My Top-10 Black Metal Albums Of All Time

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.

Studio Report: Into The Pentagram

Yesterday we entered the studio again! We will be working on a few new songs for the time being, and we're also thinking about reworking some old Deva material into more ITP-sounding death/black metal material. We'll see what happens regarding that. It's fun to be working hard once again. It was many years ago since Deva had this kind of spirit and working morality. We were a bunch of lazy fucking bums for the last 4-5 years, no wonder it didn't work out...

 

Daniel is checking out the equipment we're going to use - keyboards and pads.

We're thinking about doing at least like four tunes this time around. We are also planning on either releasing a new demo, like a part II of our concept story, or a single, probably pressed in vinyl, or actually making it all into our first official album, but we ain't sure yet. We do not wanna stress too much with putting out our first full-length and such yet. It feels better and more fun to demo around for a while before the "big" things come out. Demos are also more interesting anyways, so...

 

I'm warming up with some growling and black metal screaming, ready to rock 'n' roll!

I feel great about the things to come. It's real good to be back in the game for real again. Stay tuned!

Debut gig: Into The Pentagram

Last saturday, May 31, we did our very first gig as Into The Pentagram, and that was a lot of fun! We have been rehearsing intensely for the past few weeks in preparation for this gig and other upcoming. The band is still officially only Daniel and I, but we got some helping out from our buddies Oscar (bass) and Kristoffer (vocals) so we were able to perform. Daniel did the guitars of course, and I handled all the drumming as well as some vocals. Thanx to all friends and randoms that came out and banged their heads with us!

Oscar (bass), Kristoffer (vocals), Daniel (guitar), and I (drums, vocals)

We played ITP material as well as a few Deva "classics" and two covers. The set-list was:

1. Lucifer Rises

2. The Ritual

3. Mental Destruction [Devastation (Swe) cover]

4. Malfeitor [Watain cover]

5. Necromancing In Transylvania [new song]

6. Death Row [Devastation (Swe) cover]

7. The Oath [Mercyful Fate cover]

8. Black Riders In The Realm Of Death [new song]

9. Into The Pentagram

Dismember - A Swedish Death Metal Story

Dismember were a Swedish death metal band, quite a legendary in the genre as well. When death metal fans speak of Swedish death metal, which usually is considered split-up on two different scenes - the Gothenburg scene / sound, and the Stockholm scene. Dismember were from Stockholm and formed in 1988. Unfortunately, they called it quits in late 2011, before I ever had the chance to see them live. Or chance or chance, as I am Swedish, I guess there were at least a couple of occasions where I could've attended, but I probably didn't have the cash, ride or whatever just then. It fucking sucks, big time.

Dismember around 1991-1993, the "classic" line-up, from left to right ...

Matti Kärki - Vocals
Richard Cabeza - Bass
Fred Estby - Drums
David Blomqvist - Lead guitar
Robert Sennebäck - Rhythm guitar

Beginning as teenagers in the rising death metal underground scene during the late 80's, Dismember were along with Nihilist and the grindcore act Carnage, some bands to form the Swedish sound of death metal, particularly the Stockholm sound with its trademark buzzsaw guitar sound and heavy approach, rather than the ultra-melodic Gothenburg scene. After a couple of well-known demo tapes each in the tape-trading universe, both Dismember and Nihilist split-up in 1989. Nihilist's split was done because they had fired their bass player, Johnny Hedlund, who would form another important band in Unleashed. David Blomqvist was briefly a member in Entombed, being credited as the bass player on the band's last demo before their debut, though he didn't really play on it. Later on he, along with Fred Estby, would join Carnage with future Carcass and Arch Enemy guitarist and leader Michael Amott. They did one album which was released in 1990 called "Dark Recollections". While the album didn't achieve too much attention, maybe because the band broke up before it was released, and being in the shadow of Entombed's legendary and groundbreaking "Left Hand Path", it has gone on to have a cult following of dedicated fans of Swedish death metal.

After Carnage split, David and Fred, along with Carnage growler Matti Kärki, reformed Dismember and released their last demo tape in 1990. In 1991, the now full band recorded and released its legendary debut album "Like An Ever Flowing Stream" (due to a misspelling error, there are different versions with "Ever Flowing" being written as one word, as well as having a bar in between, as without). The album would go on to create debates whether it was Entombed or Dismember who "ripped off" the other, particularly the guitar sound. It would also gain media attention for the song "Skin Her Alive" in England, where the errand was even brought into court. There the band's music was called "indecent and obscene".

