Metal Reviews

So what is your favorite DSBM band? Why so?

Myn would be Silencer. Although I came across this new thing yesterday, it mixes DSBM with experimental:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH7-rKdMBdY

Abyssic Hate or Nyktalgia.

Is Shining depressive?
If so, it gets my vote.

Gris is still my favourite DBM band.

Good choice! Really like the production of Il etait...

And rightfully so. Those vocals always feel like knives cutting straight through my soul.

Shining, Gris then Silencer. Would include Leviathan before I associated all his music with sexual assault. I can shake that mental connection.

Do Peste Noire count? I would put them above Silencer if so.

I kinda dislike Xasthur.

Peste Noire doesn't make feel depressed. Good band though.

Not their newer folk-y stuff but La Sanie and Phalenes maybe? Could just be me.

La Sanie is quite melancholic, but there's a difference between melancholy and depression.

Xasthur is not bad, I actually really like im, Nocturnal Poisoning is really great melancholic piece, even if he is from California the guy knows how to make deep music

I would also consider Bethlehem's later stuff as DSBM, well a bit, just because of the vocals and stuff

I agree, Gris is really good, hmm you can't really go wrong with DSBM it's Tru to everything it is, and is one of the deepest forms of music out there.

Depressive BM has to be very well made with layers of guitars and very strong riffing. And although I haven't listened to much Depressive BM lately I think Drudkh definitely qualifies as well as Wolves In The Throne Room. They have a much more spiritual and ethereal sound to them and that's why they are so captivating and moving.

Not really my thing but some bands are ok such as Todeskult, Sun of the Sleepless, and a few other bands that escape mention. This style of bm is usually contingent on the ability of the musicians to create atmosphere, and 8/10 times the bands suck like Happy Days and Lifelover.

Good artists within this subgenre are few and far between.

The image/lyrics is repulsive, as is much of the music. However, Shining albums #2-3, and Forgotten Tomb albums #1-3 found a certain harmony between black metal, Katatonia's Dance of December Souls, and the obscure Finnish doom band Dolorian that ensures they will always remain in my playlist.

Dolorian's music is some of the darkest music I have ever heard; better than any Depressive BM, period. Although Forgotten Tomb and their themes tend to be a little whiny. I mean I understand being depressed and everything but some of the cover albums and their general lyrical themes really through me off. Not to mention that they don't have a strong sense of melody.

FT's first 3 albums were an overt attempt to bring Dolorian (and Katatonia's first album) to black metal, as they acknowledged heavy influence from both in interviews. Whether they succeeded or not is up to the beholder, but I think on balance they did.

One example follows:
"Solitude Ways"--No sense of melody here?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScRm02Im ... re=related

I love Dolorian. Hence I guess should check out Forgotten Tomb. And emp, you don't like Halmstad by Shining?

There is definitely a strong sense of melody and some very good lead guitars. But as you have mentioned the Katatonia influence is very heavy and that takes away from their originality and adds to the predictability. In my eyes they are doing something average because they lack the most important thing in music: originality. Their leads just sound too much like Katatonia which is very poor. I guess if a band has a worship-like influence from another band it is very hard not to be influence by them. But I think they have failed to put their own twist and form to their main influences.

Yeah, I like it. It is a bit different, though.