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Recommended Black Metal bands?


stuarthall95

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haha say what you will man I'm not a huge fan or nothing but I remember being 15 and hearing Arrival of Satans Empire and thinking it was the most viscerally sinister shit I'd heard. obviously ten years have passed since and I've sifted through more quality stuff but Teratism has been the first band whose sound hit me the same way DF did when I was young

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haha say what you will man I'm not a huge fan or nothing but I remember being 15 and hearing Arrival of Satans Empire and thinking it was the most viscerally sinister shit I'd heard. obviously ten years have passed since and I've sifted through more quality stuff but Teratism has been the first band whose sound hit me the same way DF did when I was young
I bought Secrets of the Black Arts for way too much fucking money at Virgin Records' store here in SLC, before they shut down, because I had a gift card from a friend and a coworker had recommended it. I can still listen to that one, but the following albums are just ridiculous, and their live show diminished my opinion of them even further. They're a band that basically exists based on schtick, and another than some early songs have no substance to their songs whatsoever. Magus is a joke, especially considering how gnarly he sounded fronting Hypocrisy, but other than being able to play fast, they have nothing going for them.
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Definitely Demoncy.

Black metal hasn't been doing all that well recently. Looks like we had some cool releases in the '80s and a few good ones in the early '90s, then everything started sounding the same - not bad, not great. There are a few good releases here and there, but consistently good bands are fucking hard to find. Most of the really good bands have branched out from pure "black metal", and play some amalgamation of black metal and their own style, e.g. Graveland and Summoning, uhh... There was Averse Sefira a while back, other people told me they were pretty good though I didn't get it. Beherit - Engram? The new Sammael record? Maybe some of that Revenge/Conquerer stuff, at a push... To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't call this "Cosmic Infusion" band black metal. They sound more like symphonic metal with harsh vocals, which is a subgenre all of its own as far as I understand it. Still, each to their own - I'm sure it's good, for what it is : )
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Definitely Demoncy.
Black metal hasn't been doing all that well recently. Looks like we had some cool releases in the '80s and a few good ones in the early '90s, then everything started sounding the same - not bad, not great. There are a few good releases here and there, but consistently good bands are fucking hard to find. Most of the really good bands have branched out from pure "black metal", and play some amalgamation of black metal and their own style, e.g. Graveland and Summoning, uhh... There was Averse Sefira a while back, other people told me they were pretty good though I didn't get it. Beherit - Engram? The new Sammael record? Maybe some of that Revenge/Conquerer stuff, at a push... To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't call this "Cosmic Infusion" band black metal. They sound more like symphonic metal with harsh vocals, which is a subgenre all of its own as far as I understand it. Still, each to their own - I'm sure it's good, for what it is : )
I stopped listening to black metal in the mid 2000s and missed out on some really good stuff as a result. Averse Sefira took me a few listens to get, but they're awesome. I've rekindled my interest in Drudkh's early albums over the past year. The first two releases by Furia (Poland), "Sacred White Noise" by a new Canadian band called Thantifaxath, and the last few releases by Jute Gyte are among my favorite black metal albums recently. There's a bunch of other BM I like, and some newer stuff that I have to revisit; the point is, it ain't dead...
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Black metal hasn't been doing all that well recently. Looks like we had some cool releases in the '80s and a few good ones in the early '90s' date=' then everything started sounding the same - not bad, not great. There are a few good releases here and there, but consistently good bands are fucking hard to find.[/quote'] I've been getting more and more into death metal since I've joined this forum, which resulted in black metal being pushed to the background. There are still some contemporary black metal albums which are really good though. I'll quickly assemble a list of some of those albums: Antediluvian - Through the Cervix of Hawaah Bölzer - AuraThantifaxath - Sacred White Noise Emptiness - Nothing but the Whole Inconcessus Lux Lucis - Crux Lupus Corona Inconcessus Lux Lucis - Disintegration: Psalms of Veneration for the Nefarious Elite Inquisition - Obscure Verses for the Multiverse Inquisition - Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm Kathaaria - The Complex Void of Negativity Kozeljnik - Deeper the Fall Kriegsmaschine - Altered States of Divinity Lithotome - Lithotome Negative Plane - Stained Glass Revelations Negative Plane - Et In Saecula Saeculorum Nocturnal Depression - Nostalgia - Fragments of a Broken Past Regarde les Hommes Tomber - Regarde les Hommes Tomber Secrets of the Moon - Privilegivm There's still a lot of good and original black metal out there and although it may be harder to find nowadays, it's still worth it.
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I've been getting more and more into death metal since I've joined this forum, which resulted in black metal being pushed to the background. There are still some contemporary black metal albums which are really good though. I'll quickly assemble a list of some of those albums: Antediluvian - Through the Cervix of Hawaah
This more squally death metal than BM for me - good call but not BM by a good stretch. Would recommend "Logos" by them also.
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This more squally death metal than BM for me - good call but not BM by a good stretch. Would recommend "Logos" by them also.
Agreed, I'd say much the same about Bölzer. May as well recommend Mitochondrion, Abyssal, or Grave Miasma as those guys. A lot of the more atmospheric DM groups of late have plenty in common with black metal, it's all worth listening to regardless. I'll go ahead and plug a couple of NYC bands I dig lately - Mutilation Rites and Castevet. And from farther afield, the final Altar Of Plagues album was pretty amazing if you get down with a deconstructed "post" BM take on things.
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Bolzer do nothing for me unfortunately. Picked up on some good BM bands this past week: Krigsgrav Sado Sathanas Ars Diavoli (or Satan's Shitter to give them their Brit Pub Act name) Animus Mortis (far too cold a sound to have come from Chile - no pun intended) VI Stoic Dissention Also this year I picked up releases from Slidhr, Sun Worship and Ifing which have held up well.

