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psychedelic doom

Psychedelic Doom

United Kingdom · 1990s
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Description

Psychedelic doom is a fusion of doom metal’s slow, crushing weight with the heady textures and exploratory spirit of psychedelic and space rock.

It emphasizes down-tuned, fuzz-laden guitars, hypnotic repetition, and long-form compositions that drift between ominous heaviness and trance-like, kosmische atmospheres. Production often favors analog warmth, tape-like saturation, spring reverb, and echo, while vocals are typically distant, reverb-soaked, and occult- or cosmos-themed.

The result is music that feels both monolithic and mind-expanding: lumbering riffs, ritualistic grooves, and hallucinatory effects that evoke horror cinema, esoteric mysticism, and deep space.


Sources: Spotify, Wikipedia, Discogs, Rate Your Music, MusicBrainz, and other online sources

History

Origins (late 1980s – early 1990s)

Psychedelic doom emerges from the overlap of doom metal’s Sabbath-descended riff worship and the lysergic sprawl of psychedelic and space rock. Early seeds can be traced to the psychedelic side of heavy psych and acid rock, as well as to late-1980s/early-1990s doom and sludge scenes that embraced downtuning, distortion, and repetition.

Codification in the 1990s

In the mid-to-late 1990s, UK band Electric Wizard became a touchstone, pushing ultra-fuzzed tones, occult imagery, and horror-film aesthetics into a slow, trance-inducing form. In the U.S., Sleep and Acid King brought similarly hazy, monolithic riffing, further legitimizing a strain of doom that drifted into psychedelic territory. Concurrently, space rock and krautrock textures (long delays, drones, and motorik-adjacent pulses) seeped into doom, expanding its palette.

2000s Expansion

The 2000s saw a global bloom. Italy’s Ufomammut folded in ritualistic repetition and cosmic synthesis; North American acts like YOB and Windhand emphasized atmosphere and meditative song lengths. Independent labels, festivals, and online forums helped consolidate aesthetics—vintage amps and cabs, fuzz-and-wah pedal rigs, and analog-leaning production.

2010s – present

A new wave (Monolord, REZN, Acid Mammoth, and others) refined the style’s massive low-end with clearer, modern mixes while doubling down on hypnotic grooves and spacey effects. Cross-pollination with post-metal, shoegaze, and drone led to adjacent styles such as doomgaze and more cinematic, environmental forms. Today, psychedelic doom remains a vital, international strain of heavy music, foregrounding atmosphere, repetition, and ritual heft.

How to make a track in this genre

Setup & Instrumentation
•   Guitars: Down-tune (C standard or lower), use high-output pickups, and stack fuzz into loud tube amps (e.g., Orange/Matamp) with big cabs. Essential pedals: Big Muff/Fuzz Face-style fuzz, wah, phaser (Phase 90), analog delay (Space Echo-style), and spring reverb. •   Bass: Thick, slightly overdriven bass locked to the kick. Emphasize sustain and octave reinforcement of guitar riffs. •   Drums: Slow to mid-slow tempos (≈60–90 BPM; 6/8 or 12/8 common). Heavy kicks, roomy toms, splashy rides, and cymbal swells to create waves of energy. •   Keys/Synths: Simple drones, Mellotron/organ pads, modular or analog synth bleeps for cosmic textures.
Harmony & Riff Writing
•   Favor minor pentatonic, natural minor (Aeolian), Dorian, and Phrygian colors; use flattened II or bVI–bVII movement for ominous modal feel. •   Build riffs around sustained power chords, open-string pedals, and tritone/semitone tensions. •   Common progressions: i–bVII–bVI, i–IV vamp, or modal drones with chromatic embellishment.
Rhythm & Groove
•   Keep grooves hypnotic: repetitive motifs, lurching swing, and long-held notes. •   Use rests and drop-outs to heighten impact when the full band returns. •   Experiment with 6/8 and 12/8 for a ritual, rolling feel.
Sound Design & Production
•   Prioritize warmth and saturation; track loud amps in big rooms. •   Layer multiple fuzz tones (one thick and compressed, another slightly brighter) for depth. •   Use delay, reverb, and phaser as compositional tools—automate feedback and rate for psychedelic swells. •   Sample subtle horror/occult textures (field recordings, drones) sparingly to enhance atmosphere.
Vocals & Lyrics
•   Vocals often sit back in the mix with heavy reverb/echo; chant-like or drawled delivery fits well. •   Themes: occult ritual, cosmic journeys, esoterica, doom-laden parables, and psychedelic introspection.
Arrangement & Form
•   Embrace long forms (8–15 minutes): extended intros, evolving middle sections, and mantra-like codas. •   Alternate between crushing riff sections and spacious, delay-drenched passages. •   Reprise a central motif to anchor the trip.
Performance Tips
•   Play loud and let amps breathe; sustain and feedback become part of the music. •   Use lighting and visuals (lava lamps, projections) to reinforce the trance-like mood. •   Keep tempo steady; small fluctuations can feel tidal and immersive.

