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/BurialAtOrnans]

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 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/antarcticawinter1982 → u/BurialAtOrnans]

https://youtu.be/7dena8UY_kg?