The 10 Greatest Moments In UK Doom Metal History!

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Doom metal, us Brits have always been bloody good at it.

We invented it, we morphed it into new shapes and the history of UK doom metal is littered with success stories, of pioneering bands that took hold of doom metal’s fundamentals and twisted them into new forms, unearthing all-time classic albums along the way.

While Candlemass, Trouble and Saint Vitus may have threatened to usurp us in the 80’s, the arrival of Cathedral turned the tables and, once again, the Brits were back, firmly in charge!

As resolutely British as fish ‘n’ chips and as bleak as our weather, good doom metal is a wonderful thing but these 10 defining moments in UK doom metal history are simply sublime.

Starting with…..

Black Sabbath Inventing The Whole Damn Thing….

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The album that started it all, a bonafide game-changer which took hard rock by the scruff of the neck and violently shook heavy metal and doom metal out of it.

It’s frankly ridiculous to think that on release Black Sabbath was slammed by critics (perhaps not ready for such a departure into darker, more-twisted territories), dismissed as mere clichéd clones of bands such as Cream, Vanilla Fudge and Black Widow. Of course, anything new can be threatening and perhaps the world wasn’t quite ready for this. Hell, it had only just gotten used to the idea of hard rock and Black Sabbath were an entirely different beast altogether!

Make no mistake, when Sabbath released their eponymous debut in 1970 an entirely new genre spewed forth, a genre built on elephantine heaviness, primeval blues roots and faux satanic leanings. Doom metal had arrived and it was ugly, frightening, foreboding and utterly exhilarating.

Perfected with just 1 track, Black Sabbath opens with the eerie, ungodly sound of the heaven’s opening as unrelenting rain and ominous crashing thunder accompany Tony Iommi’s devilish tritone riff (doom metal invented in one slow, torturous harmonic progression); a sound that has never been equalled.

Truly sinister, truly disturbing and utterly unique. Doom metal had arrived…..has it ever been bettered? We think not.