The only doom albums I own are Shape of Dispair s/t and Shades of...  I didn't know doom could be like that.  I was always scared away from it for years by Black Sabbath clones. I was pissed when I got the Shape of Dispair s/t album because I already owned Shades of... and I didn't know it would have a lot of the same songs on it.  I thought a demo was just a shittier version of the real thing... I was dead wrong. Oh, and the WOMB/Disciples of Mockery split is good too.  Im going to order an Esoteric cd soon as well.  Any suggestions for more good doom albums in the vein of the bands mentioned?  Hell, any recommendations for a "stoner" doom album that doesn't suck complete balls?

Went to Earache's site

And bought the Cathedral pack

I am wicked drunk.

I think I have a potential topic of conversation!

How would you split up the "doom" genre? I think there's doom, sludge, stoner rock and the very distant "drone". I think these seperations are very necessary, but a bit difficult. Sludge is sort of like a buffer genre. The way I see it, Doom and slugdge are very similar, and sludge/stoner are very similar, but doom and stoner are not that similar. I personally don't like drone. I can't get into bands like Sunn 0))) and the likes.

My favorite in these classifications would likely be sludge.

Anyway- has anybody heard Weedeater's new album? I got it last week and I'm really liking it. They're more or less very much like Bongzilla, with minor tweaks and changes here and there. THey also know how to change things up to keep the album interesting, while still maintaining some of the repetitiveness that most sludge albums have (riff wise, I mean this in a good way). And much like Bongzilla or Electric Wizard (not as well done as EW, though), the songs have very distinctive and memorab le riffs. Oh, the album's called God Luck and Good Speed.

Of course, Candlemasss sort of started the doom thing, actually calling their slower-paced and often melancholy melodies "doom."  Bands like Trouble also had that sort of feel in many of their older songs - but I thik both bands can trae the crushing heaviness to some of the slower Black Sabbath Riffs. 

Bands like ESOTERIC made extremely atmospheric doom, prefering demonic vocals over operatic.  They had songs exceeding 20 minutesd in length.  The pace, although slow, bor a hellish, evil, and nightmarish essence.

Early MY DYING BRIDE, CELESTIAL SEASON, and bands like that used violin and made some of the riffs very sorrowful.  My Dying Bride changed style over the years, discarding the death metal vocals and then re-introducing them, mixed with clean, non-operatic vocals. 

Bands like Funeral (early days) experimented with female operatic vocals and even slower tempos.

Some bands removed the sadness and replaced it with cold despair and lifelessness.  Very dismal soundscapes were the mark of bands like Skepticism and Thergothon.

Then there is the special band, SHAPE OF DESPAIR.  Their debut album, SHADES OF, is absolutely perfect, and unique.  I almost want to call it "magical doom."  Some of the riffs create and ebb and flow effect, and its; really hard to resist throwing everyone out of the house when the music plays - I just want to shut everything out and hear that album.  They changed from album-to-album, but each one is relished.  The later albums are a bit heavier, and in some songs, more atmospheric. 

I totally agree with Jewsef about gay bands using gay blues.  The more a band stays away from the pentatonic scale and the more is uses minor keys, the more ungay it becomes.  Stoner bands, and of course bands that actually sing about pot, should be beaten savagely. 

Like Jewsef, I am a HUGE fan of UPSIDE DOWN CROSS.  Althought they have riffing that some people can mistake for "stoner doom" it's just something that you have to hear for yourself.  They're not doom in the melancholy sense, but they have some crushing material.  What makes them cool is that their vocalist sounds like he has totally lost his mind, and the lyrics have sometimes made me piss myself laughing.  I know they have more than just the three albums that I own - I have to track down the others.