I will check out Transilvanian Hunger tonight
shit yes, you must do this. so great, by far my favorite darkthrone.
if you like it, and i hate to be this guy, there are a few early albums by a certain "important figure" that you probably ought to check out...
― Little GTFO (contenderizer), Thursday, 1 March 2012 05:07 (twelve years ago) link
after some back and forthing, i too have come to the conclusion that i have no use for the likes of agalloch and wolves ittr
― Little GTFO (contenderizer), Thursday, 1 March 2012 05:09 (twelve years ago) link
The day I first listened to Darkthrone's A Blaze in the Northern Sky in my car I got in a car accident and then I got trapped in a garage's elevator. Honestly I was worried about whether I should continue to listen to that record and band. That shit happened several months ago. Now, though, I think they're one of the most pure rock 'n' roll bands I've ever heard.
I've only heard three of their records, and my favorite is Under a Funeral Moon. I love the drumming.
― C.A.H.OOTS, Thursday, 1 March 2012 07:41 (twelve years ago) link
those 3 records, i can guess what they are, are amazing
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 08:38 (twelve years ago) link
god i love enslaved
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 1 March 2012 08:48 (twelve years ago) link
btw, any recent recommendations this year? haven't been paying that much attention (last thing i heard was dead reptile shrine's latest).
Clarke B. on a (more or less) recent usbm tip, you should check out krallice, leviathan, stuff from the black twilight circle and weakling (obv). also, striborg and akitsa ('goetie' esp.)
when it comes to classics : ildjarn, ulver's 'nattens madrigal', early gorgoroth, some legions noire stuff.
― rusty_allen, Thursday, 1 March 2012 15:01 (twelve years ago) link
Thanks for all the rec's, you guys; much appreciated.
So I listened to Transilvanian Hunger last night--twice--and I'm on my third listen today. It confused me at first--so muffled, so distant sounding (I know it's a legendarily lo-fi recording, but the extent of it surprised me; I wonder though how much this has to do with Spotify and my probably not-awesome laptop soundcard (although I'm playing it through my decent stereo setup))--but it's clicking now. I found I had to let go of my preconceptions of what I thought it was going to be like, and really actually abandon my notion of it being "metal" in any sense I've previously understood the genre to be. Echoing someone above, the beats are relentless to the point of almost being tranquil, just a steady rolling pummel, like Rashied Ali on Coltrane's Interstellar Space or something. The sound and feel is not even "metal" like any metal I really have known up to this point, more like the most fevered explosions of My Bloody Valentine fused with gothy postpunk. I'm sure the muffled quality is part of the point for a lot of fans, but I can't help but wonder what this would sound like if it had been recorded with Reign in Blood-level clarity and punch--probably shit-inducingly terrifying.
― Clarke B., Thursday, 1 March 2012 15:59 (twelve years ago) link
it wouldn't be the same. its perfect as it is
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 16:12 (twelve years ago) link
the beats are relentless to the point of almost being tranquil, just a steady rolling pummel, like Rashied Ali on Coltrane's Interstellar Space or something. The sound and feel is not even "metal" like any metal I really have known up to this point, more like the most fevered explosions of My Bloody Valentine fused with gothy postpunk.
otm, that's exactly what i love about it. always picture a hearse hurtling down some cartoon mountain road at night, as glimpsed through black branches, just barely hanging on. it is probably being driven by a dracula.
― Little GTFO (contenderizer), Thursday, 1 March 2012 16:20 (twelve years ago) link
x-post -
yeah, it is perfect. I love how, despite its lofi nature, 'transilvanian hunger' is NOT a muddy recording. every element of this (admittedly, very stripped-down) sound really pops out of the recording. the bass sound in particular is killer which is nice since you p much can't even hear bass on most black metal records. just another demonstration that these guys knew EXACTLY what they wanted to do on this record.
but I think what's most important is that the lofi sound is not a crutch - the songs would still work if rick rubin produced. just a great set of songs.
― original bgm, Thursday, 1 March 2012 16:22 (twelve years ago) link
I think I prefer it the way it is, too. I think the muffled rush of it allows it to be more immersive, and that aspect of it would suffer if the sound itself was more direct and confrontational.
x-post -- Alan, what you're saying makes me think I'm hearing a degraded version of it though my crappy laptop Spotify airing. I need to get my hands on a legit copy, I suppose.
