Funeral Doom Metal

Funeral doom is the slowest and heaviest form of doom metal, typically crawling below 50 beats per minute with thick, downtuned distortion and long, sustained chords that can ring out for half a minute. The style emerged in Finland in the early 1990s: Thergothon’s 1994 debut Stream from the Heavens is widely cited as the first funeral doom album, and Skepticism’s Stormcrowfleet established the genre’s organ-like keyboards and cavernous production. Vocals are usually deep growls or slow chants, and the drums move at a dirge-like crawl, serving atmosphere over aggression. Its themes center on grief, mortality, and despair.