(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); I thought I'd start this up as I see little discussion of music really, but people where talking about it in the shoutbox so I thought I'd start a thread on one of the genres of music that really caught me.

Gothic Metal, a sub genre of Metal music that was really big in the late '90s and early '00s. I was in my late teens and it really was the perfect time for me as I started to get really involved in the local music scene. I then headed of to Uni where my tastes spread and changed accordingly. One band I still stuck with entirely was Evanescence. While there more popular Nu Metal style was what drew many people in, I often found the lesser known tracks more interesting, like this one "My Last Breath", which never got a music video but here's a video on YouTube, it's clips of other videos with the song over the top.



It was in 2005 when I went to see Within Temptation live that I really grew to love the style, especially the use of female vocals as in almost every other genre of music I prefer male vocals. My favourite song of theirs is "Memories" which I got to hear at the concert but due to a fuse blowing it was played live, accoustic, and by candlelight, with only 200 people in a small hall. It was amazing.



A common misconception with Gothic Metal is that it's entirely female vocals, but some bands have managed to make it work with male vocals, a great example is HIM, one of my favourites by them being "Wings Of A Butterfly" which keeps the same tones and manages great sustained notes. Another good example was The Rasmus, with their most well known song "In The Shadows". Bands like HIM make great bridges between the very female vocal filled Gothic Metal and the more popular Nu Metal and the Prog. Rock revival of the same period, and with bands like Muse mixing in different elements thoughout their music.





Still, while the male vocals could do Gothic Metal justice, they couldn't compare to female vocals for symphonic effect. One of the best examples of the use of female vocals though was Nightwish who's song "Nemo" I still find haunting. With a more distinctive symphonic style than other bands in the genre, it really was the singer who made all the difference, unfortunately she left the band and the current singer just cannot reach the same range but the song is incredible none the less.



So, this is Gothic Metal. If people are familiar with it I'd love to hear your opinions. It's a very cultural taste I find, with most Gothic Metal bands being Scandanavian or Dutch, so it maintains a certain distinctiveness that some people may or may not like. Still this was basically the music of my Uni years and I wanted to share it with people. Obviously, I've picked some of the most well known bands to show here, but there a loads more and at the very least, maybe I'll have introduced someone to a new genre of music or a band they didn't realise they liked.