― Clarke B., Thursday, 1 March 2012 16:23 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, try cranking it on a decent stereo or through some nice headphones and I think you'll see what I'm getting at.
btw blut aus nord memoria vetusta ii is easily my favorite black metal record of the last couple years. the guitar interplay is seriously beautiful.
― original bgm, Thursday, 1 March 2012 16:26 (twelve years ago) link
if you want some kinda experimental out there newer black metal that i think still works and doesn't break the basic vibe of the thing, give a listen to Peste Noire - Ballade cuntre lo Anemi francor
― Thu'um gang (jjjusten), Thursday, 1 March 2012 16:27 (twelve years ago) link
Forgot to mention Krallice, they're ace. Cobalt are also pretty great USBM, though they verge into noise at times. Fen, Falloch, Drudkh are all good too- they sometimes verge on shoegazeyness.
― good luck in your pyramid (Neil S), Thursday, 1 March 2012 16:35 (twelve years ago) link
heheh jjj totally in character
― fuck deathcore and metalcore (Algerian Goalkeeper), Thursday, 1 March 2012 16:36 (twelve years ago) link
runner-up to blut aus nord for my fave of the last few is the last one from nokturnal mortum:http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Nokturnal_Mortum/%D0%93%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%81_%D0%A1%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%96_%28The_Voice_of_Steel%29/257430/PhantomMullet
might even like it more. they both suit very different purposes.
and god, this solo!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4ZzqWhvOVA
too bad they're racist assholes. :-/
― original bgm, Thursday, 1 March 2012 17:24 (twelve years ago) link
hah, didn't mean to link to that particular review but you get the idea
― original bgm, Thursday, 1 March 2012 17:25 (twelve years ago) link
If you like the production on Transilvanian Hunger, check out Mutiilation (and the other Black Legions bands), Paysage D'Hiver and, bringing it right up to date, the Black Twilight Circle: Volahn, Ashdautas, Arizmenda and the rest.
― Soukesian, Thursday, 1 March 2012 22:58 (twelve years ago) link
Mutiilation were so great. One of my favorite weird BM lyrics is from their "Black Eggs of Melancholy":
The desertic summer fades, the black curtains opens on a depressive autumn.The ground gave rotten fruits this season.The black wings of melancholy above the superstitious mortals.The dogs bark at the moon, children wake at night.Since the appearance of those weird black eggs
It's like a pocket Lovecraft story.
― Big Drug Dan (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Friday, 2 March 2012 08:31 (twelve years ago) link
Ah, shit... Burzum's really good. I just discovered this today.
― Clarke B., Saturday, 16 June 2012 22:07 (eleven years ago) link
Abbath meets Trivium:
http://p.twimg.com/AviZ_YYCAAAFQpg.jpg
― 誤訳侮辱, Saturday, 16 June 2012 22:10 (eleven years ago) link
Six months or so into my Black Metal self-education, and here's what I know so far:
1st wave/influences: Bathory, Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Venom, Hellhammer2nd wave: Darkthrone, Mayhem, Burzum, Emperor, Gorgoroth, SatyriconFrench: Belketre, Vlad Tepes, Mütiilationnewer stuff: Wolves in the Throne Room, One Tail One Head
Notes (to myself):
- I love Darkthrone. They've become one of my *all time* favorite bands just in this last half year or so. HOWEVER, they actually seem like one of the least "black" sounding bands of the list above, even on their BM classic records. I gather they were tremendously influential for a lot of other bands, esp on the production front, but from my retrospective viewpoint, it's not surprising they eventually grew out of playing BM, and went thrashier.
- Emperor is hugely overrated. When you look at what Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, et al were doing at the same time, Emperor strike me as more style than substance.
- I LOVE the French bands listed above. Possibly the darkest sounding stuff of all, and definitely the harshest production
- all the stuff that supposedly influenced the 2nd wave ROCKS. Celtic Frost, at least in the 80s, was great, and it's kind of mindblowing to me to know that Bathory existed in the 80s. So black!
