Psychedelic Doom
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Psychedelic doom drapes slow, downtuned doom riffs in swirling, mind-altering haze — wah-soaked leads, oceans of feedback and delay, drifting drones and trance-inducing repetition. Guitars are heavily fuzzed yet textural, often layered with eerie clean passages, organ or synth shimmer; tempos crawl in a narcotic sway built for losing time. Vocals tend toward distant, reverb-bathed wails, ghostly chants or hypnotic clean intonations rather than aggression. The aim is altered consciousness: long, ritualistic, kaleidoscopic pieces that fuse the crushing weight of doom with the dilation, color and cosmic drift of acid-rock and space-rock.
History
Psychedelic doom grew where doom's weight met acid-rock's trip, with England's Electric Wizard the defining force — 'Come My Fanatics...' (1997) and 'Dopethrone' (2000, Rise Above) drowned Sabbathian riffs in feedback, horror and drugged murk. San Francisco's Acid King ('Busse Woods', 1999) and Sleep offshoot Om brought meditative, mantra-like drift, while Italy's Ufomammut and the US's Yob expanded the style into cosmic, cathedral-sized soundscapes. Richmond's Windhand ('Soma', 2013, Relapse) and bands like Pallbearer and Elder carried it through the 2010s, supported by Roadburn and a festival/label network (Rise Above, Relapse, Tee Pee) that prized hypnosis and sonic vastness over speed.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Wikipedia: Doom metal
- Dopethrone
- Soma (Windhand album)
- Busse Woods
- Encyclopaedia Metallum (Metal Archives): Electric Wizard, Acid King, Ufomammut, Yob, Windhand
- Stereogum / Relapse / Roadburn coverage
- The Sleeping Shaman