Top Favorite Doom & Gothic Metal Albums ... rank them

[introclaus]

EDIT: SEEING A LOT OF PEOPLE SEEM UNFAMILIAR WITH DOOM, BUT MORE INTERESTED IN GOTHIC/B&B METAL, I'VE NOW INCLUDED THAT AS A SEPARATE CATEGORY.

1) List only your top 15 albums ... no "bubblers" or "honorary mentions"
2) List only one (1) album per band.

Doom Metal

1. Paradise Lost - Gothic
2. Candlemass - Nightfall
3. Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses
4. My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans
5. Warning - Watching from a Distance
6. Trouble - Trouble (1990)
7. Memento Mori - Life Death and Other Morbid Tales
8. Saturnus - Paradise Belongs to You
9. Spiritual Beggarrs - Return to Zero
10. Solitude Aeternus - Into the Depths of Sorrow
11. Anathema - Eternity
12. While Heaven Wept - Vast Oceans Lacrymose
13. Swallow the Sun - Moonflowers
14. Scald - Will of the Gods is a Great Power
15. Cathedral - Forest of Equilibrium


Gothic Metal

1. Tiamat - A Deeper Kind of Slumber
2. Katatonia - Dead End Kings
3. Type O Negative - October Rust
4. Moonspell - Irreligious
5. Therion - Theli
6. The 3rd & the Mortal - Tears Laid in Earth
7. Theatre of Tragedy - Aegis
8. Green Carnation - Light of Day, Day of Darkness
9. The Gathering - Mandylion
10. Sentenced - Frozen
11. Lord of the Lost - Judas
12. Lake of Tears - A Crimson Cosmos
13. Empyrium - Songs of Moors and Misty Fields
14. Within Temptation - The Silent Force
15. Rotting Christ - Sleep of the Angels

[John Frank]

The only doom albums that make my all-time list (and only on the "half of the album is excellent" list at that) are Nightfall and Tales of Creation. I like Turn Loose the Swans and a few Solitude Aeturnus tracks. Otherwise, it's newer doom like Crypt Sermon, Lord Vigo, Sorcerer, and others. But none of those come close to being all-time faves.

[GaetanL]

1. Black Sabbath "Black Sabbath"
2. Veni Domine "Fall Babylon Fall"
3. Dreadful Thoughts "Demise Of The Blind"

[introclaus]

The only doom albums that make my all-time list (and only on the "half of the album is excellent" list at that) are Nightfall and Tales of Creation. I like Turn Loose the Swans and a few Solitude Aeturnus tracks. Otherwise, it's newer doom like Crypt Sermon, Lord Vigo, Sorcerer, and others. But none of those come close to being all-time faves.

Yeah never figured you for a doom fan lol

Lord Vigo: I really wanted to like them but something is “off”.

[introclaus]

1. Black Sabbath "Black Sabbath"
2. Veni Domine "Fall Babylon Fall"
3. Dreadful Thoughts "Demise Of The Blind"

Can’t go wrong w any BS and VD.

The Dreadful Thoughts album is a strange one - crossing over to something more of a prog metal thing (reminds me actually a bit of Vaudxvhil) than real doom in my opinion, and the songwriting is quite good. But I think the poor production and the weird vocals just never got me to appreciate it truly.

[Mark]

I love 90% of everything mentioned in this thread so far.
I personally hold one album above the rest which is Solstice "New Dark Age".
In second place would be While Heaven Wept "Vast Oceans Lachrymose".
Behind those two in the "pack" would be stuff by Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus, Place of Skulls and the rest of the expected stuff.
I like Black Sabbath a lot - favorite is probably the debut - although I wouldn't put them in a top ten (or fifteen) of personal favorites.

One "unpopular opinion" I have is that I think Cathedral's entire career was just as good as the early doom period. Sure, I love Forest of Equilibrium as much as the next guy, but I also love Garden of Unearthly Delights and The Guessing Game at least the same amount if not more compared to that album.

