The Italian Metal scene emerged in the 1980s with bands like Death SS, Bulldozer, and Necrodeath. Following this, Death Metal, especially Alternative Metal and Symphonic Metal, became established in Italy. However, DSBM and Funeral Doom remained niche phenomena even in Italy. Although Italy had already made an international mark in the 1980s with a vibrant Dark Wave and Gothic Rock scene, this genre remained largely overlooked at the national level.
Opera-like, opulent soundscapes and distinctly baroque melancholy were constant elements of Italy’s Metal and Wave offshoots, which received little attention nationally, despite bands like Rhapsody of Fire, Opera X, Lacuna Coil in Metal, and Ataraxia, Kirlian Camera, or The Frozen Autumn in the Wave scene gaining international recognition.
Over the decades from 1995 to 2025 there have been fewer than thirty Funeral Doom bands from Italy, that have succeeded in moving beyond the demo project stage. Some musical and thematic elements can be described as stereotypes of a particular genre direction, which can be considered the “Italian Funeral Doom style.”
A Small – and as always incomplete and subjective – Timeline
1995: Ras Algethi – Oneiricon – The White Hypnotic
2004: Void of Silence – Human Antithesis
2008: Rostau – To Die and to the Stars Ascend
2009: Arcana Coelestia – Le Mirage de l’Idéal
2009: Urna – Iter ad Lucem
2009: Austerity – Austerity
2010: Consummatum Est – Hypnagogia
2010: The Undergrave Experience – Macabre – Il richiamo delle ombre
2011: Monumenta Sepulcrorum – A Pact for the Suicide
2012: Malasangre – Lux Deerit Soli
2013: In Lacrimaes et Dolor – Beyond the Grave
2013: Enoch – Sumerian Chants
2014: Arcana Coelestia – Nomas
2015: Enthroned Darkness – Grim Symphony of the Night
2017: Y’ha-Nthlei – Vol 2: You Dared Challenge the Great Old Ones. You Will Fall into the Abyss
2017: Fuoco Fatuo – Backwater
2017: Restless – Funeral Impressions
2018: Assumption – Absconditus
2018: Void of Silence – The Sky Over
2018: Solautumn – Under the Sky of a Dying Heaven
2018: Fordomth – I.N.D.N.S.L.E.
2019: Il Vuoto – Vastness
2019: Plateau Sigma – Symbols – The Sleeping Harmony of the World Below
2020: Noctu – Gelidae Mortis Imago
2022: Eurynome – Funerals Unto Ruin
Italian Funeral Doom
All Funeral Doom artists labeled as “Italian” share a tendency towards opulent pathos. The basic form of this Italian Funeral Doom adheres to a compositional perfectionism that sometimes veers into kitsch, occasionally feeling overly polished or occasionally tacky. Deeply tuned guitars and prominent keyboard backgrounds are key elements of the national variant of the genre.
An early and distinctive approach by Italian bands in the genre was the emphasis on multiple vocal lines. Bands like Ras Algethi, Plateau Sigma, Il Vuoto, Void of Silence, and Fordomth arrange vocals extravagantly between growling, lamenting, singing, screaming, speaking, and operatic pathos. This approach was not unique to Italy (consider, for instance, Pantheist: Amartia), but it remains a rarity in the generally sparse vocal style of the genre. It is a significant part of the Italian stereotype, seen in projects like Consummatum Est, Restless, and Eurynome. These projects employ the Gothic-Metal dichotomy of clear female vocals and deep growling, with a pronounced prominence of vocals. Again, others were active with this approach before (e.g., Funeral, the Norwegian genre monument, was among the first to introduce the “Beauty and the Beast” vocal duo on Tristesse and Tragedies). It is not innovation that defines Italian Funeral Doom, but a penchant for perfection.
Another approach is found in references to Horror Films, especially Italian ones. Synthesizer lines evoking Giallo soundtracks are particularly noticeable in The Undergrave Experience. Further references to horror tropes are found in Assumption, Austerity, or Malasangre, and with Y’ha-Nthlei, one finds yet another of the countless Lovecraft projects in Funeral Doom. The Undergrave Experience and Enthroned Darkness are clearly horror-Funeral-Doom Acts with a strong inclination toward horror film scores. The short-lived project Rostau even intertwined the grim and dark world of Warhammer 40,000K with Egyptian mythology, creating a soundtrack-like Ambient Funeral Doom. A third and often overlooked facet, rarely associated with the label “typically Italian,” yet one that moves in parallel with the horror bands, is projects that hybridize with elements of Black Metal. Bands like Enoch, Malasangre, Enthroned Darkness, Urna, Y’ha-Nthlei, Arcana Coelestia, Fuoco Fatuo, Noctu, and Fordomth dive deeply into Black and Depressive Black Metal. Some of them exhibit a surprisingly raw minimalism, which may seem out of place in the highly polished funeral doom sound, which is why this style is not often classified as typical Italian Funeral Doom.
