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Over the past couple months I’ve become curious about black metal, having never really explored the genre before. I’ve been doing some research and working my way through the canon to try and get a feel for what it’s all about. Here’s what I’ve checked out so far and what I thought of it: Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas - I really like this. At purely the riff level it might be my favourite album on this list, tons of great, surprisingly catchy riffs. Also I really like Attila’s style, I was already familiar with him from Sunn O))) but it was cool hearing him over something more energetic. Overall though something about this album just doesn’t quite hang all the way together for me. I find my attention wandering at certain points and I feel like even after multiple listens there are songs that just don’t click. Still a pretty solid 8. Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark - Took some time to grow on me because it’s so raw, but I eventually came around to it. I love how much mileage they get out of one or two really simple riffs. I could listen to the main riff from Enter the Eternal Fire for another ten minutes easy. Woman Of Dark Desires gets stuck in my head all the time too. Emperor - In The Nightside Eclipse - Wtf this is the greatest thing I’ve ever heard lol. I love this so much. This blows me all the way back in my chair like Beavis and Butthead. How has this album existed for 28 years and I’ve never heard it before. God if I had discovered this at 16 my whole life might have turned out different. Emperor - Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk - I actually checked this out before In The Nightside Eclipse and wasn’t super impressed. Having gone back now with the added context that these are the same guys who made that masterpiece, I definitely like it more, although it still feels like the much weaker album of the two. I don’t know. I need to spend more time with it. It’s clearly a complex piece of work and I haven’t given it time to all the way sink in yet. Dissection - Storm of the Light’s Bane - I was relieved to see some discussion earlier in this thread about the ethical quandary of liking these guys. I felt like I was going crazy seeing this album pop up on every GOAT list with seemingly no acknowledgment of the elephant in the room, the fact that the main guy spent time in prison for a homophobic murder. That to me seems like a really big deal and makes me super uncomfortable with enjoying what otherwise appears to be a 10/10 metal album. These songs are so imaginative and so meticulously composed, and the musicianship is so disciplined, it’s just exhilarating to listen to. It blows my mind that such smart music can be made by such dumb people sometimes. One complaint about the music itself, they overuse that one trope of having the song drop to just acoustic guitars for a few bars and then having everything come ripping back. It kicks rear end every time they do it, but they do it an awful lot. Also, I understand that these guys aren’t true black metal and that they’re considered to have elements of melodic death metal or something to that effect? I don’t understand the genre well enough to really know what that means yet. Darkthrone - A Blaze In The Northern Sky - Another album which apparently contains death metal elements, see my above comment about not understanding the genre well enough yet. Either way, this is not grabbing me at all and is easily my least favourite album on this list. I find the vocals really offputting, and hardly any of the riffs really stay with me. In the Shadow of the Horns is cool enough, and there’s a neat part toward the end of Paragon Belial that I really like, but overall I’m finding this pretty boring. Darkthrone - Under A Funeral Moon - This is a little more like it. Right away there are way more great riffs jumping out at me than on the last one. But I do not do not do not like this vocalist. He sounds like he’s doing a creepy voice to scare his nephews. Compare to the dude from Emperor shrieking actual bloody murder. Vocals aside though, this strikes me as a huge leap forward for this band compared to their previous album, and bonus points for being the only other album on this list besides Mayhem to not open with some type of ambient interlude. Overall what I’ve checked out so far has really got me interested and I’m excited to continue digging further. Recommendations are welcome, right now I’m mainly looking for stuff that’s considered historically relevant to the genre, or just anything that you’d say is the absolute best of the best.
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Apr 25, 2023 16:13
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Thanks for the recommendations everybody! Immortal was already on my list so I’ll probably move on to them next, along with finishing off Emperor’s discography since it appears to be only four albums and so far I’m loving their first two. On the subject of guys like Varg and Nödtveidt, it definitely presents an ethical dilemma for me, but I haven’t all the way made up my mind about what that means in a practical sense - do I refuse to listen to their music outright? Do I still allow myself to listen but just feel icky about it? Also I’m aware that I don’t apply it consistently, I listen to tons of hip-hop which has no shortage of terrible people with repugnant beliefs and behaviours, and I pretty much look the other way on most of that stuff unless they’re shilling crypto or something. Maybe it’s a racial/cultural thing? i.e. rap is “none of my business”, but as a white guy with Eastern European ancestry I feel the need to be a little more conscientious in how I engage with black metal? I don’t know exactly.
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Apr 26, 2023 14:05
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polynominal-c posted:You're aware tbat the Emperor drummer also killed someone? Yeah. I’ll be the first to admit that I do not have a robust moral framework in place for addressing these issues. But to try and articulate what I see as the difference: with Dissection we’re talking about the singer/lead guitarist/primary songwriter, in other words the main guy, the person whose art I am validating by listening to and appreciating the music. In the case of Emperor, there is someone else who is the creative visionary behind the band, with Faust effectively serving as hired help. So I guess it makes the music itself feel less complicit. It’s like watching a movie where the director killed someone vs. where one of the supporting actors did.
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Apr 30, 2023 15:57
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Slowdive posted:New Panopticon is IMMENSE. Top 5 BM albums ever for me easily Wow you were not kidding. I haven’t stopped listening to this. Is all Panopticon this good? Looks like I have a back catalogue to start working through.
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Dec 22, 2023 17:32
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