In 1992 the band released their debut EP in "Pieces", a release which saw a very raw sound with very much distortion, as well as a graphic cover art showing the band's beheaded heads tied together in their hair, making the same shape as that of a pentagram. It was successful and also included "Soon To Be Dead" from the debut album, which had been granted a music video. In November and December, the band went back into the legendary Sunlight Studios to record their second LP. This time around they used their media attention and decided to name the album "Indecent & Obscene", which was released in 1993. The album brought yet another graphic cover of a man's body whose stomach has been ripped open, and on top of all bloody intestines lies a Dismember belt-buckle. The album was another great success for the band and produced a video with the song "Dreaming In Red" that received heavy rotation on MTV's Headbanger's Ball. The band went on a worldwide tour in support of the album.

In 1994 the band began work on their third album. As time had passed on, things had changed in the death metal scene, particularly the Swedish "commercial" scene. Entombed, always being the kings, had in 1993 released their third album "Wolverine Blues" which had changed in style. The speed was gone and instead the the music was more swinging, yet very heavy. That album would create what fans call "Death 'n' Roll", which path Entombed has pretty much continued on since. With it turning into a hit album, for the death metal genre at least, Dismember's record label Nuclear Blast wanted Dismember to walk the same path - make a commercial record.

Dismember released another EP called "Casket Garden", which was the new album's lead single. It was granted a video and became a minor hit as well. The album, 1995's "Massive Killing Capacity", saw Dismember walking very much in the same direction as Entombed had done two years earlier. If there were any debates in the early days about who ripped off who, this was certainly not a good proof in favor for Dismember. The album was well-received, though reactions were mixed amongst the fans, just as it had been with Entombed and "Wolverine Blues". Sound-wise, Dismember kept its new direction more true in sound to their older material, with the riffs being clearly trademark Dismember riffs, and mostly the tempo / drums being the big change.

In 1997 the band would return to its original death metal sound, releasing an EP called "Misanthropic", whose title-track would act as the lead single for the new, fourth full-length album simply called "Death Metal". Nuclear Blast did not like the decision to go back to the old sound, even if it was now more melodic than before, taking large influences from the Gothenburg sound. The band also saw a new big change in the band with rhythm guitarist Robert Sennebäck leaving, apparently to be more with his family. The bands new tour in support of the album also wasn't very successful, with Nuclear Blast pretty much doing nothing to promote it nor the album. With many things suddenly going down the shitter, and death metal overall losing its popularity, bassist Richard Cabeza ultimately gets tired of the whole business and leaves in 1998. Now having lost two original band members, the remaining guys lay low for a while.

In 2000 the band returns, with a vengeance. The band have now recruited new guitarist Magnus Sahlgren as well as hired Sharlee D'Angelo as a studio musician, for their new album. Being pist of at Nuclear Blast and wanting nothing but their contract to end, they release their last record for that label, which they in tribute to the label name "Hate Campaign". Failing to create much fuzz around it, as well as getting mixed opinions amongst the fans, the album isn't a great success and the band finally gets dropped by the label. The band keeps touring and recording material for what will eventually be their debut live release, a concert DVD entitled "Live Blasphemies", released in 2004.

Over the years from the band's last album to the live DVD, some things have changed in the band again. Magnus Sahlgren has been replaced with new guitarist Martin Persson, who splits the lead duties with original guitarist David Blomqvist. Richard Cabeza has also returned as the bass player for the band. The band having signed a new record deal with Karmageddon Media, release their returning album in 2004 as well. The new album, entitled "Where Ironcrosses Grow" is a return to the band's quality song-writing and the album is acclaimed by the fans. However, things are soon to change once again. With bassist Richard Cabeza being married to an American woman, Swedish immigration won't let her stay and distance issues start to occur. The band ultimately has no choice but to replace him, adding Johan Bergebäck to the line-up, however, he leaves the following year.

