Doom Metal 1990s Albums

Sonic Brew establishes Black Label Society through weighty riffs, earthy blues feeling and rough vocal delivery.

Cathedral's fifth album, released in January 1999 and produced by Andy Sneap, with songs drawn from a Hammer horror film and The Omega Man.

Katatonia's fourth album, issued by Peaceville in 1999. It moves away from metal towards alternative rock, and it is the turn in their course.

Paradise Lost's seventh album, released by EMI Electrola on 24 May 1999, with electronics ahead of the guitars: their most adventurous work yet, as the band said then.

All Eternity introduces To/Die/For through heavy guitars, shadowed keyboards and low, emotional vocals.

Electric Wizard's second album, issued by Rise Above Records in January 1997. It was made deliberately rough, and it is one of the far points of 1990s doom.

Paradise Lost's sixth album, released on 14 July 1997: electronics to the fore, a top-ten album across much of Europe, and the occasion of a tour of Japan.

Cathedral's fourth album, released in October 1996. Recorded straight off a long tour with almost no preparation, it includes songs drawn from sci-fi.

Sleep's third album: one piece of about an hour, split into six parts, held back for years by a dispute with the band's label.

Forbidden centers on Tony Iommi’s heavy riffs while bringing together the melodic side of the Tony Martin era and a harder mid-1990s edge.

Cathedral's third album, released in September 1995: the first with Leo Smee and Brian Dixon, with Tony Iommi playing guitar on "Utopian Blaster".

Down's debut, issued by EastWest in 1995. The title abbreviates New Orleans, Louisiana, and the record keeps the damp of the American South inside it.

Paradise Lost's fifth album, issued by Music for Nations in 1995. It binds the shade of gothic rock to the weight of heavy metal in one thing.

Cross Purposes finds BLACK SABBATH in a phase that lets the Tony Martin-era lineup balance Sabbath's ominous weight with unusually clear melodic definition.

Kyuss's third album, issued by Elektra in 1994. It is the first with bassist Scott Reeder and the last with founding member Brant Bjork.

Cathedral's second album, released in May 1993: the crawl of the debut gives way to Seventies hard-rock swing, and Columbia issued it in America.

Paradise Lost's fourth album, released in September 1993: the record that made their name in gothic metal, and the last with Matthew Archer on drums.

Type O Negative's third album, issued by Roadrunner in 1993. It was the first record on that label to be certified gold by the RIAA.

Dehumanizer reunites Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice for a return to Black Sabbath’s heavy, uneasy sound.

Bolt Thrower's fourth album, issued by Earache in 1992. It was cut at Sawmill Studios that August and slows the band down sharply from the record before it.

Paradise Lost's third album and their first for Music for Nations, released on 14 July 1992; it closes with "As I Die", later issued as a single.

Sleep's second album, issued by Earache in Europe in November 1992 and in the United States in March 1993. It is named again and again as a starting point for stoner rock.

Cathedral's debut, released in October 1991: doom played at a crawl on all but one track, and Lee Dorrian's favourite of all the records he has made.

Paradise Lost's second album, released by Peaceville on 19 March 1991: the record their own biography credits with making them pioneers of gothic metal.

Tyr is a useful way to hear BLACK SABBATH from a different angle within the 1990 catalogue.

Paradise Lost's debut album, released by Peaceville Records on 5 February 1990: the slow, heavy doom-death sound the band started out from.