[Alberto]

Ah yes, doooom... Possibly my favorite subgenre, too.
It was especially hard to decide what qualifies here!

1. The Gathering / Mandylion
2. Draconian / Arcane Rain Fell
3. Candlemass / Nightfall
4. Forest Stream / The Crown Of Winter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQxPrFNNeLc - I always hold my breath for the first couple of minutes of this one)
5. Madder Mortem / Mercury (their only album that qualifies - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdlkbWH58lc)
6. Swallow The Sun / Ghosts Of Loss (hard to choose between this one and Morning Never Came)
7. Isole / Bliss Of Solitude (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPD5wert0iI)
8. While Heaven Wept / Of Empires Forlorn
9. Avatarium / Avatarium
10. Dawn Of Solace / The Darkness (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OozcfaDFG7U)
11. Funeral / From These Wounds
12. Enshine / Origin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtFpPJbl9Zg)
13. To Cast A Shadow / In Memory Of (inexplicably fascinating to me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NXU-nZwbuk)
14. Yearning / Merging Into Landscapes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7vD4OIDRfA)
15. Saturnus / Martyre

I excluded all post-Eternity Anathema (and I don't like their earlier stuff enough to make the list).
Three phenomenal albums I also excluded: Dark Suns / Existence (too prog), Estatic Fear / A Sombre Dance, and Mental Home / Black Art (too... unique?).
And all Woods of Ypres albums (too peculiar as well).
And two magnificent doomy proggy gothic discs: Chalice (Aus) / An Illusion To The Temporary Real, and Dying Passion / Secretly.

Never heard about Dreadful Thoughts, will check them out!

[GaetanL]

My review of Dreadful Thoughts - "Demise Of The Blind"

Cet album n'est peut-être pas extraordinaire mais il est certainement bon. Même que moi je le trouve plus que bon. L'appréciation dépendra de chacun. Ce groupe de Montréal a débuté sous le nom de Sabbatum alors qu'ils étaient un groupe hommage à Black Sabbath. Ici, ça sonne différent de Black Sabbath, bien qu'on ressent l'influence surtout pour le son doom metal. Au son doom metal s'ajoute un côté progressif et ambiant. Cette ambiance est plutôt sombre et même que par moments on se croirait dans un film d'horreur.

This album may not be amazing but it is certainly good. Me I find it more than good. The appreciation will depend on each one. This Montreal band started under the name Sabbatum when they were a Black Sabbath tribute band. Here, it sounds different from Black Sabbath, although we feel the influence especially for the doom metal sound. To the doom metal sound is added a progressive and ambient side. This atmosphere is rather dark and at times it feels like a horror movie.

[introclaus]

I love 90% of everything mentioned in this thread so far.
I personally hold one album above the rest which is Solstice "New Dark Age".
In second place would be While Heaven Wept "Vast Oceans Lachrymose".
Behind those two in the "pack" would be stuff by Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus, Place of Skulls and the rest of the expected stuff.
I like Black Sabbath a lot - favorite is probably the debut - although I wouldn't put them in a top ten (or fifteen) of personal favorites.

One "unpopular opinion" I have is that I think Cathedral's entire career was just as good as the early doom period. Sure, I love Forest of Equilibrium as much as the next guy, but I also love Garden of Unearthly Delights and The Guessing Game at least the same amount if not more compared to that album.

Solstice is an interesting band - for me their debut “Lamentations” was incredible, and while I can appreciate “New Dark Age” it somehow never clicked with me. I’ve gone back to it time and time again but it just never hits fully.

Place of Skulls: I had an unpleasant interaction with them, so I lost all interest…

Cathedral: yeah I love almost all their releases too. The thing about “Forest…” though was how absolutely uncompromising it is in its darkness and slowness (funeral doom before that genre was invented?) and how insane it was to witness Lee go from the lightning speed of Napalm Death to this within a year.

[introclaus]

Ah yes, doooom... Possibly my favorite subgenre, too.
It was especially hard to decide what qualifies here!

