Gothic metal
In the 2000s, gothic metal has moved towards the mainstream in Europe, particularly in Finland where groups such as Entwine, Charon, HIM, Lullacry, the 69 Eyes, and Poisonblack have released hit singles or chart-topping albums.
[12] The black metal approach of Cradle of Filth, Theatres des Vampires and early Moonspell can be found in such subsequent bands as Graveworm[13] and Samsas Traum.
[36] Lyrics based on personal experiences are another common feature of many gothic metal bands such as Anathema,[37] Elis,[38] Evanescence, Tiamat,[39] Midnattsol[40] and the Old Dead Tree.
[48] The author Gavin Baddeley notes that the title track of the album "describes a satanic rite, complete with driving-rain and tolling bell sound effects, while the cover focuses on a black-cloaked, spectral-looking girl in a graveyard, shot through a sickly pale ochre filter".
[51] The "vaguely medieval, minor-key sounds" of Rainbow, Dio and Judas Priest have also been described as "gothic" prior to "the emergence of goth rock as a post-punk genre".
[8] The bands Blue Öyster Cult and Iron Maiden have featured some gothic lyrics in their music on songs such as "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and "Phantom of the Opera".
[56] With the dissolution of his second band Samhain in 1988 and the creation of his own eponymous act, Danzig went on to combine heavy metal riffs with "a heavily romanticized, brooding, gothic sensibility".
[60] Gothic rock had emerged as an offshoot of post-punk in the 1980s but by the end of that decade, the genre had splintered into different directions with bands such as the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Mission incorporating "more pop and alternative elements" while the Sisters of Mercy, Fields of the Nephilim and Christian Death took on a "heavier, sometimes metal-influenced approach".
[8] Acclaimed as the "founding fathers of American goth rock", Christian Death went through a major personnel change in 1985 with the departure of the band's leader and founder Rozz Williams.
[68] As a musical style, gothic metal "truly began in the early 1990s in the north of England" with the three bands Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Anathema representing "the core of the movement".
[71] They had roots in "frenetically abrasive death metal, but they were also influenced by what Paradise Lost vocalist, Nick Holmes, described as the 'really bleak, dark sound' of Dead Can Dance".
[73] Their debut album Lost Paradise was released in 1990 and "helped define the rules of doom/death metal: grinding, de-tuned anthems of woe topped with death metal-style guttural vocals" while demonstrating that the band was "already reaching for realms unknown to their then-amateurish abilities and latent promise".
[75] With a "less deliberate, more energetic arrangements", the album featured a "slightly cleaner approach to guitar crunch" and "cautious use of keyboards and even female vocals, which together added atmospheric nuances to the group's ultra-depressive power chords".
[84]Their 1995 album The Angel and the Dark River "marked a shift in the band's strategy, for the first time dropping the death growl of Stainthorpe in favour of a 'clean' vocal delivery".
[90] With their debut album Slow, Deep and Hard in 1991, the New York based outfit pursued a "melodramatic goth rock style" that "encompasses long songs built on simple riffs, theatrical shouting vocals, churchy-sounding organ and vocal-harmony passages, and the odd mechanical noise".
[94] The trademarks of Type O Negative's music include the use of "downtuned, fuzzy guitars"[95] and a "deep baritone croon"[17] from Peter Steele, an "intimidatingly large, sarcastically self-deprecating original, whose dry, dirty one-liners and morbid machismo challenge those who insist the archetypal Goth is a po-faced androgyne".
[103] The next album Wildhoney was unveiled in 1994 as an "artistic and commercial breakthrough, fully realizing the sound hinted at on previous releases and eliciting effusive praise in metal circles for its brooding, Gothic atmospherics".
[104] The album featured an interplay of contrasts between delicate acoustic guitar, gentle whispering vocals and angelic choruses on the one hand and massive riffs, industrial grind and death metal grunting on the other.
[106] The result has seen critics comparing Edlund's vocals to the Sisters of Mercy's Andrew Eldritch, "alongside musical comparisons to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds".
"[111] The Gathering decided to drop the use of male vocals altogether and instead brought in a lead female vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen for their third full length Mandylion, an album that "saw the band adventurously breaking away from the Gothic Doom fare of previous works".
[117] The music was more clean and soft,[117] "stripped of guitar harshness" but with a "near flawless execution" that "prompted many European critics to award Aégis perfect review scores".
Tristania stood apart from the others with their use of three distinct vocal styles in the "operatic soprano Vibeke Stene, clean-singing counter-tenor Østen Bergøy, and harsh, black metal-style shrieker Morten Veland".
[16] Their second album Beyond the Veil in 1999 made use of a ten members choir and featured violin passages from Pete Johansen of the Sins of Thy Beloved,[121] earning "rave reviews" across Europe.
[128] The critic Chad Bowar of About.com describes their style as "the optimum balance" between "the melody and hooks of mainstream rock, the depth and complexity of classical music and the dark edge of gothic metal".
Their debut album Prison of Desire in 2000 was "a courageous, albeit flawed first study into an admittedly daunting undertaking: to wed heavy metal with progressive rock arrangements and classical music orchestration — then top it all off with equal parts gruesome cookie-monster vocals and a fully qualified opera singer".
[145][146] With the release of their sixth album One Second in 1997, Paradise Lost brought a more commercial and pop-oriented direction to the genre they had helped created but the success of Draconian Times has not been overcome.
[147] Praised by Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic as a "radical but impressive departure", the album drew comparisons to Depeche Mode with nothing remaining "of their early death/doom metal origins".
[149] Despite attaining "a huge reputation in Europe, where all of their albums have sold strongly",[76] the group's status as "the progenitors of gothic metal" has been "constantly overlooked, both in their homeland and the US, possibly because of their determination to never make the same record twice".
[159] On the strength of Comalies, Lacuna Coil became the most successful artist in the history of their label Century Media Records as well as the highest selling rock act in their home country Italy.
In addition to the aforementioned HIM,[189] the bands Charon,[190] Entwine,[191] For My Pain...,[192] Lullacry,[193] Poisonblack,[194] Sentenced,[195] The 69 Eyes[196] and To/Die/For[197] have all found their singles or albums hitting the top ten of the Finnish charts.
