Black Metal!

I love Emperor's latest album. i think people loved Nightside's instant accessibility. I much prefer ANTHEMS TO THE WELKIN AT DUSK.

But I love Ulver most of all.

Of course, I talk a high line, but when it's a great black metal group like Horna, I start rationalizing right and left about how they're more misanthropic than just anti-Semitic, blah blah blah. But I do think it's an important question -- certainly bigger than "are they bad for Norway" because it's an ethical question, not a practical one.

Who to hear: Emperor's great, don't listen to the purists who think everything after Nightside is dull (it isn't); Immortal's pretty pure, their new one's real good; I hear a band called Clandestine Blaze is totally great but I suspect they're nazis so I haven't bought it. I don't know how much longer I can stand it though. These guys are supposed to be really great. The new wave of post-black-metal bands (Zyklon, Blood Red Throne, Cadaver Inc., Suspiria) are pretty good -- the Cadaver Inc. record is really savage and the website got them denounced by the Norweigan parliament. Finally there's a song by In Aeternum called "When the Vultures Left" that is surely one of black metal's finest moments.

I am interested by Norwegian Black Metal without ever hearing any of it. I think the fact that a lot of the practitioners were/are seriously unpleasnt people - racists, homophobic, thuggishly violent - only adds to their mystique. Well, not the racism and homophobia, but the fact that they killed themselves, or each other, or complete strangers and burned down churches gives them an element of "We mean it, maaaan" that Marilyn Manson lacks. There is a sense that they are not just trend poseurs, but people actually living the dream. Unfortunately it's a rather rubbish dream.

emperor - 'in the nightside eclipse', 'anthems to the welkin at dusk'
ulver - 'nattens madrigal'
borknagar - 'the olden domain'
satyricon - 'nemesis divina'
acturus - 'aspera hiem symfonia'
dissection - 'storm of the light's bane' (crossover)
abigor - 'channeling the quintessence of satan'

even check out the first cradle of filth record - 'the principles of evil made fesh'

the recent sigh album is quite nice. i always liked arcturus's "sham mirrors" although it's been so long since i delved back into black metal. Anyone here enjoy some Vondur?

The last track on Immortal's "sons of northern darkness" album is just unbelievably great, one of the best pieces of rock music I have ever heard.

Thus ends my limited knowledge of black metal.

yes! but i feel like i've talked about ulver on 50 different ilm threads and i can't do it again. i love them in all their forms.

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0319,seward,43848,22.html

( a little old, but what the hell. all their soundtrack stuff is really cool)

Only BM i like is Weakling, Wolves In The Throne Room, Lurker Of Chalice and Dead Raven Choir.

yeeaahhh, it's alright. blood inside was more a prog album on an electronic base. the silencing the singing (think that's the title) collection is pretty cool - reminds me of the last couple of labradford albums and some of the better ambient stuff on mille plateaux. but none of it beats their black metal stuff IMO.

Only BM i like is Weakling, Wolves In The Throne Room, Lurker Of Chalice and Dead Raven Choir.

the "non-black metal black metal" stuff? yeah, they're all pretty good. you should start moving laterally, dude, check out some later burzum, hate forest/drudkh, manes, maybe satyricon's rebel extravaganza.

haha, on the MONEY. necrofrost bloodfrost = the rats "the rats revenge part 1 and 2".

unfortunately the political views of drudkh and Burzum means I just could never listen to their music. Don't know the other bands. I think the reason i can stomach those other bands is that the vocals arent the usual grunting stuff. It's almost Alex Newport like. To my ears anyway. The music is often fine not as technical as DM (which is probably why i dont even like DM music nevermind vocals)

Any BM bands that don't have neo nazi/Right wing etc political views and that the vocals are similar to the bands I mentioned that I like I may just check out though! So recommend away.

why?

