My Dying Bride

My Dying Bride's first album is the blueprint for doom metal. Marked by somber atmospheres and crushingly heavy intros that give way to thrumming death metal runs, the record also features strings and keyboards, basically unheard of in metal at the time. On top of this, Aaron Stainthorpe's behemoth grunts push the music into a new category: enormous, gargantuan and at times very beautiful. "The Bitterness and the Bereavement" and "The Return of the Beautiful" would have made excellent blood-orgy comedown songs for berserking giants.