--- title: "Depressive Black Metal" type: "MusicGenre" url: "https://themetalnet.com/genre/depressive-black" parent: "Black Metal" bands: 234 era: "early 2000s" --- # Depressive Black Metal **Depressive Black Metal** is a metal sub-genre, formative in the early 2000s. TheMetalNet maps 234 bands and 403 albums under it. 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. ## Facts | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Genre | Depressive Black Metal | | Level | Sub-genre | | Parent genre | Black Metal | | Formative era | early 2000s | | Bands | 234 | | Albums | 403 | | Formation span | 1985 to 2025 | ## Notable bands (top 60 by prominence) - [Wedard](https://themetalnet.com/band/wedard) (Germany, 2002) - [Happy Days](https://themetalnet.com/band/happy-days) (United States, 2007) - [Trist](https://themetalnet.com/band/trist) (Czechia, 2003) - [Lifelover](https://themetalnet.com/band/lifelover) (Sweden, 2005) - [Make a Change... Kill Yourself](https://themetalnet.com/band/make-a-change-kill-yourself) (Denmark, 2004) - [Totalselfhatred](https://themetalnet.com/band/totalselfhatred) (Finland, 2005) - [Psychonaut 4](https://themetalnet.com/band/psychonaut-4) (Georgia, 2010) - [Imber Luminis](https://themetalnet.com/band/imber-luminis) (Belgium, 1985) - [Sterbend](https://themetalnet.com/band/sterbend) (Germany, 2000) - [Strid](https://themetalnet.com/band/strid) (Norway, 1993) - [Defuntos](https://themetalnet.com/band/defuntos) (Portugal, 2005) - [Be Persecuted](https://themetalnet.com/band/be-persecuted) (China, 2005) - [Deadlife](https://themetalnet.com/band/deadlife) (Sweden, 2010) - [Nordicwinter](https://themetalnet.com/band/nordicwinter) (Canada, 2006) - [Exiled From Light](https://themetalnet.com/band/exiled-from-light) (New Zealand, 2007) - [Fornicatus](https://themetalnet.com/band/fornicatus) (Finland, 2006) - [Nyktalgia](https://themetalnet.com/band/nyktalgia) (Germany, 2001) - [Deadspace](https://themetalnet.com/band/deadspace) (Australia, 2014) - [Dråpsnatt](https://themetalnet.com/band/drapsnatt) (Sweden, 2005) - [Mortualia](https://themetalnet.com/band/mortualia) (Finland, 2007) - [Ordo Templi Orientis](https://themetalnet.com/band/ordo-templi-orientis) (Belarus, 2004) - [Advent Sorrow](https://themetalnet.com/band/advent-sorrow) (Australia, 2009) - [Ars Diavoli](https://themetalnet.com/band/ars-diavoli) (Portugal, 2005) - [Ossadogva](https://themetalnet.com/band/ossadogva) (Ukraine, 2007) - [Freitod](https://themetalnet.com/band/freitod) (Germany, 2005) - [Nocturnal Degrade](https://themetalnet.com/band/nocturnal-degrade) (Italy, 2006) - [Nostalgie](https://themetalnet.com/band/nostalgie) (Canada, 2007) - [Photophobia](https://themetalnet.com/band/photophobia) (Europe, 2009) - [Svartnad](https://themetalnet.com/band/svartnad) (Sweden, 2008) - [Wehmut](https://themetalnet.com/band/wehmut-15feb0dc) (Germany, 2006) - [Ether](https://themetalnet.com/band/ether) (Canada, 2004) - [культура курения](https://themetalnet.com/band/band-90129458) (2011) - [My Useless Life](https://themetalnet.com/band/my-useless-life) (United States, 2011) - [Hovert](https://themetalnet.com/band/hovert) (Russia, 2010) - [Infernal Necromancy](https://themetalnet.com/band/infernal-necromancy) (1996) - [Sorry...](https://themetalnet.com/band/sorry) (Greece, 2019) - [Taiga](https://themetalnet.com/band/taiga) (Russia, 2013) - [Cheerful Depression](https://themetalnet.com/band/cheerful-depression) (Lithuania, 2010) - [Devastating Sorrow](https://themetalnet.com/band/devastating-sorrow) (Ukraine, 2009) - [Intig](https://themetalnet.com/band/intig) (Worldwide, 2015) - [Selvmorrd](https://themetalnet.com/band/selvmorrd) (Germany, 2006) - [Valefor](https://themetalnet.com/band/valefor) (Turkey, 2008) - [Wintercult](https://themetalnet.com/band/wintercult) (2010) - [...](https://themetalnet.com/band/band-58a8cf69) (2007) - [Heartless](https://themetalnet.com/band/heartless) (2002) - [Life is Pain](https://themetalnet.com/band/life-is-pain) (Europe, 2006) - [Grotte](https://themetalnet.com/band/grotte) (Spain, 1998) - [Blade and Bath](https://themetalnet.com/band/blade-and-bath) (Ukraine, 2021) - [Through the Pain](https://themetalnet.com/band/through-the-pain) (Germany, 2006) - [Zakhm](https://themetalnet.com/band/zakhm) (Iran, 2009) - [Madmans Esprit](https://themetalnet.com/band/madmans-esprit) (South Korea) - [Suicide Forest](https://themetalnet.com/band/suicide-forest) (2016) - [Triebtat](https://themetalnet.com/band/triebtat) (Germany, 2009) - [Verdun](https://themetalnet.com/band/verdun-74ad5482) (Sweden, 2011) - [When Mine Eyes Blacken](https://themetalnet.com/band/when-mine-eyes-blacken) (New Zealand) - [Windbruch](https://themetalnet.com/band/windbruch) (Russia, 2009) - [Eurythmie](https://themetalnet.com/band/eurythmie) (Germany, 2011) - [Sacrimoon](https://themetalnet.com/band/sacrimoon) (2012) - [Starless Night](https://themetalnet.com/band/starless-night) (United States, 2008) - [Endless Sorrow](https://themetalnet.com/band/endless-sorrow) (Belgium, 2009) ## Where it is played - [Germany](https://themetalnet.com/country/de): 28 bands - [Russia](https://themetalnet.com/country/ru): 22 bands - [United States](https://themetalnet.com/country/us): 21 bands - [Sweden](https://themetalnet.com/country/se): 10 bands - [Ukraine](https://themetalnet.com/country/ua): 8 bands - [Italy](https://themetalnet.com/country/it): 8 bands - [Finland](https://themetalnet.com/country/fi): 8 bands - [France](https://themetalnet.com/country/fr): 8 bands ## Bands formed by decade | Decade | Bands formed | | --- | --- | | 1980s | 1 | | 1990s | 3 | | 2000s | 75 | | 2010s | 110 | | 2020s | 10 | --- Source: [TheMetalNet https://themetalnet.com/genre/depressive-black](https://themetalnet.com/genre/depressive-black). Catalog data from MusicBrainz and Metal Archives. Full site index: https://themetalnet.com/llms.txt