Top Five First Wave Black Metal Albums

[VolcanicSlut]

Bump ?

There were only a handful of really important ones in the early eighties. Faves:

Hellhammer - Satanic Rites
Sodom - In The Sign Of Evil
Bathory - The Return (of Darkness and Evil)
Venom - Welcome To Hell
Bulldozer - The Day of Wrath

There were some slightly more obscure ones that were great in the mid eighties. Faves:

Ghost Rider - Mayhemic Destruction (Venom, Hellhammer and Mercyful Fate influences? Quite unique, and fucking gold.)
Semen Of Satan - Demo 1984 (In the vein of Sodom and Hellhammer. Best!)
Blasfemia - Guerra Total EP (Like Sodom meets Bathory in Columbia.)
Parabellum - Sacrilegio + Rehearsal (The latter was possibly the most extreme recording of 1984.)
Fantom - Lucifer jelenj meg! (Another Hungarian band in the vein of Tormentor. There were some others too.)
Sabbat - S/T (1985 was so early. They came out the year after Bathory did.)
Torr - Witchhammer (Kind of like Celtic Frost.)
Flames Of Hell - Fire and Steel (Really bizarre shit from Iceland.)
Samael - Medieval Prophecy (Typical Norse BM of the nineties, but came out in 1988.)
Malhavoc - Age of the Dark Renaissance (Bathory worship from Canada. They changed styles after that.)
Preispodnyaya - Live 1988 (The Russian Hellhammer.)

 

 

 

 

[VolcanicSlut]

The eighties South American scene was incredible; a huge influence on Mayhem, Beherit, Blasphemy, etc.
-->  Exterminator, Holocausto, Necrofago, Sarcofago, Reencarnacion, Necromantie, Parabellum, Blasfemia, etc.

 

[RelentlessOblivion]

8 hours ago, VolcanicSlut said:

Bump ?

There were only a handful of really important ones in the early eighties. Faves:

Hellhammer - Satanic Rites
Sodom - In The Sign Of Evil
Bathory - The Return (of Darkness and Evil)
Venom - Welcome To Hell
Bulldozer - The Day of Wrath

There were some slightly more obscure ones that were great in the mid eighties. Faves:

Ghost Rider - Mayhemic Destruction (Venom, Hellhammer and Mercyful Fate influences? Quite unique, and fucking gold.)
Semen Of Satan - Demo 1984 (In the vein of Sodom and Hellhammer. Best!)
Blasfemia - Guerra Total EP (Like Sodom meets Bathory in Columbia.)
Parabellum - Sacrilegio + Rehearsal (The latter was possibly the most extreme recording of 1984.)
Fantom - Lucifer jelenj meg! (Another Hungarian band in the vein of Tormentor. There were some others too.)
Sabbat - S/T (1985 was so early. They came out the year after Bathory did.)
Torr - Witchhammer (Kind of like Celtic Frost.)
Flames Of Hell - Fire and Steel (Really bizarre shit from Iceland.)
Samael - Medieval Prophecy (Typical Norse BM of the nineties, but came out in 1988.)
Malhavoc - Age of the Dark Renaissance (Bathory worship from Canada. They changed styles after that.)
Preispodnyaya - Live 1988 (The Russian Hellhammer.)

 

 

 

 

Wow some stuff there I haven't heard of. I really should do more digging into first wave black metal. Unfortunatly money is tight and I need to prioritise keeping myself fed.

[Benjaminc81]

I'm afraid my list will be predictable as fuck, but that's not suprising when it comes to the first wave black metal i guess since the options are somewhat limited compared to the second wave.

1. Bathory - Under The Sign Of The Black Mark

The two previous Bathory albums were just a warm-up, this is where Bathory finally nailed the black metal sound. Quorthon finally refined his chaotic sound and delivered an album which is just classic from beginning to end.

2. Bathory - Bathory

You can hear a bunch of young guys just going ape shit on this record. Sure it's sloppy and uneven at times but that's what black metal is all about right? I never get tired of this records. It's short and sweet and straight to the point.

3. Hellhammer - Satanic Rites

Primitive black metal at it's finest. Tom Warrior d even though greater things were still to come. But to me this is probably right up there with Celtic Frost "Morbid Tales".

4.  Tormentor - Anno Domini - Who would have thought that Hungary would bring forth one of the most legendary vocalists of black metal? Tormentor really embodies the black metal sound before it was even called black metal and Atilla's vocals are out of this world. 

5. Sodom - In The Sign of Cruelty - Of the Teutonic Three Sodom has always been my favorite. Their debut EP is absolutely ferocious clocking in at barely 19 minutes. Too bad they abandoned their early sound in favor of the more thrash metal based sound. 

 

[Requiem]

30 minutes ago, Benjaminc81 said:

 

4.  Tormentor - Anno Domini - Who would have thought that Hungary would bring forth one of the most legendary vocalists of black metal? Tormentor really embodies the black metal sound before it was even called black metal and Atilla's vocals are out of this world. 

Great call on this album. 'Elizabeth Bathory' is the only song I have from it and it's just dripping with atmosphere. I just checked ebay and couldn't find a single copy, but there are a few going at discogs for fairly steep prices. Thanks for the reminder, because I need this. 

[RelentlessOblivion]

1 hour ago, Benjaminc81 said:

I'm afraid my list will be predictable as fuck, but that's not suprising when it comes to the first wave black metal i guess since the options are somewhat limited compared to the second wave.

1. Bathory - Under The Sign Of The Black Mark

The two previous Bathory albums were just a warm-up, this is where Bathory finally nailed the black metal sound. Quorthon finally refined his chaotic sound and delivered an album which is just classic from beginning to end.

