Your way in
DSBM 1994
Depressive suicidal black metal: slower tempos, wailing guitars and desperate vocals. The subject matter is heavy, and the genre is debated inside the scene itself.
- Heaviness
- 8
- Speed
- 6
- Melody
- 5
- Where from
- Sweden / France
- Tempo
- 60-140 bpm
- Song length
- 5-10 min
- Written about
- Depression, Suicide, Isolation, Self-harm
- Vocals
- Growled or shrieked
Why this one
| You said | DSBM | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| A growl or a shriek When someone is singing, what should come out? | harsh | 100% | ×3 |
| Heavy. I want to feel it. How much weight do you want behind it? | 8 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| Quick and driving What pace? | 6 out of 10 | 90% | ×2 |
| The nineties Does it matter when it was made? | 1994 | 100% | ×1 |
| The inside of a head What should the words be about? | Depression, Suicide, Isolation, Self-harm | 100% | ×1 |
| Something to hold on to Do you want a tune you could hum afterwards? | 5 out of 10 | 90% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 97% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 6 answers you gave, weighted vocals 3, heaviness 2, pace 2, era 1, about 1, melody 1 out of 10. DSBM leads the next by 2 points. Where two genres score the same the broader one wins, because a genre with subgenres under it is somewhere to carry on from and a leaf is a full stop.
Five records, in this order
- 1Start one step outside
Darkthrone, A Blaze in the Northern Sky 1992
Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky. The production is intentional, not a flaw.
- 2The one to put on first
- 3Then
Shining, V: Halmstad 2007
- 4Then
- 5Then
The first is the entry point for Black metal, one step outside, so the second record has something to be heard against. After it come DSBM's essential records in the order the encyclopedia lists them. Every one of these has a page here with links out to somewhere it can be played.
If that is not it
-
Melodic death metal 90%
Iron Maiden-style guitar harmonies over screamed vocals. The Gothenburg scene later became the foundation of American metalcore.
4 steps from DSBM, meeting it only at Heavy metal.
The way into Melodic death metal -
Mathcore 88%
Metalcore with its wiring torn out: meter changes every few seconds, dissonance and chaos controlled to the millimetre.
On the other branch of the tree entirely, and 8 steps from DSBM.
The way into Mathcore
Not simply the second and third of the ranking: those are almost always near neighbours of the first, which is three names for one suggestion. An alternate has to sit at least 4 steps through the tree from the headline and from the other alternate, which is the same floor the "sounds like this, but isn't" panel uses.
What your answers ruled out
- A growl or a shriek put 78 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Alternative rock, Blues rock, Doom metal. Worth 3 of 10.
- The nineties put 23 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Blues rock, Progressive rock, Rock and roll. Worth 1 of 10.
- The inside of a head put 88 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Punk rock, Hardcore punk, Black metal. Worth 1 of 10.
Counted as genres scoring 20% or less on that answer alone. A recommendation that only shows what it chose is hiding half of what it did.