Black metal wasn't meant to be my second favourite musical genre. Back in 1999 we had a dumb goth girl at school who was always talking shit about Satan and how possessed she was. I hated that cunt, but I was from time to time in detention with her, and she was still better than the 2pac-whiggers and their middle-east counterparts, so I discussed with her a few times. I was the only one to know what runes were (I discovered them in an encyclopedia, what we all know to be the best of esoteric books) and then she started to teach me about the early norwegian scene, the church burnings and all that crap that made black metal famous. I knew those bands existed for more than10 years, but I only started to listen to them seriously a couple of years ago, oddly musically living what could have been my youth during the late 90s if I hadn't met punk rock.In a way there's a natural evolution process from punk to black metal, because black metal holds many similarities with punk. Both are authentic musics, spreading a generally negative, morbid and pessimistic point of view on life. Back when I was 15 I found this whole "kvlt vs gay" status commonly spread among die-hard BM fans utterly stupid, but as time went by and as anarcho-punk and then blackened crust records became more common for me, I finally accepted the trve black metal and thus I decided to give you my personal selection of kvltness. Which may be not yours. The girl I talked earlier was trve to the roots of black metal, and I mostly knew the bands from "the 90s norwegian monopoly" at the beginning thanks to her, so there will be no major surprises for those who know their stuff. There will be as well more german bands than reason because I like when things go german. I also didn't include the so-called first wave of black metal representatives like Celtic Frost or Bathory because they're not really black metal IHMO, even if they influenced those who came some years later to death. And finally you won't find the "joke bands" like Ulver, Dimmu Borgir or Cradle of Filth.
As usual, one band, one record. No more, no less.
Right they started as a second-rate death metal band in a then-third-world country musically speaking. Of course their lyrics are stupid crap. It's also obvious they're closet-punks in disguise (just like me, so fuck you) and Isengard is a total failure, but come on, this shit determined equally with Mayhem's only trve record what should be the black metal sound. The number zero record for me.
Pentagram - Gorgoroth (1994) NorwaySome years ago I got a discussion with a metalhead friend (who had a period of french hip-hop fandom due to social pressure when we were 12, poser spotted) and we came to talk about guess what... metal. He knew his BM history and we came to talk about the good ones (Darkthrone, Burzum, Nargaroth, etc...) and I told him I didn't like that much satanic BM. He recommended me to listen to this very record, the kind "that makes you wanna draw a pentagram and sacrifice a kitten with no particular reason". So I tried old school Gorgoroth despite all the negative a prioris I had, and I met one of the trvest shit ever. So thanks I guess.
Enslaved before they went total sissies. Maybe the first BM band to openly advocate for the trve northern Gods instead of this crappy judeo-christian Satan. Brutal as fuck, nothern to the core, the ancient wrath from Asgard is fully expressed here.
...Again shall be - Hades Almighty (1994) NorwayWhen people talk about the founding members of the norwegian madness they barely think about Hades Almighty, and that's really not fair. Their sound is powerful and has everything a legendary BM band should have. One of the best early records !
Honestly I'm happy to live in a world without Euronymous AKA the great northern douchebag king. I didn't wanted to include any Mayhem record here because I hate them to the core, but fact is those dildos inspired generations of other BM dildos and that some of the riffs here set the standards for most the BM riffs during nearly 10 years. So yeah, here's Mayhem and its classic even hipster love to play. Hurray...
A quite old and obscure record, full of christian holy music influences. Ah, this good old stupid 90s satanic vibe...
Nothing outstanding here, but this album contains many features common in the early BM era. The kind of crap that defined the average level of local BM bands all across the world.
To kill a gay man, being jailed before finally kill yourself for the glory of Satan apparently gives you some fame. But this should not overshadow the fact that despite their swedish roots (swedish black metal urgh...) Dissection had their own raw black metal sound that no one could ignore. Promoting satanic bullshit and featuring an odd death-metallish cover as well as DM influences (Sweden guys, Sweden...) doesn't even lessen the power nor the kvltness of this record.
Gaahl's first band, and a fucking classic for those who love dark and creepy BM tunes full of raw hateful vocals. Some blast beats are gorgeous too.
