It is usually slow to mid-paced, with keyboards, mournful melodies and lyrics about loss and sorrow. Many bands set a deep or growled male voice against a clean female one. It began in northern England in the early 1990s, when bands such as Paradise Lost moved away from death and doom metal. It is more tuneful and atmospheric than doom, its closest relative.
Artists it is known for: Paradise Lost, Type O Negative, Theatre of Tragedy, Lacuna Coil.
About 2,500 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have gothic metal among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Gothic Metal artists
Type O Negative
HIM
Sisters of Mercy
Nightwish
London After Midnight
Within Temptation
Katatonia
Candlemass
Reflexion
Cradle Of Filth
The gothic metal artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.