Black Metal!

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.

Thanks for all the rec's, you guys; much appreciated.

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...

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.

it wouldn't be the same. its perfect as it is

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.

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.

it wouldn't be the same. its perfect as it is

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.

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.

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

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.

heheh jjj totally in character

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. :-/

hah, didn't mean to link to that particular review but you get the idea

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.

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.

Ah, shit... Burzum's really good. I just discovered this today.

Abbath meets Trivium:

http://p.twimg.com/AviZ_YYCAAAFQpg.jpg

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, Hellhammer
2nd wave: Darkthrone, Mayhem, Burzum, Emperor, Gorgoroth, Satyricon
French: Belketre, Vlad Tepes, Mütiilation
newer 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.

i like filosofem because it is a shoegaze album.

Think Emperor are my favourite bm band

@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, 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).

Immortal "Battles in the North" y or n?

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

@sarah, don't think I've actually heard Immortal yet. I know they are supposed to be huge...you like?

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.

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

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.

i've been listening to a ton of dissection in the past month. listen to dissection.

otm

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.

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.

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 Permalink

otm

― call all destroyer, Monday, January 27, 2014 11:08 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes.

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.

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.

you do realise that the main guys left and formed Dordeduh?

the drummer (i think) kept Negura Bunget going (i still like the stuff he's done but its not a patch on Dordeduh)

I didnt know about that, thanks.

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

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?

Synth intro here is heavy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt5pEzCrVg0

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?

https://soundcloud.com/thrilljockey/the-soft-pink-truth-introutro-mix

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!

sure!

imo there is something really hilarious about how the heavy metal just never kicks in.

Paysage d'Hiver is outstanding.

xpost makes me think of the very evocative Stars Of The Lid song title, "The Evil That Never Arrived"

Summoning - Old Mornings Dawn caught my eye more than anything else on the best of 2013 metal thread. Just listening to it now (I've really neglected metal this year) and I'm really loving it.

This thread was revived on the same day of some interesting news. All is not well in Blashyrkh, it seems.

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/immortal-members-involved-in-legal-battle-over-rights-to-band-name/

I hope this legal stuff doesn't hurt the band too much.

Didn't realise Old Mornings Dawn was a Tolkien thing until I was reading about it last night. It's got so much of the beauty and sense of ancient history that the recent movies don't have.

Summoning are entirely Tolkien-themed, aren't they? A lot of their albums are named in tribute to evil fortresses.

I need to listen to more Summoning.