I completely fail to grasp that. It's not like it's evident in their work much if at all, even Burzum. I mean, don't support beating your wife and treating women like shit, but I ain't selling my James Brown records anytime soon. Or GG Allin. Or is there something patently offensive about Ukrainian history or Norwegian forests?

AND.. the string quartet version thingy of Nattens Madrigal is still ON!

Who here likes Ildjarn? I like Ildjarn. Thanks.

I just heard some Ildjarn at a party the other night. It was good.

The best black/death record I never hear anyone talk about is the first Necrophobic album The Nocturnal Silence. So classic and unheard in the US for some reason.

either old age or wisdom (depending on how you feel about the original position) got to me and now I buy whatever I want to listen to whether its politics are odious or not. guess it's time to catch up on grand belial's key.

I don't really know which bands have right-wing politics and which don't TBH, apart from obviously Burzum. I know Varg was working with Darkthrone on some of their stuff, which I guess means they're probably dodgy and I've bought albums by them. It doesn't really affect whether I like the music but I would think twice about paying money directly to bands if I knew they were nazis/racists/etc. I usually buy black metal stuff second hand anyway which kind of circumvents that issue!

Some ILMers were into Bone Awl last year - the Ildjarn I was listening to yesterday is in that kind of vein - comp of early 90s EPs/demos etc called Det Frysende Nordariket, really good sloppy lo-fi stuff.

I just started listening to Black Metal and I'm a little concerned about which bands are nazis/far-right/whatever. Can someone elaborate a little about this or link me to articles that discuss this issue. As a non-white person it makes me quite uncomfortable if a band who's music I'm loving are fuckig nazis. What about bands like Darkthrone, Gorgoroth and Mayhem?

The Wikipedia entry on National Socialist Black Metal is a good start. Otherwise I'd imagine you'd have to look up the histories of individual bands to see where their ideology lies. But it seems to me (not knowing too much about the scene/genre beyond the surface) that black metal ideology is more about nihilism and/or anti-humanity; there's really no room for racism or white supremacy when you want all humans eradicated equally.

Darkthone is pretty safe iirc fwiw

Well there is all that controversy about Darkthrone using the word 'Aryan' on the back of one of their earliest albums -- but Nachtmystium putting out a record on a white power label (no matter how much they deny Nazi affiliations/sympathies today) seems much more suspect to me.

Varg has a load of lyrical credits on Transilvanian Hunger (plus that whole Aryan Black Metal thing) which makes Darkthrone a bit dodgy.

Trouble is they totally rule.

And I mean suspect insofar as that being on a white power label is somehow excusable if your band is 'apolitical' or whatever -- it's a philosophical issue, yes, but it's also one of intellectual dishonesty.

if you're that worried about dodgy politics it's probably best to avoid black metal altogether

all the classic stuff's better but i suppose there's the whole depressive american misanthropic bm scene - leviathan, xasthur et al., who if racist really don't make a point about (far as i know). there's also velvet cacoon who i'm pretty sure don't have anything to do w/ racist ideology, tho their albums are a little boring sometimes.

what about the french scene? blut aus nord? spektr are pretty amazing. deathspell omega?

ha, or the aussie scene? striborg just hates everybody

I guess "I'm reminded of how good it is" is like a dumb way to say "I'm reminded of how incredible it seemed back in the day and still does now" but it's late and I'm tired.

I think the demo versions of the songs from that album might be even better, seething and lo-fi, a fog of hiss and cheap keyboards debased into four-track madness. And there's still that kind of floaty, Thorns-esque sense of creepy melody.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EykBbqLmvw

Through an unending burning fog of funeral tape hiss comes pure necro soundz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O-7kyIGJ1M

Think I prefer the "finished" version of that Manes track.

I think that album has some of the best production of its era for, tbh, I just like the demos because I'm a tape hiss freak I guess.