The Confirmation and Twist of Italy’s Cultural Capital
This clearly demonstrates that certain cultural traditions, deeply embedded in the education system and public support, do not stop at subcultural expressions and that the subcultural development of art is also rooted in cultural capital, either representing or subverting it. Funeral Doom does not emerge in a vacuum on a national level. School and music education, as well as social and familial traditions, naturally influence musicians. Cultural teachings, both informal and formal, are passed down. Thus, regional and national discourse threads form, whose reverberations and disruptions can also be noticed in music subgenres. This seems to be of significant importance in Italian Funeral Doom. The perfectionism and the unique role of multifaceted, high-quality vocals seem to point to a national cultural capital, while references to horror films primarily indicate a youth culture discourse, but on deeper reflection, often filled with national (pop)cultural capital. There appears to be a strong presence of Giallo Scores. A project like Noctu makes a radical departure from the Italian tradition but takes a new cineastic direction with references to the Spaghetti Western. The breaks, twists, and denials are evident in the raw, minimalist, Black Metal-influenced form – and in the lyrical focus.
Interestingly, the predominantly Belgian-influenced Ambient Funeral Doom seems to play no significant role, nor does the more Industrial Metal Funeral Doom, or bands incorporating Sludge and Drone Doom elements. Rostau and Malasangre stand out as exceptions.
As mentioned also noteworthy is the lyrical focus of Italian Funeral Doom, which rarely explores introspective texts (Il Vuoto being an exception), instead dealing more with literary (The Undergrave Experience, Y’ha-Nthlei) and metaphysical themes. Metaphysical content like Satanism, Occultism, and Mythology seems highly relevant, and suicidality is often a central theme. How these topics play a role in the cultural tradition of a Catholic country, especially when embraced by groups whose music conveys a sacred solemnity, is telling. This form, while in radical contrast to the content, illustrates a cultural self-separation from society through both the content and its presentation, showcasing the pursuit of individuality, self-identity, and self-realization in a cultural space that lies both beyond and within the larger shared culture. The adolescent rebellion against the traditional value systems of one’s socialization, especially the church, becomes an archetypal and psychoanalytic search for the self, detached from the demands of the Superego. This is seen in Fordomth’s work. Similarly, Noctu’s debut explores radical suicidality in a complete dissolution of being, counter to the sacred and theological concept of an afterlife. Non-existence as the ultimate liberation of the self, and final self-determination in a setting that allows such considerations to be explored in the heterotopic space (Foucault) of subcultural dialogue between producer and receiver, can be easily surmised. Thus, behind the metaphysical lyrics, one finds veiled introspection in the search for the self – what seems to be the true Core of Funeral Doom in its entire.
Exemplary Bands
A comprehensive review with more than just a few highlights would take up too much space, but three key points should be mentioned: Ras Algethi for the beginning, Void of Silence for the brief period when Funeral Doom was relatively popular internationally, and Fordomth for the more recent past.
Ras Algethi: Oneiricon – The White Hypnotic
Ras Algethi marked the beginning of the genre in Italy. Their debut Oneiricon – The White Hypnotic is a good example of the role Italian bands played in the genre overall. Released in 1995, shortly after Thergothon’s Stream From the Heavens, Eoteric’s Epistemological Despondency, and Skepticism’s Stormcrowfleet, this album is often overlooked in genre chronicles, much like the Russian band Voj or the Swiss duo Mordor. The band and album remained largely unknown internationally, earning only a marginal recognition. This limited recognition was likely due to the band’s later project, Canaan, being considered a significant figure in the Dark Wave scene. Like many early representatives, the album marked a gradual distancing from Metal as a means of expression.
Early artists shifted to Martial Post-Industrial, blending Military Pop with Death Industrial, Dark Wave, Dark Ambient, and psychedelic elements.
Ras Algethi drew from neo-classical influences, initiating a side branch in Funeral Doom that parallels the debut of The 3rd and the Mortal, but with a heavier and more hopeless tone. Through organ sounds and vocals reminiscent of Gregorian chants, Ras Algethi takes a step toward something sacred, redemptive, and even messianic, similar to Pantheist, but rejecting Christian doctrine. Their lyrics traverse from the Egyptian pantheon in The Bride Eternal to biblical references, and finally to occult prayers, which simultaneously explore, praise, and condemn the self. In Nubes Obscura, they embrace a godless world, welcoming subjective existence beyond church influences.
Ras Algethi can be considered a precursor to two subgenres closely tied to Funeral Doom: Atmospheric Doom and Apocalyptic Funeral Doom.
Void of Silence: Human Antithesis
Void of Silence, moving beyond self-exploration, made a notable impact with Human Antithesis, featuring alternating vocalists. This could have propelled the band into significant popularity, especially as Primordial’s Alan A. Nemtheanga’s contribution as a vocalist is remarkable, excelling in the typical Italian Funeral Doom style of operatic vocals, lamenting, screaming, and growling. However, success was limited to critical acclaim and recognition, without commercial success. The album features rhythms and synthesizer sequences that evoke 1980s American industrial dance, without being deconstructed or radical, and at times, expansive soundscapes reminiscent of Thergothon. The heavy, guitar-dominated sound, diverse samples, and Gregorian-influenced vocals, along with atypical keyboard uses, such as synthetic strings and piano, along with fragile acoustic passages, create a sound that unfortunately, towards the middle of the album, disrupts the otherwise apocalyptic, ethereal atmosphere.
The lyrical content, set by Alan A. Nemtheanga, departs from his usual pagan-inspired themes, instead delving into an apocalyptic, misanthropic outlook, where humanity is both the source and victim of suffering in a godless world. “Like an infected junkie, you’re searching for a fix/Your God is a needle, your God is a rusty razor/The filth in your blood, the filth in your vein” (Human Antithesis).
“Depth psychology, that is, the psychology created and conceived by modern humans, is where experience expresses what this person is as a suffering being, what happens to them in evil and suffering, but also what happens to them in healing and renewal. This modern person experiences in their crisis their own creatureliness more deeply than the Western person has ever done. In this, their experience of a godless world is identical with the experience of themselves as a godless person.” (Erich Neumann: Mensch und Kultur im Übergang: Krise und Erneuerung; Tiefenpsychologie und neue Ethik.)
It is the recognition of the self in the awareness of liberation from the theological and the sacred. The negation of the purpose of human existence, the negation of salvation by a higher power, the negation of an afterlife. A.A. Nemtheanga stylizes this point in the lyrics of Human Antithesis into a global indictment and an anti-war epic in which the healing and renewal of the human being and humanity does not appear. The apocalyptic impetus of hopelessness and lostness.
Fordomth: I.N.D.N.S.L.E.
In contrast, almost in a complementary opposition, plays the sublime debut of Fordomth. Based on satanic and depth-psychological considerations, the band created one of the best albums of 2018. An impressive work of art. The album can be seen as a potential quintessence of Italian Funeral Doom, while simultaneously surpassing it. Unfortunately, due to personnel changes and the band’s effort to establish itself as a live entity, the band pursued a new style afterward, making this album a unique piece, with no further masterpiece of such grandeur following it. With I.N.D.N.S.L.E., Fordomth celebrated the liberation from the divine and the elevation of the individual and the individual as a transcendental subject of itself without clarification, in a fascinating musical freedom that sometimes recalls Esoteric with its psychedelic elements, and at times, with atmospheric elements of Depressive Black Metal, it could be compared to late Nortt. Yet beyond such comparisons, I.N.D.N.S.L.E. conveys a (re)spiritualization of being. The concept album deals with the complex of damnation and the canonical exegesis of Lucifer. In parallel with spirituality and depth psychology, these steps into damnation are projected onto the liberation and detachment of mankind. The climax of the thought and the highlight of the album is the fantastic track Eternal Damnation. Adorno referred to “the possibility of reconciliation” in his Minima Moralia as “the principle of culture.” Thus, I.N.D.N.S.L.E. touches on this possibility of reconciliation by refusing simple rationalization and not, like Void of Silence with Human Antithesis, remaining in apocalyptic accusation. Fordomth, rather, refers to the possible and impossible nature of being an individual and, thereby, to the promise in existence. “The promise forbids the assembly of being in the present; this is precisely its condition. The condition of possibility and impossibility of eschatology, the ironic allegory of messianism.” (Jacques Derrida: Mémoires: For Paul de Man.)
Lacrime Di Agonia
In addition to the musical uniqueness of the heightened musicianship, the Funeral Doom scene of Christian-influenced Italy is notably marked by a high density of groups that critically engage with religious themes and, resisting their socialization, work through the Christian doctrine.
Thus, Funeral Doom in Italy emerges as a heterotopic event for subjective engagement with national cultural capital (music), a vehicle for rebellion against societal tradition, and particularly against the form of one’s Christian socialization (religion). While maintaining the basic patterns of juvenile-influenced pop culture, Italian Funeral Doom expresses itself through adult themes without losing itself in the aggression and overt symbolism of Black Metal. The references to psychology emphasize the subjectivity of the individual’s efforts to break free from socialization patterns, seeking self-realization, sometimes tinged with an esoteric longing for transcendence.
