I'm not convinced it's possible to ease a newcomer into black metal. Heck, a lot of lifelong metalheads don't mess with this stuff, what with the shrieking, challenging production, and extreme lyrical themes (surpassed only by brutal death metal and grindcore). But I'm going to try.
First, a little history. The first band to play black metal as we know it now (often called "second wave black metal" or simply "Norwegian black metal") was Mayhem, a group of Oslo teenagers that hammered our deliberately terrifying music influenced by thrash and death metal with low fidelity production and an extremist ideology. An entire school of Norwegian bands would follow them, including Darkthrone, Emperor, Gorgoroth, Immortal, Satyricon, and (most infamously) Burzum. A few murders and church arsons later, black metal was internationally notorious and angry teenagers everywhere were donning corpse paint starting their own black metal bands. Today, black metal is probably the largest and most diverse metal scene in the world, with prominent regional scenes in Norway, France, Greece, Poland, Quebec, the New York area, the Pacific Northwest, and elsewhere.
I'm not going to sugarcoat it: black metal has a hateful streak. Many black metal musicians despise organized religion (especially Christianity and Islam), and a few (like Burzum's Varg Vikernes and Peste Noire's Famine) are definitely racists. But neither are a majority. Lyrical themes in modern black metal range from depression to Norse mythology to queer issues to environmentalism, and the most extreme bands (like Russia's National Socialist scene) never move beyond the fringes. In fact, a genre that once prided itself on intolerance has become surprisingly diverse over the past decade or so, as you'll see from many of the acts below.
So, if all that hasn't scared you off and you're ready to brave the worst black metal has to offer, start with Myrkur. Both accessible and hip (and consequentially highly controversial in the hyper authenticity-conscious black metal community), Myrkur combines simple, traditional black metal with the folk music of Denmark. If you need evidence that black metal can be beautiful, look no further than Myrkur's marriage of choral arrangements to black metal riffs throughout her debut EP and M. There's a bit of screaming (get used to it), but it's essentially gorgeous, uplifting music. Myrkur is somewhat unique in the black metal world, so I won't go any further than recommending checking out the early works of Ulver, Myrkur's biggest influence, if you like her stuff.
Washington's Wolves in the Throne Room are the iconic environmentalist black metal band—they've spawned a whole scene of imitators and released some of the best metal music recorded in the past 10 years. Their most recent project, Celestite, is an instrumental ambient project—don't bother with it. Start from the beginning with Diadem of 12 Stars work your way forward. Much like Myrkur, Wolves in the Throne Room's brand of black metal is devastatingly beautiful; a journey of longing and wonder through the forests and mountains of the Pacific Northwest you won't regret taking, if you can just pardon all the shrieking. If you're as into songs about trees as these Cascadians, check out Enisum, Panopticon, Dead to a Dying World, Botanist, Agalloch, and Winterfylleth.
If you've heard of black metal before, it's probably because of Cradle of Filth. Although the biggest British metal band since Iron Maiden hasn't played true black metal for over a decade (2000's Midian marking a definitive shift towards "gothic extreme metal"), the band is still strongly influenced by black metal music and fashion, from blast beats to corpse paint. Filth have made a career out of being a crossover act, delivering the stylings of black and death metal in a friendly symphonic/gothic metal package, making them ideal for the new black metal listener. Start with their biggest hit, "Nymphetamine Fix," then try "Her Ghost in the Fog," "The Death of Love," and their cover of Heaven 17's "Temptation." In case I haven't made it clear: Cradle of Filth aren't black metal, but their music is full of black metal progressions, time signatures, and aesthetics. If Cradle of Filth's romantic and kitschy brand of evil charms your gothic heart, check out Dimmu Borgir, Chthonic, Graveworm, and Abigail William's early work.
