Well the first drone metal band, Earth, actually came from the Seattle music scene at the same time as grunge, so it basically is -- the band leader of Earth actually gave Kurt Cobain the shotgun that he killed himself with! They were influenced by all the pre-grunge stuff like Flipper, the Melvins, and My War-era Black Flag rather than doom metal.

It became a metal genre after metal bands like Sunn O))) and Boris basically picked up where Earth left off. So yeah, at first drone "metal" was actually a one band alternative rock genre (though Skullflower were also doing kind of the same thing around the time they released The IIIrd Gatekeeper, and also came from experimental rock rather than metal; their earlier stuff was some pretty wild industrial/noise music that had nothing at all to do with metal in the same way that Swans didn't.)







Earth actually broke up when their band leader went to jail for drug charges (I think), and when he got out he started the band back up, but had gotten all spiritual in the meantime, so he stopped all the ultra-depressing Sabbathy drone to play more "uplifting" drone with a weird-but-awesome country influence.




Then you've got the bands they inspired. Earth really didn't start any musical revolution at first though, as they were too obscure and inaccessible for a lot of the indie kids to get into (I'm assuming), and since they weren't part of metal I guess most metalheads just weren't aware of them. Then Sunn O))) and Boris basically blew the genre wide open when they opened it up to all the headbangers.




Amazing collaboration between Sunn O))) and Boris.



Not a band to start your drone metal journey with if you're an indie nerd, but if you're already down the rabbit hole...




Even if you don't dig drone metal you might still fall in love with some of Boris' other music. They were always an eclectic band and, except for their debut, even their drone albums had a lot of really different sounds that had little if nothing to do with drone metal. They actually probably play even more stoner rock/metal than they do drone, even releasing a really weird J-Pop album a few years ago (they're Japanese, hence their weirdness).

Some stoner noise rock gloriousness.



And if you've ever wondered what My Bloody Valentine would sound like if they decided to go drone then here you go. And yes, both of these songs are off the same album (Pink). And no, these are not the two oddest departures off the album.