Dark Metal

From Wikimetal

Dark Metal is quite a vague and subjective term, meaning it includes a great number of musical characteristics to define itself. It is mainly used for bands inspired by Goth Metal, Doom Metal, Death Metal and Black Metal.

Origin

The term was coined by German band Bethlehem with their "Dark Metal" album released in 1994.

It is sometimes used in the media and by fans to define quite well-known bands playing various genres of metal, grouping them around the particularity of their (supposed) "dark" feeling, as opposed to the "popular" music.

Dark metal was originally also used to describe melodic black/death metal bands such as Dissection, Naglfar or Lord Belial.

Musical characteristics

Dark metal often resemble black metal and doom metal altogether. The genre differentiates itself with innovations such as keyboards, acoustic guitars, mixed clear vocals/growls, and/or female vocals for instance.

See also the dark metal category.