What Are You Listening To?

[GoatmasterGeneral]

1 hour ago, Necrolord said:

Odd, cuz that Watain album blows most black metal albums shared here out of the water. (Well, only the albums shared here which I've checked out which isn't that many...)

I will give your 'proper' bm albums a listen. There will be a head-to-head comparison vs Watain. It might take a few days. This shit BETTER be good! 

Dimmu has some good stuff, regardless of the ridicule they get from the troo crowd, who are usually total sheep / scared to like anything outside a certain limit. (Not implying you are one). At the same time I can understand if Dimmu isn't someone's taste at all, there's a lot about them I don't even like.

I have nothing against Dimmu personally, (or any other symphonic bands for that matter) it's just that the symphonic elements simply don't work for me, they repulse me basically, and I don't personally see how it's possible to separate them from the underlying music. But I mean I can't listen to Emperor either for the same reasons, the symphonic elements contaminate it for me and render it unlistenable. And I believe that most of the 'troo crowd' generally respects and admires Emperor.

I think the problem for me personally as far as black metal is concerned is that since I've gone down the trve/kvlt rabbit hole these last 12 -15 years, I've become so accustomed to listening to the more raw less commercial stuff, that I can't just go back to jamming the normie stuff, because it just tastes far too sweet to me now. It's like someone who gets used to drinking their coffee black for a decade will spit it out or at least make a face if you put two sugars in their cup, and Dimmu puts like 12 sugars in theirs. Undrinkable.

But I mean getting back to Watain, if you really like Watain then go for it man, that's your business. I don't have a problem with them specifically, they're not a band I even have occasion to think about very often. So it doesn't matter to me one way or the other if you dig them or not. I listened to a bit of the one you posted earlier and it didn't sound that bad at all as compared to the two albums immediately preceding it. But it wasn't anything special either, I found nothing compelling or noteworthy about any of those riffs or songs. I really can't see them blowing anybody out of the water, it was all one big "meh." But like I've said, I just have waaay too much other black metal in my life that I really fucking love to waste time on stuff that the best thing I can say about it is it wasn't terrible. Not to mention all the other sub-genres I enjoy listening to both in and out of metal. Too much music, too little time.

Just know that I'm not trying to piss in your (or anyone's) cornflakes. I don't care what you or anyone else listens to. Everyone here on this board has some pretty widely varied tastes, no two of us seem to like or dislike all or even most of the same shit. So it's really like an anything goes kind of metal board, which is I think is pretty cool. I don't have to approve of everything that gets posted around here and I don't expect everyone else to agree with me about the objective superiority of all the raw lo-fi filth that I post. To each his own. But you opened the door for criticism when you made that post the other day critiquing some of our NP's you'd checked out recently. And that's fine man, that's what we're here for, music discussion. By all means, speak your piece. But obviously it works both ways, what's good for the goose....

But I guess it's kinda like when I see a black metal n00b floundering in the deep black metal waters, and they're clearly a bit farther out than they're comfortable with, and they're not sure which way to turn to get back to shore, I can't help but want to throw some good recos at them as a lifeline to help them find their way back onto solid ground. But you can grab onto that lifeline or not, it's always your choice. Maybe my taste in black metal is of no interest to you whatsoever and you'd prefer to take your chances back out in the shark infested mainstream Watain waters. And that'd be perfectly fine my friend, I sincerely hope you find enjoyment in whatever it is you choose to listen to. I did try to pick a few albums that I thought would be reasonably accessible in that other post. I totally get that the real raw lo-fi shit is an acquired taste that most people will never have any desire to acquire. But that stuff I posted should be sufficiently melodic and accessible enough to appeal to those relatively new to black metal. Or the other alternative is maybe I've just been down that kvlt rabbit hole too deep for too long now, and I'll never be able to come back up for air and hang out with the normies without depressurizing first.

I'm very interested now to hear your thoughts on that proper black metal once you've had a chance to digest some of it. Just don't be too hard on the old goat man, remember, I'm the one who turned you onto the awesome Italian band Fulci.

