---
title: "Traditional Doom Metal"
type: "MusicGenre"
url: "https://themetalnet.com/genre/traditional-doom"
parent: "Doom Metal"
bands: 8
era: "early 1980s"
---

# Traditional Doom Metal

**Traditional Doom Metal** is a metal sub-genre, formative in the early 1980s. TheMetalNet maps 8 bands and 27 albums under it.

Traditional doom metal is the original form of doom, descending directly from Black Sabbath’s slow, heavy, ominous riffing. Emerging in the early 1980s, US bands like Saint Vitus, Pentagram, and Trouble kept the tempos slow and the riffs thick, while Sweden’s Candlemass added an epic, operatic grandeur on their landmark Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. Vocals are usually clean and mournful, and the mood is one of gloom, foreboding, and gothic weight. It is metal’s oldest and most Sabbath-faithful strain of darkness.

## Facts

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Genre | Traditional Doom Metal |
| Level | Sub-genre |
| Parent genre | Doom Metal |
| Formative era | early 1980s |
| Bands | 8 |
| Albums | 27 |
| Formation span | 1987 to 2017 |

## Bands

- [Abdullah](https://themetalnet.com/band/abdullah) (United States, 1998)
- [The Black](https://themetalnet.com/band/the-black) (Italy, 1988)
- [Nomad Son](https://themetalnet.com/band/nomad-son) (Malta, 2006)
- [Epitaph](https://themetalnet.com/band/epitaph) (1987)
- [Kabbalah](https://themetalnet.com/band/kabbalah) (Spain, 2013)
- [The Hounds of Hasselvander](https://themetalnet.com/band/the-hounds-of-hasselvander) (United States, 2007)
- [Year Zero](https://themetalnet.com/band/year-zero) (United Kingdom)
- [Thrown](https://themetalnet.com/band/thrown) (United States, 2017)

## Where it is played

- [United States](https://themetalnet.com/country/us): 3 bands
- [Spain](https://themetalnet.com/country/es): 1 bands
- [United Kingdom](https://themetalnet.com/country/gb): 1 bands
- [Italy](https://themetalnet.com/country/it): 1 bands
- [Malta](https://themetalnet.com/country/mt): 1 bands

## Bands formed by decade

| Decade | Bands formed |
| --- | --- |
| 1980s | 2 |
| 1990s | 1 |
| 2000s | 2 |
| 2010s | 2 |

---

Source: [TheMetalNet https://themetalnet.com/genre/traditional-doom](https://themetalnet.com/genre/traditional-doom). Catalog data from MusicBrainz and Metal Archives. Full site index: https://themetalnet.com/llms.txt