Gothic metal

Gothic metal is a genre of heavy metal music that originated during the early 1990s in Europe as an outgrowth of doom-death, a subgenre of

Gothic metal is a genre of heavy metal music that originated during the early 1990s in Europe as an outgrowth of doom-death, a subgenre of doom metal.

The definition of gothic metal is commonly debated; older fans and musicians have a firm concept of the genre having been around through its growth and evolution, having strict ideas of what bands pertain to the genre and what bands don't. Newer fans reject this categorization as limiting, useless or wrong, often claiming bands are gothic metal that do not meet the criteria of the older fans.