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Depressive Suicidal Black Metal


Requiem

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It seems pertinent to start a post for this flourishing sub-genre. 

I've long been obsessed with the doomier side of music, and of course black metal in general, so the idea of merging a suicidal/depressive philosophy to the black metal template makes perfect sense to me. And quite frankly, I'm amazed at the quality out there. 

I'm going to start this thread off with a very tentative Top 10 Albums list, because I'm not confident that I'm fully across things yet (in fact, I know I'm not). Like all genres I'm spreading a broad brush to genre inclusion. This list will change drastically as I delve more deeply into dark depressive expressions exlusively. 

Requiem's Top 10 DSBM Albums

10. Xasthur - 'Nocturnal Poisoning' (2002)

I ended up buying a lot of Xasthur's albums, starting with this one upon release. It is a dense, claustrophobic style of black metal - a one man band, and I loved it a lot more then compared with now. Still, Malefic is an enigmatic figure but sort of a one trick pony after buying so many of his massively long albums. Amazing illustrated cover art that is haunting and curious. 

9. Forgotten Tomb - 'Springtime Depression' (2003) 

First day of Spring is actually tomorrow here in darkest Victoria, so we're looking forward to some brighter weather. Despite three entries on this list, I suspect some will drop off as I get to know more of the lower bands' back catalogues. This is a stunning album though. Album cover of that  forest shed is haunting and perfect. 

8. Shining - 'Livets Andhallplats' (2001)

Hard to know where to put Shining. Is this better than 'Springtime Depression'? Probably due to Kvarforth's unhinged vocals. A dark picture of a slashed wrist fits well. 

7. Forgotten Tomb - 'Songs to Leave' (2002)

This is a great album, very melodic, almost a bit of Katatonia worship. Their debut album is no doubt amazing with its melodic approach to black metal. The album cover has always left me a bit uneasy, looking at a man in his underwear in the bath. I can't focus on the blood because I'm conscious of not looking at his black underpants. 

6. Shining - 'V - Halmstad (2007)

Kvarforth has his business sorted out with this great album. Evocative album cover with a gun-in-mouth photograph leaving no one in doubt. 

5. Coldworld - 'Melancholie' (2016)

The first entry of nowadays dsbm. This is brilliant because it's a mix of traditional dsbm black metal with some beautiful and dark ambient passages. I'm a bit suspicious of ambience sometimes, but it works really well here. The album cover of a skier disappearing into white snow with a fragile tree. Gosh, just amazing. 

4. Forgotten Tomb - 'Hurt Yourself and the Ones You Love' (2015)

This is a groove monster that doesn't really fit into the style of all these other albums, but it's full on depressive and suicidal. The Pantera like grooves are so much fun. Amazing album cover with the bound sexy chick with a guy holding a bullet to her mouth. Sounds terrible as I type that, but it's actually really beautiful because the girl is so powerful. She's like a superhero bursting out of her bonds. Just amazing. 

3. Thy Light - 'Suici.De.pression' (2007)

Hard to believe this fucking masterpiece is 2007 and is considered a 'demo'. It just slays his later official full length release that seems to suffer from a sense of satisfaction and achievement. 'Suici.De.pression' (amazing title by the way), is desperate, haunted and forlorn, created by a Brazilian who has lost all hope. Stunning vocals, stunning. Haunting slow riffs and big keyboards. Guitar solo in the last song is hurtful and gutting. Final sounds of a guy hanging himself at the end is the essence of this genre. Haunting album cover of a grey tree scene with the awesome logo and wonderful album title. 

2. Totalselfhatred - 'Solitude' (2018)

Wow. What can I say? All I can write is that I'm really looking forward to the rest of this band's back catalogue, which I've hardly heard. Featuring a full band line-up, including a real drummer, this is Finnish depression at its best. It's like a mix between Rapture and Shining. It came out last year?! What a time to be alive (ie die). Pertinent album cover of an upside down power station/flooded boat. They're signed to Osmose Records and I'm very happy about that because these guys are changing the way I see music in the 21st century. 