[Arioch]

1 hour ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I have nothing against Dimmu personally, (or any other symphonic bands for that matter) it's just that the symphonic elements simply don't work for me, they repulse me basically, and I don't personally see how it's possible to separate them from the underlying music. But I mean I can't listen to Emperor either for the same reasons, the symphonic elements contaminate it for me and render it unlistenable. And I believe that most of the 'troo crowd' generally respects and admires Emperor.

I think the problem for me personally as far as black metal is concerned is that since I've gone down the trve/kvlt rabbit hole these last 12 -15 years, I've become so accustomed to listening to the more raw less commercial stuff, that I can't just go back to jamming the normie stuff, because it just tastes far too sweet to me now. It's like someone who gets used to drinking their coffee black for a decade will spit it out or at least make a face if you put two sugars in their cup, and Dimmu puts like 12 sugars in theirs. Undrinkable.

I completely understand your point of view.

Synths have never bothered me, EXCEPT when they encroach a little too much on the rest of the instruments. So first of all, Hard FM is something I've never appreciated, and it makes me run the 110-meter hurdles in less than a tenth of a second.

But when it serves the music, to add an atmosphere, a mood, but behind it, the music blows its energy through the guitars or the drums, I'm fine with that.

I can't imagine Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse without this gloomy, omnipresent atmosphere. Just the guitars and the drums, if I take up your comparison with coffee, it would be like being served a cup of coffee, but without anything in it. For me, of course.

I love Bal-Sagoth, for example, but I have to admit that after listening to one album, or even 2, I just can't take it anymore. The keyboards are too prominent.

[Arioch]

This morning, I'm listening to Ange, my favorite band.

It's not Metal, so I'll just list the albums I've listened to.

(There's keyboard in it) 😁😉

Ange - Les Larmes du Dalaï Lama (1992)

Ange - La Voiture à Eau (1999)

 

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Since I couldn't sleep, and I'm a black metal maniac, here are just a few more of my personal favorite black metal albums that have come out over the last decade. Some more killer recos for my new friend the @Necrolord all of which happen to blow Watain out of the fucking water, since he said there hadn't been much in the way of standout black metal posted around here lately. Guess I must've been slacking off on posting the black metal lately since I've been on a bit of a death metal kick the last few months, which is unusual because the wintertime is generally black metal season for me, when I listen to almost nothing but black metal.

 

Ordinance - In Purge There Is No Remission, Finland 2020, this is a black metal riff extravaganza that should not be missed, especially the back half of the album. 

 

Murg - Varg & Björn, Sweden 2015, I found it hard to listen to much else for months after this came out in 2015, and it's still probably my favorite black metal album of the last decade.

 

Forteresse - Thèmes Pour la Rébellion, Quebec 2016, this one smokes. It's been 8 years now, I wonder why they haven't come out with a follow-up.

 

Spectral Wound - A Diabolic Thirst, Montreal Quebec 2021

 

Schrat - Alptraumgänger, 2018 Germany

 

Arde - Ancestral Cult, Germany 2021

 

Erz - Erz, Germany 2021

 

Gråinheim - Teufelskunst, 2020 Germany, he put out one the following year that was just as good.

 

Martwa Aura - Morbus Animus, 2020 Poland, wish these dudes would put out a new one

 

Grieve - Funeral, Finland 2022

 

Rienaus - Saatanalle, 2017 Finland

 

Infernarium - Kadotuksen Harmonia, 2018 Finland

 

Azaghal - Valo Pohjoisesta, Finland 2018

 

Archgoat - Worship the Eternal Darkness, Finland 2021, I'd be remiss if I left out the mighty Archgoat

 

Fanebærer - Den Første ild, Denmark 2020

 

 

Í Myrkri - Drivende i Dødens Æter, 2020 Denmark

 

Glemsel - Forfader, Denmark 2022

 

 

Kaevum - Kultur, Norway 2023

 

