--- title: "Drone Metal" type: "MusicGenre" url: "https://themetalnet.com/genre/drone-metal" parent: "Doom Metal" bands: 95 era: "mid 1990s" --- # Drone Metal **Drone Metal** is a metal sub-genre, formative in the mid 1990s. TheMetalNet maps 95 bands and 489 albums under it. Drone metal strips metal down to sustained, massively amplified chords that hang and decay for minutes at a time, often with little or no beat, rhythm, or conventional structure. Washington’s Earth pioneered it by fusing Black Sabbath heaviness with minimalist repetition, and Sunn O))) made it a phenomenon with punishing volume and ritualistic, robed performances. It is as much about physical vibration and texture as melody, closely tied to doom and dark ambient. Songs are long, glacial, and immersive. ## Facts | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Genre | Drone Metal | | Level | Sub-genre | | Parent genre | Doom Metal | | Formative era | mid 1990s | | Bands | 95 | | Albums | 489 | | Formation span | 1962 to 2024 | ## Notable bands (top 60 by prominence) - [Earth](https://themetalnet.com/band/earth-60dd41cf) (1990) - [Sunn O)))](https://themetalnet.com/band/sunn-o) (United States, 1998) - [Nadja](https://themetalnet.com/band/nadja) (Germany, 2002) - [The Body](https://themetalnet.com/band/the-body) (United States, 1999) - [Khanate](https://themetalnet.com/band/khanate) (United States, 2000) - [Locrian](https://themetalnet.com/band/locrian) (United States, 2005) - [Stephen O’Malley](https://themetalnet.com/band/stephen-o-malley) (1974) - [The Bug](https://themetalnet.com/band/the-bug) (United Kingdom) - [Orthodox](https://themetalnet.com/band/orthodox) (Spain, 2004) - [Switchblade](https://themetalnet.com/band/switchblade) (Sweden, 1997) - [Asva](https://themetalnet.com/band/asva) (2003) - [The Angelic Process](https://themetalnet.com/band/the-angelic-process) (United States, 1999) - [Like Drone Razors Through Flesh Sphere](https://themetalnet.com/band/like-drone-razors-through-flesh-sphere) (Spain, 1999) - [Echoes of Yul](https://themetalnet.com/band/echoes-of-yul) (Poland, 2008) - [Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine](https://themetalnet.com/band/teeth-of-lions-rule-the-divine) (United Kingdom, 2000) - [BIG|BRAVE](https://themetalnet.com/band/big-brave) (Canada, 2012) - [מזמור](https://themetalnet.com/band/band-b1b61ba1) (United States, 2012) - [Gianluca Becuzzi](https://themetalnet.com/band/gianluca-becuzzi) (Italy, 1962) - [Black Boned Angel](https://themetalnet.com/band/black-boned-angel) (New Zealand) - [Ascend](https://themetalnet.com/band/ascend) (United States, 2008) - [李剑鸿](https://themetalnet.com/band/band-b0cd2ea2) (China, 1975) - [heavensouls](https://themetalnet.com/band/heavensouls) (2006) - [Monument of Urns](https://themetalnet.com/band/monument-of-urns) (United States, 2004) - [Hjarnidaudi](https://themetalnet.com/band/hjarnidaudi) (Norway, 2005) - [Dead Neanderthals](https://themetalnet.com/band/dead-neanderthals) (Netherlands) - [Vinnum Sabbathi](https://themetalnet.com/band/vinnum-sabbathi) (Mexico, 2011) - [Arctic Sleep](https://themetalnet.com/band/arctic-sleep) (2005) - [Phase](https://themetalnet.com/band/phase) (United Kingdom, 2004) - [AHNA](https://themetalnet.com/band/ahna) (Canada, 2008) - [Bismuth](https://themetalnet.com/band/bismuth) (United Kingdom, 2012) - [Divide and Dissolve](https://themetalnet.com/band/divide-and-dissolve) (Australia) - [Destroyer of Light](https://themetalnet.com/band/destroyer-of-light) (2012) - [Terror Cósmico](https://themetalnet.com/band/terror-cosmico) (Mexico, 2012) - [Neptunian Maximalism](https://themetalnet.com/band/neptunian-maximalism) (Belgium, 2018) - [BARST](https://themetalnet.com/band/barst) (Belgium, 1971) - [Nebula VII](https://themetalnet.com/band/nebula-vii) (Russia, 2010) - [Dhyana](https://themetalnet.com/band/dhyana) - [Looprider](https://themetalnet.com/band/looprider) - [Sektarism](https://themetalnet.com/band/sektarism) (France, 2005) - [Sink](https://themetalnet.com/band/sink) (Finland) - [Urthona](https://themetalnet.com/band/urthona) (United Kingdom) - [Spartan Jet-Plex](https://themetalnet.com/band/spartan-jet-plex) - [Mang Ont](https://themetalnet.com/band/mang-ont) (2012) - [The Lord](https://themetalnet.com/band/the-lord) - [Conjurer](https://themetalnet.com/band/conjurer-4476fb0f) (2010) - [Mariusz Jan Gosiński](https://themetalnet.com/band/mariusz-jan-gosinski) (1998) - [Quiet Man](https://themetalnet.com/band/quiet-man) (United States, 2015) - [Ocean of Ghosts](https://themetalnet.com/band/ocean-of-ghosts) - [Throudos](https://themetalnet.com/band/throudos) (Chile, 2005) - [Galg](https://themetalnet.com/band/galg) (2013) - [Holly Hunt](https://themetalnet.com/band/holly-hunt) - [Plague of Carcosa](https://themetalnet.com/band/plague-of-carcosa) - [Catapult the Sun](https://themetalnet.com/band/catapult-the-sun) (2019) - [Acid Cøma](https://themetalnet.com/band/acid-c-ma) (2012) - [The Wright Valley Trio](https://themetalnet.com/band/the-wright-valley-trio) (Germany, 2014) - [Convulsif](https://themetalnet.com/band/convulsif) (Switzerland) - [Everyone Lives Everyone Wins](https://themetalnet.com/band/everyone-lives-everyone-wins) (2007) - [Warrior Pope](https://themetalnet.com/band/warrior-pope) (United Kingdom) - [Apparitions](https://themetalnet.com/band/apparitions) - [Oscillotron](https://themetalnet.com/band/oscillotron) (Sweden) ## Where it is played - [United States](https://themetalnet.com/country/us): 10 bands - [United Kingdom](https://themetalnet.com/country/gb): 7 bands - [Netherlands](https://themetalnet.com/country/nl): 4 bands - [Canada](https://themetalnet.com/country/ca): 3 bands - [Australia](https://themetalnet.com/country/au): 3 bands - [Norway](https://themetalnet.com/country/no): 3 bands - [Belgium](https://themetalnet.com/country/be): 3 bands - [Germany](https://themetalnet.com/country/de): 2 bands ## Bands formed by decade | Decade | Bands formed | | --- | --- | | 1960s | 1 | | 1970s | 3 | | 1990s | 7 | | 2000s | 18 | | 2010s | 25 | | 2020s | 5 | --- Source: [TheMetalNet https://themetalnet.com/genre/drone-metal](https://themetalnet.com/genre/drone-metal). Catalog data from MusicBrainz and Metal Archives. Full site index: https://themetalnet.com/llms.txt