13 UNDERRATED DOOM METAL ALBUMS
Doom over the world
As I think it’s clear by now to all of you, I really love lists of music. Long before they became a clickbait vehicle, I was always drawn to lists, even in the internetless days of my youth - end of year lists in magazines, lists of the best albums of such and such genre, my own lists of records I want to listen/buy (I still keep this habit), it’s just a great fun way of both discovering and recommending music. So yeah, I’ll click just about anything that I see in this format on the music sites I dig, and today I chanced upon a list that the famous Metal Injection published a few months ago, “10 Extremely Underrated Doom Metal Albums”. Check it out, it’s well written and it does feature quite a few fantastic and overlooked gems like Warhorse, Eight Bells or Salome. It was enough of an inspiration to start doing the same exercise in my head. From there to sharing it with you is a typically tiny step, so here we go. Cheers for the incentive, Metal Injection!
Before we dive in, allow me just a small reflection on this. Of course, if you read the comments, and apart from a very pleasant unanimity around the final Woods Of Ypres album, the rest is basically a discussion of what is or isn’t doom (metal), of what is missing from the list (even if the site explicitly asks “what would you add?”, the overall tone of those comments is of the “where is x record, you assholes?” variety, of course), and what is or isn’t underrated. All of these are, obviously (I hope), depending on a personal perspective and perception.
Of course there are several schools of doom, from the most “pure” to the most bastardised - in my list, I ignored all of that. If it’s doom, and I know that alone is based on my sole perception of the umbrella-genre, I don’t care if there’s other words like epic, drone, sludge, funeral or death tacked to it. I like ‘em all. If you don’t, skip the ones you don’t, it’s easy. As a fun exercise, I tried typing just “DOOM METAL”, caps and all, into an online AI image generator. The result is the main image for this post that you can see up there. It does look suspiciously like the cover for Trouble’s ‘Psalm 9’ and a few others of that sort, right?
And of course an album being “underrated” is also very dependent on how you perceive other people to like it or know it. For example, to me, including a Trouble album on that list is stretching that notion beyond reason, them being a universally acknowledged seminal band for the genre that even Candlemass themselves have hailed as a major influence. Bands like Warning, Reverend Bizarre, Skepticism, Conan or Cathedral are among my favourites and would be worthy of inclusion in any doom list, but I don’t see them as underrated within this particular context, for instance. Ultimately, if you choose to look at it like that, every doom metal album is underrated, as it’s never really been a (sub)genre for the masses, though it kinda derives directly from Sabbath and everything. So the albums on this list are what I perceive as underrated/overlooked in the grand scheme of things. You might disagree. Let me know! That’s the whole point of lists.
Finally, out of respect for Metal Injection and their original idea, I naturally didn’t include any of the records they did in their list.
Doom on!
Abandon
The Dead End
(Black Star Foundation)
2009
One of the most distressing and truly tormented albums you will ever hear - Abandon’s final document is a two-disc, 1h46m long monstrosity that will drag you remorselessly through the mud, blood and filth left in the wake of your own personal nightmares. It doesn’t matter if there’s elements of sludge or funeral doom in it, all of it gets drowned in a bleak, noise-ridden pit of the utmost misery. If that’s not the definition of doom taken to its logical extreme, I don’t know what is. Unfortunately that misery proved to be all too real for vocalist Johan Carlzon, who tragically passed away from an overdose just a couple of months after the release of the album, adding one last unwanted layer of poignancy to this almost unbearable piece of music.
Anguish
Mountain
(Dark Descent Records)
2014
A straight up traditional doom metal album in everything but voice, as singer J. employs a raspy, aggressive style that could even seem to be at odds with the instrumentation and vibe of the rest of the album on a first superficial analysis, yet Anguish somehow make it all work - once you get to the second proper song ‘Stir Up The Demon’ you’ll be rocking along to it as if you’re getting lost in a “sea of doom”, an expression used on the first song already, as if to warn you about what you’re getting into. Funnily enough, ‘Mountain’ had its little moment in the sun when Darkthrone’s Fenriz himself admitted it was listening to this album that conviced him to not sing on the ‘Arctic Thunder’ record - “a whole album with one vocalist would be a good idea. And it was the Anguish album that made me see that,” he mentioned at the time, which should tell you something about the tight and bleak package that it is.
