Gothic metal, from the outside in. Each step is a genre and the single record this encyclopedia would put on first. Play them in this order and the last one should sound like a next step rather than a wall.
- 1 The way in
Heavy metal 1970
It split off from hard rock and blues rock when Black Sabbath tuned down and wrote riffs on the tritone. Volume, riff and a code of its own - every branch below starts here.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Black Sabbath - the song Black Sabbath. The first thirty seconds are the genre's birth certificate.
Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath (1970) - 2 Then
Doom metal 1980
The branch most faithful to Black Sabbath: slow tempos, thick riffs and crushing atmosphere. The weight comes from space, not speed.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Saint Vitus - Born Too Late. The title says exactly how the band felt.
Saint Vitus, Saint Vitus (1984) - 3 What you asked about
Gothic metal 1991
Death-doom that adds keyboards, romance and female vocals. It popularised the beauty-and-the-beast formula.
Sung and screamed. Clean singing and harsh vocals trade off, often chorus against verse.
Put on
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses. Bleak and funny at once, which is rare.
Type O Negative, Bloody Kisses (1993) - 4 Where to go next
Neue Deutsche Härte 1994
The German version: simple heavy riffs, danceable synths, declaimed German vocals and a great deal of pyrotechnics.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Rammstein - Mutter. Flawless production and their best set of songs.
Rammstein, Mutter (2001)
Assembled from the tree: every genre Gothic metal descends from, in order. Gothic metal has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.