- newer BM seems to mostly take the "post-rock" path, ie walls of guitar noise and blastbeats instead of big riffs. Darkthrone and Mayhem actually did play lots of riffs, and sometimes even doom-y sludge beats. I think that's why I like those bands more than the rest -- more contrast.
― Dominique, Monday, 27 January 2014 22:14 (ten years ago) link
i like filosofem because it is a shoegaze album.
― tɹi.ʃɪp (Treeship), Tuesday, 28 January 2014 00:20 (ten years ago) link
Think Emperor are my favourite bm band
― The Robotic Policeman II (dog latin), Tuesday, 28 January 2014 00:54 (ten years ago) link
@treeship, yes there is a definite kinship between BM and shoegaze music, but I think only now do bands actually play off of this, as a conscious (?) thing. To me, BM lo-fi sonics and emphasis on what is harsh or cold seem just as much an escape into otherworldly noise as shoegaze does. Insular scenes, hard-to-obtain discographies, aliases, sordid backstories, indecipherable lyrics -- all of it can mystify, put a buffer between the band/listener and the rest of the world. I love the fact that you can interpret it as overt misanthropy, or self-medicating numbing agent.
― Dominique, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 02:32 (ten years ago) link
Dominique, the first Ulver album, Bergtatt, is one of my favourite metal albums of all time and is a melodic (i.e. slightly folkish) BM classic made by some dudes in their teens. It's phenomenal and is my single recommendation in this field (for now).
― in fact, do read if you hate me (imago), Tuesday, 28 January 2014 02:34 (ten years ago) link
Immortal "Battles in the North" y or n?
― ^ enlightening post (sarahell), Tuesday, 28 January 2014 02:35 (ten years ago) link
I will check it out! So far, my only exposure to "melodic" BM is the guitar parts on Transylvanian Hunger ;)
And that's not true, there's some stuff from Wolves in the Throne Room which could pass for Enya if I didn't know better (and those are my favorite parts!)
x-post
― Dominique, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 02:38 (ten years ago) link
@sarah, don't think I've actually heard Immortal yet. I know they are supposed to be huge...you like?
― Dominique, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 02:46 (ten years ago) link
xpost sort of
Battles in the North, like everything by Immortal, is really good but probably the least entry level of their stuff. It lives up to its insane song titles. At the Heart of Winter is the happy medium between their grimmer, white-out blizzard past and their more articulated and thrashy latter day albums; it's like a black metal Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, one dramatic moment after another, and bursting with riffs. Their most "authentically black metal" album however would probably be Pure Holocaust.
If you just want to rock out, go for their Sons of Northern Darkness, it's an album of anthems.
― Devilock, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 02:50 (ten years ago) link
Oh, imma squeeze in 1 more BM recommendation then & basically leave it there, coz my undisputed number 1 album of 2013 was an avant-garde BM album made by a microtonal neoclassical composer, and not only does it sound not-of-this-earth but it's got some fucking tunes: http://jutegyte.bandcamp.com/album/discontinuities
^^^have proselytised this all over ilm, but one more mention won't exactly blight the place
― in fact, do read if you hate me (imago), Tuesday, 28 January 2014 02:54 (ten years ago) link
I need to hear more of the 1st wave beyond the Big Four/Five. Bands like Sodom and Bulldozer are always being brought up as important precursors from that era... What I really want to find is more stuff like the Hellhammer demos - speed-metal (I guess?) played really raw and evil.
― jmm, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 03:31 (ten years ago) link
i've been listening to a ton of dissection in the past month. listen to dissection.
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Tuesday, 28 January 2014 04:00 (ten years ago) link
otm
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 04:08 (ten years ago) link
Craft, "Fuck the Universe" fits any occasion. When I'm in a lousy mood, I think of it as "Give the Middle Finger to the Universe." When I'm feeling hopeful, I envision "Copulate with the Universe." Either way, it's some filthy, riffy, misanthropic shiz.
― Skrot Montague, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 04:52 (ten years ago) link
I think it's neat how black metal has evolved to include such disparate things as the raw, pummeling stuff such as Inquisition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQwat8pB8Ko
To the brooding, delicate blackgaze of bands such as Gris:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWUr3JWi9ZM
To the symphonic majesty of the likes of Summoning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewc4-0Pdc_A
That's three totally disparate albums from just this past year but all are undeniably black metal. And all three placed in the top 40 of the ILM Metal Albums list, incidentally. It's a big reason why it's become my favorite metal genre over the past several years.
― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Tuesday, 28 January 2014 12:09 (ten years ago) link
i've been listening to a ton of dissection in the past month. listen to dissection.― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Monday, January 27, 2014 11:00 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalinkotm― call all destroyer, Monday, January 27, 2014 11:08 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Monday, January 27, 2014 11:00 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― call all destroyer, Monday, January 27, 2014 11:08 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Yes.
― how's life, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 13:13 (ten years ago) link
Emperor is my favorite metal band (mostly for the first two albums). I love Immortal, Deathspell Omega, Wolves In The Trone Room, Celtic Frost, Bathory, Mercyful Fate, Enslaved, Mayhem.
I adore Aghast, though it isnt metal, but it certainly is of the Black Norway scene. Havent heard the new Aghast Manor stuff.
Oddly Filosofem is my least favorite of the first six Burzum albums (Daudi Baldrs and Det Som Engang Var are my faves); and aside from a few songs, Darkthrone's Blaze In The Northern Sky and Transylvanian Hunger didnt do much for me.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 19:57 (ten years ago) link
I'm thinking of going to an upcoming Negura Bunget show, but I only have the Om album and I didnt fully get into it even though it sounds totally like my sort of thing. Kind of worried that it wont be a good idea to see them without being more familiar with their output and I've never been to a BM gig and I worry there might be that sort of crowd that scrutinizes people for not looking enough like one of them.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 20:04 (ten years ago) link
you do realise that the main guys left and formed Dordeduh?
― ۩, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 20:06 (ten years ago) link
the drummer (i think) kept Negura Bunget going (i still like the stuff he's done but its not a patch on Dordeduh)
― ۩, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 20:07 (ten years ago) link
I didnt know about that, thanks.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 20:46 (ten years ago) link
this is where all the cool trve cvlt hang *laces boots*
dom you hear any of this shit
I got another recommendation 4u - it's p emphatically undiluted BM in its songstructures and tonal choices but the *sound* is pure airlock warpstorm
the band is Darkspace; the album is Darkspace III
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp5bWy-a5Jo
the second track (3.12) is my favourite
― Battles, "Atlas" 29 Carly Rae Jepsen, "Call Me Maybe" 14 (imago), Monday, 3 February 2014 23:28 (ten years ago) link
I really want a compilation of all of the cheap, blown out, distorted synth intros and interludes from black metal albums of the early to mid 90s. Since I've been listening to this "Demonica" comp of early demos by Behemoth, that's sort of what's in my mind. Or Striborg.
Any suggestions for particularly synth intro/interlude heavy albums or demos?
― folk punks: stop bragg-ing (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Friday, 26 September 2014 12:53 (nine years ago) link
Synth intro here is heavy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt5pEzCrVg0
― Dominique, Friday, 26 September 2014 14:07 (nine years ago) link
See also Paysage d'Hiver, including the long, drawn out intro to his latest Das Tor. Not early 90s obv, but definitely coming out of the classic Burzum school. I feel like you probably know this stuff already?
― Dominique, Friday, 26 September 2014 14:24 (nine years ago) link
https://soundcloud.com/thrilljockey/the-soft-pink-truth-introutro-mix
― original bgm, Friday, 26 September 2014 14:31 (nine years ago) link
I feel like you probably know this stuff already?
I don't actually; been meaning to check out Darkspace (that track you posted is great) and I don't think I've heard Paysage d'Hiver... maybe at all? Maybe in a long time? But thanks for the suggestions!
Going to listen to that Soft Pink Truth mix when I get back, that's amazing! Thanks Alan!
― sink floyd (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Friday, 26 September 2014 23:27 (nine years ago) link
sure!
imo there is something really hilarious about how the heavy metal just never kicks in.
― original bgm, Saturday, 27 September 2014 05:20 (nine years ago) link
Paysage d'Hiver is outstanding.
― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Sunday, 28 September 2014 07:50 (nine years ago) link