Hovmod - Doedsformasjon, Norway 2019

 

Nattved - I Helvetes Forakt, Norway 2023, vicious

 

[Arioch]

Sodom - Persecution Mania (1987)

 

[Arioch]

Bathory - Requiem (1994)

Oh, that bass sound! 🤩
I don't like the Lars Ulrich sound of the drums 🤔

 

[FatherAlabaster]

Nur Run - Among Those Waves

[Arioch]

Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987)

 

[Necrolord]

9 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I have nothing against Dimmu personally, (or any other symphonic bands for that matter) it's just that the symphonic elements simply don't work for me, they repulse me basically, and I don't personally see how it's possible to separate them from the underlying music. But I mean I can't listen to Emperor either for the same reasons, the symphonic elements contaminate it for me and render it unlistenable. And I believe that most of the 'troo crowd' generally respects and admires Emperor.

I think the problem for me personally as far as black metal is concerned is that since I've gone down the trve/kvlt rabbit hole these last 12 -15 years, I've become so accustomed to listening to the more raw less commercial stuff, that I can't just go back to jamming the normie stuff, because it just tastes far too sweet to me now. It's like someone who gets used to drinking their coffee black for a decade will spit it out or at least make a face if you put two sugars in their cup, and Dimmu puts like 12 sugars in theirs. Undrinkable.

But I mean getting back to Watain, if you really like Watain then go for it man, that's your business. I don't have a problem with them specifically, they're not a band I even have occasion to think about very often. So it doesn't matter to me one way or the other if you dig them or not. I listened to a bit of the one you posted earlier and it didn't sound that bad at all as compared to the two albums immediately preceding it. But it wasn't anything special either, I found nothing compelling or noteworthy about any of those riffs or songs. I really can't see them blowing anybody out of the water, it was all one big "meh." But like I've said, I just have waaay too much other black metal in my life that I really fucking love to waste time on stuff that the best thing I can say about it is it wasn't terrible. Not to mention all the other sub-genres I enjoy listening to both in and out of metal. Too much music, too little time.

Just know that I'm not trying to piss in your (or anyone's) cornflakes. I don't care what you or anyone else listens to. Everyone here on this board has some pretty widely varied tastes, no two of us seem to like or dislike all or even most of the same shit. So it's really like an anything goes kind of metal board, which is I think is pretty cool. I don't have to approve of everything that gets posted around here and I don't expect everyone else to agree with me about the objective superiority of all the raw lo-fi filth that I post. To each his own. But you opened the door for criticism when you made that post the other day critiquing some of our NP's you'd checked out recently. And that's fine man, that's what we're here for, music discussion. By all means, speak your piece. But obviously it works both ways, what's good for the goose....

But I guess it's kinda like when I see a black metal n00b floundering in the deep black metal waters, and they're clearly a bit farther out than they're comfortable with, and they're not sure which way to turn to get back to shore, I can't help but want to throw some good recos at them as a lifeline to help them find their way back onto solid ground. But you can grab onto that lifeline or not, it's always your choice. Maybe my taste in black metal is of no interest to you whatsoever and you'd prefer to take your chances back out in the shark infested mainstream Watain waters. And that'd be perfectly fine my friend, I sincerely hope you find enjoyment in whatever it is you choose to listen to. I did try to pick a few albums that I thought would be reasonably accessible in that other post. I totally get that the real raw lo-fi shit is an acquired taste that most people will never have any desire to acquire. But that stuff I posted should be sufficiently melodic and accessible enough to appeal to those relatively new to black metal. Or the other alternative is maybe I've just been down that kvlt rabbit hole too deep for too long now, and I'll never be able to come back up for air and hang out with the normies without depressurizing first.

I'm very interested now to hear your thoughts on that proper black metal once you've had a chance to digest some of it. Just don't be too hard on the old goat man, remember, I'm the one who turned you onto the awesome Italian band Fulci.

