The new wave of Melodic Death-Doom

For the past couple of years I have been gravitating to a certain form of melodic death metal, with hints of doom on the side. Bands like In Mourning; Fires in the Distance; Counting Hours; Hanging Garden; Enshine; and Nailed To Obscurity have been on heavy rotation and I don’t see that changing any time soon. I never really thought about why, but the folks over at Forgemaster Metal on YouTube have spotted a trend in this new breed of dark, heavy but still emotionally available metal. I love nearly everything on their list, but the ones I don’t I just haven’t gotten around to yet. As my tastes have developed, it appears I’m a sucker for an emotional hook. Music that manages to be heavy without being noisy or one-dimensional; music that isn’t scared to space out the heavy with a quieter interlude. Despite starting out with thrash in the early 90s, I struggle to listen to it now. To my ears, Metallica’s last three albums just have the same song repeated over and over, for hours and…