I heard some new sounds and I was liking the different direction it seemed to be heading. It had that really catchy metal approach I liked, but it often had a mixture of beautiful and even haunting female vocals and a mixture of male and sometimes guttural vocals.

It had something I personally find very appealing in music. I love music that has a lot of different textures. If they are woven together in a well designed cohesive sound that is even better.

This continues my metal tree series of posts which you can easily find by clicking on the #metaltree tag or you can view most of them by scrolling to the bottom of the original post I made that started this series. I added all of my posts to the end there until I reached a time where it would no longer let me edit this post.

This series inspired by the Metal Evolution documentary series by Sam Dunn and Banger Films.

Let Us Begin

I first encountered this style of music when I heard Evanescence on the Daredevil Movie sound track and with the intro video on the DVD. I thought it was a very compelling musical style. When I researched it I kept encountering the term gothic metal. I had not really heard of it before, but I quickly began listening to the bands on Sam Dunn's chart without ever seeing it. In fact, I am very surprised Evanescence did not make it onto that chart. I also encountered Nightwish who appears in another sub-genre post, but is also very appropriate for this sub-genre. I had a friend from Sweden that I was doing some Empire Earth II game modding with tell me I should check out a band called Within Temptation that is also in this sub-genre. So unlike many of the sub-genres I've covered in the past couple of weeks this is actually one that I have spent a bit of time enjoying and exploring for quite a number of years now.

This style mostly originates from outside of the United States, and a lot of it is virtually unknown in the states. This meant that I was also hearing stuff that sounded very fresh and different from most of the other stuff around me in the U.S. There were exceptions to this, which is why I do believe Evanescence should have been on the Metal Evolution chart for this type of metal. Their sound and style sounds very much like the sound of the European bands that are on the chart.

There is also a bit of crossover from the Doom Metal sub-genre and some others within this sub-genre.

Tiamat

Band First Released: 1990
Nationality: Sweden
I have played a lot of Dungeons & Dragons in my life. I started at age 10. Tiamat is also known as the Chromatic Dragon and was the mother of all evil dragons in early Dungeons & Dragons. This may have also been inspiration for the band, or they could have been inspired by earlier mythology that inspired D&D. Whichever it may be, the name of this band alone inspires nostalgia in me.
Cain

Whatever That Hurts

Brighter Than The Sun

Type O Negative

Band First Released: 1991
Nationality: United States
I covered Type O Negative in some additional detail in the sub-genre on Doom Metal. For this reason I am only going to show a single video of them in this post.
Wolf Moon - Underworld

Therion

Band First Released: 1991
Nationality: Sweden
This is another one where I see the word Therion and I think of Megatherion in new age/occult books and lore. It turns out that once was a name for this band, so the similarity is intentional.
Son of The Staves of Time

Birth of Venus Illegitima

Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah

The Gathering

Band First Released: 1992
Nationality: Netherlands
Leaves

Liberty Bell

Alone

Anathema

Band First Released: 1993
Nationality: United Kingdoms
Lost Control

One Last Goodbye

Untouchable

Katatonia

Band First Released: 1993
Nationality: Sweden
I don't remember how I first stumbled upon Katatonia. I do know I listen to them quite a bit. They may have been encountered when I started tracking down and exploring a lot of different Gothic Metal. I remember the haunting vocals, and that they lyrics while often simple were delivered with emotion and power. I have actually seen these guys live in Denver with Opeth, and they put on a good show. This band frequently ends up in various play lists of mine.
My Twin (with the movie unfaithful) - great song - love the textures and arrangement

The Great Cold Distance (full album) - 51:52

Night Is The New Day (full album) - 48:33

July

Ghost Of The Sun (Live) - one of my favorite songs by them, though they have a lot of great songs

Theatre of Tragedy

Band First Released: 1995
Nationality: Norway
This is one of the gothic bands I enjoy quite a bit that I encountered when going on my big binge exploration of this sub-genre.
Siren

Venus

Storm

Within Temptation

Band First Released: 1997
Nationality: Netherlands
This band as I mentioned above was one that a guy from Sweden I was doing some game development (he was also a drummer) recommended. He said the singer had the most beautiful voice he had ever heard.
Memories - This was the song he said I should listen to first. She does have a hauntingly beautiful voice.

Paradise (What About Us?) ft. Tarja - Tarja was the original female vocalist for Nightwish.

Angels

Stand My Ground

HIM (previously HER)

Band First Released: 1997
Nationality: Finland (when called HER was from United States)
Tears On Tape

Pretending

Funeral of Hearts

Nightwish

Band First Released: 1997
Nationality: Finland
Nightwish appeared in an earlier post as well due to their Progressive, Symphonic, and experimental style. They definitely also fit heavily in the Gothic Metal sub-genre with a lot of their material. In fact, their original female vocalist Tarja you will find in one of the Within Temptation videos above performing with Within Temptation's vocalist.
Amaranth

Bye Bye Beautiful

Nemo - Tarja is the vocalist on this one

Lacuna Coil

Band First Released: 1999
Nationality: Italy
This may be one of the more well known and successful bands in this sub-genre. They are a powerful and beautiful Italian band.
Trip The Darkness

Enjoy The Silence - US Version

Spellbound (Performance Version)

Closer

Heavens A Lie

Evanescence

Band First Released: 2003
Nationality: United States
Now if you listened to any of the stuff above (Especially Within Temptation) and you likely get why I think Evanescence should be in this sub-genre of music. The stuff above totally sounds like the Evanescence sound and predates it. The only real difference is most of those acts above got very little exposure in the U.S. and people don't know about them. That is too bad as they are quite good. I of course first heard Evanescence when watching the Daredevil movie on DVD and it started out with a video of Bring Me To Life. I remember thinking "wow, this is different". That was what actually caused me to go back in time and find these other bands.
Bring Me To Life - Arguably the first gothic metal I ever encountered was this video. I don't know how this could be listened to and the similarity to acts above could not be found. This band belongs in this sub-genre no question.

My Immortal

Going Under

Lithium

Leaves' Eyes

Band First Released: 2004
Nationality: Norway/Germany
This is a mixture of members from other bands merging to form a new band. Theatre of Tragedy was apparently a big part of this. I actually prefer Theatre of Tragedy myself.
My Destiny

Hell To The Heavens

Elegy

Closing

As with all the previous posts if you feel there is a Gothic Metal act that was missed that should be included with this post, please reply with a link to a video showing an example of them. Thank you for reading, listening, and watching.

Steem On!