In my early teens 'Aske' was the black metal album to own in the neighbourhood if you wanted to show the whiggers how nordic you were instead of worshipping Big Ali and Eve, but I never liked it nonetheless. 'Aske' sounded ridiculous then and still does. The satanic imagery crap didn't help either. I rediscovered Burzum only in my late teens with 'Filosofem' when one day I found it on the desk of a girl I knew. A "normal" girl, not the cunt I talked earlier. I looked at it and because it looked so fascinating I stole it. That's right, no remorse, no regrets. I fell in love with 'Jesus' Tod' guitars. Back then Kristian was still in jail and he thought the wrong Germany was übercool, so he included german titles everywhere and skipped the satanic imagery, making this record for me the first one of the whole scene to be considered as acceptable (I was really into Wizo, das Untergangskommando and Terrorgruppe then you know). Hence for more than 13 years 'Filosofem' was the only black metal record I listened to, what makes it an absolute item of kvltness for me.
I live in a shithole called France but hopefully I used to be close to the german border when I started to get into rock music, so quite naturally I crossed the path of this underrated classic in my early teens. I didn't like it, like most of the old stuff here but I remembered this picture and this stupid title in german. I still find it stupid today and I don't really appreciate the cryptonazi undertones it conveys but musically this is maybe the trvest 90s shit that came from a non-norwegian land along with Nagelfar.
Death metal pop stars had a black past, and before they met Satan himself they played songs for the glory of the pagan wasteland gods. Usually bands go in the opposite direction as they grow older but not Behemoth... Different from their modern stuff, this one is pretty decent and could have been released in Norway. Fucking Polaks stealing Scandinavians...
When I discovered Falkenbach I was 14 years late and since then they became one of my favourite bands ever. They combine everything I expect from a good and powerful melodic pagan black metal band. So perfect I can forgive the keyboard.
Blut aus Nord is one of the bands that impressed me the most, all styles included. Hailing from France, THE european country betraying his germanic/celtic roots on a daily basis, Blut aus Nord managed to include all those primitive germanic feelings coming from our northern Urheimat (before our ancestors shipped and conquered those gallo-romans faggots) and mix them with a very french questioning about transcendental dogmas. Weird, purely germanic and somehow french as fuck, people from the blue/white/red fallen empire can't do otherwise but produce distrubing stuff. One of the greatest BM bands, even with a horrible grammatic failure in their name. Mann schreibt Blut aus dem Norden, ihr Penneropfer !
Great riffs, stupid imagery, classical stuff you know.
Hünengrab im Herbst - Nagelfar (1997) GermanyBack in 1999 when I first heard this record I only thought about two things : there's fucking keyboards here again and "Oh fuck some dildos happened to mimick the Norwegians almost to perfection. They're getting closer". This record caused some troubles to the cunt I talked earlier, because our teachers thought this was some kind of neo-nazi propaganda record (there's a old germanic tumulus and lyrics in german, whooooo evil). Good old socialist french blind repression... But I can't help this one contains some of the trvest parts of 90s Black metal ever produced outside Norway. German rawness and bitterness at their best.
Unchain the wolves - Deströyer 666 (1997) Australia
The cunt liked this shit back in the days. She never saw the thrash influences beneath this weird australian anti-christian manifesto...
One of these "good old days" memories, not a record I listen to on a monthly basis...
Emperor's riffs are almost unique but that's not the main reason why they're so massively respected in this corrupted world. No, it's mainly because they were those who pushed black metal the further in term of complexity back in the days. They were the pionneers of technical black metal and this record influenced countless guitarists. Kvlt !
One of my favourite BM records ever. I love their high-pitched riffs and their lyrics about the only trve Gods. The rest of Kampfar's catalog is also highly recommended but I'll never feel the same impact, like I did with one.
As a teenager this album litterally traumatized me and is one of the reasons for my initial total rejection of black metal. I mean, come on, a whole record based on fantasy and especially on LOTR ? Fuck that's so nerd (and I've already play D and D...), how could you scare the sandni... uhm the bad guys from the neighbourhood with this kind of crap ? And what's the deal with those fucking shitty overwhelming keyboards ? Seriously ? This album has a special place for me, and although I still find it extremly stupid, because maybe of nostalgia, it had to appear here.
Originally a Dimmu Borgir member side-project, this record shares with DB similarities but happened to be a quite decent 90s BM piece, rawer than the Borgirs, and almost without any shitty keyboard (almost). Nah, I just added here because of the blonde violated by a giant spider on the cover.