Bellrope
You Must Relax
(Exile On Mainstream Records)
2019
Bellrope was the apparent successor to the exceptional Black Shape Of Nexus, who would merit an inclusion on this list in their own right too, featuring four former members of that band, and while ‘You Must Relax’ is a little looser and less constantly suffocating than its predecessor band, the colossal heaviness that crushes you during every single passing second of it is still the same. Dense, harsh, with Malte Seidel’s unique roar-vocal imprint all over it and full of punishing whale-riffs that you’ll spend weeks humming, ‘You Must Relax’ sounded like a fantastic promise for the future, except now Bellrope have also split up and we’re left with fucking nothing in the end. That’s doom for you.
Bosque
Nowhere
(Total Holocaust Records)
2013
A brilliant one-man project from the north of Portugal, any of Bosque’s four full-length efforts could be here. The pick of ‘Nowhere’ is just a matter of personal preference as it’s become the one I return to the most over the years, so if you like what you hear do go and investigate the whole discography. All on his own, DM is able to create a raw, almost black metal-like atmosphere that envelops you like the thickest, scariest forest would (“bosque” means “woods” in Portuguese), and as these funereal, ecclesiastical-feeling songs slowly develop alongside the creepy chanting you’ll have to look around every once in a while to make sure you haven’t really been transported to some nightmarish haunted wood.
Cavernlight
As We Cup Our Hands And Drink From The Stream Of Our Ache
(Translation Loss Records)
2017
Goddamn it, look at those titles. It’s the type of record that, alongside its bleakly elegant artwork too, starts to exert its effect on you even before the music starts playing. Some of these often disappoint, but Cavernlight do make their remarkable aesthetic justice. Though still very clearly within the doom realm, the aggressive, vitriolic nature of these songs and the noise elements they employ make it a very individual listen in terms of genres, and those dynamics are expertly managed so in the end you get a truly heavy and oppressive overall package that nevertheless still manages to create a delicately esoteric and almost poetic atmosphere. Elegant violence, so to say. I picked this, their debut, because it absolutely floored me at the time of release when I wasn’t expecting it, but do also check out its seriously awesome 2022 successor ‘As I Cast Ruin Upon The Lens That Reveals My Very Flaw’ (yeah, the titles are still a thing), which takes this winning formula even further.
DoomSword
Let Battle Commence
(Dragonheart Records)
2003
DoomSword hail from (well, besides Italy) that battlefield situated between doom metal and traditional heavy metal, but isn’t that a good definition for epic doom metal? Whatever you call it, DoomSword are one of the best ever to do it, and honestly any of their five full-length albums would be worthy of inclusion - ‘Let Battle Commence’ tipped the scale in its favour on mere details and on the fact that it end with ‘My Name Will Live On’, a spine-tingling epic that will make you raise your fist while tears streak down your face if you still have any kind of beating metal heart inside you. Melody and power, emotion and heaviness, these songs evoke everything from Candlemass to Manowar, from Trouble to Viking-era Bathory - so if you’re a fan of any of these, you should be all over DoomSword.
Grief Collector
En Delirium
(Petrichor)
2021
You’ll come for the voice, yeah, because it’s Rob “The Voice Of Doom” Lowe, and his performance on this album is typically faultless and inspiring, but you’ll stay for the riffs and the massive songs. For the record, Rob isn’t even Grief Collector’s vocalist anymore, and they’ve already done an album with another vocalist after this (2023’s ‘In Times Of Woe’) that is equally great, so yeah, credit where credit is due, and that mostly goes to the Brad Miller (drums) / Matt Johnson (guitars / bass) duo, who are able to create desolate yet affecting doom monuments that could easily have come from a lost classic from the late ‘80s, such is their metallic timelessness.
Hour Of 13
Hour Of 13
(Shadow Kingdom Records)
2007
Hour Of 13 do have a certain cult value in the doom world, so take the “underrated” part with a little grain of salt on this one, but it’s just irresistible to dig back what already seems like an old classic, such is the way these Sabbathian (or if you want a less lazy description, Pagan Altarian, or even slow Priestian?) tunes have conquered the souls of everyone who has submitted to them. Opener ‘Call To Satan’ alone is the anthem that every single metal band is looking for from the moment they form, and this traditional, straight-to-the-heart quality is kept throughout. The songwriting is deceptively simple, but despite the obvious comparisons, halfway through you’ll realise that Hour Of 13 actually sound like no one else, not even the many other projects Chad Davis (who still maintains the band active on his own) and Phil Swanson have participated in.