1. Shining - 'X Varg Utan Flock' (2018)

This is the greatest dsbm album of all time. I’m convinced. The thing is, this is the album where Kvarforth brings everything that made the earlier albums great, and just injects an extra bit of self-hatred. The band he has enlisted to help get this off the ground are stunning - the lead guitar player is world class. The album cover is pretty cool, although kind of rips off Paradise Lost's 'X' album and so many others. 

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I never really got that deep into DSBM, but I have always been a fan of Xasthur through random tracks on youtube (missing out on a chance to buy Nocturnal Poisoning on cd is a regret of mine).  I always liked his "2005 Demo," as it was short, dense, and had cover art that matched the music perfectly.

Another release that I always liked was Shining's Through Years of Oppression compilation.  Some of the most shocking cover art that I have seen, and the Halloween theme cover that they titled "Black Industrial Misery" was amazing.

It is also worth linking the "One Man Metal" documentary series to this thread:

 

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On ‎8‎/‎31‎/‎2019 at 4:28 PM, Balor said:

I never really got that deep into DSBM, but I have always been a fan of Xasthur through random tracks on youtube (missing out on a chance to buy Nocturnal Poisoning on cd is a regret of mine).  I always liked his "2005 Demo," as it was short, dense, and had cover art that matched the music perfectly.

Another release that I always liked was Shining's Through Years of Oppression compilation.  Some of the most shocking cover art that I have seen, and the Halloween theme cover that they titled "Black Industrial Misery" was amazing.

It is also worth linking the "One Man Metal" documentary series to this thread:

 

Good documentary. I saw it a few years back. I dig Leviathan. I never would have guessed that he was a pro skater.

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18 minutes ago, the_thrashing said:

Good documentary. I saw it a few years back. I dig Leviathan. I never would have guessed that he was a pro skater.

I liked the documentary a lot too.  I watched after I had already started to listen to Xasthur, so the extra context helped me to appreciate his music more.

I think Wrest still does some cover art for albums (I think I saw something within the last few months, but cannot remember what it was).

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40 minutes ago, Balor said:

I liked the documentary a lot too.  I watched after I had already started to listen to Xasthur, so the extra context helped me to appreciate his music more.

I think Wrest still does some cover art for albums (I think I saw something within the last few months, but cannot remember what it was).

The newer Leviathan albums have gone in a strange direction, I still llike it, but I prefer the older stuff.

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5 hours ago, the_thrashing said:

The newer Leviathan albums have gone in a strange direction, I still llike it, but I prefer the older stuff.

I never really cared for Leviathan too much, but also never spent time with any of his material.  I have been meaning to check out some of his early albums for a while, though.

Did he go in an even more ambient direction?

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14 hours ago, Balor said:

I never really cared for Leviathan too much, but also never spent time with any of his material.  I have been meaning to check out some of his early albums for a while, though.

Did he go in an even more ambient direction?

The two older ones that I used to listen to are the Howl Mockery At The Cross demo compilation (not to be confused with the demo of the same name) and Tenth Sublevel Of Suicide. You might dig those. I also like Massive Conspiracy and Scar Sighted. Wouldn't call them more ambient -- they're more experimental, complicated, and "modern-sounding", if that makes sense. He's got a ton of material, I haven't explored all of it, and honestly I have to be in the mood for it, or I find it a bit of a slog; but that project was one of the few that I still enjoyed when I went through a moratorium on black metal a while back.

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2 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

The two older ones that I used to listen to are the Howl Mockery At The Cross demo compilation (not to be confused with the demo of the same name) and Tenth Sublevel Of Suicide. You might dig those. I also like Massive Conspiracy and Scar Sighted. Wouldn't call them more ambient -- they're more experimental, complicated, and "modern-sounding", if that makes sense. He's got a ton of material, I haven't explored all of it, and honestly I have to be in the mood for it, or I find it a bit of a slog; but that project was one of the few that I still enjoyed when I went through a moratorium on black metal a while back.