Nordstjärnans tidsålder - Månegarm (1998) Sweden
I'm not very aware of the new stuff from the Québec black metal scene, and to be honest the first time I found a record from this place I expected a crappy joke band singing in French lyrics about snow and death (I hate my mothertongue and most of the french culture, I can't help). But I discovered Sorcier des Glaces instead, one of the kvltest shit ever. Objectively if Immortal wasn't a stupid band, it would sound just like SdG !
Urgehal ain't what you can call "a great band that influenced millions". In fact it will always stay some second rate band for half-retards. The first time I saw this album back in '99 I thought I dealt with some kind of 80s apocalyptic krangpunk band. But their sound here is archaic and dirty enough to be considered as kvlt. They recorded the same album again some years later, only becoming worse each time before their well-known ridiculous 'Through thick fog till death' and its beyond cliché cover. Good old stupid BM.
I discovered Finntroll while watching the german TV and I thought "Up in the North they have some fucking dickheads... After the guy thinking he's a vampire, the guy thinking he's a troll urghhh". 15 years after, there's still some trollish humpa moments I especially despise but there is also some pretty strong pure BM parts. The whole Finntroll concept is debatable (trolls vs eviiiiiiiiils christians conquerors), but hey Finntroll's part of the standard northern metal catalog now, so this album deserved to be here.
Haudankylmyyden Mailla - Horna (1999) Finland
Good old rotten finnish black metal with punk influences and lyrics about disgusting sexual practices and crappy satanism. Like most of the the old finnish black metal, that's right. Be happy you'll find here some true D-beats parts.
Generally speaking Immortal are douchebags and first I didn't want to include them in the kvlt realm. But then I remembered I liked Abbath's heavy-influenced side project ,'Between two worlds', who was great except for Abbath's crappy voice. I reconsidered the fact that Immortal might have been luckily one day not as shitty as they're usually are, and finally found 'At the heart of winter' worth the right to be outside the untrve part of the world.
There is two kind of people : those who don't know what 'Panzer Division' is and those who know. The latters will understand.
Another long forgotten side-project by an other black metal superstar. This one has a quite special touch, I found it offensively sexual (not like Impaled Nazarene intends to be), what's quite unusual for this kind of music usually focused on death.
Black metal ist krieg - Nargaroth (2001) GermanyDo you want some fucking classic record ? Then take Nargaroth's masterpiece right in your face ! 15 years later the record who introduced us to the BM jokes concept still has guts and should be considered a reference in every goddam list about black metal (even though this a total early Burzum rip-off).
Don't get me wrong Windir's vision of BM always was on the edge of the shitty northern folk-metal and '1184' carries its part of lame pseudo-folk foolishness. But the trve parts of it are just how the original black metal had to sound when it started to have at last a few brain cells. A few are well enough, we don't want any american hispter poser trash.
A pity I couldn't find 'Gegen alles' anywhere, it seemed as good as this fucking classic.
Sick shit from my Heimat. Link to some tape recording. Are you trve or not, huh ?
Ukraine's maybe after Norway or Germany, along with Poland and the Czech Republic, one the trvest country ever and brought us some excellent albums, even if most of them have a disturbing nationalist smell (go tell RTV about it). The name of the band could be considered as a sad inner joke and more brutal death akin vocals require some adaptation but the truth is they ruled in the trvehood county and still do. Highly recommended, with more subtilities than their following album 'Purity', an other all-time classic.
Italy's a country that means ridiculous female-fronted heavy metal, definitely. As someone born in France, a place where culture cannot go any worse, I fully understand how the originators of black metal with doom elements could have felt. If living in the motherland of some of the cheesiest metal bands ever BUT ALSO the worst football team in all Mankind's history (take this, fucking Squadra) doesn't give you the desire to kill yourself, then I just don't know. I usually don't dig DSBM, but come on this one is a cornerstone for this whole subscene. Even if there's an dude wearing a slip in his tub on the cover.
Usually when I listen a record with a black and white cops photograph, it's an anarcho-punk one saying how the State is opressing and "fuck the police" crappy bullshit. It was weird to see that some dudes applied the formula to black metal, only adding once more pseudo-satanic crap...