Here's one for the mi-go metal freaks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP0jj2G-u6o

☑️ Inquisition-style vocals delivered at seemingly random intervals
☑️ Opaque song structures
☑️ Garden sprinkler drum machines

:D

Love the way the first track just STOPS

Not joking

Haha I know. I was driving around listening to it for the first time and that happened and I waited about ten seconds before checking my player to make sure it hadn't run out of power.

Okay this is really good

http://stillaswe.bandcamp.com/album/ensamhetens-andar

It's got this weird blend of black metal and some Ved Buens Ende/Virus/Voivod proggy discordance that I *fucking love*. Their newer album is good, too, but the weirdness is much more subtle.

That primitive, slightly shambolic occulty Demoncy style stuff is what I'm feeling right now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu9TPjbT5i0

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.

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, January 28, 2014 8:04 PM

Really enjoyed Virstele Pamintului, wonderful approach to black metal. Drumming track is amazing. Might return to Om again soon and see if it clicks this time.

I quite like the final two as well, Tău and ZI, which descend further still into folk. But Dardeduh's Dor de duh is their best album post-split. They premiered a new song in August, so I really hope there's another one in the works.

so i've been involuntarily going through a classic bm phase and i'm not really what you'd call a passionate fan of classic bm, it's just all i've wanted to listen to the past few weeks??? idgi. anyway it's given me opportunity to listen to a lot of records i haven't revisited in at least ten years so:

de mysteriis: this record kicks ass and seems to justify the whole thing on its own, nothing sounds like it, if most black metal sounds like it's taking place against a frozen cliff this is emanating from the inside of a mausoleum, the riffs and drums all rule
emperor/hordanes land: this is also an amazing document containing like all the potential in the world, when you put on the enslaved side you're basically in a forest
in the nightside eclipse: sounds just as great and beguiling and cold as it did my freshman year of college
hvis lyset tar oss and filofsem: not sure why i revisited these other they were still on my computer and i was a little curious. i'm trying not to let "fuck this nazi dork" infect my opinion of the classic burzum records bc it feels like an extratextual dismissal, but honestly, fuck this nazi dork, this stuff is so flimsy and it's a shame these are the top two black metal records on rym (not that it could be any other way)
diabolical fullmoon mysticism / pure holocaust / battles of the north: i had never actually spent time with battles of the north before and wow that thing literally sounds like snow whipping at your shitty rotten overcoat, i love it even if pure holocaust has better tunes. diabolical fullmoon underrated and so charming, i really love the early records that haven't seemed to totally given themselves over to black metal yet so there are still traces of thrash and death hanging out being gnarly in the mix

what exactly makes you not a fan of classic bm? too samey/monochromatic?

i've had a thing against black metal as a whole for years bc the seeming narrowness of its style drives me away from it, sometimes no matter how far out it gets it returns to that cycle of four-or-so tremolo'd-out chords wavering out of a cold blackness and it got very boring for me. i think maybe i'm unconsciously trying to challenge that assumption rn?

but also i say that and in the nightside eclipse was the first real metal record i ever got into, it's complicated

I thought you told me you had given up listening to metal

The BM band who cancelled a festival because Neckbeard Deathcamp was also playing and clearly then this festival wouldn't be a celebration of SATAN is hilarious and amazing.

Lol who was that?

there is something so charming and singular about the first three immortal records, what a cool band they were and are

xp http://www.metalsucks.net/2019/02/21/super-duper-serious-black-metal-band-teratism-refuses-to-play-with-joke-band-neckbeard-deathcamp/

Their full statement in one go:
https://www.facebook.com/Teratism/posts/black-metal-as-we-understand-it-create-it-and-perform-it-is-the-purest-and-most-/2026081190844903/

Which is more interesting -- the ironic band, of the one who goes all in and takes the whole thing totally seriously?
(i'm actually not sure, but respect all around)

that is a true work of art, this is my favourite bit

To make matters even more absurd, I have since heard that this band are in fact Antifa trolls. I can’t speak to that rumor because I don’t know. What I do know is, whether they have a partisan agenda underlying their trolling or not, I was just not interested in flying halfway across the country, donning full ritual garb, lighting candles and incense and then attempting to convince an audience of strangers of the palpable presence of a terrifying spirit of cosmic evil indwelling the world, after waiting for the the fake-black-metal scene’s equivalent of Weird Al Yankovic to clear their rubber chickens off the stage.

