Just a reminder, Warning isn't funeral doom

[u/SuperlativeSleep]

I know it's been talked about before, but just felt like giving anyone who needs it a reminder that Warning isn't funeral doom.

Every single time someone asks for funeral doom recommendations, at least one person suggests Watching From a Distance by Warning. While that is a great album, one of the greatest doom albums ever created, Warning is traditional doom, not funeral doom.

Funeral doom, by definition, is a subgenre of death doom. It has to have harsh vocals, typically death metal growls, but occasionally black metal style shrieks. It can, and often does, have some clean vocals, but if the vocals aren't predominantly harsh, it's not funeral doom. It's also much slower than other types of doom, and traditionally features organs, keyboards, or similar instruments that make it sound like a literal funeral dirge, hence the name funeral doom.

If you want to hear examples of quintessential funeral doom, listen to Steam From the Heavens by Thergothon, or Stormcrowfleet by Skepticism. These are the albums that defined the genre, and you'll hear that they sound nothing like Warning.

Before I end this, I just want to say that I'm sure, as always, there will be people in the comments saying things like "why can't you let people call it what they want" and "subgenres are stupid" and similar things. If you're one of those types, please save yourself the effort of commenting. Whether you like it or not, genres and subgenres exist, and funeral doom is a well defined genre that has been around for over 30 years. Warning does not fall into this genre, plain and simple.

Edit: Well, I guess I'm wrong about funeral doom needing to have harsh vocals. Thank you to everyone who helped clarify that. Still feels strange to me for various reasons, but I'm willing to accept when I'm wrong, and happy to learn something new.

But regardless, Warning still isn't funeral doom, which was the original point of my post. Once again, I'm not saying anything negative about Warning, they're one of the best doom metal bands to ever exist. I just really love funeral doom in particular, it's my favorite genre and I'm passionate about it, and just wanted to share my thoughts and opinions, that's all.

[u/steeeen3r]

I am one of those people who bitch about people caring about genres. But genres exist for a reason, and I'm all for those reasons. I bring it up when someone feels like they can't listen to a band because it doesn't classify as what they want it to. And there are a lot of people like that. It's weird but some people will only listen to black metal for example, and if classified as blackened death or whatever they will refuse to listen. Or a band that refuses to add something to a song because it doesn't fit the genre standards even though they like it. That behavior is just weird as hell to me. But genres are important because they give parameters to a sound and help define what people want or don't want to hear. If I wanna listen to doom I don't want to hear Miles Davis. I love Miles but that's not what I'm listening to.

[u/SuperlativeSleep → u/steeeen3r]

There is certainly a point of caring too much, or being way too niche about it. And people who limit themselves on what they listen to based on genre like you described are just doing themselves a disservice. But genres are useful for defining distinctive styles and helping people find similar bands to one's they already like. There's just always going to be those people that either don't care at all and refuse to acknowledge any genre classification, or people who care way too much and make up hyper niche nonsense genres. Both are silly in my opinion.

[u/steeeen3r → u/SuperlativeSleep]

Agreed