Best playlists

The Sound of Psychedelic Doom
The Sound of Psychedelic Doom
Every Noise at Once
Psychedelic Doom
Psychedelic Doom
Chosic
Psychedelic Doom Mix
Psychedelic Doom Mix
Spotify
Best user-generated playlists
Best user-generated playlists

Main artists

Related labels

Bindrune Recordings
Bindrune Recordings
New Heavy Sounds
New Heavy Sounds
Subsound Records
Subsound Records
Interstellar Smoke Records
Interstellar Smoke Records
dunk!records
dunk!records

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Influenced by
Doom Metal
Doom metal is a heavy metal subgenre defined by slow to mid-tempo grooves, down-tuned, highly distorted guitars, and an atmosphere of dread, melancholy, and weight. It emphasizes ominous, minor-key riffs and sustained tones over speed or virtuosity, creating a crushing sense of space and inevitability. Vocals range from plaintive and theatrical (epic/traditional doom) to anguished wails or harsh growls (death-doom), and lyrics often explore themes of suffering, mortality, the occult, apocalyptic visions, and existential despair. Song structures are typically riff-centric and long-form, with repetition and gradual dynamic shifts producing a hypnotic, ritualistic feel.
Psychedelic Rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that seeks to evoke, simulate, or amplify altered states of consciousness. It emphasizes timbral color, textural layering, and extended forms over traditional verse–chorus efficiency. Hallmarks include droning or modal harmonies, jangling or heavily fuzzed guitars, swirling organs or synthesizers, and extensive use of studio effects such as tape delay, reverse tape, phasing, flanging, and Leslie-speaker rotation. Rhythms often loosen into hypnotic vamps and long improvisations, while lyrics tend toward surreal imagery, cosmic themes, and introspection. The sound draws from Indian classical drones and scales, blues and R&B roots, folk lyricism, free-jazz openness, and the burgeoning studio experimentalism of the mid‑1960s. It became a cultural emblem of the counterculture era.
Stoner Rock
Stoner rock is a heavy, riff‑centric style that blends the weight and doom of early heavy metal with the groove and expansive jams of late‑60s/70s psychedelic and acid rock. It is marked by fuzz‑drenched, down‑tuned guitars, thick bass tones, and relaxed but powerful mid‑tempo grooves. Songs often emphasize hypnotic, repetitive riffs; extended instrumental passages; and a warm, vintage analog sound. Vocals tend to be laid‑back or gritty rather than operatic, and lyrical themes commonly explore the desert, space, altered states, mythology, and countercultural imagery. The overall vibe is earthy and immersive—equal parts head‑nodding groove, psychedelic haze, and Sabbath‑born heaviness.
Heikyoku
Heikyoku (平曲) is the medieval Japanese art of epic chanting of the Tale of the Heike, performed by blind itinerant lute priests known as biwa hōshi. The voice delivers a highly stylized, declamatory chant closely synchronized with a four‑string heike‑biwa, whose plectrum strikes and drones punctuate phrases and heighten drama. The genre blends Buddhist liturgical chant aesthetics with courtly melodic sensibilities, using flexible rhythm, formulaic melodic patterns, and codified cadences to narrate the rise and fall of the Taira clan. Its sound world is austere, spacious, and timbrally rich—relying on silence (ma), timbral inflection, and the biwa’s distinctive buzzing resonance (sawari) rather than dense harmony.
Space Rock