"full ritual garb" by which you mean some panstick and a monk's cowl you bought from the costume shop, right?

everything to do with neckbeard deathcamp and nothing, surely, to do with the fact that not even fucking rym gives a shit about teratism

Amazing.

continued:

darkthrone and ulver trilogies: never stopped listening to either of these bc darkthrone and ulver are two of the best bands ever. they're 1000 percent classic, the best of each being (imo) bertgatt and transilvanian hunger, under a funeral moon and nattens madrigal not far behind
dead as dreams: this album feels so vastly different from any '90s bm or any of the usbm that followed. it's like bolt thrower made a black metal record. i still love it every bit as much as i did ten years ago

I am unsurprisingly on Team Teratism here

Funny thing about Bergtatt, when it came out the first review I read in some zine gave it a 6/10, writing that the vocals were ok but the first track was a snooze inducing Burzum rip, the rest was unimaginatively cloned Darkthrone and Burzum riffs, and there was an inexplicable interlude that sounded like a guy eating a bowl of cereal.

lol

And the thing is, I can kind of see where he’s coming from. Even though this record is a clear 9/10 for me, Ulver were arguably derivative of Burzum and Darkthrone in terms of riffs/melodies, and that interlude does sound like someone eating dry corn flakes.

"Weird Al of black metal" is hugely overgenerous tbph

https://novekolo.com/ - I'm not even a hardcore black metal fan but wow

in English too https://novekolo.com/en/

just discovered Judas Iscariot. wow

― Dave Plaintive rapper with classical training (imago), Monday, December 12, 2016 6:15 PM bookmarkflaglink

Right? Thought he was down with Jesus then BOOM! right up there with the end of s1 of Game of Thrones imo

― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, December 12, 2016 6:17 PM bookmarkflaglink

https://www.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1200

Black metal is a paradox. A noisy underground metal genre brimming with violence and virulence, it has captured the world’s imagination for its harsh yet flamboyant style and infamous history involving arson, blasphemy, and murder. Today black metal is nothing less than a cultural battleground between those who claim it for nationalist and racist ends, and those who say: Nazi black metal fvck off!

Black Metal Rainbows is a radical collection of writers, artists, activists, and visionaries, including Drew Daniel, Kim Kelly, Laina Dawes, Espi Kvlt, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, Svein Egil Hatlevik, Eugene S. Robinson, Margaret Killjoy, and many more. Across essays and theory-fictions, artworks and comics, we say out loud: Long live black metal’s trve rainbow!

This unique volume envisions black metal as always already open, inclusive, and unlimited: a musical genre whose vital spirit of total antagonism rebels against the forces of political conservatism. Beyond its clichés of grimness, nihilism, reaction, and signature black/white corpse-paint sneer, black metal today is a vibrant and revolutionary paradigm. This book reveals its ludic, carnival worlds animated by spirits of joy and celebration, community and care, queerness and camp, LGBTQI+ identities and antifascist, antiracist, and left-wing politics, not to mention endless aesthetic experimentation and fabulousness. From the crypt to the cloud, Black Metal Rainbows unearths black metal’s sparkling core and illuminates its prismatic spectrum: deep within the black, far beyond grimness, and over a darkly glittering rainbow!

