smokedragon

Cradle Of Filth, Dark Funeral, Immortal, these are the only Black Metal bands I know.

Actually haven't listened to them, but I puruse Metal Rules. com for the reviews and they review these bands, as well as others.

They, and other sites, have given Immortal's SONS OF NORTHERN DARKNESS perfect ratings, meaning 10 out of 10.

Has anyone heard this band, and what do you think of them?


And if you listen to Black Metal, who are your favourite bands?


Oh, and have any of you read Lords Of Chaos: Bloody Rise of Satanic Metal? Sounds like a fascinating book.

Aghama

Nope, Death Metal is as "deep" as I go.

Jason

I'm still stuck on the NWOBHM

I dislike black metal/death metal. Gutteral singing coupled with images of torture and mayhem do nothing for me. Sadly, though, there are some potentially great metal musicians wasting their time with this nonsense.

edclem

While I don't believe in the message, I like black metal music quite a bit. Some bands you definitely should check out are: Dimmu Borgir and Emperor. They're both along the Cradle of Filth line, but are Scandanavian, and so a little darker.

Another band well worth checking out is Opeth. They sort of blur the lines between death/black/ and goth metal, but are great musicians.

Jnuke

I have it. Definitely worth a read if you're interested.

I mostly buy electronic music these days, so I don't have a lot of black metal, but I like some of it. I prefer the bands with strong keyboards behind the guitars, like Dimmu Borgir and Old Man's Child. I have one Immortal album, At the Heart of Winter, and that's pretty strong, but I haven't heard the one you mentioned. There's some great, economical compilations out there, like Firestarter and Gods Of Darkness, which I recommend if you want to sample some of the more prominent bands.

(I bought a Cradle of Filth CD once, but really hated the vocalist and returned it.)

Josh-da-man

Yes -- I've been listening to metal for more years than I care to admit.

Traditionally, there's been a fine between the different sub-genres of metal, specifically the speed-death-thrash-black genres.

What is considered "black metal" today is pretty much limited to the northern European scene, but the term has been around since the 80s and was often applied to bands like Slayer and Venom.

If you're interested in some of the old-school stuff, I'd suggest you check out Mercyful Fate, Slayer (any of their albums from the 80s), Venom, and (especially) Possessed. Possessed put out two albums, The Seven Churches, and Beyond the Gates.

In the early 90s, the genre got a resurgence with bands like Morbid Angel and Deicide.

Jnuke

And don't forget Viking Metal! One of my favorite metal purchases of recent years is Bathory's classic HAMMERHEART. The song "Shores in Flames" gets me on my feet every time I hear it.

I agree with you about Mercyful Fate, too. The cool thing about that Lords of Chaos book was tracing the line from old favorites like Fate to some of the newer stuff I'm not as familiar with.

Trout

There is nothing better than Black-metal. Immortal is a pretty good band (try Battles in the north or Pure Holocaust for some ultra fast stuff). Marduk is good (a little repetitive but still worth listening to), Emperor is a must (start with In the nightside eclipse), Burzum is pretty good (if you can seperate the politics form the music. Go for the early albums). Some other worthy bands would be Gorgoroth, Nokturnal Mortem, Lord Belial, Mayhem, and Enslaved (probably the best viking metal band around). If you want some good comp. CD's try: Blackend 1-5, Feursturm 1-2, Firestarter (it comes with a match ), or Nordic metal.

...and get the lords of chaos book. Very interesting and quite disturbing (especially the 2nd half of the book).

Jason

This book sounds interesting. Just may have to get it. I do like Mercyful Fate, ever since my grandmother bought me the Melissa cassette for Christmas one year long long ago.

No, I really don't think she had any idea what it was about.

smokedragon

Trout


These Black Metal bands you listen to..., do they all sing the same way? I mean in that deep gutteral trying to sound demonic voice?

Will I need a lyric sheet to try to deciper what they are singing?

Opeth's Black Metal? Surprised at that. I thought they were Death Metal.


Lords Of Chaos definitely sounds interesting. Are they really into Satanism? Or, is it just shock tactics?

Am I wrong when I say that when Mayhems lead singer blew his brains out the band used the photo of the head wound as a cover for their CD? Or was that another band?


It's extreme stuff and I wonder if it's all just for show. Just to see how far they can take it?

Speaking of extreme, has anyone seen the cover for Impaled's album Choice Cuts? Extreme to say the least!

edclem

Like i said, they kinda blur classification lines. His vocal style is closer to black metal than death, but the lyrics don't really fit the death metal mode. The fact that they break into acoustic guitar parts in most of their songs is why I also threw in the more Goth aspect.

I suppose they're probably closer to death metal than anything else (especially since they don't use keyboards)...Regardless, they're an excellent band. Morningrise is a great album to get introduced to them, in case you're looking.

Trout

The vocals are varied between bands, Gorgoroth tends to be very deep, while Burzum is more of a high pitched wail. Pretty much all bands require lyrics (but some it won't matter- they sing in their native language).

Some of these bands are more Pagan/Fascist (Graveland or Burzum) but a lot are satanic (Marduk and Gorgorth would be good satanic examples).

The Mayhem cover with "Dead" nad his shotgunned head appeared on a bootleg album cover (they show it in the Lords on chaos book-in B&W).

As far as being extreme, most of the more popular bands have become more towards the music than the message (with the exception of Dissecion- the lead singer was imprisoned 3-4 years ago for muder), but a lot of the smaller more underground bands are still burning and killing like in the "old" days of the BM movement.

Johnny Zhivago

And an EP produced by Joe Satriani... The Eyes Of Horror. Sadly, I believe it is long OOP though...

Nosebleed

My favorite black metal band is Living Color.