 

I'll try not to go too hard on you man and thanks for that wicked Fulci album. Now those riffs I was humming for days. I don't hold any personal grudge on anything here. It's just a silly forum. 

 

Fascinating that you seem to care about which band is 'mainstream' or not and somehow this affects your judgment of their music? I don't care one bit about anything other than the pure music. I don't get distracted by the other stuff. It's odd that you even mention that. You should ignore everything except for the music. 

We probably have huge tastes difference re bm. I've been listening to all kinds of bm for over a decade. Everythng from Abigor to Zyklon, limbonic art, summoning, everything in between, even crap like Beherit etc etc..... I've delved into the deep end, don't worry... 

 

Anyway

I've only had time to check 1 "proper" bm album you recommended.

 

Vargsang- in the Midst of Night 

VS

Watain- Trident Wolf Eclipse

HEAD-TO-HEAD COMPETITION 

 

Vargsang: 1st 2 minutes is a waste of time pointless synth intro. Bad 1st impression. A band should do something cool to bring you in at the beginning to make you interested. Not bore you right from the get go. 

Umm, where are the drums? This is some weaksauce drum production. Also the guitar riffs here are nowhere near the level of Watain. The way this guy picks sounds like he first picked up a guitar less than a year ago. 

The production is bad... I have a soft spot for crappy production. But at the end of the day. When something sounds better it just sounds better. Bad/muddy does not sound better. Unless you enjoy crap.

Every song starts very slow. Where's the energy? Is this black metal elevator music? 8 minutes in i was falling asleep already, then some even slower spoken word part comes in, with a simple friendly benign lead work. Come on... this is kinda shitty. Even Dimmu destroys this sadly executed raw bm.

3rd song has some speed and more interesting riffs. Still nothing really original, but better. 4th song just steady, boring but has a cool part near the end.

Overall songs are too simple for me in terms of arrangements. Too many basic riffs repeating too many times. Watain just does a lot more interesting stuff with overall arrangements and sounds 10x better in terms of songwriting, production, and interesting sections.

1:30 into the album Watain already played more cool riffs than the 1st 20 minutes of this album.

Watain's album absolutely mops the floor with this.

[Kiry70721]

 

[navybsn]

KAT - Oddech Wymarlch Swiatow (Polish thrashy hm a la 1987)

Accept - Metal Heart

 

[navybsn]

Omega - The Prophet (1985)

 

[Kristiko]

Pantera - Reinventing The Steel (album)

[navybsn]

Dolorian - When All the Laughter Has Gone

 

[markm]

2024 stuff on Bandcamp:

• Midnight-Hellish Expectations
• Adrianne Lenker-Bright Future (pre released tracks)
• Kim Gordon-The Collective (pre released tracks) 
• Isenordal-Requiem for Eirênê
• Dödsrit-Nocturnal Will (pre released tracks) 

[MarkhantonioYeatts]

KHOLD - Du Dommes Til Dod

 

BEDRANGNIS - Verlorene Seelen Und Ihr Zerfall

 

[Nasty_Cabbage]

4 hours ago, Necrolord said:

Fascinating that you seem to care about which band is 'mainstream' or not and somehow this affects your judgment of their music? I don't care one bit about anything other than the pure music. I don't get distracted by the other stuff. It's odd that you even mention that. You should ignore everything except for the music. 

We probably have huge tastes difference re bm. I've been listening to all kinds of bm for over a decade. Everythng from Abigor to Zyklon, limbonic art, summoning, everything in between, even crap like Beherit etc etc..... I've delved into the deep end, don't worry... 

 

The ministry of jovial skeletons would not hear ye speak ill of Beherit, good sir.

Seriously though, this might be one of my favorite black metal compilations/album cover combos ever. I love how they all look like they're walking home from black mass talking casually, ready to sit back in their doubtless equally decayed recliners and put on the game.