Leviathan, like Xasthur, is not an artist I can listen to consistently over a number of albums back to back.  It’s proper DSBM in the sense that it can be a chore to listen to.  However, when the mood hits right it can take you down into the darkest shitholes of your mind and rinse your very soul in acid!

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54 minutes ago, MacabreEternal said:

Leviathan, like Xasthur, is not an artist I can listen to consistently over a number of albums back to back.  It’s proper DSBM in the sense that it can be a chore to listen to.  However, when the mood hits right it can take you down into the darkest shitholes of your mind and rinse your very soul in acid!

At least two great album titles in this post. You're a machine!

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4 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

The two older ones that I used to listen to are the Howl Mockery At The Cross demo compilation (not to be confused with the demo of the same name) and Tenth Sublevel Of Suicide. You might dig those. I also like Massive Conspiracy and Scar Sighted. Wouldn't call them more ambient -- they're more experimental, complicated, and "modern-sounding", if that makes sense. He's got a ton of material, I haven't explored all of it, and honestly I have to be in the mood for it, or I find it a bit of a slog; but that project was one of the few that I still enjoyed when I went through a moratorium on black metal a while back.

I had listened to parts of Howl Mockery at the Cross (not sure which, though) and Tenth Sublevel of Suicide before, and remember enjoying them.  They both had nice album covers too from what I remember.  I will have to give them a deeper listen.

1 hour ago, MacabreEternal said:

Leviathan, like Xasthur, is not an artist I can listen to consistently over a number of albums back to back.  It’s proper DSBM in the sense that it can be a chore to listen to.  However, when the mood hits right it can take you down into the darkest shitholes of your mind and rinse your very soul in acid!

I think that that is the sign of good dsbm, though.  When it is done right it possesses a truly oppressive sound that is only accessible if you are in the right emotional state.

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Can't do a SDBM thread and don't talk about Psychonaut 4. So here I go.

They are a band from Georgia, their lyrics I think are written in russian so if you don't understand you can always use Google Translate haha.

Their music is very opressive and hard to listen since their sound usually builds up to a point where everything is very loud but at the same time very clear. They like to use a lot of clean sections with clean guitar or piano.

It's hard for me to explain their sound since they are mainly SDBM but use lots of Post-metal elements and lots of atmospherics and some times they can even be classified as psychedelic.

I'm going to recommend their album "Dipsomania" since it helped me through tough times and I really think about it as one of the pillars of SDBM.

Hope you understood what I tried to said (I'm trying to improve my english by not using a translator hehe), here is their bandcamp link to the "Dipsomania" album.

https://psychonaut4.bandcamp.com/album/dipsomania

Edit: Forgot to say that they have some songs in english but their main language I believe is russian

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@Kilian_Leon

I listened to Psychonaut 4 before, but somehow it did not stick with me. Can't even remember what the album I streamed was called. Maybe I'll give it another shot though. Any album recommendation by them? They play in Berlin next year at a festival I think about visiting anyways, so it would be good to know if I actually like them or just had a bad selection of songs or just forgot how good they actually are, lol.

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On ‎9‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 12:52 AM, Balor said:

I never really cared for Leviathan too much, but also never spent time with any of his material.  I have been meaning to check out some of his early albums for a while, though.

Did he go in an even more ambient direction?

Yes and no. Yes he  did go in a more atmospheric/ambient direction but the sound isn't exactly what you would expect.

Every album is different as far as the newer stuff. I will post links so you can hear the difference. I think you might really like Leviathan.

