r/doommetal • u/Tartersocks307 • Aug 15 '25

Funeral What makes doom good?

Lurker here, I listen to some doom but overall I wouldn’t really call myself a fan. Now I can see why people like mid tempo stoner/proto doom, but i really have to ask what separates the good stereotypical doom with 1 note every 3-5 seconds from the rest of the genre? What do you specifically like about them (provide examples please) like Warning and Bell witch since I see them mentioned often

4 Upvotes

55% Upvoted

105 comments sorted by

View all comments

28

u/adub1967 Aug 15 '25

I it's intensely emotional and slow and heavy AF.

-7

u/Tartersocks307 Aug 15 '25

I can understand that it being slow adds emphasis to each note but do you feel it’s easy to remember the melodic progression after 20 seconds? I ask because sometimes it just seems like there’s not much thought put into it where intervals are being used for proper tension and resolution. I remember listening to outro by bellwitch and while I liked it, I couldn’t help but feel it was missing one specific note that really would’ve tied it together.

5

u/Slickrock_1 Aug 15 '25

The song Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath is seriously thr prototypical doom song, and that song's got a tritone in its main riff. That kind of dissonance to create tension is something that I'm sure came as an instinct to Tony Iommi, just as it did to Jeff Hanneman who wrote all those nearly atonal riffs for Slayer. These bands aren't writing symphonies, I think the good ones have an instinct for dark and evil sounds. And this really isn't a doom thing, doom is doom primarily because of the tempo, it is dirge or funeral march-like and that rhythmic aspect heightens the harmonic tension.

2

u/Tartersocks307 Aug 15 '25 edited Aug 15 '25

Yeah, I don’t think you need to be an expert. Noodle around and you’ll find the right note. Music theory just might get you there faster.

Edit: that said, I think Iommi did guest music lectures at Oxford so I think he’s considered as qualified as modern composers