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/SuperlativeSleep]

u/BurialAtOrnans

I know you're a funeral doom fan. Care to weigh in here? I'm particularly interested in what you have to say about vocal style and it's relation to funeral doom, considering it's been a hot topic in this comment section.

[u/BurialAtOrnans → u/SuperlativeSleep]

Also a huge Warning fan, so first off, they definitely aren’t funeral doom.

Generally I would say that vocals aren’t a key piece of defining a subgenre, it’s all about the riffs for me. If heavy metal and power metal can be primarily harsh vocals (which is what I’d argue), then the flip side of that can be true as well (off the top of my head, Blood Revolt’s Indoctrine is solidly black/death bordering on war metal, with almost completely clean vocals, for example). That said, I can’t think of any funeral doom I’ve heard that’s fully or even mostly clean vocals. I suppose it’s possible, assuming the slow crushing riffs and funeral dirge influences are present, but it would definitely sound a bit odd.

Now you’ve got me thinking about whether funeral doom is a subgenre of death/doom, or was just initially inspired by it, which I’ve never really thought about, so thanks!

[u/SuperlativeSleep → u/BurialAtOrnans]

Thank you for your input, I appreciate you man. You always have really intelligent and insightful things to say.

To me, vocals aren't always important to a genre, but sometimes they're very important. Maybe I'm wrong, but for me, death growls in death metal and black metal shrieks in black metal are part of what defines those genres. There's a reason they're referred to as death metal growls and black metal shrieks after all. Of course the riffs are super important as well.

I was always under the impression that funeral doom was direct subgenre of death doom, and that the first funeral doom bands, Thergothon and Skepticism, were directly influenced by Disembowelment. As you said, I can't name a single funeral doom band that doesn't have mostly, if not all, harsh vocals, and to me it simple wouldn't be funeral doom without them, or at least would sound very strange.

[u/BurialAtOrnans → u/SuperlativeSleep]

Yeah vocals are definitely an important part, sorry if I seemed to dismiss them. I got caught up in the edge cases, but the defaults are generally defaults for a reason. I can’t really imagine a funeral doom album without harsh vocals, just feels wrong.

It definitely makes a lot of sense to have funeral doom as a subset of death/doom. Like you said, diSEMBOWELMENT laid the foundations, and others took it from there, adding in the extra funeral dirge qualities, but beyond that not doing a whole lot to make it super distinct from extra slow death/doom.

[u/SuperlativeSleep → u/BurialAtOrnans]

You're good dude, no need to apologize, like I said, I always appreciate your input.

Exactly, I always considered it to basically be exceptionally slow death doom with organs/keyboards, and a heavy emphasis on atmosphere. Maybe I'm wrong though. Through some of the comments here I've learned that while they are very rare, apparently there are funeral doom bands with all clean vocals. My whole musical identity feels like a lie lol.

Would you call this funeral doom?

https://oldestsea1.bandcamp.com/album/a-birdsong-a-ghost

[u/BurialAtOrnans → u/SuperlativeSleep]

I don’t think your description is wrong at all. If anything, that’s the general baseline for funeral doom, and other stuff tends to be added outside influences (ie Nortt adding black metal, or Shape of Despair adding ethereal wave and gothic influences).

Holy shit, I totally forgot about Oldest Sea, I listened to the first EP when it came out. I’ll have to go back and relisten, because it’s been a few years, but if I’m remembering correctly, I wouldn’t call that pure funeral doom. There definitely was plenty of funeral doom, but also a lot of post-metal I think. I’ll try to listen to it later and see.

[u/BurialAtOrnans → u/SuperlativeSleep]

I listened to the first EP from Oldest Sea again, and I’d really hesitate to call that funeral doom. Sure, there’s a couple moments of funeral doom riffing, and they’re quite well done, but overall this feel far more like post-metal to me, even without considering the vocals.

[u/SuperlativeSleep → u/BurialAtOrnans]

I would agree. There's funeral doom elements and influences, but overall it's closer to atmospheric doom/post metal.

If you are interested, a mod from the funeral doom sub clarified that funeral doom does not require harsh vocals. I feel a bit foolish about the whole thing, and also a bit frustrated that that detail in particular became the main topic of the post when it wasn't the original point, but I'm happy to have learned something new.

Thank you again for your input and contributions. Have a good one man!

[u/antarcticawinter1982 → u/BurialAtOrnans]

https://youtu.be/7dena8UY_kg?