Krux
II
(GMR Music Group)
2006
Well, speaking about the varying definitions of underrated, how about a band featuring one of the crucial figures of the whole doom genre, Mr. Leif Edling himself? The fact is that this Candlemass offshoot (featuring other Candlemass-related musicians too, like singer Mats Levén for instance) never really took off in terms of popularity, having released three records before Leif apparently gave up on it. Though my favourite song of theirs is actually the title track to the last record, 2011’s ‘He Who Sleeps Among The Stars’, ‘II’ is overall the most solid of their releases, chock-full of doom anthems like that spectacular opening triptych of ‘Serpent’, ‘Devil Sun’ and the gargantuan ‘Sea Of Doom’. Despite Krux’s rawer, more straightforward approach - as compared to Candlemass, that is - I’m convinced they would have become Candlemass classics if Leif had kept them for his main day job. However, it’s cool that they ended up existing as a sort of inside secret that only a fraction of the masses are aware of.
Lamented Souls
The Origins Of Misery
(Duplicate Records)
2004
Not so much an album as a compilation of all their existing material, but whatever - music is music, so listen to the thing like a ”proper” record and that’s what it’ll feel like. More than most albums made with that intent, I could add. Featuring pretty much an all-star cast of the Norwegian scene, like “OJ Noir” (aka Apollyon) on guitars or Olav Knutsen (Infernö, Coffin Storm, Nekromantheon) on guitars and bass, it’s however Simen “ICS Vortex” Hestnæs’ vocals that become the absolute main highlight here. Though the man has presented us with many a stellar vocal performance throughout the years with Arcturus, Borknagar and, to a certain extent, Dimmu Borgir, it’s wonderful to hear him in a more traditional, straight-up doom context (yet still inventive and full of personality, Simen isn’t the only great talent at work here), and he turns already great songs like ‘Essence Of Wounds’ or ‘Eternal Existence’ into soul-stealing mournful epics. Unfortunately, and despite my annoying insistence every time I interview Simen for any other band (sorry dude), this seems to be one to file under the “what could have been” label, since according to Apollyon the band’s last rehearsal already dates back to 2007.
Mindrot
Dawning
(Relapse Records)
1995
Underrated as in Mindrot are not universally hailed as a cornerstone of metal like they should be, you understand. Both this, their debut album, and its successor ‘Soul’ (and that fucking amazing 1990 demo with the best artwork ever) are faultless, sublime pieces of deliriously creative, heavy, unique-sounding doom, featuring surprising and yet fully organically incorporated elements of crust, death/doom and even, I would argue, a certain urban-depressive Cop Shoot Cop-like noise rock vibe to it. Whatever your brain comes up with when listening to it, it’s mandatory. Featuring some mighty Adrian Leroux vocals that manage to be immensely expressive despite the mostly death metal kind of approach, ‘Dawning’ is an emotional tour de force that retains all of its power and relevance a full 30 years upon its release. Unfortunately, after Matt Fisher passed away in 2020, any hope of a reunion seems lost, but we’ll hold on to these records forever.
Novembers Doom
Amid Its Hallowed Mirth
(Avantgarde Music)
1995
Perhaps the less obviously underrated of the bunch overall, but this debut in particular is rarely in the discussion even when Novembers Doom are mentioned, so I feel it deserves this little shout out. I clearly remember asking the guy at the record store where I bought it when it came out if it was any good, as I had seen the name around and as a My Dying Bride-obsessed little doomster it immediately appealed to me, but I hadn’t read any reviews or anything yet, and the guy wrinkled his nose and told me “I don’t really like it.” I’m glad I didn’t take up on his advice and got it anyway, as it provided me everything I was looking for. Old My Dying Bride, obviously, old Paradise Lost too, even a bit of Cathedral in places, but all of it - as their subsequent trajectory would prove - wrapped in a much more metal overall feel than their aforementioned illustrious peers. There is a certain type of crushing heaviness that remains even in the most mournful parts of these songs that tells you these guys will never evolve into an urban trip-hop band or whatever. This shit is in their veins. Though less refined and subtle than a lot of their wonderful (and still growing) catalogue that would follow, ‘Amid Its Hallowed Mirth’ is a statement of intent that still feels as powerful and as decisive as it did back in the day.
Orthodox
Gran Poder
(Alone Records)
2006
Orthodox have changed a lot over the years and explored a great deal of sonic ground in the almost twenty years since this, their debut, came out, and they are still a fantastic band today, a dynamic, adventurous trio that refuses to lay still and settle in any genre. However, there is a certain kind of magic that was captured in these monumental slow riffs that isn’t repeatable. Three robed figures from Sevilla laying down droned-out, cataclysmic beasts of songs, including an almost half-hour opener, sounding as if they just emanated from the burial grounds of an old Andalusian church to herald the coming apocalypse through those creepy wavering chanting vocals? Fuck yeah.
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One track into the list and already blown away. 🔥