Space rock is a psychedelic branch of rock characterized by long-form, hypnotic grooves, swirling guitars awash in delay and reverb, and prominent analog synthesizers that evoke cosmic or interstellar imagery. The music often emphasizes texture and atmosphere over conventional song structures, creating expansive soundscapes that feel weightless and otherworldly. Emerging in late-1960s Britain from the overlap of psychedelic rock, early progressive rock, and experimental electronics, space rock frequently employs motorik-leaning rhythms, modal or drone-based harmony, and science-fiction themes. Extended improvisations, phased and fuzz-drenched timbres, and tape or echo effects are common, encouraging a sense of forward drift and cosmic exploration.
Acid Rock
Acid rock is a heavier, louder, and more improvisation-driven branch of psychedelic rock that emerged in the mid-to-late 1960s. It is characterized by extended guitar solos, distorted and feedback-laden textures, modal or drone-based harmony, and a strong emphasis on trance-inducing grooves. The style was closely tied to the counterculture and LSD-fueled happenings of the era, particularly on the U.S. West Coast. Musically, it blends blues-rock’s grit, garage rock’s raw energy, folk-rock’s modal harmonies, and raga-influenced drones, then amplifies everything—volume, duration, and intensity—into hypnotic, often explosive performances.
Sludge Metal
Sludge metal is a hybrid of doom metal’s slow, downtuned weight and hardcore punk’s raw aggression. It emphasizes thick, overdriven guitar tones, throttling bass, and drums that lurch between trudging slow-motion grooves and ragged mid‑tempo blasts. Vocals are typically screamed, barked, or anguished, often buried slightly in the mix to feel abrasive and cathartic. The style took shape in the late 1980s United States—particularly the Pacific Northwest and the American South—where bands fused Sabbath‑like doom riffs with the DIY harshness of hardcore and the scabrous textures of noise rock. Lyrical themes commonly explore addiction, despair, social decay, and Southern Gothic imagery, delivered with an intentionally gritty, unvarnished production aesthetic.
Occult Rock
Occult rock is a dark, vintage-leaning strain of hard and psychedelic rock that centers on esoteric, witchcraft, and ceremonial themes. It pairs heavy, riff-led songwriting with theatrical vocals and ritualistic imagery—candles, robes, sigils—evoking a sense of mystery and forbidden knowledge. Musically it draws on late-1960s/early-1970s hard rock and acid-drenched psychedelia: overdriven guitars, warm tube tones, analog organs (Hammond, Mellotron), fuzz bass, and dry, punchy drums. Songs are typically mid‑tempo, minor‑key, and hooky, favoring modal turns (Aeolian, Phrygian) and occasional tritone or chromatic color to heighten the ominous atmosphere. Lyrically, it references grimoires, folklore, and occult philosophy, often balancing narrative storytelling with chant-like choruses. Modern revivals preserve the 70s aesthetic—tape-saturated mixes and retro gear—while refining arrangements and production for contemporary audiences.
Japanese Psychedelic
Japanese psychedelic is Japan’s homegrown take on psychedelic rock, emerging at the end of the 1960s as the country’s Group Sounds bands absorbed British and American acid rock, blues rock, and garage influences. It is marked by saturated fuzz and feedback guitars, tape echo and spring reverb, modal riffs and drones, and long, improvisation-friendly song forms. Across its evolution, the style ranges from raw, garage-derived freak-outs to spacious, cosmic jams and shadowy, feedback-drenched minimalism. Traditional and Asian timbres or scales sometimes color the harmony (e.g., pentatonic and raga-inspired modes), while lyrics often tilt toward surrealism, alienation, or dreamlike imagery. The result is a uniquely Japanese blend of heaviness and heady atmosphere that links late-1960s underground rock to later noise, space, and neo-psychedelic movements.
