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How do you like your black metal?


HellKell

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Intervention Black Milk? How 'bout an invitation next time? I'll gladly fly to the other side of the world for a drink or 20... :D

my aim is to be the MF member who just gets shit faced with all the other members around the world. I could be our somewhat shameful mascot like the washington redskins, but too likable to get rid of. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hard to really say what I like because the BM I enjoy seems to be scattered all over the place. 

I can tell you what I really, really don't like though... OTT symphonic-keyboardy-dimmu-borgir stuff, though some keyboards are tolerable if done well..  and... that shoegazer stuff. Uh let's see... sometime in 2014 I wanna say, a music journalist touted Deafheaven's album "Sunbather" as one of the best black metal albums of the year.  A bombastic claim to make, so naturally I had to listen.  I don't know about you guys but this kind of "black metal" -- if you can even call it that -- just turned me completely off.

Some of the black metal artists are.... Vinterland, Krallice, Le Peste Noir, Forteresse, older Alcest, Taake, Sargeist... off the top of my head. 

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I love the new Krallice, it's probably one of my top albums of the year. I've got a hard time calling it black metal, though. As do the band members, from what I read. 

You may like this new Panopticon album, worth checking out.

Huh. I always thought of Krallice as... black metal, but to be honest I haven't listened to much outside of their self-titled from 2008.

What would you say they are?

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I don't know what I'd call them, stylistically. I don't think they're working within a genre. The new one has a lot in common with the self-titled, but it's more fragmented and experimental. I could see the BM label for the first one. 

I was lucky enough to see them live recently, and I was blown away by their musicianship. The melodies and incessant tremolo picking remind me of black metal, but the song structures have more in common with death metal, with nods to grind and post-hardcore. Vocals are more on the hardcore side, too, IMO. A unique blend. 

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  • 4 months later...
There are but it still feels more of an atmospheric BM record to me.

It's kind of at the center of a lot of sounds. It is dripping with atmosphere, but the first wave influences are more audible than with any of their Norwegian contemporaries. They helped pioneer that cold Scandinavian sound, but are still swathed with a warm and full sound that is more in line with the Greeks than the comparatively thinner tones of their Norwegian peers like Darkthrone. There are some supremely depressing chord progressions and melodic lines that no doubt influenced DSBM, as I'm sure Attila's vocals did as well, but they're far from DSBM. It's a strange and powerful sound that nobody has really been able to mimic or live up to.

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Ever since I heard the opening Norwegian vocalisation in Satyricon's 'Hvite Krists Dod' back in 1995 as a 15 year old, I knew that suddenly life had new meaning.

Back then, even the use of the Norwegian language set these bands apart. They were like beasts or (black) wizards - so exotic and foreign to my middle class Australian sensibilities. It was an intoxicating (strange old) brew.

As far as black metal styles are concerned, I definitely have a predilection for the swinging riff styles and atmosphere of Snorre Ruch that influenced Mayhem, Satryicon and Burzum. 

Keyboard accompaniments can work really well when used tastefully like in Burzum, Emperor, early Satyricon etc. I don't mind more bombastic keyboards later on, like in Dimmu, but the vibe is completely different and lacks the 'magic' of the other bands mentioned. I think most people recognise this.

I love the imagery of forests and mountains too, so the epic grandeur of nature that comes through in some bands is transcendent. Bands like Drudkh and Ulver are therefore some of my favourites. I also really like acoustic guitar and contemplative moments. 

Unlike a lot of people, I'm much less impressed by the dissonant and experimental evolution of the genre. I just can't get into Deathspell Omega and Blut Aus Nord, for instance. Same with the latest Leviathan. They tend to leave me cold. I do like Xasthur though but I find them a lot more structured.

As for the shoegaze stuff, I actually don't mind the 'Sunbather' album for its emotion, but I ain't keeping it in my black metal collection...

The more commercial and heavy offerings of bands like Marduk and Watain, and the suicide stuff of Forgotten Tomb and Shining also hold a lot of interest for me.

For me the perfect black metal album is Satyricon's 'The Shadowthrone', as I heard it 22 years ago and as I hear it now. It's got the darkness, the swing, the keyboards, the acoustics, the nature worship - combining all of this into songs.

 

 

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3 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Nice, "The Shadowthrone" is one of my all time favorites, as is early Ulver. Love some Drudkh as well. Cute little Carpathian Forest reference BTW, I haven't listened to them in ages, must see if I still have any of their stuff.

I presumed some people would pick up on it hahaha.

I also forgot to mention that I am really into black metal with a historical connection or theme. Windir and the first three Enslaved albums (even though they didn't call themselves black metal) are way up there for me. 