Craft was one the most nihillistic band around in the early 00s black metal scene with their cocky and funny 'Fuck the Universe'. Their subtle message was also expressed on their previous LP, who's a little bit dirtier and rawer, justifying the fact that 'Terror Propagnada' is on this list instead of 'FTU'. I like when black metal bands leave the forests and look at the modern world the way it is : shitty. Punk roots guys, I can't help.
One of France's most hidden BM jewels. I will never understand why such bands are condemned to stay out of the mainstream BM catalog for wannabees.
Although a compilation record ain't really what you could call a black metal concept, I felt this album had to be here. Some of the dirtiest lo-fi BM tracks I found are here. I fucking love when old BM sounds like crust or underground GDR punk !
So fucking raw. The kind of Exploited's 'The Massacre' 1990 LP black metal counterpart.
Ad Hominem are French. And like most of the white angry french kids they thought for a very long time about how genociding some "other people" would be great. For french white angry males that's pretty normal, we compete a lot against "some scum" and our own State is against us, and of course except for the dildos from Brittany and the traitors we all have gone through this kind of stuff. Ad Hominem pretends now it was all for the sake of provocation, and with an entire record called 'Planet Z.O.G.' I'm totally sure they where really nice innocent guys enjoying playing music (...) so I didn't include them in the NSBM part of the world. But they also deserved their kvlt status here because they represent the very last record for my "classical black metal agenda". When this shit was released the cunt that introduced me into BM already killed herself -or so it seems- and I didn't had any interest for the soldiers of the european black plague. Anarcho-punk was so much better.
Quite minimalistic black metal. Enjoyable nonetheless.
Depressive shit, just like in the days.
Raw and lo-fi hatred manifesto !
This fucking cover sums up orthodox black metal to the perfection. A pretty legit record I have to say, despite all my negative a prioris on swedish black metal.
I like my black metal dirty with an enjoyable lo-fi touch and black and white album covers. The fact it talks mainly about war and hatred towards Mankind in german is juste a little plus.
USBM is an abomination that shouldn't exist, mainly because the "modern" way of life is an american creation who slowly destroyed the native european cultures and as such american bands cannot embody the old past trve BM acts seek to defend. Black metal is one of the many answers against globalization -otherwise called americanization- and I highly doubt people from the Colonies could really be in touch with History (since their is ridiculously short) but there's nonetheless some blatant exceptions. Like this one.
THE christian black metal band. Some keyboard are fucking lame but the rest is pretty average and filled with despair and hate, what's also at the center of the christian view of the world, even if most of the true believers will never accept it. Releasing such a record required some guts, so respect, and kvlt. Fuck you, satanic hardliners.
Phallic masturbation and some raw black metal riffs played along with evil czech words.
Like many eastern european BM bands, Infernum had some ties with the NSBM spectrum back in the 90s, but after the suicide of a former band member, one of two bands now using the name Infernum released this dark mystic masterpiece filled with ancient wrath and cheap goth keyboards. Good shit, as usual in Poland.
Music ain't created to be in the background IMO. You have to be fully in what you hear, otherwise there's no interest anymore. I want to hear strong stuff not boring lounge tunes. That's theory, because this shit right here is made to be heard in the background. Cryptic, disturbing and disturbed, one of the most intensive atmospheric BM record I found. Litterally unsane.
Poisonous slow depressive sound from the french-speaking snow-covered wastelands AKA Québec, Norway's american counterpart.
Growing out the satanist/ fascination for frozen things magma emerged several trends : the natural/esoteric one, the nazi one, the nihilistic one, the pagan one and the depressive suicidal. Wedard IMO embodies most of what made DSBM what it is. The atmosphere is pathetic, tortured, spectral and weirdly etheral, exactly what some might expect from a good DSBM shot.
OM - Negură Bunget (2006) Romania
According to blackmetal.com this record is one of the 10 bests. I wouldn't say so but this a pretty interesting album, that's for sure. I usually don't dig soft progressive metal, because it gets me all asleep, but for this one I might make one exception.
The Black metal counterpart of the Dwarves' 'Guts, Blood and Pussy' somehow.
Later know as Gris, a band french-speaking webzines like to praise, this record was highly regarded back in the days, and if you're into slow repetitive dirty BM I also recommend it. Oh yeah and despite its name, this is just a good DSBM record, not a pagan one.
So you expected 'Dark medieval times' maybe ? Sorry but this LP has way more guts than most of the old stuff. They signed to a major label and put the "fuck you" attitude to another level by composing rocky, short, almost pop tracks. And addictive as hell ones.
