Gothic Metal is, naturally, a subgenre of Heavy Metal. It sounds dark, like Gothic Rock; it's got the sonic amplitude of Metal; and it's depressing, like Doom Metal. Many of the bands have female vocalists; many also use the classic Soprano and Gravel trick. There are few bands that have never used either, though there are some that have a male vocalist as the frontman.

Gothic Metal has its roots in Death / Doom, which is, as the name implies, Death Metal mixed with Doom Metal. "The Peaceville Three," (Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema) who served as the Trope Codifiers for Death / Doom, gradually incorporated several traits into their music (some traits being brought in from Goth Rock) that would shape the genre; keyboards, violins (in the case of My Dying Bride), female vocals, and deeper (often bass baritone) vocals. Around the same time as "The Peaceville Three," the American Type O Negative, coming from a slightly different musical background (i.e. not Death / Doom), started incorporating traits from Gothic Rock into their music also; to this day, it's unclear whether Type O Negative or "The Peaceville Three" did it first, but it's generally agreed to be one of those four bands that kickstarted the genre. Novembre also had some degree of early influence on the genre, but it can generally be agreed upon that their impact was minimal at best when compared to the bigger three. Lastly, Katatonia and Bethlehem's early work also had some minor influence, though they quickly moved away from the genre in favor of moody, prog-tinged alternative rock (Katatonia) and experimental rock (Bethlehem).

It is hugely popular in Europe, especially Scandinavia, where many of the bands are from. Possibly as a result of its popularity, and the stigma brought on by the false idea that "Gothic Metal = Metal for Goths," many bands have fought against being categorised as Gothic Metal, though it doesn't have the same stigma as other names would — namely, Nu Metal, Metalcore, and Emo Music. In addition to this, there are also countless arguments as to which bands actually count as Gothic Metal, due to the rather vague definition of what Gothic Metal is. Expect there to be arguments should you refer to: Evanescence, Lacuna Coil, Within Temptation, Nightwish, Epica, or HIM as part of this genre.

Examples of bands associated with the Gothic Metal genre:

