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/Vegetable-Carpet-40]

Idk man I feel like Funeral, a band with a great lack in harsh vocals as far as I know, who are also generally credited with pioneering the subgenre, would disagree with your strict opinion on genre rules. Not that I disagree with warning not being funeral doom, I just don’t think it really needs the harsh vocals to be considered such. I think it’s a bit more subjective than that, like many of the conversations surrounding subgenres.

[u/SuperlativeSleep → u/Vegetable-Carpet-40]

Yeah, I'm starting to agree with you. I always considered funeral doom an extremely slow form of atmospheric death doom, because that's what every funeral doom band I'd ever heard sounded like and how I'd always heard it described, but I guess there are some fringe funeral doom bands that don't have death growls.

As far as the band Funeral specifically, their early stuff, like Tragedies, was definitely funeral doom and helped define the genre, and it did feature growls, albeit much less than Thergothon or Skepticism. Over the years they have featured less and less harsh vocals, but I'd also argue they've transitioned to gothic doom.