Harsh, raw and tortured as BM can be. Ukrainian masterpiece, even filled with some overtly nationalist fighting spirit. A major hit in eastern Ukraine today ?
In 2006 the firmly established 90s norwegian BM nomenklatura seemed to have closed the door to norwegian newcomers. The old bands could do all their experiments, just like the 80s english punks moved away from their roots, slowly dissolving punk as the world knew it. So Myrkgrav was one very good surprise, Norway could still produce new great bands, this was unexpected. The only sad thing is that it's Myrkgrav only record. Dammit...
Epic, cold.
The legend says there was some kind of war between 90s norwegian BM bands and 90s swedish DM bands. But also against the 90s finnish BM bands. Finnish stuff is very particular and so is finish BM self-proclaimed leader. Dealing way more with sodomy, blind violence and nuclear annihiliation than most of black metal bands Impaled Nazarene has some strong stupid 80s hardcore punk band features, but I never liked them that much. They're too dumbly provocative. When this one was released original BM seemed to be dead like punk was in '92 and it sounded like the last record of a dying era. Musically borrowing many things from hardcore punk, it stays IMO their best work to this day and a bridge between the two musical genres I like the most.
Skuggornas Rike - Mörker (2006) Sweden
Average amateurish BM following the swedish school. Not a masterpiece but good enough to be mentioned. And also there's some D-beat here and there, that drummer knew about swedish hardcore punk maybe...
To the nameless dead - Primordial (2007) Ireland
Very intense pagan record without any double-kick. I was really impressed by this band, because in a way they were totally pagan but happened to play like real punks ! Unusual but highly enjoyable.
Epos - Dakeshtrah (2007) KirghizistanOnly listened to it once, but what a great memory.
Before they became a shitty mainstream metalcore dealing with illegal immigrants and inner feelings, Varg happened to record one half-decent album. Half-decent because there's filler tracks as well as filler tracks. According to the usual expression, "after this one, everything went downhill in the most pathetic way".
Vredeslusta - Snötårar (2007) Sweden
Yeah, there's tits on 'Christian Slut' but this one is rawer then better.
Don't let you fooled by their national pride or the band stupid name (a lame play on word on Helvetia and Celtic Frost, so original for Swiss wow...), this is some good quality traditional BM with a sense of despaired epicness. Once more, hail the Swiss !
Back in 2007 I was still thinking that metal was fucking garbage in general, except thrash metal because thrash is basically elaborated hardcore punk. But I gave this record a chance, and it was one of the three BM records I owned. It talked about a country invaded by the oppressive Wehrmacht (just like what happened in my land) and the cover looked like one from some old OHL album. This was enough. This record helped me to get into BM later.
Black metal according to Danzig/Misfits fan I guess. Some tracks are totally here to fill the void, but the rest is pretty decent.
Eastern european darkness put on tracks.
Not to be mistaken with the also enjoyable american hardcore band sharing the same name. Cold as fuck.
I've never fully been an anarchist even if this doctrine is pretty fascinating I admit. But I always felt that extreme metal in general, been heavily linked to hardcore punk at the beginning, was more akin to anarchist theories than to fascist ones and I never understood how someday a northern dildo created the NSBM idea. Satan rebelled against God's fascist order and the almighty Vikings have more in common with the german black blocs than with the SS. So when some guy released an explict anarchist BM album, I was like "Fuck at last !". Musically not perfect but still decent.
Should have been part of the early BM legend, if not a record that came ten years too late.
Djävulens Boning - Grifteskymfning (2009) Sweden
Cryptic and lo-fi, fuck yeah, this is the kind of BM you could like. Unlike the hipster garbage.
Of course this band has a strong NS background but this record isn't openly nazi as the ukrainian band War and their 2002 famous record 'Aryan Terrorism' (sic...). Of course there's plenty of dirty undertones, and I could only barely understand the german singing and didn't find the lyrics, so I decided nevertheless to include it in this list . You know the good old Burzum problematic. By the way, I included this record because it's probably one of trvest records coming from Germany, if you only consider the music in itself. Dark, nasty and really sick, just like some kind of wrong Germany, it will speak to your inner germanic intolerant demon deep in your soul if you have some ties with the Heilig Vaterland.
