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Indeed it is. Hades' first three albums are all excellent. One of the most underrated Norwegian bands. Tonight's jams... Emperor - Anthems To The Welkin at Dusk Voidsphere - To Overtake | To Overcome

Hades - The Dawn of The Dying Sun

Alrighty. My full digital library shuffled.... Suicidal Tendencies - War Inside My Head Human Serpent - Heirlooms Eternal The Arson Project - Hail Armageddon Cannibal Corpse - Blowtorch Slaughter Nails - Abandon All Life Lifelost - Released From Life Sepultura - Lobotomy Darkthrone - Natassja In Eternal Sleep Trouble - The Tempter Judas Iscariot - The In Valley of Death, I am Their King I had completely forgotten that I had 'Trouble - Psalm 9' in my collection, lol.

Emperor - In The Nightside Eclipse

Lol, damn only -1°C? Man, I'd happily be outside in a long sleeve T having a BBQ and playing fetch with the dog If I were you. It's a frigid -31 where I'm at and going down to -40 tonight. Fuck January.

I'd consider Im Wald to be the vastly superior of the two.

Alright well I wasn't feeling very inspired to do a list this year but I guess if everyone else can slap something together than there's no reason I can't... 15. Panopticon - ...And Again Into the Light (Atmo-black, folk) 14. Helleruin - War Upon Man (Straight up black metal) 13. Crypts of Despair - All Light Swallowed (Blackened death) 12. Malignament - Hypocrisis Absolution (Black metal) 11. Qrixkuor - Poison Palinopsia (Blackened death) 10. Lamp of Murmuur - Submission And Slavery (Black metal) 9. Archgoat - Worship The Eternal Darkness (Black metal) 8. Drawn And Quartered - Congregation Pestilence (Death Metal) 7. Stormkeep - Tales of Othertime (Epic, melodic Black metal) 6. The Temple - S/T (Black/death) 5. Human Serpent - Heirlooms Eternal (Black Metal) 4. Worm - Foreverglade (Death/doom) 3. Morgal - Nightmare Realm (Thrashy Black metal) 2. Ethereal Shroud - Trisagion (Atmo-black) 1. Spectral Would - A Diabolic Thirst (Black metal) That's it that's all. I usually do my lists complete with album covers and little write-ups/descriptions for each and every album but..... I dunno, the motivation just isn't there right now. Good job on the lists everybody! And happy new year!

Swedish Melo-black is really hitting the spot at the moment... Sacramentum - Far Away From The Sun Naglfar - Vittra

Aeternus - Beyond The Wandering Moon

Well I'm not trying to say who the true originator of black metal actually is because I don't believe the true originator of the genre was a singular band, but rather.... several. Humor me for a second and consider this: If Venom didn't have an album called "Black Metal", would they still be considered the originators of black metal? Like, say the music on that album was exactly the same in every way except for the album title, are they still the first black metal band? I think the conversation on Venom, first-wave black metal and who the first ever black metal band truly was would be very different if it weren't for the fact that Venom's 1982 milestone was titled just that. The line between Venom being the originator and merely an influencer of the genre is a very thin one and it seems to hinge on the fact that Venom had an album called "black metal" and thus coined the term. Many people would probably still consider Venom to be the founders of the genre were this the case and perhaps you are one them, which is fair. I'd put them in the "influencer" category myself and I don't think this diminishes their legacy in any way but for my money, there isn't quite enough actual blackened sounding metal in Venom's music to warrant giving them the title of "sole creators" of the genre, as influential as they may be. Hell, Metal Archives has them labeled as "NWOBHM/Black/Speed Metal", which I'd consider more appropriate. The reason I give Bathory a little more credit is because, as you said yourself, they were more foundational in establishing the 2nd wave template (along with Celtic Frost). And if we're being realistic, the second wave sound has, by and large, gone on to define what most people know and think of as "black metal" for the better part of three decades. I am generalizing a bit, I'll admit, but there's no denying that second wave bm takes up a huge part of the musical zeitgeist of the genre. Meanwhile Venom's particular brand of black metal, if you wanna call it that, has largely been bred out of the genre for many years now, save for a small resurgence of first-wave traditionalist bands.

Been on a big Blut Aus Nord kick for the past week or so... BAN - 777 Sect(s) BAN - Memoria Vetusta III

Venom were most certainly NOT the sole originators of black metal. Influential? Undeniably, but giving them all the credit is historical revisionism taken to the extreme. Being an influencer isn't necessarily synonymous with being a founder, especially when you consider that 99.9% of Black metal as we know it today sounds nothing like Venom at all. Bathory were equally, if not moreso, as foundational and influential as Venom ever were.

Enjoying some of my latest X-Mas purchases... Arkhtinn - 二度目の災害 (Cosmic atmo-black, 2021) Voidsphere - To Overtake | To Overcome (also cosmic atmo-black, 2021)

Went out to do a little last minute X-mas shopping and grab a few groceries, and my truck unexpectedly breaks down. Just complete and utter engine failure, in one of the busiest parts of town no less. Random kind stranger offered to try to boost it, but it didn't work. All towing companies are closed, cuz it's X-mas eve and a bit late in the day, which all but guarantees me a parking ticket lol. Fuck. I hope everyone is having a better Christmas than me haha.

The only other Blut Aus Nord albums that I'm overly familiar with are the Memoria Vetusta trilogy of albums. All three of them are very good and if you like Hallucinogen then that's definitely the best place to start as they all have the same sort of melodic/atmospheric sound while still bringing the riffs.

Blut aus Nord - Hallucinogen Blut aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers Of The Icy Age

Ethereal Shroud - Trisagion (2021) This album is excellent and I think this project has risen up and taken the atmospheric black/doom crown from The Ruins of Beverast (their album this year is merely good). If I make a list this will be near the top.

That Crypts of Despair album rules!!! \m/. If I cared enough to make a list this year that would probably be on it too. Iron Maiden - Dance of Death Havukruunu - Uinuos Syömein Sota

Funeral Mist - Deiform (2021) Okay yeah this is very good. I can't deny it anymore, this band is legit!

It is good but I always preferred Rock in Rio. Maiden were definitely starting to suffer from tour burnout by the time they recorded LAD and it really shows on a few songs, particularly in Bruce's vocals.

I have the same mixed feelings about it as I did the last few Maiden albums. There are some great moments on it, I really like "Writing on The Wall" and "Hell on Earth", but there are way too many meandering instrumental passages that drag on for too long. If they kept all the best parts and edited it down to around 42 minutes this could've been a great album. It did get me in to mood to revisit some classic Maiden albums though, it's been a hot minute... NP: Iron Maiden - Powerslave

Infester - To The Depths, In Degradation

Iron Maiden - Senjutsu First listen. I've been putting this off for some time, and I guess tonight's as good a night as any...

A couple recent discoveries... Weapon - From The Devil's Tomb (black/death) Avenger - Fall of Devotion, Wrath and Blasphemy (black/death)

Carnage - Dark Recollections Been way too long. Very few Swedeath bands topped this album.