Listening to these bands while travelling through the Norwegian fjords in 2008 was one of the highlights of my life.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I like a lot of the "Blackgaze" stuff, don't care how much it vilifies me but I like bands like Deafheaven, Bosse-De-Nage etc. My one view on it though is, despite containing the elements of Black Metal, its closer to Post Metal for me. 

I've been listening to Black Metal since I was at school, first thing I heard was A Blaze In The Northern Sky by Darkthrone and it blew my mind. I was, still am, a huge Death Metal fan but this stuff just harnessed a vicious raw energy that Death Metal didn't really deliver. May sound a bit far reaching for some but Black Metal was my Punk Rock. Early 90's never threw anything up as a radical as Black Metal. Obviously got a lot of time for all the stuff of that era, heck even Impaled Nazarene! Once it went a little mainstream and the symphonic stuff started to get everywhere I kinda walked away from the scene for a long time, missed out on a tremendous amount of great stuff I'm sure.

Delved back in the last 5-6 years and reconnected with the old stuff, picked up a few bands I missed and a few new ones along the way.

In terms of how, these days its anything epic and bleak. Discovering Weakling was a game changer. Early Burzum (As much as I loathe Vargs view on the world, despite a while struggling with it, I've managed to separate the mans twisted politics from the music ) is still the bench mark for me, Hvis Lyset Tar Oss and Filosofem are borderline untouchable . Mgla are another recent discovery I've really enjoyed. 

After hearing Seven Tears Are Flowing To The River by Nargaroth I'm tempted to check out more of their stuff and am very much open to suggestions of stuff to listen to.

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The whole blackgaze thing doesn't do it for me. Not enough substance to it in my opinion. BM as a whole I have a great deal of time for despite (as any long term members here already now) utterly failing to connect with certain staples of the genre.

 

I too tend to avoid the symphonic side of things for the most part though have a near admiration of Cradle Of Filth's 'Cruelty and the Beast' - for me the pinnacle of that style.

 

If you're after suggestions we have a recs thread stuck to the top of this sub-forum complete with videos which (last I checked) still work.

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6 hours ago, SkySwallower said:

I like a lot of the "Blackgaze" stuff, don't care how much it vilifies me but I like bands like Deafheaven, Bosse-De-Nage etc. My one view on it though is, despite containing the elements of Black Metal, its closer to Post Metal for me. 

I've been listening to Black Metal since I was at school, first thing I heard was A Blaze In The Northern Sky by Darkthrone and it blew my mind. I was, still am, a huge Death Metal fan but this stuff just harnessed a vicious raw energy that Death Metal didn't really deliver. May sound a bit far reaching for some but Black Metal was my Punk Rock. Early 90's never threw anything up as a radical as Black Metal. Obviously got a lot of time for all the stuff of that era, heck even Impaled Nazarene! Once it went a little mainstream and the symphonic stuff started to get everywhere I kinda walked away from the scene for a long time, missed out on a tremendous amount of great stuff I'm sure.

Delved back in the last 5-6 years and reconnected with the old stuff, picked up a few bands I missed and a few new ones along the way.

In terms of how, these days its anything epic and bleak. Discovering Weakling was a game changer. Early Burzum (As much as I loathe Vargs view on the world, despite a while struggling with it, I've managed to separate the mans twisted politics from the music ) is still the bench mark for me, Hvis Lyset Tar Oss and Filosofem are borderline untouchable . Mgla are another recent discovery I've really enjoyed. 

After hearing Seven Tears Are Flowing To The River by Nargaroth I'm tempted to check out more of their stuff and am very much open to suggestions of stuff to listen to.

Lots of classic stuff in there. That Weakling album is great. It took me a while to come to terms with Burzum for the same reasons, but Filosofem rules. I would guess you've listened to Ulver's black metal stuff, and Drudkh, and some of the melodic Swedish bands like Dawn and Sacramentum? As far as Mgla goes, I can't help feeling like they've been treading water since their debut, and I always find myself wishing there was a little more to it when I put them on. Still a solid band. For Polish black metal, Furia's first two albums ("Martwa Polska Jesien" and "Grudzien Za Grudniem") are fucking great, and I've been listening to Wedrujacy Wiatr lately, though their vibe is more atmospheric and less aggressive than some of the others.

On 1/1/2017 at 10:45 PM, Requiem said:

I presumed some people would pick up on it hahaha.

I also forgot to mention that I am really into black metal with a historical connection or theme. Windir and the first three Enslaved albums (even though they didn't call themselves black metal) are way up there for me. 

Listening to these bands while travelling through the Norwegian fjords in 2008 was one of the highlights of my life.

I knew you were a fjords guy! I just knew it!

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