I like all 3 of these albums. Leviathan was a huge band 10 years ago. If any of you remember, he was being accused of rape online and everyone started to hate Leviathan, then a few months later right around the time True Traitor, True Whore came out, we all found out that it was just rumors. It seems those rumors really hurt Leviathan's career though as he hasn't had the same popularity since.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqMZ9QwlKGs

From the Massive Conspiracy against life album. On this album Leviathan really became experimental, there's still a lot of guitar but it is different than the earlier stuff. At the time this was really seen as breakthrough/avant-garde. So many bands were influenced by this, that it doesn't sound that different today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytYhCPs3Fhc

From the True Traitor, True Whore album. On this 1 there is less guitar and more ambience and even industrial sounding parts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io9XVVKZjZw

From the Scar Sighted album. Not all of the songs are on youtube so it was either this or the whole album. This album is even more ambient and very melodic in some parts.

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6 hours ago, Necturion said:

@Kilian_Leon

I listened to Psychonaut 4 before, but somehow it did not stick with me. Can't even remember what the album I streamed was called. Maybe I'll give it another shot though. Any album recommendation by them? They play in Berlin next year at a festival I think about visiting anyways, so it would be good to know if I actually like them or just had a bad selection of songs or just forgot how good they actually are, lol.

I recommend their album "Dipsomania", for me it has their best compositions. All of it from start to finish its pure gold.

https://psychonaut4.bandcamp.com/album/dipsomania

 

I also love their album "Neurasthenia" and recommend the song "Sweet Decadence". That song its a great explanation of what the band's sound is.

https://psychonaut4.bandcamp.com/track/sweet-decadance

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7 hours ago, the_thrashing said:

Yes and no. Yes he  did go in a more atmospheric/ambient direction but the sound isn't exactly what you would expect.

Every album is different as far as the newer stuff. I will post links so you can hear the difference. I think you might really like Leviathan.

I like all 3 of these albums. Leviathan was a huge band 10 years ago. If any of you remember, he was being accused of rape online and everyone started to hate Leviathan, then a few months later right around the time True Traitor, True Whore came out, we all found out that it was just rumors. It seems those rumors really hurt Leviathan's career though as he hasn't had the same popularity since.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqMZ9QwlKGs

From the Massive Conspiracy against life album. On this album Leviathan really became experimental, there's still a lot of guitar but it is different than the earlier stuff. At the time this was really seen as breakthrough/avant-garde. So many bands were influenced by this, that it doesn't sound that different today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytYhCPs3Fhc

From the True Traitor, True Whore album. On this 1 there is less guitar and more ambience and even industrial sounding parts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io9XVVKZjZw

From the Scar Sighted album. Not all of the songs are on youtube so it was either this or the whole album. This album is even more ambient and very melodic in some parts.

Thanks!  I have never really checked out this era of his material, so I will have to spend some time with it.

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Sorry, had my suicidal and depressive around the wrong way when I posted this thread. (Freud would have something to say about that). 

Of course I mean DSBM. Edited to fix.

I’ve changed my number 1 listing already because the Totalselfhatred album doesn’t have enough depth.

As for Leviathan, I have ‘Scar Sighted’ and it’s way too experi-progressive for my tastes and I just can’t listen to it, and my knowledge of the ‘classics’ like ‘Tenth Sublevel...’ and ‘Tetancles of...’ is too foetal to comment. 

Actually, a store I go into has the demo collection that @FatherAlabaster mentioned. I should just buy it and check it out. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/1/2019 at 12:28 AM, Balor said:

I never really got that deep into DSBM, but I have always been a fan of Xasthur through random tracks on youtube (missing out on a chance to buy Nocturnal Poisoning on cd is a regret of mine).  I always liked his "2005 Demo," as it was short, dense, and had cover art that matched the music perfectly.

Another release that I always liked was Shining's Through Years of Oppression compilation.  Some of the most shocking cover art that I have seen, and the Halloween theme cover that they titled "Black Industrial Misery" was amazing.

It is also worth linking the "One Man Metal" documentary series to this thread:

 

Also, never heard of this documentary before. Thanks for posting Balor, I'll have a look one loveless, lonely night. 

Edit: Wow, what an amazing documentary. I hadn’t realised Scott from Xasthur was so disturbed. 