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Definitely Demoncy.
Black metal hasn't been doing all that well recently. Looks like we had some cool releases in the '80s and a few good ones in the early '90s, then everything started sounding the same - not bad, not great. There are a few good releases here and there, but consistently good bands are fucking hard to find. Most of the really good bands have branched out from pure "black metal", and play some amalgamation of black metal and their own style, e.g. Graveland and Summoning, uhh... There was Averse Sefira a while back, other people told me they were pretty good though I didn't get it. Beherit - Engram? The new Sammael record? Maybe some of that Revenge/Conquerer stuff, at a push... To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't call this "Cosmic Infusion" band black metal. They sound more like symphonic metal with harsh vocals, which is a subgenre all of its own as far as I understand it. Still, each to their own - I'm sure it's good, for what it is : )
Demoncy is awesome, Joined in Darkness is a USBM classic. They're playing at MDF this year, so I'm hoping I get to go again. Not familiar with their newer stuff though. As far as black metal goes, while there have definitely been a lot of changes that have taken place in the genre over the years, it has never had a bad period. There is a ton of current black metal that is absolutely killer, as well as plenty that is original. Cultes Des Ghoules is an excellent example of a band using old sounds in a new way, and their newest release Henbane is one of the few albums that has ever given me the same feeling as De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. As Midi pointed out, Negative Plane is another band doing something new and creative with traditional techniques. Blut Aus Nord is always reinventing themselves and releasing quality albums, though some have not taken as much to their more industrial flavored material. Deathspell Omega would be a similarly good bet. I would definitely urge you to check those bands out if you haven't already, as well as bands like Pseudogod, Mgła, Teitanblood, etc...
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I've checked a lot of the bands mentioned here out already, and while I often find aspects of their music that I like, I rarely find a song, let alone an album, ep, or demo, that I can say properly hits me the way the early second wave stuff does, or things like Sodom - In the Sign of Evil, Tormentor - Anno Domini, Sarcofago - I.N.R.I. etc. It all too often seems like technically and compositionally proficient musicians are trying their hand at a style that they enjoy but don't "feel" themselves, if you get what I mean. I like more of the Blasphemy-inspired blackdeath stuff that seems to have become astonishingly popular in recent years, but even then, nothing beats Blood Upon the Altar! Maybe I'm just a grumpy old sod ; )

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I've checked a lot of the bands mentioned here out already' date=' and while I often find aspects of their music that I like, I rarely find a song, let alone an album, ep, or demo, that I can say properly hits me the way the early second wave stuff does, or things like Sodom - In the Sign of Evil, Tormentor - Anno Domini, Sarcofago - I.N.R.I. etc. It all too often seems like technically and compositionally proficient musicians are trying their hand at a style that they enjoy but don't "feel" themselves, if you get what I mean. I like more of the Blasphemy-inspired blackdeath stuff that seems to have become astonishingly popular in recent years, but even then, nothing beats Blood Upon the Altar! Maybe I'm just a grumpy old sod ; )[/quote'] Anno Domini and INRI are two of my favorites. That said, I keep finding albums that scratch the same itch for me. In addition to the Negative Plane and Cultes Des Ghoules (which I would highly recommend as a first wave/early 2nd wave black metal enthusiast), the Pseudogod I mentioned is one of the best raw/bestial black metal albums I have heard in some time, along with Blasphemophagher, Wrathprayer, Vassafor, and Diocletian. I'm not extremely well versed in new releases, so if these don't do it for you, you could always check out less well known older stuff like Amon Goeth, Anael, Treblinka, Countess, Profanatica/Havohej (especially if you're a Demoncy fan), Mortuary Drape, Varathron, Ophthalamia, Tearstained, Morrigan, etc... I know that I've said it before, but never stop searching, there is ALWAYS more out there to find.
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