page_title: Gothic metal
section_title: Lyrics
hierarchical_section_title: Gothic metal / Characteristics / Lyrics
caption_attribution_description: Theatre Des Vampires
context_page_description: Gothic metal is a fusion genre combining the heaviness of heavy metal with the dark atmospheres of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music. The genre originated during the early 1990s in the United Kingdom originally as an outgrowth of death-doom, a fusion of death metal and doom metal. Lyrics are generally dark and introspective with inspiration from gothic fiction as well as personal experiences.
  Pioneers of gothic metal include Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Anathema, all from the north of England. Other pioneers from the first half of the 1990s include Type O Negative from the United States, Tiamat and Katatonia from Sweden, and The Gathering from the Netherlands. Norwegian band Theatre of Tragedy developed the "beauty and the beast" aesthetic of combining aggressive male vocals with clean female vocals, a contrast that had been adopted by groups before them, but not as a regular trademark; several bands have employed the technique since. During the mid-1990s, Moonspell, Theatres des Vampires, Rotting Christ and Cradle of Filth brought the gothic approach to black metal.
context_section_description: The lyrics of gothic metal are known to be melodramatic, fantasized, romantic, dark or sometimes gloomy. For the three English bands that helped to pioneer the genre, their gloomy lyrics reflect their background in doom metal while their darker or melodramatic lyrics draw influence from gothic rock. The music of My Dying Bride has been noted as "dripping with treachery and pain" from a "lyrical fascination with deceit and transgressions of every variety". Lyrics that focus on suicide and the meaninglessness of life can be found in Anathema while Paradise Lost too has "never lost their depressive edge".
  Gothic fiction, a literary genre that blends horror and romance, has been a source of inspiration for the lyrics of many gothic metal bands like Cadaveria, Cradle of Filth, Moonspell, Theatres des Vampires and Xandria. Critic Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic identifies drama and mournful beauty as requisite elements of the genre. For My Dying Bride, the subjects of "death and misery and lost love and romance" have been approached repeatedly from different angles. The common gothic theme of lost love is a subject that has been tackled by such gothic metal bands as Theatre of Tragedy,The Wounded and Leaves' Eyes.
  Lyrics based on personal experiences are another common feature of many gothic metal bands such as Anathema, Elis, Evanescence, Tiamat, Midnattsol and The Old Dead Tree. Graveworm moved away from fantasy stories in favor of personal lyrics after finding them more suitable for their style of music. The lyrics of fellow Italians Lacuna Coil also do not feature any "fantasy stuff or something that you cannot find in reality" as their co-vocalist Cristina Scabbia finds it desirable that people can relate themselves to her band's lyrics. Similarly, the band Lullacry features lyrics on the subjects of "love, hate, passion and pain" because a person "can easily connect to a song" with lyrics "about human relationships".
caption: The Italian gothic black metal band Theatres des Vampires manifests a deep interest in the vampire myth, a common staple of gothic horror fiction.[28]
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