DSBM — Depressive Suicidal Black Metal
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The bleakest, most explicitly self-destructive branch of depressive black metal, fusing second-wave tremolo and blast roots with doom-slow dirges and lyrics fixated on depression, self-harm, misanthropy and suicide. The sound swings between raw, trebly, hissing lo-fi production and a starker minimalism, with anguished shrieks giving way to literal screams, sobs, whispers and spoken breakdowns. Slow weeping single-note leads, clean-guitar interludes and acoustic passages cut the distortion; tempos crawl 50-100 BPM before brief blast surges. The defining trait is emotional rawness pushed to genuinely disturbing extremes rather than musical complexity.
History
Sweden's Shining, formed in Halmstad in 1996 by Niklas Kvarforth, is the cornerstone and source of the 'suicidal black metal' tag; their early records ('Within Deep Dark Chambers,' 'V: Halmstad') codified the doom-laced, confessional approach. The other pillar is fellow Swedes Silencer, whose lone 2001 album 'Death - Pierce Me' (vocals by Nattramn) became the genre's notorious cult landmark for its shrieking, near-hysterical delivery. The American DSBM axis of Xasthur and Leviathan ran parallel, while a sprawling 2000s one-man-project underground (Hypothermia, Make a Change... Kill Yourself, Trist, ColdWorld, Happy Days) spread it globally through tape and net labels. Endlessly prolific and controversial, DSBM persisted into the 2010s as a recognizable, deeply insular scene.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Death - Pierce Me(2001) — SilencerSpotifyYouTube
- Sterile Nails and Thunderbowels(2001) — SilencerSpotifyYouTube
- Submit to Self-Destruction(2002) — ShiningSpotifyYouTube
- Låt Oss Ta Allt Från Varandra(2007) — ShiningSpotifyYouTube
- Telepathic with the Deceased(2004) — XasthurSpotifyYouTube
- The Tenth Sub Level of Suicide(2003) — LeviathanSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Wikipedia: Depressive suicidal black metal
- Shining (Swedish band)
- Silencer (band)
- Encyclopaedia Metallum (Metal Archives): Silencer 'Death - Pierce Me'
- Invisible Oranges, 'A Fly Over the Fringes: Depressive Suicidal Black Metal'