It's time for my top-10 list of black metal albums. I just have to confess a few things: it wasn't a long time ago since I really got into black metal. It was like in the summer of 2013 that I really started listening to the genre. I have listened to a few bands, mostly (the true) Mayhem since 2007 and Bathory since 2006. I am also fully aware of the metal elitism in black metal, with people seriously being trve and all that. I'm pretty sure I am not. I am open-minded. I also listen to more modern black metal rather than old, which I suppose is "gay" and all that as well. What I do dig the most with black metal is it's primitive music and lyrical content. As a Luciferian, critic and opposer to religion, I find much relevance in black metal's common lyrical content. Anyway, here is my list:
#10: Ondskapt - Arisen From The Ashes (2010)
Ondskapt is a Swedish black metal band that I guess have some ties with Watain. They record their stuff in the same studio (Necromorbus) and the sound is therefore pretty similar, both musically and sonically. I don't really have much to say about this album to sum it up rightfully, but I have listened to it a lot because I really dig the Necromorbus sound. With that said, this is not to be taken as a Watain clone, they're not. They are a similar band, and a very good band at that.
#9: Immortal - All Shall Fall (2009)
The only Norwegian black metal band that made my list. I don't dislike their black, they're were responsible for pretty much all the classic black metal in the 90's, but I just find myself more rooted in the Swedish, more melodic stuff. But if there is one, apart from Darkthrone, that should've had battled for this list, it's Immortal. What I really like about them is this album. How they after so many years and albums just put out this one, and it's so damn good. I think they're the Norwegian black metal equivalent to the Swedish death metallers Unleased - they just get better as they age. Most of the Norwegian band also lost much of their original black metal sound - Darkthrone is essentially a viking metal band today, Mayhem is too experimental, and Satyricon blows today. Immortal still sounds black metal in my ears, and some damn good black metal at that.
#8: Chaos Invocation - Black Mirror Hours (2013)
This band is quite unknown I think. They're a German band that play a great style of black metal with lots of almost gothic guitar harmonies and stuff. While maybe not anything groundbreaking, this album really is a very solid listen. There's a certain evil within this record, especially in the vocals, that really makes for a hateful atmosphere when you need it. I would probably describe this album as: what the album cover shows you, stylistically, is what you will hear. It's great!
#7: Valkyrja - Contamination (2010)
Another Swedish band that records in the infamous Necromorbus studios like so many modern death metal bands. Valkyrja to me seems to be a band that is getting ignored by many people for sounding too much like fellow Swedish black metal masters Watain. I can hear why that is, and at times it's possibly even a little too obvious, but at the same time they're more progressive to my ears. While Watain sounds very much like a 80's black metal band, Valkyrja strike me as more laid to complex rhythms and time-signatures, that kind of stuff. They have lots of cool drumming and riffing going on, and the production is fucking sweet.
#6: Inferno - Omniabsence Filled By His Greatness (2013)
I don't know much about this band or their music, really. This album is not quite the regular black metal album. This one is...experimental, I guess you could say, in some ways. It's got lengthy tunes with lots of black metal-progressive parts and fills. Don't let this scare you away, though. This album has got a very nice melancholic, depressing and evil sound-scape going on throughout. It's not the kind of album that I would put on whenever, but really when I'm in the mood for some really atmospheric stuff. I really like this album a lot.
#5: Raise Hell - Holy Target (1998)
A late 90's band from Sweden that went by pretty unnoticed, I believe? I could imagine why as well. After this album they changed their sound to more of a straight, simple and quite boring thrash sound (Swedes can't do good thrash. Death metal is our excellency!). This album, however, is very much a black metal album very much in the same vein as fellow, by then split-up, Swedes Dissection. Now this can come off as a second-rate "rip-off" of Dissection, and maybe it is, but it still some fucking neat second-rate shit in any case. What I particularly like about this album is its sweet riffs and melancholic melodies. I guess that this album, if you haven't heard it, would sure please fans of Dissection, Unanimated and Watain.
#4: Samael - Ceremony Of Opposites (1994)
This album is the first on any of my lists made so far that really isn't my favorite album by the band, since Samael so drastically changed their musical style after this album, I cannot really choose my favorite album of theirs. That'll have to wait for the industrial metal top-10 list. But still album, Samael's last pure full-length black metal album, is a classic of the genre. I'm not a too big fan of Samael's early doom-y, Celtic Frost influenced black metal albums, but it was with this one that they really got their own thing going. A dark, sinister metal album with quite a unique metal sound, as Samael always have been - a unique band, and Vorph's evil vocals just makes the band perfect. I imagine this album would probably please most of the black metal fans out there. It's a great album!
#3: Bathory - Under The Sign Of The Black Mark (1986)
Most likely, without a question, the most trve black metal album on this list. I see most fans of the mighty Bathory either favoring the debut, "Blood, Fire, Death", or the viking metal-era. I for one really favor this album. It's very raw, primitive, dark, brutal and with an amazing set of tunes. It's simply a classic metal album. What's also to keep in mind about this album is when it was released, which was in 1986. That was the year when thrash classics like Slayer's "Reign In Blood" and Kreator's "Pleasure To Kill" came out, and everyone thought it was the most bad-ass, brutal albums ever. They apparently didn't hear this one that year, or had heard any of the older Bathory material for that matter. For the time being released, this album is very much a truly extreme metal album. It would only take a fool to deny that.
#2: Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane (1995)
Sweden's Dissection is one of the most appreciated black metal bands of all time. Maybe that is because they're just as accepted with the (melodic, particularly) death metal fans as well. After releasing their excellent debut "The Somberlain", which honestly could've been their best as well, Dissection released this legendary album. Sounding heavily influenced by my all-time favorite death metal band Dismember, this stuff is bound to catch my attention. The have majestic melodies, sinister riffs, and blasting drums of hell that just perfectly creates this evil, Satanic, melancholic, cold atmosphere that I just love about black metal. Trve perfection.
#1: Watain - Lawless Darkness (2010)
And the King on the hill, the Lords of the lawless darkness - Watain. Not the first black metal band that I discovered, but the one that really got me into it. What I really dig about this album, and the band as a whole, is their creativity and quality music. I truly find very record of theirs to be a masterpiece, and everyone is also different from each other. I also like how they do not only sound raw, brutal and primitive, but with a great sence of melancholic, 80's heavy metal inspired melody. They sound like a mix of first-gen black metal like Mercyful Fate, Celtic Frost and particularly Bathory, combined with with the classic 90's stuff like Dissection and Darkthrone. Watain is more than just simple black metal - it's a whole universe of dark entities, black magic, evil and death.
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