Hunter Hunt-Hendrix of Liturgy is the Kanye West of the black metal world: widely reviled for his narcissism and pretentiousness, but also an undeniably fascinating musician. Whether Liturgy's most recent album is even black metal at all is highly debatable, but it's a serviceable door to the world of experimental black metal nonetheless. 100% scream-free and containing elements of everything from trap to noise rock, The Ark Work was easily the most controversial and strangely addicting black metal-ish album of 2015. Don't be afraid to dive straight into the record—it's really weird, but it doesn't bite. If Liturgy's brand of experimental black metal is your kind of transgressive, check out Krallice, Deathspell Omega, Hail Spirit Noir, Kayo Dot, and Oranssi Pazuzu. Oh, and don't tell anyone who's really into black metal that you like Liturgy. Ever.
What with Pitchfork basically pummeling the universe over the head with this band, you may have heard of Deafheaven. Infamous as "that black metal band with a pink album," Deafheaven play emotional and evocative post-black metal inspired by the melodies and soundscapes of shoegaze. Start with Sunbather, the band's breakout album, and then try its follow-up New Bermuda. The openers of both albums are fantastic, exuberant songs. If you enjoy Deafheaven's fusion of black metal, shoegaze, and post-rock, check out So Hideous, Ghost Bath, Bosse-de-Nage, Harakiri for the Sky, and Alcest.
If by some miracle you've been completely sold on black metal and want to dive horns-first into the classics, here's a list to get you started: Burzum's Filosofem, Darkthrone's Transilvanian Hunger and Panzerfaust, Mayhem's Deathcrush and De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Gorgoroth's Pentagram, Bathory's self-titled debut and Hammerheart, Emperor's In The Nightside Eclipse, Immortal's At The Heart of Winter, Ulver's Bergtatt, and Venom's Black Metal.
If you'd rather check out what's hip (and controversial) in black metal right now, here's a list of great releases from the past year or so: Leviathan's Scar Sighted, Obsequiae's Arial of Vernal Tombs, Yellow Eyes' Sick With Bloom, Krallice's Ygg Huur, False's Untitled, Mgła's Exercises in Futility*, Tribulation's Children of the Night, Panopticon's Autumn Eternal, Ghost Bath's Moonlover, Batushka's Litourgiya*, and Aluk Todolo's Voix.
*Mgła and Batushka's albums aren't on Spotify, but you can stream them on Bandcamp
First, a little history. The first band to play black metal as we know it now (often called "second wave black metal" or simply "Norwegian black metal") was Mayhem, a group of Oslo teenagers that hammered our deliberately terrifying music influenced by thrash and death metal with low fidelity production and an extremist ideology. An entire school of Norwegian bands would follow them, including Darkthrone, Emperor, Gorgoroth, Immortal, Satyricon, and (most infamously) Burzum. A few murders and church arsons later, black metal was internationally notorious and angry teenagers everywhere were donning corpse paint starting their own black metal bands. Today, black metal is probably the largest and most diverse metal scene in the world, with prominent regional scenes in Norway, France, Greece, Poland, Quebec, the New York area, the Pacific Northwest, and elsewhere.
I'm not going to sugarcoat it: black metal has a hateful streak. Many black metal musicians despise organized religion (especially Christianity and Islam), and a few (like Burzum's Varg Vikernes and Peste Noire's Famine) are definitely racists. But neither are a majority. Lyrical themes in modern black metal range from depression to Norse mythology to queer issues to environmentalism, and the most extreme bands (like Russia's National Socialist scene) never move beyond the fringes. In fact, a genre that once prided itself on intolerance has become surprisingly diverse over the past decade or so, as you'll see from many of the acts below.
So, if all that hasn't scared you off and you're ready to brave the worst black metal has to offer, start with Myrkur. Both accessible and hip (and consequentially highly controversial in the hyper authenticity-conscious black metal community), Myrkur combines simple, traditional black metal with the folk music of Denmark. If you need evidence that black metal can be beautiful, look no further than Myrkur's marriage of choral arrangements to black metal riffs throughout her debut EP and M. There's a bit of screaming (get used to it), but it's essentially gorgeous, uplifting music. Myrkur is somewhat unique in the black metal world, so I won't go any further than recommending checking out the early works of Ulver, Myrkur's biggest influence, if you like her stuff.