2. Bathory - Bathory

You can hear a bunch of young guys just going ape shit on this record. Sure it's sloppy and uneven at times but that's what black metal is all about right? I never get tired of this records. It's short and sweet and straight to the point.

3. Hellhammer - Satanic Rites

Primitive black metal at it's finest. Tom Warrior d even though greater things were still to come. But to me this is probably right up there with Celtic Frost "Morbid Tales".

4.  Tormentor - Anno Domini - Who would have thought that Hungary would bring forth one of the most legendary vocalists of black metal? Tormentor really embodies the black metal sound before it was even called black metal and Atilla's vocals are out of this world. 

5. Sodom - In The Sign of Cruelty - Of the Teutonic Three Sodom has always been my favorite. Their debut EP is absolutely ferocious clocking in at barely 19 minutes. Too bad they abandoned their early sound in favor of the more thrash metal based sound. 

 

There are so many options for the first wave though. Venom, Mercyful Fate, Vulcano, Sarcofago, the first Sepultura record, early Destruction, Celtic Frost, nMe, that's just off the top of my head. Oh and the Deathcrush EP from Mayhem it also totally first wave.

[RelentlessOblivion]

While on the subject it's been 5 years since my original list and I think it warrants a rethink. That being said my new list looks like this:

5. Vulcano - Bloody Vengeance

Thrashy, nasty, black metal from Brazil. Boy did they have a lot of awesome first wave BM.

4. Mercyful Fate - Melissa

Melodic, with King Diamond's phenomenal vocals, what isn't to like about this masterpiece?

3. Sarcofago - INRI

Raw, nasty, evil sounding black metal. Once again from Brazil. God damn was their scene amazing.

2. Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark

Perfection, that's the only word which describes this album, Bathory's best black metal album is among the very best examples of the first wave.

1. Tormentor - Anno Domini

If Bathory was perfection then this is a level beyond that. These guys clearly had influence from some lower power when writing this.

[Benjaminc81]

1 hour ago, Requiem said:

Great call on this album. 'Elizabeth Bathory' is the only song I have from it and it's just dripping with atmosphere. I just checked ebay and couldn't find a single copy, but there are a few going at discogs for fairly steep prices. Thanks for the reminder, because I need this. 

I'm in the same boat here. Still need a copy on CD but so far they were too pricey for my taste. Until then i'll just use Spotify to scratch my itch when it comes to Tormentor.

34 minutes ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

There are so many options for the first wave though. Venom, Mercyful Fate, Vulcano, Sarcofago, the first Sepultura record, early Destruction, Celtic Frost, nMe, that's just off the top of my head. Oh and the Deathcrush EP from Mayhem it also totally first wave.

Well to be honest i'm not that familiar with the first wave of black metal. I've listened to most of those names at one point but most bands didn't do much for me. I always found Venom to be quite juvenile and those early Sepultura and Sarcofago record sound a little too primitive for my personal taste. Totally forgot about Deathcrush though, i never liked that record until last year when it finally clicked for some odd reason. I still thinks it's the worst Mayhem record though, but with such a stellar discography that isn't exactly an insult.

[RelentlessOblivion]

8 minutes ago, Benjaminc81 said:

I'm in the same boat here. Still need a copy on CD but so far they were too pricey for my taste. Until then i'll just use Spotify to scratch my itch when it comes to Tormentor.

Well to be honest i'm not that familiar with the first wave of black metal. I've listened to most of those names at one point but most bands didn't do much for me. I always found Venom to be quite juvenile and those early Sepultura and Sarcofago record sound a little too primitive for my personal taste. Totally forgot about Deathcrush though, i never liked that record until last year when it finally clicked for some odd reason. I still thinks it's the worst Mayhem record though, but with such a stellar discography that isn't exactly an insult.

Fair enough, I'm not exactly an expert on the first wave myself. I'm perfectly fine with the more primitive approach though so long as the atosphere remains intact. So many albums I missed too.

[Balor]

2 hours ago, Benjaminc81 said:

Totally forgot about Deathcrush though, i never liked that record until last year when it finally clicked for some odd reason. I still thinks it's the worst Mayhem record though, but with such a stellar discography that isn't exactly an insult.

I never really thought of Deathcrush as a first wave album, but, upon reflection, it seems to fit in much better with them.  I'm not sure where I stand with it - it's really weird, but also super interesting.  However, for me Deathcrush's uniqueness makes it edge out over Mayhem's later work like Ordo Ad Chao.

[Benjaminc81]

No doubt that Mayhem were ahead of there time when they released Deathcrush and it's certainly one of the most important records in black metal history. But as with most first wave records i have somewhat trouble with the primitive riffing on a lot of the songs. All those youngsters at the time were trying to outdo each other by going faster and faster while the music often turned into a blur of riffs. There are some nice passages on Deathcrush but you can clearly hear the band was still searching for their own sound. Maybe i would appreciate those records more if i heard them upon their release. But i was only 5 years old when Deathcrush was released so...?

[RelentlessOblivion]

I wasn't around at the time of release either. I think because I transitioned from a heavy and thrash metal background into BM through the first wave albums it's always been easily digestable for me. I love the second wave of course and it's wonderful that Black metal has expanded to the point we are today. I think the BM atmosphere really shines through in the first wave and is almost more important then any specific riffs, it still sounds like black metal.

[Sardonicist]

Some young Christian adults converted my parents to letting me listen to Christian metal at some point in my youth, I never grew out of this band, figured they should be mentioned on this thread.

This band is first wave black metal... 

Vengeance Rising - Fatal Delay

Vengeance Rising - Fill This Place With Blood

Vengeance Rising - Herod's Violent Death

Vengeance Rising - The Whipping Post

Vengeance Rising - Before The Time