Depressive Black Metal

Depressive black metal, often shortened to DSBM, turns black metal inward, using raw production, droning tremolo guitar, and anguished, high-pitched wails to channel despair, isolation, and self-destruction. It slows and stretches black metal into hopeless, hypnotic passages, sometimes broken by acoustic or doom-like sections. Sweden’s Shining and Silencer and the US’s Xasthur are touchstones, and the lyrics are unusually raw and personal rather than fantastical. It is among metal’s bleakest strains. Note: the genre deals directly with depression and suicide.