Do you feel the same way about Burzum? I can see that if DSBM is done right it can give off an extremely hateful atmosphere.

MapleKit, you are disregarding that in traditional colloquy, depression is used synonymously with terms describing grief and sadness. Your view is not necessarily (and certainly not probably) the correct one.

Depression is a type of mental illness,yes, but the word depression has different definitions that you can't immediately associate the term with the mental illness without looking at the context. I've been pointing this out numerous times.

And while depressive black metal sucks, it's pretty clear that it is a reference to the state of sadness, not the mental illness. Depressive black metal sucks because of the music, not because it makes you feel like you're having a mental illness or anything.

I just hate all the talk of "oh this is suicidal music for suicidal people". That's silly as hell. Ok, I really need to get to bed. I hope I dodn't come off as a complete ass tonight, but I was feeling frisky.

Yes you did. But we forgive you.

Make a Change... Kill Yourself - Chapter Three, that's actually the only Depressive BM that I like, and I do like a little bit the Thy Light song posted here.(the Thy Light song sounds very generic in most part and the solo is bleah)

You really have to be in the mood for this stuff. For Make a Change, for that song ,especially, I like the whole atmosphere it creates, and the ding-ding-ding ride that the guy does at 10:56 plus the female vocals. I liked it for the first time I listened to it so it wasn't because of conditioning that I liked it.

Though mostly based on repetition and a dark atmosphere, it can at times be worthwhile. See Xasthur's song "Possession" if you'd like an example.

It's terrible, as is the entire re-recording of AGTBM. The original version is much, MUCH better.

early Krohm, like "Slayer of Lost Martyrs/Crown of the Ancients" is amazing but I'm sure die hard fans will discredit it because it is USBM and not from Scandinavia.

I don't understand the prejudice towards USBM myself. There are good and bad bands in all scenes. On another note, I'd recommend a rather obscure Canadian band, Beyond The Ninth Wave. Decent.

I dont like very much this "sub-genre" of bm but there are some great albums like Abyssic Hate "Suicidal Emotions", Xasthur "Nocturnal Poisoning", The Arrival of Satan "Darkness Dealer", Nyktalgia "Peisithanatos", Hypothermia albums etc... If the album has special dark atmosphere which reeks like total sadness, suicide & death worship, i would call it good depressive black metal. Unfortunately most of bands sound like repetative emo-rock carbage. In a nutshell, propably something which isn't for every typical metalhead, as we can see.

Well since we've drifted into USBM go listen to Harvist.

It is true that there are many bad depressive black metal bands, but when they're good, then they're pretty good. Usually when bands write music about melancholy and sadness, it doesn't end up bad, while when people write music about happiness and the wonders of life, then it's usually an uplight worthless thing with bad music behind the vocals.

The truly bad aspect of Depressive BM is that the vocals tend to suck and they ruin the entire music.

By the way, Coldworld is ambient black metal about melancholy, then is that considerable Depressive BM, or is that a totally other genre?

Perhaps you haven't listened to Candlemass, or Ahab?

Since when does depression not belong in metal? A form of music has to be limited to what emotion it presents? That is incredibly idiotic.

Austere / Lyrinx - Only The Wind Remembers / Ending The Circle Of Life Split

This is where it's at. Lyrinx is the better of the two. They have phenomenal drumming (it has a loose, doom-y feel...not at all typical BM drumming) and just generally well written songs. Austere isn't as good, but they have their moments, and some of the best acoustic work I've heard in extreme metal.

Candlemass is strong and powerful music. I don't see any depressive themes there.

Austere is godawful, they are the ultimate parody of suicidal BM.

Um... yeah... Solitude?

"Sitting here alone in darkness waiting to be free. Lonely and for-long I am crying. I long for my time to come, death means just life. Please let me die in solitude."

That IS depressing. And yes, they have a powerful sound, but also have a thick depressive atmosphere at times as well.

For a while i was really interested in this type of music, after being subjected to Bethlehems early work, which I still love, i searched for some more. Needless to say most of it is crap, like most everyone here has stated. But i must say i checked out nae'blis cause somebody mentioned it earlier, very fucking awesome! The song I heard anyway!

On ther other side of the coin, im currently listening to Wehmut, not very good IMO. Im also gonna check out Make and Change....Kill yourself. Lots of people here seem to like em.

Whether or not the sub-genre should exist or not, I really like the bands that have come out of it.

Leviathan, Xasthur, Krohm, Krieg, Forgotten Tomb, Wolves in the Throne Room, I shalt Become, etc.

I paticularly like the US wave...

What. The. Fuck. How are they depressive?

Personally I don't find any of the "depressive" black metal bands to be... well, depressive. In the slightest.

I think the whole "depressive" description for any of these black metal bands is pretty silly. It's almost as if some people see it as a whole other division with bm. If it sounds like black metal, it's black metal. Regardless if it's depressive or if they sing about battles.

It's called "Depressive" because "Shitty Burzum Ripoff" doesn't sound as profound as they'd prefer.

Who's saying it's not black metal? And sub-categorizing is only natural as a genre becomes larger.

100% agreed. I just call them depressive music.

Well said.

Deinonychus - Ark of Thought... now there is a great depressive album. I am sure fans of Bethlehem already know how good this is.

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Now playing: Timeghoul - Rainwound
via FoxyTunes.

Because you don't like it doesn't mean there can't be depressive metal, though.

Well, Krieg's "The Black House" in particular, I found to fit the genre...

but yeah, I kind of just lump a lot of the new wave of back metal bands with the depressive black metal bands - and use both terms somewhat interchangeably....

Some of the greatest most famous metal bands of all time have depressive songs

Yeah, to deny depressive music as part of metal would be to not only deny depressive black metal as metal, but the entire genre of doom metal as metal as well.

Real doom metal isn't depressive.

"I consider depressive aspects in music to be non-metal, and I don't like doom metal that is depressive." That would've been understandable. Your post, however, reeks greatly of closed-mindedness.

Personally, I'm a fan of metal because of the wide range of emotions it can convey. Anger, hate and other similar emotions that are often prominent in more brutal metal music are just a few examples of those. You might not like any others, but that doesn't make other kinds of metal non-metal. Expressing anger and hate isn't exclusive to metal anyway.

Name me at least one real doom metal band that IS depressive, please.

EDIT: to clarify, under 'real doom metal' I mean traditional doom metal.

I was about to say Xasthur comes to mind, maybe Funeral Dust.

Moss?

Really? Howso? Check out Xasthur's song Entrance Into Nothingness. It's just the intro to the CD and isn't really black metal, but it is the perfectly depressive way to start a CD.

It's kind of haunting, but not depressive at all.

Warning
Solstice (more so on Lamentations)
Saint Vitus has songs about depression. Whether that is enough to qualify as "depressive" (something imminently subjective anyway), I can't say.