band is, and you say could say “Venom”, and someone might disagree with you and say “No, it’s Bathory”, but those disagreements are okay and neither of you would be objectively wrong. Hell, you’re even allowed to disagree with me and say that these genres ARE objective. Just don’t be a dick about it and you’ll be fine.

Useful Tools

I already mentioned Wikipedia, but that’s not going to be your best resource. Your best resource is going to be the Metal Archives website. Now, one thing I must warn you about before you use it. They don’t allow any bands that they deem to have more non-metal influence than metal influence, because to them it all starts at the riff. If they have one album that is predominately original metal riffs, then it is going to be accepted. What is a metal riff? It’s a “You know it when you hear it” kinda thing. If you hate that, I’m not the one who designed the website. Essentially what this means is that Nu Metal, most metalcore or deathcore bands, “kawaii metal” (as in babymetal, babybeard type stuff), vkei with metal elements (Dir En Grey), industrial rock (KMFDM, Nine Inch Nails), whatever Primus is, Prog Rock (Tool), are not allowed on the archives. Also, please understand that a band being deemed non-metal has nothing to do with the quality or aesthetic of the band, it just means they don’t think they have any albums or releases with predominately original metal riffs.

With that out of the way, let me explain why the website is useful as a tool.

1. If you decide you like a band that also happens to be on the Metal Archives, then it’s going to have a “Similar Artists” tab, which will recommend bands that other people have voted to be similar to that specific band. (Mind you this isn’t completely reliable, for instance, Danzig is at the top of Type O Negative’s Similar Artists tab and they have very few similarities).

2. The forums have a section dedicated JUST to recommendations! It’s called “Recommendation Central”, and if you make an account you can post and ask about recommendations for bands of specific sounds and genres.

3. Avoiding problematic bands. I will elaborate further in the next part.

Avoiding Bigotry

This is a huge concern for people getting into metal, I’ll give some tips on things to avoid.

1. Avoid anything labelled NSBM (National Socialist Black Metal) or RAC (Rock against Communism), as both are heavily associated with white supremacist music.

2. Look at the “Themes” portion of the Metal Archives page for a given band, if it says some shit like “Misogyny”, “White Supremacy”, or “Antisemitism”, then you’ll know to throw it in the garbage.

3. Do a simple google search. I’m serious, sometimes people will make entire write-ups about everything that’s problematic about a band.

4. If you’re really paranoid, look for the lyrics of individual songs before you go and add them to your playlists. Often times albums on the Metal Archives will have lyrics.

If you really loved a band, deep dive into them. My two favorite bands are Type O Negative and Death, and yet I could absolutely infodump about everything wrong those bands have done. 

Don’t be afraid to consider your own values and principles, if a band has problematic themes or a problematic background consider how it might make the people around you feel if you listened to them, especially promoting the music openly. Consider things like, if the musician(s) behind the music project is/are dead, does it matter? If the art is the problem, do I only listen to the songs that aren’t the problem? If the music is bigoted against my identity and I am personally okay with listening to it, does that make it okay? If I am okay recommending a band with problematic themes or backgrounds to another person, should I warn them what they’re about to get into? If I’m okay with listening to music with problematic themes, where do I draw the line, if I even do?

I’m not going to tell you what you ought to think, I just want you to develop your own thoughts and feelings.

With all that said, I will say. If you listen to and/or promote music with White Supremacist themes literally fucking DNI with me. I don’t want to make friends with NSBM fans.

That’s all! Happy Listening!!

FFFFUUUCKKKKIIINNGGG DUDEE.... OR NOCTURNO CULTO??!

So, you want to find Type O Negative soundalikes?

As someone whose explored a fuck ton I have recommendations, I can't promise that they're necessarily good or live up to the original but I can tell you that they have elements that may sound similar. I'll list each of them and say my personal opinion on them. Frown They're just eh, following the stylings of the more mellower parts of Type O with none of the memorability of them. October Noir This would be my highest recommendation, I’d suggest you hear them for yourself. A Pale Horse Named Death Really really boring. Would not recommend. The comparison is mainly because it has former Type O members in there but it’s missing all of the oomph and hooks the band had. Maybe if you’re really into grunge-y alternative metal-type stuff you might like it, but it’s certainly not for me. Pist.On Their debut was produced by Josh Silver of Type O fame, and has an excellent cover of a Smiths song. I would only really recommend their first album. Wicked Sisters New and obscure band from Australia. I'd recommend giving a listen to their single "Necromantic" or their “We Suck” EP, the texture and riffing definitely reminds me of Type O. Carnivore Peter Steele’s previous band before fronting Type O. Sonically, it would be my favorite thrash band if not for the lyrics. Avoid at all costs if you're sensitive to misogynistic lyrics. I’m serious. He may or may not have meant some of the lyrics as satire but the fact it’s a man making the point using misogynistic language makes it backfire.  Vasaria Missing any sort of Type O texture, but the singer is also the current singer of Carnivore A.D., might be interesting. I'd recommend "Ugly as Sin".

End of Recommendations I think that's most of what I've found. Honorable mentions, as in, I do not hear it at all but for some reason they get compared a lot: Danzig Eh? It's mostly just bluesy heavy metal. Dude has a deep voice and they do some Sabbath-y riffs, but that does not make a Type O. Abysmal Grief Maybe if you're really into the "doom with keyboards" aspect of Type O, but there isn’t a lot of variety or hooks. In the Colonnades Their first album reminds me more of Spinal Tap if anything. Closer to Danzig than it is to Type O imo. Stillborn Heavy Metal/Doom Metal with some Gothic Rock influence, not really sure why they get compared. Life of Agony Specifically, River Runs Red. It was produced by Josh Silver and had drumming by a former drummer of the band. I hope this helps someone!

I may or may not have copied most of this word for word from what I typed on the metal archives forum but also it’s not like I can plagiarize myself.