Without a bass player, the band starts working on their next album in 2005. David Blomqvist and Martin Persson handle the bass guitar duties for the album. In 2006, the band's new album "The God That Never Was" is released, to critical as well as fan acclaim. The album continues to grow from where the last album left off, taking up more high speeds and brutal influences, and ultimately becoming the bands most furious work. In preparation for the tour, the band adds new bass player Tobias Cristiansson to the ranks and the band goes out on tour. In 2007, a new big change awaits the band as original member and drummer Fred Estby decides to leave the band, so that he can be spending more time with his family instead. The band replace him with Thomas Daun, whose drumming is somewhat tighter and more strict than Fred's trademark free-drumming.

In 2008 the band announce their upcoming eighth full-length album, which is unnamed, or simply called "Dismember" / self-titled. The album drops some of the speed and aggression from the last album in favor of more melody and the album is yet another well-received release. The album's production duties are also handled by Entombed's then bassist (now current guitarist) Nico Elgstrand. The band goes out on another worldwide tour with lots of festival appearances. In 2009 they also release their second live DVD called "Under Blood Red Skies". The DVD includes a concert where they play "Like An Ever Flowing Stream" in its entirely, as well as a bunch of other songs.

After 2010, not much is heard from the band and its activities. With fans worldwide lunging for a new album, the only thing that is delivered is an official statement in October 2011 by bassist Tobias Cristiansson ... "After 23 years, Dismember have now decided to quit. We wish to thank all our fans for your support." And so there was the end of Dismember, a band that helped pave the way as well as create the Swedish death metal scene and sound. While they weren't the biggest death metal export out of Sweden, they sure were the second or third largest.

 

Dismember's last line-up in 2008, left to right ...

Tobias Cristiansson - Bass

Thomas Daun - Drums

Matti Kärki - Vocals

Martin Persson - Guitar

David Blomqvist - Guitar

Dismember to me has meant a lot. I started listening to death metal in 2007, and while that maybe ain't that long ago, those six years feel like a pretty long time for me. I have grown from a horny teenager to a ... horny dude. No but seriously, a lot has happened during that time, many things and phases in music to go through, pretty much a new one per year. 2007 certainly was my "death metal year", where I discovered all the bands and started listening, loving the music. While I never stopped listening to this music, it sure got somewhat in the shadow of the other styles I discovered, and as I said, the phases I went through. I was reading in some number of the Sweden Rock Magazine, I think it was in 2005 already, and Fred Estby was talking about their new album "The God That Never Was". There was also a conclusion of all their albums, with ratings of each one and some comments, so I checked that out and so one. Then what started it all was a history lesson, "the hard rock history, year 1990" I believe. They talked about how the Swedish death metal was commercially set free that year with Entombed's "Left Hand Path", which also became the first death metal album I bought. During the same time, I also discovered Dismember (I loved their logo!) as well as Unleashed, and I like Dismember the best out of all death metal bands on earth. I became somewhat of a freak about Dismember, I really listened to them a lot! I'm just very thankful for the great music they put out during their career, and I was saddened to see them quit so soon, but at least they did it with a good last album.

Thank you Dismember, for truly opening up my heart to death metal, literally change my life, and giving me countless hours of great music listening!

Death Metal inspired photo session

My homeboy Big D(ee) and I were out yesterday and took some photos around the city. In 2007 we had a massive year of death metal wankery, and this year it's come back. For how long, I don't know, however. But we decided to do something about it while it's "in action", so to speak, so here are a couple of photos I think turned out quite nice.

Also to state is that we pretty much "exclusively" listen to our kinsmen's brand of death metal, particularly the Stockholm death metal sound. We are also in the works for a tribute video to our favorite band of the genre - Dismember.

Here are the results, some melancholic, with varying weather of both snow and rain.

This one is just us doing a classic and cheesy death metal pose with our hair covering our faces.

 This is I at place where we took "death metal photos" in 2007.

Daniel outside of one of our two main / biggest churches.

Me outside the same.

 The graffiti says "Döden föder", which is Swedish for "the Death gives birth".

Me with the same graffiti.

Daniel at the other church of our two main ones.

And of course I, outside the same one.

Another cheesy and classic death metal pose, here with Mr. Slaughter Lord Rabbit.

 

And finally Mr. Slaughter Lord Rabbit and I rolling together.