It was quite difficult to promote the australian black metal scene with pictures of local eucalyptus rain forest on album covers, so DTL went back to the basics. The music is really decent for the first southern hemisphere BM to reach international recognition among BM nerds. Although once 'Defenders of the Aryan race' DTL mastermind had the good idea only to talk about blood in a more vampiric way here.
France is one of the most atheist nations in the world thanks to centuries of State catholicism and it was quite natural that local black metal bands ended in an equal hatred for both God and Satan. On this record obsessed with metaphysics, technological ugliness and physics, you'll find a raw yet melodic, massive and cold sound with some death metal influences.
Istapp - Beklinge (2010) Sweden
Atmospheric is usually associated with crappy smooth riffs intended to be etheral or stellar, trying to bring in vain the listener on the astral plane. But there are some good atmospheric bands who give haunting ghost riffs. Borgne belongs to the second kind. So morbid, I can even forgive the keyboards.
Cryptic and distorted black metal with some unchristian occult feeling. What you expect for a good BM release. Simple as that.
Aealo - Rotting Christ (2010) GreeceI've never been a fan of Rotting Christ, even their name's fucking lame. I don't like their early or "goth" stuff and I still think satanism is for dumbasses. As a teen the very fact that a BM band could come from Greece was enough for it to be considered as suspect at least. But fuck, this record was better than all I expected and the greek chants gave it a particular soul. The record that introduced me into greek metal, so thanks I guess.
Yeah, a female butt is a catchy thing if you're an average frustrated dude trying to forget his non-existent sexual life with BM releases. Even more if this butt has some satanic tattoos. But here we talk about music, remember ? And this DSBM album was really surprisingly good albeit a little bit cheesy on two occasions. Good stuff, with very enjoyable female vocals.
The year I started to listen seriously to black metal and not to have a slice of fun this shit was the utimate record according to many dildos talking about records on the Internet. Wait no, estimated colleagues I meant. Wait... Fuck you.
Noregs Vaapen - Taake (2011) NorwayOf course there's a banjo and some sentences against the Mohamedans but that's not what makes this album beyond kvlt. I could have also chosen an older Taake record, because they're all trve and so, but this record deserved to be here being the one who convinced me in 2011 to give black metal its second chance. Something I never regretted.
Innovations in black metal are generally not warmly welcome, especially if they involve some kind of pop music elements. On the record celebrating the volcano that paralysed Europe the lone guys from Iceland managed to be at the same time very pop and to keep enough ties with their original sound to be considered as the very first record a stupid dildo with a strong pop background could like in this list. What's not an easy task.
I discovered the band with their 2014 release 'Farvel' but it was a little bit too prog for me. So quite naturally I found their first album almost perfect.
A quite ridiculous record (that cover sums it all) but if you like rolling Rs like only Austria can give to this world and old school orthodox BM, this is your shit. A band called Church Burning can't be wrong after all.
Власть - N.K.V.D. (2011) France
Black metal often deals with nazism but only a very few bands are talking about real fascism. NSBM is usually more focused on aryan heritage and hate against Jews and generally misses the main point of being a real nazi. Real nazis are before everything else fascists in the purest form and that's for me the main reason why I can't support their views. But guess what, nazism is for dumb kinds. The real darkness came from communism, the mother of all totalitarianisms, an ideology I always found fascinating because of its cruelty. Communism is built on simple dreams every man can have, but it turned into something morbid, vacant and really far from any monotheist God, just like satanism for grown-ups put on a continent-scale. Back when the band who took the name of the early Soviet special police released this industrial cornerstone, westerns TVs had reports on a regular basis about nazbols or neonazis in Russia, and talked shit as usual (you know the 30s are coming back and that kind of bullshit). But despite its nazbol cover, N.K.V.D. shows us that fascism isn't something of the past, and that it doesn't apply only to stupid dildos playing with SS runes.
Despite its highly satanic/esoteric content and an almost clinical production that reminds me more an american death metal band than an european black metal band, this album has a great climax. Cold, dark, showing us some slayeresque influences and utterly malevolent those seven tracks contain enough evil to be considered as kvlt.
Looking at this pagan warrior I expected a bad Amon Amarth-inspired band, but quite soon it turned out to be a pretty strong pagan BM act who choose a very modern recording quality.
Deep rotten german atmoBM.