NP: Adversaion - Dejection of the Malign Tabernacle

▶︎ Dejection of the Malign Tabernacle | Adversaion (bandcamp.com)

Death metal right out of the older playbook. Doesn't go too hard on the gore theming either, but lets it serve it's purpose. Love the riff work and the brief utilitarian solos that show just enough instrumental capability without a hint of ego or flash. Just a hint more Autopsy influence and  get rid of the spoken word bits that pop up now and then, and it'd be all aces. As it is, though, still excellent.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

4 hours ago, Necrolord said:

Watain's album absolutely mops the floor with this.

Obviously we have very different things we're looking for from our black metal. The stripped down simplicity of the songs and the dirty production and the overall rawness and what you see as the primitive amateurish quality of his performances (Vargsang is just one dude) are all huge positives for me. That's exactly what I'm looking for, and that particular album was my ultimate black metal discovery. His previous 3 albums as well as the Graven stuff that came before that are all great too, but that one's my favorite of all of them. Because in my mind that's what black metal is supposed to sound like, that's the goal. But I totally get that most people aren't looking for that kind of thing and would probably review it in much the same way as you just have. It's his final album too, a decade old now. I assume because he knew he'd finally achieved black metal perfection and he knew he'd never be able to top that one, so he just hung it up, went out on a high note. Always leave 'em wanting more.

So you see that's why I talk about the mainstream, because mainstream black metal bands generally don't have those rough around the edges qualities and filthy production I'm looking for. Because if they did, the mainstream would just ignore them, and then they wouldn't be mainstream now would they. There does seem to be a large portion of the modern black metal consuming public who look unfavorably upon and tend to eschew that retro/necro lo-fi production that I adore so much. So being mainstream or popular in itself isn't the problem, but it does end up being a pretty good litmus test for what a band will sound like. If I know a band's name is well known and they're on a major label then I often find they'll be more polished and professional sounding which to me neuters the sound, cuts it's balls off. And of course as dudes we know that can never be a good thing. Mainstream bands just tend to sound a certain way, and that's just not what I'm looking for, when it comes to my black metal anyway. In other genres it can sometimes be forgiven, but I very much prefer the DIY approach to black metal album craft. Not everything I love has that raw necro sound though, lots of those albums I posted last night sound much more professional. And not everything necro sounding is gonna be good either, a great deal of it's garbage. Let me tell you, it's not easy finding the hidden gems in the rubbish pile. 

Oh and as far as the pointless intro is concerned, yeah man that stupid pointless intro has become so prevalent that almost all black metal bands seem to be doing it now. I generally just skip ahead. Back in the day bands might throw on a 30 second intro that you'd suffer through, but then somewhere along the line those turned into minute long intros and now you'll often see 2 or 3 minute long pointless intros and occasionally even longer than that. Drives me fucking nuts, especially on EP's and shorter 25 minute albums, but it's become so prevalent that I can't just boycott all albums with intros. So I've taken to just skipping ahead. I'll often click on a bm album I've never even heard before and just slide the thing up 60 or 90 seconds to skip the pointless intro that I assume will be there. If I hear music then I'll slide it back to find where the music starts. If I hear nonsense then I'll just keep sliding ahead til I land on music. 

Anyway thanks for playing along Necrolord, cool that you got back to me so fast. All those two dozen albums I posted aren't one man DIY necro lo-fi affairs like Vargsang, so I hope you'll decide to try some more of them on for size. Maybe we'll even find an album or two that we can both agree on. I love when we get black metal people wander in here and I get a chance to talk some bm with them.

 

[Thatguy]

5 hours ago, Necrolord said:

Watain's album absolutely mops the floor with this

Get that into you!

[GoatmasterGeneral]

3 hours ago, navybsn said:

Dolorian - When All the Laughter Has Gone

Had this playing this on my phone while I was downstairs making some coffee and an after school snack for the boy, and I really enjoyed it. No idea it would turn out to be 25 years old. It ended right as I was about to come back upstairs. Not gonna play it again back to back, but I'll definitely be giving it another whirl later on tonight up here.