Washington's Wolves in the Throne Room are the iconic environmentalist black metal band—they've spawned a whole scene of imitators and released some of the best metal music recorded in the past 10 years. Their most recent project, Celestite, is an instrumental ambient project—don't bother with it. Start from the beginning with Diadem of 12 Stars work your way forward. Much like Myrkur, Wolves in the Throne Room's brand of black metal is devastatingly beautiful; a journey of longing and wonder through the forests and mountains of the Pacific Northwest you won't regret taking, if you can just pardon all the shrieking. If you're as into songs about trees as these Cascadians, check out Enisum, Panopticon, Dead to a Dying World, Botanist, Agalloch, and Winterfylleth.
If you've heard of black metal before, it's probably because of Cradle of Filth. Although the biggest British metal band since Iron Maiden hasn't played true black metal for over a decade (2000's Midian marking a definitive shift towards "gothic extreme metal"), the band is still strongly influenced by black metal music and fashion, from blast beats to corpse paint. Filth have made a career out of being a crossover act, delivering the stylings of black and death metal in a friendly symphonic/gothic metal package, making them ideal for the new black metal listener. Start with their biggest hit, "Nymphetamine Fix," then try "Her Ghost in the Fog," "The Death of Love," and their cover of Heaven 17's "Temptation." In case I haven't made it clear: Cradle of Filth aren't black metal, but their music is full of black metal progressions, time signatures, and aesthetics. If Cradle of Filth's romantic and kitschy brand of evil charms your gothic heart, check out Dimmu Borgir, Chthonic, Graveworm, and Abigail William's early work.
Hunter Hunt-Hendrix of Liturgy is the Kanye West of the black metal world: widely reviled for his narcissism and pretentiousness, but also an undeniably fascinating musician. Whether Liturgy's most recent album is even black metal at all is highly debatable, but it's a serviceable door to the world of experimental black metal nonetheless. 100% scream-free and containing elements of everything from trap to noise rock, The Ark Work was easily the most controversial and strangely addicting black metal-ish album of 2015. Don't be afraid to dive straight into the record—it's really weird, but it doesn't bite. If Liturgy's brand of experimental black metal is your kind of transgressive, check out Krallice, Deathspell Omega, Hail Spirit Noir, Kayo Dot, and Oranssi Pazuzu. Oh, and don't tell anyone who's really into black metal that you like Liturgy. Ever.
What with Pitchfork basically pummeling the universe over the head with this band, you may have heard of Deafheaven. Infamous as "that black metal band with a pink album," Deafheaven play emotional and evocative post-black metal inspired by the melodies and soundscapes of shoegaze. Start with Sunbather, the band's breakout album, and then try its follow-up New Bermuda. The openers of both albums are fantastic, exuberant songs. If you enjoy Deafheaven's fusion of black metal, shoegaze, and post-rock, check out So Hideous, Ghost Bath, Bosse-de-Nage, Harakiri for the Sky, and Alcest.
If by some miracle you've been completely sold on black metal and want to dive horns-first into the classics, here's a list to get you started: Burzum's Filosofem, Darkthrone's Transilvanian Hunger and Panzerfaust, Mayhem's Deathcrush and De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Gorgoroth's Pentagram, Bathory's self-titled debut and Hammerheart, Emperor's In The Nightside Eclipse, Immortal's At The Heart of Winter, Ulver's Bergtatt, and Venom's Black Metal.
If you'd rather check out what's hip (and controversial) in black metal right now, here's a list of great releases from the past year or so: Leviathan's Scar Sighted, Obsequiae's Arial of Vernal Tombs, Yellow Eyes' Sick With Bloom, Krallice's Ygg Huur, False's Untitled, Mgła's Exercises in Futility*, Tribulation's Children of the Night, Panopticon's Autumn Eternal, Ghost Bath's Moonlover, Batushka's Litourgiya*, and Aluk Todolo's Voix.
*Mgła and Batushka's albums aren't on Spotify, but you can stream them on Bandcamp
No comments:
Post a Comment