With hearts toward none - Mgła (2012) Poland
When I started to write this aticle, 'Exercises in futility' hadn't been released, and to be honest the first times I listened to it I found it quite boring. 'Exercises in futility' is definitely a grower, and today I found it and the already classic 'With hearts toward none' equally good, but I had to chose only one album from the polish band and in order not to pollute this list with tons of 2015 albums, I decided to include here WHTN.
Well, 'Wetterkreuz' is like some kind of old Emperor upgrade with the unbreakable german language used instead of the tasteless english one. I fucking love this plate mates.
Deep, intelligent, intensive, with german haunting words. One of the best BM release EVER. Don't you understand you fucking beyond-kvlt- posers ?
Angrboða - Eldjudnir (2012) Denmark
Really interesting record talking only about the true religion. You know the one with Wotan trolololo
I was searching some bands from Québec and landed on a french-canadian blog who highly recommended this record. Just like the Canadian said Apathie is a name one would rather link to DSBM but you'll find here some angry tracks, filled with all the original hatred a real orthodox BM band has to carry. Brilliant underrated kvltness.
There's many reasons that made this record kvlt despite its blatent imperfections. First the band has some serious ties with Finsterforst, but there's no accordion bullshit here. Cryptic Forest (lame name innit ?) is what Finsterforst would sound like if they didn't use those fucking accordions. Then this record contains some part reminding of the old melodic 80s german heavy metal I loved as a child, so fuck yeah. Hail Baden-Württemberg brothers ! Even if you sing in english...
Why is this record kvlt ? Because it provoked a deep divide into the black metal fans. Everything here's intended to butthurt the keepers of the trveness. They're Americans. Unbearable. It contains somehow a sweet joy feeling. Unbearable. The cover is pink. Unbereable. It has a name containing the word "sun". Unbearable. What remains of the original black metal, is just perverted in order to stay some kind of rotten balck metal and not becoming post-rock. The ultimate hipster black metal shit !
I'm not really sure this kind of record should be considered as a regular DSBM by most of the BM purists, but the fact is you can feel a real sorrow here, and a great atmosphere very close to the coldness and the despair old black metal stuff is about. Plus, even though this record is german it has this unique "cascadian touch".
Satanist masterpiece, it gave me goose gumps even if they are fucking Parisians and if I still don't like pentacle stuff that much.
BM built its legend on northern tales from the deep snowy fir forests or the majestic fjords, but in Europe there's another place where trve paganism can still be felt, the Alps. And since my ancestors came from those immortal mountains I couldn't not fall in love with the primitive black metal filled with alpine germanic gods this band had to offer.
People are so ugly, shitty and mediocre that they generally refuse to see how they really are. Those guys just described Mankind without any make-up, disgusting.
Hjørleifsljóð - Askrinn (2014) France
Commercials on YouTube aren't the trvest part of the black metal legend, but they're quite effective if you want to find some great pagan tunes. That's right as good as the first Kampfar.
Ukrainian cold brutality at its best.
Acclaimed by metal critics I was quite sceptic about this post-DSBM album, but once I started to listen to it I forgot all the negative clichés the japanese name conveys (japanese are really shitty when it comes to black metal...). One of those modern BM classics it seems...
Sworn to paganism - Skogmark (2014) Russia
Sick as fuck. This is what happens when former hardcore punx have enough to play stupid grindcore tunes and dedicate themselves to the worst kind of malevolent, unsane, noisy atmospheric black metal. The musical expression of autistic pain.
Somehow the black metal of my teens died even more with this record than with 'Sunbather'. I hesitated a lot before introducing it here, but as you can still feel some BM roots in these soft songs, here it is.
2015 was a good year if you're into atmospheric balck metal, thanks to a now famous YT channel. Letting the whole world access to obscure LPs from everywhere on this Earth, made this YT channel may be one of the most important thing that happened to BM since the early 00s. A very decent, sad and slow record with depressive nor suicidal undertones. Finland's back in the game to the contrary of Norway. See even the little red hood made his own DSBM record while visiting the finnish forests.
One of my very few "keyboard exceptions".
I love russian stuff in all musical genres, but when it comes to black metal Russia has something special, you can feel somehow the european paganism never totally disappeared and that Nature is still something powerful and concrete in this country. Taiga was one of the first new black metal bands I listened to and it blew my mind. Like for real, not the "blow my mind" some teenager playing with its smartphone 16 hours per day could use.