Really well shot and presented too. The interviewer was great. 

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10 hours ago, Requiem said:

Also, never heard of this documentary before. Thanks for posting Balor, I'll have a look one loveless, lonely night. 

Edit: Wow, what an amazing documentary. I hadn’t realised Scott from Xasthur was so disturbed. 

Really well shot and presented too. The interviewer was great. 

It was a great documentary, I need to watch it again.  For once, Noisey did something related to bm that was actually worthwhile. 

Looking back, it is a bit surprising that Xasthur was such a productive project.  The guy seemed so genuinely depressed.  From the looks of his facebook page, however, he seems to have been really active musically as of late.  Hopefully his life is beginning to turn around a bit in terms of mental health.

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9 hours ago, Balor said:

It was a great documentary, I need to watch it again.  For once, Noisey did something related to bm that was actually worthwhile. 

Looking back, it is a bit surprising that Xasthur was such a productive project.  The guy seemed so genuinely depressed.  From the looks of his facebook page, however, he seems to have been really active musically as of late.  Hopefully his life is beginning to turn around a bit in terms of mental health.

He has a Facebook page? Hard to imagine after watching that film. 

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I found the Xasthur episode interesting for its awkwardness and authenticity.  He clearly doesn’t want to be interviewed and followed round by a camera and makes no attempt to exhibit behaviour to the contrary.

The Striborg episode I found fucking ridiculous.  Essentially, grown man wears robes and corpse paint and stands shouting in the woods.  Just came across as quirky and immature somehow, with more than a hint of an exploitative direction on behalf of the production company.

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He has a Facebook page? Hard to imagine after watching that film. 
He has a personal and a band page (and YouTube too). He posts mostly pictures of himself, and short guitar riffs. Perhaps playing live shows opened him up a bit.

Interestingly, he posted a while ago about plans for a live Xasthur album.

Sent from my SM-S327VL using Tapatalk

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On 9/22/2019 at 5:27 PM, MacabreEternal said:

I found the Xasthur episode interesting for its awkwardness and authenticity.  He clearly doesn’t want to be interviewed and followed round by a camera and makes no attempt to exhibit behaviour to the contrary.

The Striborg episode I found fucking ridiculous.  Essentially, grown man wears robes and corpse paint and stands shouting in the woods.  Just came across as quirky and immature somehow, with more than a hint of an exploitative direction on behalf of the production company.

I don’t know. There are a lot of normal guys walking around in t-shirts and jeans, so a guy in robes in the woods is actually a welcome change. Maybe I’ll join him. 

Plus Tasmania makes people act strangely. See my pics in the General Photos thread. 

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

I'm a huge DSBM fan so I have to add a couple recommendations to the list.

Make a Change... Kill Yourself is one of my fave DSBM bands. All their albums are great but here's a link to their first album. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7yRhf3_hI0 They have several albums out, including one they just recently released which is great as well.

When Mine Eyes Blacken's self titled album is absolutely amazing also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWMrijpeDbA

Nocturnal Depression is another of my fave DSBM bands and Soundtrack for a Suicide - Opus II is my fave album of theirs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWy9XCgFCrk

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/18/2019 at 4:09 PM, NekroSlvt said:

I'm a huge DSBM fan so I have to add a couple recommendations to the list.

Make a Change... Kill Yourself is one of my fave DSBM bands. All their albums are great but here's a link to their first album. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7yRhf3_hI0 They have several albums out, including one they just recently released which is great as well.

When Mine Eyes Blacken's self titled album is absolutely amazing also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWMrijpeDbA

Nocturnal Depression is another of my fave DSBM bands and Soundtrack for a Suicide - Opus II is my fave album of theirs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWy9XCgFCrk

I was sure no one had mentioned Make a Change... Kill Yourself when i saw this topic so basically came to do that, but happy to see i was wrong. Nocturnal depression is another one of my favourites in the genre. :) 

 

 

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