Gothic Metal

Gothic metal fuses metal’s weight with the melancholy, romance, and atmosphere of gothic rock, favoring lush keyboards, mournful melodies, and often a beauty-and-the-beast contrast of clean female and harsh male vocals. England’s Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride grew it from death-doom in the early 1990s, while Type O Negative and Lacuna Coil brought their own dark, seductive takes. Tempos are slow to mid-paced and the mood is brooding and theatrical. Themes lean on love, death, sorrow, and the macabre.