Argentina's not a place most of people associate with black metal but if you already were in the deep South of the country you'll find creepy forests and eternal ices perfectly matching with the record covers (even if biologically speaking those southern hemisphere plants have weird shapes I admit). Quite original themes are used here -the decay of an old sicilian civilization !- along with great catchy atmospheric melodies. Praised by the press, what's isn't really trve, but for once the press was right.
Moonlover - Ghost Bath (2015) That country
Like most the black metal fan I'm a total retard and it happens that I listen to records because there are tits on the cover. Even not so interesting tits like those. I was suspicious since this record is american and we all know that american stuff can't be kvlt by definition, as the USA are the opposite of what black metal is about. Yeah, just like Saudi Arabia. But I'll make an other exception, since this one has something special, a great cold and somehow feminine atmosphere I didn't found in an other record.
The Scandinavians aren't totally done with BM or Satan it seems, finally. Remembers me a lot my old finnish stuff. Moment of emotion, sorry.
Very intense record with only three ultra-etheral tracks.
Frost-bitten, dreary but not satanic, a very good record appealling to life's most disgusting side.
Söngvar Elds Og Óreiðu - Misþyrming (2015) Iceland
I thought nordic countries were done for good, but once again some obscure northern band proved me wrong. Seriously, this record is sick as fuck and contains all the violence and darkness black metal can contain when it decides to be violent and dark. The cover didn't lie, you'll find here a vision of places looking like Hell while listening to this record. Even the weird electronic break in the middle will make you feel you're part of a team desperatly trying to survive lost in the magmatic depths.
Happy black metal was a long-term joke. Nargaroth played with the idea on 'Jahreszeiten' 's first track but no one had the guts to make a whole happy black metal record, until that guy from one of the most remoted piece of eastern Europe released this. Surprisingly brilliant, this record deserved to be here, even if at first glance I thought it would be another emotional and introspective british post-punk album.
Nidhöggr - Ragnarök (2016) Sweden
I've never been a fan of the swedish school but dammit this one was catchy as fuck.
Brittony is continental Europe last main celtic stronghold (Galicia doesn't count) but you won't find the usual crappy celtic imagery here. Those guys probably learned that for centuries Brittany had been constantly raped by germanic neighbours and since shares half of its heritage with the Nordmen. So despite its celtic lyrics this record will make you feel that old norse touch with its blatant Windir, Kampfar or even Amon Amarth influences. A huge record !
Once again Québec proved it can be considered as the 2010s Norway, and not just because of the deep fir forests. This very good atmospheric record is all about cultural rebellion and resistance, something most of the early norwegian bands seem to have long forgotten. Oddly I can understand this kind of band. I'm from the eastern France and my Volk slowly dies under the french cultural pressure. We're getting assimilated and only deutschpunk opened my eyes on what I am, far from the stinky nazi propaganda still ringing in some minds. In some ways Québec shares many things with my Vaterland as it appears as the last standing unbastardized piece of land in Northern America, the very last fortress.There the designated enemy is more the supremacist WASP culture imposed on the overseas Frenchmen than the monotheistic sadomasochist guilt called Religion back in the early 90s Europe. But the spirit's the same : look at your history, look at your roots and go out fight for your kind against the shit called modernity "some people" want you to be a part of. Black metal was the last XXth century rebellion but I'm glad it still has strong echoes in a land I feel close to.
Howling Mountains - Hermóðr (2016) Sweden
A highly repetitve and atmospheric record that will grow in you with time. Definitely worth to listen to.
Hailing from the city of Basel, a really dark and well-executed record. Unholy as old BM can be but with way more neurons, once again the Swiss stuff proved it is one of the best in the modern days.
Im Bannkreis der Götter - Lunatic Affliction (2016) Germany
Ambitious record dealing with sumerian myths on life and resurrection. Sometimes you could feel remote melodic death metal influences making the whole thing even sadder. Really interesting band, and awesome cover I have to admit.
Brutal and cold with that "clean new german sound". That specifically german vibe is omnipresent bringing you back to the 16th century dark plagues days that ravaged my homeland and its surrounding areas like Trier. Good old days of pure mayhem at the heart of german nations.
And now that you've enough got black metal up your ass, go listen to some true gangsta rap, you bunch of nerds !
N.B. This list is intended to endlessy grow.
