History Main / GothicMetal

* Music/{{Danzig}} (overlaps with AlternativeMetal, DoomMetal and [[HeavyMetal Traditional Heavy Metal]])

* Music/CoalChamber

* Music/CelticFrost (UrExample circa Into the Pandemonium)

* Music/{{Behemoth}} (''I Loved You at Your Darkest'', also blackened death metal)

* Music/CattleDecapitation (they have had gothic rock and darkwave elements creeping into their music for a while now, but ''Death Atlas'' is where they dropped the subtlety and fully embraced those elements)

** 2007 - ''Music/{{DeadAgain|2007}}''

Gothic Metal has its roots in Death / Doom, which is, as the name implies, DeathMetal mixed with DoomMetal. "The Peaceville Three," (Music/ParadiseLost, Music/MyDyingBride, and Music/{{Anathema}}) who served as the {{Trope Codifier}}s for Death / Doom, gradually incorporated several traits into their music (some traits being brought in from GothRock) that would shape the genre; keyboards, violins (in the case of Music/MyDyingBride), female vocals, and deeper (often bass baritone) vocals. Around the same time as "The Peaceville Three," the American Music/TypeONegative, coming from a slightly different musical background (i.e. not Death / Doom), started incorporating traits from Gothic Rock into their music also; to this day, it's unclear whether Music/TypeONegative or "The Peaceville Three" did it first, but it's generally agreed to be one of those four bands that kickstarted the genre. Music/{{Novembre}} also had some degree of early influence on the genre, but it can generally be agreed upon that their impact was minimal at best when compared to the bigger three. Lastly, Katatonia and Bethlehem's early work also had some minor influence, though they quickly moved away from the genre in favor of moody, prog-tinged alternative rock (Katatonia) and experimental rock (Bethlehem).

* Music/{{Anathema}}: TropeMakers, along with Music/ParadiseLost and Music/MyDyingBride. Later became a quiet Atmospheric / ProgressiveRock band.

* GenreShift: Gothic Metal bands are renowned for doing this. The genre itself was created thanks to several Death / Doom bands doing this. Several Gothic Metal bands then moved into other genres: Music/ParadiseLost and Music/TheatreOfTragedy into electronic rock, Music/{{Anathema}} and Music/TheGathering into AlternativeRock / Progressive Rock, Music/{{Tiamat}} into some strange brand of experimental Gothic Rock, Music/LacunaCoil into AlternativeMetal... The list goes on and on.

* Music/{{Nightwish}} - Like Epica, they're often considered more of a symphonic power metal band; they started showing elements of gothic metal with ''Century Child'', and have got slightly darker with each album since.

It is hugely popular in Europe, especially Scandinavia, where many of the bands are from. Possibly as a result of its popularity, and the stigma brought on by the false idea that "Gothic Metal = Metal for Goths," many bands have fought against being categorised as Gothic Metal, though it doesn't have the same stigma as other names would -- namely, NuMetal, {{Metalcore}}, and EmoMusic. In addition to this, there are also countless arguments as to which bands actually count as Gothic Metal, due to the rather vague definition of what Gothic Metal is. Expect there to be arguments should you refer to: Music/{{Evanescence}}, Music/LacunaCoil, Music/WithinTemptation, Music/{{Nightwish}}, Music/{{Epica}}, or Music/{{HIM}} as part of this genre.

* Music/MotionlessInWhite (mixed with Metalcore)

* [[Music/SwallowTheSun Swallow the Sun]] (A hybrid of this, MelodicDeathMetal, ProgressiveMetal, and DoomMetal)