Drone metal | |
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Stylistic origins | |
Cultural origins | Early 1990s, Seattle, Washington |
Other topics | |
Drone metal (also known as drone doom and power ambient), is a style of heavy metal that melds the slow tempos and heaviness of doom metal with the long-duration tones of drone music. Drone metal is sometimes associated with post-metal or experimental metal.
Typically, the electric guitar is performed with a large amount of reverb or audio feedback while vocals, if present, are usually growled or screamed. Songs often lack beat or rhythm in the traditional sense and are typically very long. The experience of a drone metal performance has been compared to listening to an Indian raga in the middle of an earthquake by novelist John Wray in The New York Times. Wray also states, "It's hard to imagine any music being heavier or, for that matter, very much slower." A pioneer band of drone metal called Sunn O))) has indicated a kinship with sound sculpture. Jan Tumlir indicates a "sustained infra-sound rumble of sub-bass–-so-called brown noise".
Drone metal music blends elements from a variety of musical influences, including rock/metal artists such as Black Sabbath, Sleep, and Swans, the feedback-heavy guitar tones of Neil Young and Thurston Moore, and minimalist composers such as Phill Niblock, Charlemagne Palestine, La Monte Young, and Tony Conrad, and the multiple guitar compositions of Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca.