Meanings
- uncountableentertainmentA subgenre of rock music influenced by hard rock, protometal, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, and blues, commonly incorporating lyrics about the occult or referencing horror movies and books.
They're not death metal; they're calling it doom rock. It's essentially an updated version of early 70s Sabbath.
[2007 March 16, Paul Lester, quoting Elijah Wood, “Frodo gets funky”, in The Guardian, →ISSN2 more examples
More industrial rhythms and gothic, doom rock combined with suitably mocking voice to express the dark matters afoot in the songs, which this time dwell on the subject of suicide, making Manson the latest in a long line of heavy metal artists to do so.
2006, Steve Taylor, The A to X of Alternative Music, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 144By the 1990s goth had given rise to more broadly popular subgenres like ‘death rock’ and ‘doom rock’, whose stars, people like Marilyn Manson and Trent Reznor, used self-harm as a significant motif within their lives and lyrics.
2015, Peter Steggals, Making Sense of Self-harm: The Cultural Meaning and Social Context of Nonsuicidal Self-injury, Springer, →ISBNSynonyms: occult rock, witch rock
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA subgenre of rock music influenced by hard rock, protometal, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, and blues, commonly incorporating lyrics about the occult or referencing horror movies and books.
Cite this entry
doom rock. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/doom%20rock
“doom rock.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/doom%20rock. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “doom rock,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/doom%20rock.
Source: doom rock on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.