Artist
Warning
Harlow, United Kingdom
Warning is a music group from Harlow, United Kingdom. Their discography on Gatefold includes 9 records.
9
Albums tracked
25
In collections
—
Since
Biography
There are multiple bands called Warning. 1) Warning is a doom metal band formed in Harlow, Essex, England, UK, formed in 1994 by Patrick Walker and Stuart Springthorpe. They were notable for their slow, progressive, melodic, heavy and doom-laden sound; the idiosyncratic and poignant vocals of Patrick Walker; and his introspective, darkly confessional lyrical themes. The band released two demo tapes, Revelation Looms in February 1996 and Blessed
The Arc of Warning
The pivots — what forced Warning to reinvent.
The Traditional Doom Apprenticeship
Early on, the band was firmly entrenched in the tape-trading circuit, leaning hard into the blueprint laid down by the Peaceville Three. The 1999 debut, The Strength to Dream, was recorded at Academy Studios with Mags, the same guy who shaped the early sounds of My Dying Bride and Anathema. You hear a band still finding their legs, balancing thick, Sabbath-inspired riffs with the burgeoning sorrow that would eventually define them. It was heavy, sure, but it hadn't yet reached the transcendental misery of their later work.
The Culmination and Collapse
After a long silence and some lineup shifts, the band re-emerged in 2006 to record Watching from a Distance with Rosenquists at Priory Recording Studios. This was the pivot where the riffs slowed to a glacial crawl and Patrick Walker’s vocal performance became the focal point. They stripped away the typical metal aggression in favor of a raw, naked vulnerability that most doom bands are too scared to touch. The emotional weight of the sessions was so intense that the band splintered afterward, leaving the record to sit as a singular, haunting monolith for a decade.
Influences
- Saint Vitus — Patrick Walker has explicitly cited Scott 'Wino' Weinrich as a primary influence on his guitar playing and the band’s approach to tempo. You hear it in the way Warning prioritizes a massive, plodding groove over technical flash. It’s that blue-collar, downer-rock DNA stripped of its biker grit.
- Candlemass — The epic, soaring vocal delivery of Messiah Marcolin is the clear precursor to Walker’s melodic style. While Warning ditched the operatic theater, the way they anchor massive riffs with a distinct, mournful vocal hook comes straight from the Epicus Doomicus Metallicus school. It's the sound of grandiosity meeting a brick wall.
- Black Sabbath — They covered 'Cornucopia' on their early demos, paying direct homage to the architects of the riff. The DNA of Master of Reality is baked into every down-tuned chord Walker ever struck. It’s the foundational heavy-metal misery that makes their slow-motion tempos possible.
- The Walker Brothers — Walker has frequently mentioned Scott Walker’s baritone and emotional delivery as a touchstone for his own vocal development. This influence is what separates Warning from the typical growling doom pack. You hear that crooning, dramatic phrasing buried under the distortion on tracks like 'Bridges'.
- Pentagram — The band’s early identity was forged in the shadow of Bobby Liebling’s street-level doom and gloomy songwriting. The raw, unpolished production of Warning’s early tapes mirrors the dusty, forgotten feel of the 70s Pentagram recordings. It’s about the feeling of being an outsider in your own scene.
Discography
Their records — most-collected first.
Related artists
Around the web
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