Black Metal discussion

Like the Death Metal discussion thread, only for Black Metal.

I dont listen to much black metal; the vocals and poor production often just irritate me. However I do quite like Dimmu Borgir.

Yeah, the low production value has always bothered me a little, but not enough to detract from the music too much. And vocals can make or break any Extreme Metal band for me, I'm a bit picky about those...but that does limit my list to pure awesomeness (IMO at least), so it is kinda a good thing

Bad vocals can can make or break a song regardless of genre and I prefer death metal vocals to the traditional black metal rasp.

Kerberos wrote:

Bad vocals can can make or break a song regardless of genre and I prefer death metal vocals to the traditional black metal rasp.

Well, yes and no, bad vocals in most other genres can be made up for with really good instrumentals in my opinion, but bad Death or Black vocals can kill the music for me, and yes, I much prefer Death Metal in general as well, the vocals are more powerful (mostly) and the instrumentals are less scattered (again, for the most part)

Knightfall wrote:

Well, yes and no, bad vocals in most other genres can be made up for with really good instrumentals in my opinion, but bad Death or Black vocals can kill the music for me, and yes, I much prefer Death Metal in general as well, the vocals are more powerful (mostly) and the instrumentals are less scattered (again, for the most part)

It depends on how frequently the vocals are used in a song. If the song is more instrumental this is less of a problem, while bands that make greater use of vocals are more likely to be ignored by me if their vocals are crap.

Kerberos wrote:

It depends on how frequently the vocals are used in a song. If the song is more instrumental this is less of a problem, while bands that make greater use of vocals are more likely to be ignored by me if their vocals are crap.

Yeah, that has a good bearing on it for me too, either way, no matter how astounding the instrumentals are, shite vocals always detract from the band's musical value, and make some bands that would otherwise be incredible seem rather mediocre, though I'd still listen to it occasionally for the instrumentals as long as they're good enough to even out the vocals

I only like a select few BM vocalists, and almost 0 DM vocals. My favorite BM vocalists are definitely from Twilight Ophera (and Crimfall) and Morgul's vocalist.

well vocalists in other genres make or break the artist in my opinion as well, but it also depends on how well the instrumentation blends in with the vocalizations. I've listened to quite a few artists that I would normally consider the vocalist extremely annoying, but the blend of the instrumentation with the vocalization just made the song awesome, so I liked them instead.

If you are new to black metal then you should forget everything you have listened to to this point. Done? Good. Go pick up some Celtic Frost, Venom, and Bathory albums. Listen to those. Now progress to Mayhem, Burzum, Emperor, Darkthrone, and maybe some Enslaved. Only once you have those down should you move on to Marduk, Dimmu Borgir (If you feel you must). Then you should go into some fusion things. I recommend Belphegor, Behemoth, and Vesania.

Related to thread, my favourite black metal band (And overall band) is Marduk. Now go appreciate some Fuck Me Jesus, Nightwing, and Panzer Division Marduk.

Best Black Metal band ever obviously is Wervolf. Case Closed.

Kirakishou wrote:

Best Black Metal band ever obviously is Wervolf. Case Closed.

Wervolf isn't underground enough. Deathlord is clearly better, only 8 people have ever seen them perform or heard their music. And guess what, they are fucking cult.

That is totally fucking cult. Thats like culter than cult. Thats Cult Cult.

Dude, that is so cult that it is kvlt. Just like Immortal.

Immortal is so kvlt that if you eat alphabet soup while listening to Unsilent Storms in the Northern Abyss it will spell kvlt 666 times.

Yeah dude, witch hats will do that to you. Make you so kvlt that you BREATHE FUCKING FIRE!

PerYngveOhlin wrote:

Kirakishou wrote:

Best Black Metal band ever obviously is Wervolf. Case Closed.

Wervolf isn't underground enough. Deathlord is clearly better, only 8 people have ever seen them perform or heard their music. And guess what, they are fucking cult.

There is more to Black metal than kvlt/underground. That attitude of obscurity is pathetic.

Kerberos wrote:

PerYngveOhlin wrote:

Kirakishou wrote:

Best Black Metal band ever obviously is Wervolf. Case Closed.

Wervolf isn't underground enough. Deathlord is clearly better, only 8 people have ever seen them perform or heard their music. And guess what, they are fucking cult.

There is more to Black metal than kvlt/underground. That attitude of obscurity is pathetic.

It's called parody. Look into it.

Kerberos wrote:

PerYngveOhlin wrote:

Kirakishou wrote:

Best Black Metal band ever obviously is Wervolf. Case Closed.

Wervolf isn't underground enough. Deathlord is clearly better, only 8 people have ever seen them perform or heard their music. And guess what, they are fucking cult.

There is more to Black metal than kvlt/underground. That attitude of obscurity is pathetic.

It's not an attitude I subscribe to personally, I must admit, but its existence is one of the many reasons Black Metal is so awesome. People who strive to only listen to underground bands keep the underground alive, meaning that there is a wide selection of great (and some not so great) bands for the rest of us to listen to.

^Agreed, although in black metal a lot of people take the whole "kvlt" thing too seriously (LLN) and just delve into kvlt faggatory (releasing 1000 demos with no full-length, limited, etc).

Agreed, limiting demos and etc makes no sense to me. Its ok for fans to want their bands to be underground, but why the fuck would a band want to be underground?

Because they hate the mainstream?

Some LLN releases are pretty good.

PerYngveOhlin wrote:

If you are new to black metal then you should forget everything you have listened to to this point. Done? Good. Go pick up some Celtic Frost, Venom, and Bathory albums. Listen to those. Now progress to Mayhem, Burzum, Emperor, Darkthrone, and maybe some Enslaved. Only once you have those down should you move on to Marduk, Dimmu Borgir (If you feel you must). Then you should go into some fusion things. I recommend Belphegor, Behemoth, and Vesania.

Related to thread, my favourite black metal band (And overall band) is Marduk. Now go appreciate some Fuck Me Jesus, Nightwing, and Panzer Division Marduk.

You're totally missing some extremely important bands there. Like Hellhammer. The original cult band.

Everyone into metal should definitely listen to early black metal as it is the basis for black metal, death metal and even thrash. Venom was the first extreme metal band, the first black metal and the first thrash metal band. They set up those genres, and later death metal.

Also, Per, you skipped over other scenes besides the Norwegian one. I actually like the South American scene possibly more. I don't like them because they're more underground, even though that is true, but because they're rawer and more brutal. Early bands like Vulcano, Sarcofago, Paraebellum, etc. were playing WAY more extreme black metal that totally influenced people like Euronymous and the later black metal scene in general.
South American bands just sound so evil. They have more thrash to their sound, generally, too, I suppose.

Shit like Dimmu Borgir and Behemoth blow. Though I admit I haven't heard Behemoth's earlier stuff. Marduk is pretty elite and savage. They've got some of the grindcore sound going, which was unique at the time. They kinda started that. With the blast beats and everything. Also, I just like their unique set up. Unlike most black metal bands they have an extremely technical bass and simplistic guitars. The bass is different and just really adds something awesome to their sound. Unique vocals, too. It's kinda funny because all their vocalists have pretty much sounded like the same person.

I think Athousandson (from Metalthrone) put it perfectly:

"Black Metal is an abysmal, emotional, ecstasy and if it were a vagina it would have teeth."

Holy shite that was a long time ago. Take note of the dates in ancient threads like these, they are generaly no longer relevant. As is the case here. In fact, I'm a little more than slightly ashamed of that post.

Yeah, I noticed the dates afterwards. Whatever, no big deal.