But right now, in late March, I have finally found an album from 2024 that I'm actually excited about. I know most people seem to be completely over the whole cavernous Incantation clone thing as it sometimes seems as if almost a third of all death metal today is being presented in that style, you could even call it a micro-genre of its own I suppose. But I don't think I'll ever tire of this shit. It just matches up with my brain waves or something and makes me feel good. I'll never be a pill popper but this shit is like my Prozac.

 

Hiss - Daemonium Maleficium, black/death from Virginia Beach.

 

[Innominate]

Brodequin - Harbinger of Woe 

Blotted Science - The Animation of Entomology 

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

4 minutes ago, Innominate said:

Brodequin - Harbinger of Woe 

Was just listening to this one yesterday...

Brodequin - Methods of Execution, BDM Knoxville TN 2004

 

[RelentlessOblivion]

Curse the Australian time zone, I missed a whole Black Metal discussion… Again. So okay I’m much too lazy to go back and multi quote instead I’ll pull my usual trick
1. For our fine French fiend when it comes to Bathory you’re almost certainly better off ignoring everything they did between Twilight of the Gods and Nordland.

2. Beherit’s raw, and filthy debut is slightly underrated in my view, and Drawing Down the Moon is to my ears, at least quite excellent.

3. To each their own but much like the old goat, I have very little tolerance for symphonic BM, especially if it’s driving the sound rather than being a background feature. I can barely tolerate keys in Doom Metal and I think they bring more to the table in that regard.

4. Plenty of killer BM has dropped in the last decade, I’m a little surprised, the old man left Inquisition from his list, unless my admittedly, barely working eyes deceive me.

 

NP: Inquisition - Black Mass for a Mass Grave

[GoatmasterGeneral]

23 minutes ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

Curse the Australian time zone, I missed a whole Black Metal discussion… Again. So okay I’m much too lazy to go back and multi quote instead I’ll pull my usual trick
1. For our fine French fiend when it comes to Bathory you’re almost certainly better off ignoring everything they did between Twilight of the Gods and Nordland.

2. Beherit’s raw, and filthy debut is slightly underrated in my view, and Drawing Down the Moon is to my ears, at least quite excellent.

3. To each their own but much like the old goat, I have very little tolerance for symphonic BM, especially if it’s driving the sound rather than being a background feature. I can barely tolerate keys in Doom Metal and I think they bring more to the table in that regard.

4. Plenty of killer BM has dropped in the last decade, I’m a little surprised, the old man left Inquisition from his list, unless my admittedly, barely working eyes deceive me.

NP: Inquisition - Black Mass for a Mass Grave

Inquisition is my favorite metal band of all time. And that's any sub-genre, black or otherwise, hands down, no contest, end of story. But for some reason I keep them separate in my mind, I don't lump them in with all the rest of that northern European black metal. People say they sound like Immortal, but I don't hear that, and I've never been a big Immortal fan anyway. They're kind of in a class by themselves, I have elevated them above and beyond the level of mere black metal. But if anyone's interested my favorite Inquisition album is Nefarious Dismal Orations, 2007. Black Mass would probably be my favorite just from the last decade.

I also keep Archgoat separated from all other black metal bands, but yet I did include them in my roundup. Don't ask me why, it was between like 4 and 6am when I was searching for all those Youtube videos and I'd been up all night.

Funny, I've never really given a shit about Beherit. I love when bands put Beherit covers like The Gate of Nanna on their albums, but the original Beherit albums themselves kinda sound like shit. They hadn't really perfected the necro production yet back then, so I very much prefer more recent stuff where they've intentionally recreated a facsimile of the 30 year old retro/necro bm production that sounds a lot more listenable than the old stuff to me. If that makes me a poseur then whatever man. I want a filthy raw production, but I want it to sound heavy and more like a wall of noise, not one that sounds like mud or like they recorded it on a little handheld tape recorder out in their uncle's barn or something.

[Necrolord]

4 hours ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

The ministry of jovial skeletons would not hear ye speak ill of Beherit, good sir.