Praise

“This is a manifesto as much as a book: A grand declaration of war against those who would confine black metal to crude invocations of masculine, heteronormative nativism. Black Metal Rainbows is an untamed collection of art, memoir, essays, and interviews that explode black metal into an infinity of kaleidoscopic pieces. It celebrates the truly unruly, the revolutionary and the playful, and it refuses to turn its subversive gaze away from black metal itself. A not–so–subtle reproach to those who condemn ‘wokeness’ as a pacification of black metal’s vitality, Black Metal Rainbows demonstrates an awakening to black metal’s true destiny.”
—Keith Kahn–Harris, author of Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge

“Black metal is a fascinating genre—in part because of its complicated (and bloody) history but also because of the rigorous theory and deep thoughts buzzing around it. If you were to put together a perfect black metal book, one that captures that essential complexity while also providing historical and personal insights, it would be Black Metal Rainbows, a sprawling collection of essays, interviews, band and label profiles, and all kinds of art for both the true kvlt and the curious. It sets the new standard for how we should think about this music.
—Brandon Stosuy, The Creative Independent

“Finally black metal is delivered from the tedious edgelords who have long diluted the decidedly queer heart of the desire for darkness, death, and despair as an effulgent world of creative infinity. This volume offers myriad trajectories, via art, philosophy, action, and music that black metal has created, perhaps because of, perhaps in spite of, its embrace of all things tenebrous. This delicious book is a beacon of black light that shows the wonders which occur when the atrophied figure of the dominant human undergoes putrefaction and emerges from the crypt in glittering cerecloth. An absolute joy to read.”
—Patricia MacCormack, author of The Ahuman Manifesto

“This wide–ranging compendium pushes past the conventional and conservative to explore black metal as a site of contest and transformative possibility—an act which is itself actually transgressive.”
—Jes Skolnik, senior editor, Bandcamp Daily

“Despite being there in the moment during the ascent of the Venoms, the Bathorys, and the Hellhammers, I’ve tended to fidget warily from afar since black metal partly curdled into a mess of homogenized inhumanity. So, I welcome this collective liberating howl beyond the stereotypes of icy forests and puerile hatred. Bravo!”
—Barney Greenway, Napalm Death

About the Contributors

Daniel Lukes has written for metal and rock magazines Terrorizer, Kerrang!, Decibel, and Helvete: A Journal of Black Metal Theory. He has a PhD in comparative literature from New York University, and is the coauthor of Triptych: Three Studies of Manic Street Preachers’ The Holy Bible (Repeater Books). He lives in Montreal, where he likes to disappear into the winter.

Stanimir Panayotov holds a PhD in comparative gender studies from Central European University, Budapest. He works at the intersections of continental and feminist philosophy, non-philosophy, and late antique philosophy and has published in the Minnesota Review, Aspasia, Heathen Harvest, and Metal Music Studies. He is the editorial manager of Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture.

Jaci Raia is an all-black-wearing art director currently living and working in New York City. She works in advertising, and uses her free time to take on a variety of both freelance and personal projects to fulfill herself creatively. After design and typography, metal music is her second love, and she spends a lot of time seeing shows in town and collecting records, tapes, and band shirts, much to the detriment of her wallet.

ha, Barney's quote rules

Ahh man do i have to be on the same side as Hunter Hunt-Hendrix

“Black metal is a fascinating genre—in part because of its complicated (and bloody) history but also because of the rigorous theory and deep thoughts buzzing around it.

I'm sorry but lmao at this

I don't know anything about Hunt-Hendrix. Her wiki page seemed a bit steeped in philosophy (over sound?)

I happened upon this because I saw Espi Kvlt in a horror anthology table of contents and I hadn't seen anything about her in several years, she's done all this writing and music! I knew she wanted to be a writer though.

Ahh man do i have to be on the same side as Hunter Hunt-Hendrix

― Shaidar Logoff (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Monday, 29 March 2021 08:27 (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes

just so long as i don't have to listen to his music

Identifies as a woman now.

Legitimately did not know that, sorry.

Thread needs this
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba7Xh2zHQUt/

Listening to Defuntos, a 2-piece bass&vocals/drums band from Portugal and you know what, I'm not mad at it. Don't think I've ever heard a bm band sing in Portuguese before and it works pretty well.