Has influenced
Doomgaze
Doomgaze is a hybrid of doom metal’s crushing weight and shoegaze’s hazy, immersive textures. It pairs ultra-slow, down-tuned riffs with walls of reverb- and delay-drenched guitars, creating music that feels both monolithic and ethereal. Vocals are often breathy, distant, or melancholic, sitting low in the mix like another instrument. Tempos tend to be slow to mid-slow, the low end is thick and sustained, and songs usually unfold in long arcs that favor mood and atmosphere over technical flash. The result is a sound that balances heaviness and dreaminess—cathartic, immersive, and emotionally heavy without relying on aggression.
Voidgaze
Voidgaze is a heavy, atmospheric offshoot of shoegaze that fuses dense, down‑tuned guitars with post‑metal weight and blackgaze/atmospheric black metal expansiveness. The sound foregrounds towering walls of fuzz and reverb, but replaces the genre’s classic dreaminess with a cavernous, cosmic darkness—hence the sense of “the void.” Typical tracks pivot between tectonic, slow‑burn passages and explosive peaks: blast‑beat or double‑time surges may erupt beneath layers of smeared guitars, then collapse back into glacial, reverb‑soaked textures. Vocals are usually soft, breathy, or distant in the mix (sometimes screamed as a texture), serving the atmosphere rather than acting as a focal melody. Lyrically, voidgaze tends toward the existential—nature, vastness, decay, memory, and spiritual unease—mirroring the music’s sense of scale and sublimity.
Gaian Doom
Gaian doom is a doom-metal offshoot that fuses the genre’s glacial tempos and colossal low-end with eco-spiritual themes, nature soundscapes, and droning textures. It often foregrounds the relationship between humanity and the biosphere, evoking forests, mountains, oceans, and cycles of decay and renewal. Musically, it draws from drone and post-metal’s long-form crescendos, sludge’s weight, and dark ambient’s textural depth. Field recordings (wind, water, birds, rain) and acoustic timbres (hand percussion, bowed instruments, harmonium) are layered around downtuned riffs to create a ritual, earth-centric atmosphere. Lyrics tend to be mythopoetic, animist, or ecological, emphasizing Gaia as a living, interdependent system.
Post-Doom Metal
Post-doom metal is a doom-derived style that blends the slow, heavy weight of doom metal with the expansive structures and textural focus associated with post-rock and post-metal. Compared to traditional doom, it often relies less on blues-based riff repetition and more on long-form crescendos, layered guitars, and dynamic contrast (quiet, spacious passages that swell into crushing climaxes). The genre commonly emphasizes atmosphere and emotional build-up, using down-tuned guitars, sustained chords, and dense low-end while keeping arrangements cinematic and patient rather than riff-forward and verse-chorus driven.
Progressive Doom
Progressive doom is a fusion of doom metal’s weighty, slow-to-mid tempos and somber atmospheres with the adventurous songwriting and technical curiosity of progressive rock and progressive metal. Hallmarks include long, multi-part songs, frequent dynamic contrasts, unusual time signatures or metric shifts, and richly layered guitar harmonies. Clean vocals often intermingle with harsh growls, while keyboards, strings, or acoustic interludes broaden the palette beyond traditional doom. Lyrically, the genre leans toward existential, poetic, and conceptual themes, reinforcing an epic yet melancholic tone.
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