 

My bad @Nasty_Cabbage, I was thinking of Bethlehem when I wrote that, not Beherit! Bethlehem is dog shit. Tabernacle is a funny word. 

 

3 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Obviously we have very different things we're looking for from our black metal. The stripped down simplicity of the songs and the dirty production and the overall rawness and what you see as the primitive amateurish quality of his performances (Vargsang is just one dude) are all huge positives for me. That's exactly what I'm looking for, and that particular album was my ultimate black metal discovery. His previous 3 albums as well as the Graven stuff that came before that are all great too, but that one's my favorite of all of them. Because in my mind that's what black metal is supposed to sound like, that's the goal. But I totally get that most people aren't looking for that kind of thing and would probably review it in much the same way as you just have. It's his final album too, a decade old now. I assume because he knew he'd finally achieved black metal perfection and he knew he'd never be able to top that one, so he just hung it up, went out on a high note. Always leave 'em wanting more.

So you see that's why I talk about the mainstream, because mainstream black metal bands generally don't have those rough around the edges qualities and filthy production I'm looking for. Because if they did, the mainstream would just ignore them, and then they wouldn't be mainstream now would they. There does seem to be a large portion of the modern black metal consuming public who look unfavorably upon and tend to eschew that retro/necro lo-fi production that I adore so much. So being mainstream or popular in itself isn't the problem, but it does end up being a pretty good litmus test for what a band will sound like. If I know a band's name is well known and they're on a major label then I often find they'll be more polished and professional sounding which to me neuters the sound, cuts it's balls off. And of course as dudes we know that can never be a good thing. Mainstream bands just tend to sound a certain way, and that's just not what I'm looking for, when it comes to my black metal anyway. In other genres it can sometimes be forgiven, but I very much prefer the DIY approach to black metal album craft. Not everything I love has that raw necro sound though, lots of those albums I posted last night sound much more professional. And not everything necro sounding is gonna be good either, a great deal of it's garbage. Let me tell you, it's not easy finding the hidden gems in the rubbish pile. 

Oh and as far as the pointless intro is concerned, yeah man that stupid pointless intro has become so prevalent that almost all black metal bands seem to be doing it now. I generally just skip ahead. Back in the day bands might throw on a 30 second intro that you'd suffer through, but then somewhere along the line those turned into minute long intros and now you'll often see 2 or 3 minute long pointless intros and occasionally even longer than that. Drives me fucking nuts, especially on EP's and shorter 25 minute albums, but it's become so prevalent that I can't just boycott all albums with intros. So I've taken to just skipping ahead. I'll often click on a bm album I've never even heard before and just slide the thing up 60 or 90 seconds to skip the pointless intro that I assume will be there. If I hear music then I'll slide it back to find where the music starts. If I hear nonsense then I'll just keep sliding ahead til I land on music. 

Anyway thanks for playing along Necrolord, cool that you got back to me so fast. All those two dozen albums I posted aren't one man DIY necro lo-fi affairs like Vargsang, so I hope you'll decide to try some more of them on for size. Maybe we'll even find an album or two that we can both agree on. I love when we get black metal people wander in here and I get a chance to talk some bm with them.

 

 

Totally fair man. I appreciate your explanation of what you find appealling in it. Rough around the edges can sound great when a band is tight with good execution. Lack of fancy mixing allows a band's natural dynamics to shine through, similar to a live setting. 

But generally 'filty production' to me is usually just extra static and mud in the mix. When a guy is playing a cool riff I'd rather hear it clearly and powerfully and have the growly guitar tone chew my ear off. I wanna hear every note played as opposed to having to try and figure out what's going on. To me, whether a band has balls or not has more to do with the riffs and songs they play (composition) and less with production. But I can see how raw production gives a band that rough/unpolished vibe.

 
I'm glad we agree on the pointless intros. Thanks for sharing those albums. Not enough time to listen to everything fully so I'm gonna try each one for the first 5 minutes and we'll see how many pass the 5-minute test! I hope I find something I enjoy thoroughly.