10 Essential Gothic Metal Songs – From Tristania to Moonspell

I don’t want to exaggerate, but today we’re talking about the best music genre in existence: Gothic Metal. As the name suggests, Gothic Metal is the dark & heavy lovechild of Gothic Rock and Metal music. Sounds good, right?

So, if you’re not already listening to Trail of Tears or Type O Negative all day, then you should give this genre a try. In my attempt to lure you to the dark side, I’ve created this list of Gothic Metal songs to get you started. Each song represents some of the genre’s characteristics. Hopefully, this will give you a good idea of the beauty & awesomeness that is Gothic metal.

Grab a goblet of red wine and turn up your volume!

1) Celtic Frost – Rex Irae (Requiem)

Surprise! We’re not actually going to start this list with a Gothic Metal song, but with one of its precursors. Celtic Frost’s Into the Pandemonium album from 1987 set the tone for all the Gothic Metal that followed, so let’s give them the honor they deserve. Rex Irae (Requiem) has the gothic theatrics, the combination of heavy and melodic music, and even the high-pitched female vocals which are now one of the most recognizable characteristics of the Gothic Metal scene.

2) Paradise Lost – Gothic

Time to explore a song from one of the first true Gothic Metal albums: Gothic by Paradise Lost (yes, that really is the name). You can easily identify some of the Gothic Metal characteristics: dark lyrics, growls from the male singer, a female soprano, and a dramatic and bombastic overall sound.

3) Type O Negative – Black No 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)

Time to switch to a cleaner and more popular sound. Even if you didn’t know the genre before, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of the Gods of Gothic Metal: Type O Negative. Their album Bloody Kisses and the song Black No 1 (Little Miss Scare-All) are often what comes to mind when talking about this music genre. It’s also a great example of slower-paced Gothic Metal with clear male vocals instead of growls.

4) The Vision Bleak – Into the Unknown

Most of the songs on this list were not exactly written yesterday. Although age does not really matter, I do want to point out that not all great Gothic Metal music is old. If you ever hear a fan of the genre complain that nothing decent came out in the past decade, let them listen to Into the Unknown by The Vision Bleak from their 2016 album The Unknown.

5) Trail of Tears – When Silence Cries…

When Gothic Metal songs combine the female soprano’s with the male growls, it is called the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ style. It is sometimes said that the clear, high-pitched female vocals are more gothic and the deep, male death growl vocals are more metal. One thing is certain though: they sound good together in Trail of Tears’ When Silence Cries!

Read More:

• Top 25 Best Gothic Love Songs of All Time
• Your Ultimate Guide to Gothic Romance
• Best Gothic Art by Caspar David Friedrich

6) Tristania – The Shining Path

Why use only one singer if you can have a few dozen? In addition to the vocal types previously described, some Gothic Metal bands like to add a choir to their music. A good example is the The Shining Path by Tristania. Does the choir not make you feel as if you’re standing in a cathedral? It doesn’t get more goth than this.

7) Cradle of Filth – Her Ghost in the Fog

Unsurprisingly, most Gothic Metal songs are not about sunshine and flowers (unless the sun is scorching vampires while the flowers are withering away on some tombstone). If you’re looking for a great example of typical Gothic Metal lyrics, look no further than Cradle of Filth. Her Ghost in the Fog has it all: love, death, despair, spooky metaphors, and the frequent mentioning of ghosts and church bells.

8) Draconian – Death, Come Near Me

Time to take a look at the Doom side of Gothic Metal. As both genres are a lot alike (think sadness, despair, and the tendency to be a little dramatic), it makes sense that many bands dabble in both. A great example of a Doom Metal band who often adopts a strong Gothic sound is Draconian. Their song Death, Come Near Me has the sense of despair and slow pace typical for Doom Metal, as well as the softer melodic parts and the Beauty & the Beast vocals of Gothic Metal.

9) Moonspell – Opium

Let’s talk about another music genre that is closely related to Gothic Metal: Black metal. One Gothic Metal band who often uses Black metal influences, is Moonspell. As you can hear in their song Opium, the overall sound is a bit more on the heavy side. Compared to Doom-influenced Gothic Metal, it’s much faster and has more of a shrieking sound.

10) Lacrimosa – Sapphire

We don’t need every song to be sung in English, do we? Although this list is already quite international, it can use a bit more variation when it comes to speech. So for our final entry, here’s one of the very few Gothic Metal bands who stick to their native language (in this case, German): Lacrimosa with Sapphire.

We’ve explored a lot of different kinds of Gothic Metal. If you’ve listened to every song on this list, you should have a pretty good idea of what this genre is all about. Let’s play them again!