• After Forever
• Anacrusis (also Thrash Metal and Progressive Metal)
• Anathema: Trope Makers, along with Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride. Later became a quiet Atmospheric / Progressive Rock band.
• Arcane Existence (also Melodic Death Metal and Technical Death Metal)
• Asriel: A Japanese example. Probably most well known for making music for 11eyes.
• Atrocity: Early material was pretty straightforward Death Metal, but they got a whole lot weirder as time went on; Gothic Metal is really the only label that sticks at this point.
• Ave Mujica
• Before The Dawn (crosses with Melodic Death Metal)
• Bethlehem (infamously hard to classify, but this is probably one of the more accurate labels)
• Cemetary (Though they started off as a Death Metal band)
• Cemetery Skyline
• Charon
• Cloak (also Black Metal)
• Cradle of Filth (mixed with Black Metal)
• Crematory started out as a straight up Death Metal band before branching out to other genres such as Gothic Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Industrial Metal and Neue Deutsche Härte
• Dark Sarah
• Dark Tranquillity (only on Projector, in which they combine the style with Melodic Death Metal)
• Deathstars (also Industrial Metal)
• Devil Master (Genre-Busting example that mixes this with first-wave black metal and d-beat)
• Draconian (also Doom Metal)
• ELYSION (overlaps with Alternative Metal)
• Epica - Some think of them more as Symphonic Metal or Power Metal, albeit darker than the norm and with added death growls.
• Eternal Tears Of Sorrow - Combined with Melodic Death Metal. However, their earliest work was Thrash Metal.
• Evanescence (overlaps with Alternative Metal and Nu Metal)
  • Fallen (2003)
• exist†trace, although they have moved away from this in recent releases.
• Fallout - An early band of Peter Steele and Josh Silver from Type O Negative, formed in 1979. They released one independent single, Rock Hard/Batteries Not Included, in 1981 before breaking up. Rock Hard is quite a standard rock song with synths. However, Batteries Not Included is definitely Gothic Metal - as it displays all the traits that Type O would become famous for, albeit includes some dated sounding synths. Since the band only recorded two songs, we don't know what direction they might have taken so it would be premature to call them the first Gothic Metal band. However this probably would have been the case if they had recorded more material at the time.
• Forever Slave
• The Gathering - YMMV, once again. They eventually moved away from metal altogether to focus on a strange blend of trip-hop and progressive rock, but it's debatable whether their actual metal material was ever gothic metal. They certainly played a major part in the rise of female-fronted goth metal, either way.
• Graveworm
• HIM - Another YMMV band, probably the second-most on this list next to Evanescence. They call themselves "love metal", which presumably means "stop asking us about our fucking genre", but overall it's unclear whether they're gothic metal or not.
• IGNEA (Modern oriental metal with lots of gothic and symphonic elements)
• In Solitude (Sister, also traditional heavy metal, though they had elements of this on The World. The Flesh. The Devil)
• Kamelot - Always had significant elements of this, but Poetry for the Poisoned is where they really put those elements front and center.
• Katatonia (early material was a Genre-Busting mix of Death Metal, Doom Metal, Black Metal, and Goth Rock somewhat akin to Bethlehem, while everything from Discouraged Ones onward was moody, gothic-tinged alternative rock)
• Kuroyume
• Lacuna Coil - Since around Karmacode they moved away from gothic metal to more of an Alternative Rock / Alternative Metal sound that divided the fanbase.
• Lake Of Tears
• Leaves' Eyes - The former band of Theatre of Tragedy's ex-vocalist Liv Kristine.
• Lord Of The Lost
• Messa (The Spin)
• Moonspell (early material was blackened folk metal)
• Motionless in White (mixed with Metalcore and Industrial Metal)
• My Dying Bride - Trope Maker, along with Paradise Lost and Anathema. Later became a straight-forward Doom Metal band with frequent flashes of their earlier gothic metal and Death/Doom.
• Nemesea - Their first album "Mana" can be considered gothic metal, but since then they've been moving more towards an alternative rock style.
• Nightwish - Like Epica, they're often considered more of a symphonic power metal band; they started showing elements of gothic metal with Century Child, and have got slightly darker with each album since.
  • Tarja Turunen
• Novembers Doom (combines this with Death/Doom and Progressive Death Metal)
• Novembre (early work was death/doom)
• Oceans of Slumber (also Progressive Metal, a bit of a Genre-Busting example)
• October Tide (also death/doom)
• The Old Dead Tree
• A Pale Horse Named Death (features Type O Negative drummer Sal Abruscato on vocals)
• Paradise Lost (Band) - A Trope Maker, sometimes considered the major one; also the Trope Namer with their album Gothic, which is more of a death/doom album but displays traits of gothic metal.
• Poisonblack
• ReVamp (Born from Ex-After Forever vocalist, Floor Jansen.)
• Rotting Christ (also Black Metal and Folk Metal)
• Saviour Machine - Arguably the most popular (and infamous) band of this type in the Christian Metal scene. Noteworthy for developing a sizable secular fanbase, particularly in Europe.
• Schammasch (also experimental black metal)
• Season of Ghosts - A bit upbeat for "Gothic", but some of their lyrics and their penchant for Industrial Metal and Symphonic Metal infusions make them quite fit.
• Sentenced (their first three albums are Death Metal)
• Septicflesh (along with Symphonic Metal and Death Metal)
• The Sins Of Thy Beloved
• Sirenia
• Sonja (also traditional metal)
• Sorrowseed (overlaps with Melodic Black Metal and Doom Metal, moreso on their first album than their newest, which drops a lot of the gothic and doom elements in favor of more black metal)
• Stillborn (also traditional doom metal)
• Stream of Passion: Arguably, maybe more Progressive Metal.
• Swallow the Sun (A hybrid of this, Melodic Death Metal, Progressive Metal, and Doom Metal, their later material often borders on funeral doom)
• Theatre of Tragedy - Trope Codifier, the ones who pioneered the Soprano and Gravel technique (Paradise Lost, Celtic Frost and The Gathering had all used it before, but Theatre of Tragedy were the ones who made it popular). If you encounter a gothic metal(-ish) band that has two vocalists, one male and one female, then they will be strongly influenced by Theatre of Tragedy.
• Tiamat
• Tribulation (The Children of the Night onward, though they had some elements of this on The Formulas of Death)
• Tristania
• Type O Negative: One of the Trope Makers.
  • 1993 - Bloody Kisses
  • 1996 - October Rust
  • 1999 - World Coming Down
  • 2003 - Life Is Killing Me
  • 2007 - Dead Again
• Unsun: An interesting (and short-lived) example with enough technical and compositional experimentation to give them a foot in Progressive Metal. Featuring Mauser of Vader!
• Unto Others (originally Idle Hands, also traditional heavy metal)
• Virgin Black (also Symphonic Metal)
• Within Temptation: Definitely with their debut album, Enter; their material afterwards is only debatably part of this genre (in fact, there are even some that question their later material's metalness).
• Woods of Ypres: Started as Black Metal and progressed to Doom Metal circa Woods III and IV before finally becoming Gothic Metal on Woods 5.

Gothic metal displays the following tropes:

• Darker and Edgier: Compared to other emotive metal genres such as Power Metal and Progressive Metal, moreso in terms of lyrics and conceptual themes which are often brooding, introspective, and generally melancholic in tone.
• Goth Rock: Though less so an outgrowth of Goth Rock per se than a fusion/crossover genre, as it had its start with some bands gravitating towards stylistic elements found within the genre as an alternative to the extremes of abrasiveness that had been popping up within the harder, darker strains of metal at the time.
• Genre Shift: Gothic Metal bands are renowned for doing this. The genre itself was created thanks to several Death / Doom bands doing this. Several Gothic Metal bands then moved into other genres: Paradise Lost and Theatre of Tragedy into electronic rock, Anathema and The Gathering into Alternative Rock / Progressive Rock, Tiamat into some strange brand of experimental Gothic Rock, Lacuna Coil into Alternative Metal... The list goes on and on.
• Melancholy Musical Number: Most Gothic Metal songs deal with themes of sadness and tragedy, often in the form of a Grief Song or Torch Song, with the occasional Villainous Lament from more extreme musical acts.
• Romanticism: Said themes of sadness and tragedy are often expressed in a deeply personal and passionate manner, playing on both the thrill and dread that such emotions evoke.
• Rule of Symbolism: Gothic Metal songs tend to feature a lot of allusions to religion, mythology, and the supernatural.
• Soprano and Gravel: There are very few bands that have not played with the "beauty and beast"-type combination of male Harsh Vocals and female operatic vocals at some point in their career. The genre was also responsible for popularising the technique in metal, resulting in it becoming a cliché.
• Trope Namer: Paradise Lost's Gothic album is retroactively considered the namesake of the genre when it was in its infancy.