1. The Gathering / Mandylion
2. Draconian / Arcane Rain Fell
3. Candlemass / Nightfall
4. Forest Stream / The Crown Of Winter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQxPrFNNeLc - I always hold my breath for the first couple of minutes of this one)
5. Madder Mortem / Mercury (their only album that qualifies - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdlkbWH58lc)
6. Swallow The Sun / Ghosts Of Loss (hard to choose between this one and Morning Never Came)
7. Isole / Bliss Of Solitude (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPD5wert0iI)
8. While Heaven Wept / Of Empires Forlorn
9. Avatarium / Avatarium
10. Dawn Of Solace / The Darkness (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OozcfaDFG7U)
11. Funeral / From These Wounds
12. Enshine / Origin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtFpPJbl9Zg)
13. To Cast A Shadow / In Memory Of (inexplicably fascinating to me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NXU-nZwbuk)
14. Yearning / Merging Into Landscapes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7vD4OIDRfA)
15. Saturnus / Martyre

I excluded all post-Eternity Anathema (and I don't like their earlier stuff enough to make the list).
Three phenomenal albums I also excluded: Dark Suns / Existence (too prog), Estatic Fear / A Sombre Dance, and Mental Home / Black Art (too... unique?).
And all Woods of Ypres albums (too peculiar as well).
And two magnificent doomy proggy gothic discs: Chalice (Aus) / An Illusion To The Temporary Real, and Dying Passion / Secretly.

Never heard about Dreadful Thoughts, will check them out!

Now that’s an incredibly interesting list. I’m really surprised by this; most of it leans towards the “beauty & beast” genre more than classic doom, and I think the common thread is “ethereal”. A lot of these albums I really do love but wouldn’t necessarily think of them first when it comes to doom (“Mandylion”, “Mercury”, “Existence”) but it doesn’t take anything away from the quality of them at all.

I have to check out Estatic Fear, Mental home, Chalice and Dying Passion. Don’t think I’ve ever heard either.

[Alberto]

I have to check out Estatic Fear, Mental home, Chalice and Dying Passion. Don’t think I’ve ever heard either.

Yes, do check out "Black Art" by Mental Home... and then hopefully thanks to your encyclopedic knowledge you will point me to something that sounds similar

The other three, I'm not too sure they will be up your alley, but you can try.

Best,
Alb

[introclaus]

I have to check out Estatic Fear, Mental home, Chalice and Dying Passion. Don’t think I’ve ever heard either.

Yes, do check out "Black Art" by Mental Home... and then hopefully thanks to your encyclopedic knowledge you will point me to something that sounds similar

The other three, I'm not too sure they will be up your alley, but you can try.

Best,
Alb

Dying Passion - I can see why you like this, it’s a “Mandylion” clone with strings and even some folksy input. I actually like the violins but the female vocalist is NOT on the level of Anneke Not bad for the B&B genre.

Mental Home - that was painful to listen to, sorry. It’s over the top clicheed keyboard-loaded “black metal”-lite. Occasionally it reminds me of early Limbonic Art or Akhenaton because of the heavy keys but it’s without that quality of songwriting and it becomes just bland (at best). I don’t hear any doom in it to be honest. Yes it’s not as fast as the above mentioned bands and thereby not necessarily black metal, but … nah.

[Alberto]

Mental Home - that was painful to listen to, sorry. It’s over the top clicheed keyboard-loaded “black metal”-lite. Occasionally it reminds me of early Limbonic Art or Akhenaton because of the heavy keys but it’s without that quality of songwriting and it becomes just bland (at best). I don’t hear any doom in it to be honest. Yes it’s not as fast as the above mentioned bands and thereby not necessarily black metal, but … nah.

Oh noooo, sorry to hear that. To me, their guitar melodies and tone as well as the interplay with the keys are just perfect. I love that peculiar horrific atmosphere they create.
As always, to each his own.
Concerning their style, I agree that "doom" is not the fair main descriptor for them, that's why I said I excluded them when writing my list.
Never heard Akhenaton, I'll add them to the check-out list thanks!
Cheers
Alb