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Black Metal

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Black Metal

67,021 releases

Typified by highly distorted, trebly, tremolo-picked guitars, blast beats, double kick drumming, shrieked vocals, and raw, underproduced sound that often favors atmosphere over technical skills and melody.
Read more Black metal is a style of extreme Metal typified by tremolo-picked riffs, distorted, trebly electric guitars, shrieked vocals, and double-kick drumming and blast beats that also frequently features raw, underproduced sound. Conventional song structures are generally replaced with extensive passages. Black metal's origins trace back to 1980s Speed Metal's blistering sound pioneered by Venom, who adopted unpolished production, anti-Christian and Satanic lyricism, and provocative imagery and stage names. Their sophomore record, Black Metal, is considered to have coined the genre's name.

First wave black metal emerged from a wide range of early extreme metal sounds and didn't always resemble the sound typically associated with modern black metal. The most significant influences came from Thrash Metal scenes, mainly Germany's Teutonic thrash scene, pioneered by Sodom and Kreator, and Belo Horizonte's scene, spearheaded by Sarcófago and Sepultura. Hellhammer doubled down on rawness and created primitive songs with a low-budget lo-fi recording, while Bathory popularized shrieked vocals. Tom G. Warrior and Quorthon, leaders of the aforementioned groups, also cited Discharge's D-Beat as an influence. First wave's popularity faded by the end of the 1980s due to thrash metal's primetime and Death Metal's popularity.

With the 1990s came second wave black metal, spearheaded by the Norwegian Scene. Bands like Darkthrone, Immortal, Burzum, and, at the frontmost, Mayhem created a more repetitive, tremolo riff-focused style with blast beats and double-kick drumming becoming a common practice. These artists also experimented with song structures, rejecting standard verse-chorus pattern, in favor of extended sections. Meanwhile, many scenes and bands started sprouting in different countries around the world, inspired by the successes of Norwegian bands.

By the late 1990s, some projects strayed away from the unpolished, under-produced, repetitious sound. Norwegian bands like Emperor and Enslaved and San Francisco-based group Weakling implemented technically demanding structures and modernized production. In the 2000s, Deathspell Omega built upon this development by intensifying the technicality and adding dense and dissonant sound masses inspired by the avant-garde Classical Music.

Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, black metal featured numerous bands and prominent scenes, notably in the United States, France, Finland, Poland, and Ukraine. Many artists experimented with different genres, such as Traditional Folk Music / Neofolk (Moonsorrow and Agalloch), Psychedelia (Oranssi Pazuzu), Dream Pop / Shoegaze (Alcest and Deafheaven), and Industrial & Noise (Blut aus Nord and Altar of Plagues). Themes tackled by songwriters also changed over time to include nature, folklore, mythologies, paganism, depression, anxiety, and philosophy. Some genres, even those outside of metal, took in black metal influence to create "blackened" styles, such as Blackened Crust and Black Ambient.

Top-ranked albums

See full chart

#1

Filosofem
Burzum
#2

Storm of the Light's Bane
Dissection
#3

A Blaze in the Northern Sky
Darkthrone
#4

Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Emperor
#5

Dead as Dreams
Weakling
#6

Ashes Against the Grain
Agalloch
#7

Bergtatt: Et eeventyr i 5 capitler
Ulver
#8

Paracletus
Deathspell Omega
#9

At the Heart of Winter
Immortal
Image blocked due to account settings.

#10

Blood Fire Death
Bathory

Years active

Black Metal

Discography

67,021 Releases

1 2 ... 250 Next

Release Date

Avg Ratings Reviews

Witching Metal
Sodom

1982 Additional releases

361 Ratings 3 Reviews 2.78 Average

2.78 361 361 3 3
Nekrofilie
666

1983 Album

141 Ratings 1 Reviews 2.95 Average

2.95 141 141 1 1
Slaughter in Hell
Antichrist

1983 EP

179 Ratings 4 Reviews 3.03 Average

3.03 179 179 4 4
Death Fiend
Hellhammer

1983 Album

849 Ratings 9 Reviews 3.13 Average

3.13 849 849 9 9
Triumph of Death...
Hellhammer

1983 Album

815 Ratings 6 Reviews 3.33 Average

3.33 815 815 6 6
Satanic Rites
Hellhammer

1983 Album

2k Ratings 16 Reviews 3.62 Average

3.62 2k 2,044 16 16
Apocalyptic Raids
Hellhammer

1984 EP

2k Ratings 30 Reviews 3.55 Average

3.55 2k 2,388 30 30
Sons of Evil
Poison

1984 Additional releases

280 Ratings 3 Reviews 2.83 Average

2.83 280 280 3 3
Demo 84
Ghostrider

1984 Additional releases

29 Ratings 2.93 Average

2.93 29 29
Victims of Death
Sodom

1984 Additional releases

188 Ratings 2.84 Average

2.84 188 188
Rehearsal
Parabellum

1984 Additional releases

118 Ratings 2 Reviews 2.99 Average

2.99 118 118 2 2
Semen of Satan
Semen of Satan

1984 Additional releases

131 Ratings 1 Reviews 2.56 Average

2.56 131 131 1 1
Rehearsal
Tormentor

1984 Bootleg

5 Ratings 1.84 Average

1.84 5 5
Bathory
Bathory

1984 Album

9k Ratings 105 Reviews 3.62 Average

3.62 9k 8,981 105 105
Demo
Virgin Sin

1985 EP

21 Ratings 2.89 Average

2.89 21 21

1 2 ... 250 Next

Lists

RYM Ultimate Box Set > Black Metal 2009-05-01T22:41:30Z

The_Trickster 2 lists 37 items
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strawberrymilk 266 items
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Cascarino 10 items
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lexystarr 21 items
Black Metal Elitism 2024-04-11T04:17:55Z

serpentspine 124 items
I Will Listen To: 2024-04-11T00:03:51Z

OutweightGodzilla 136 items

Hierarchy

See all genres

Metal
Driving and distorted riffs, aggressive drumming, vigorous vocals, and an all-around show of brute force in its early days, since branching into dozens of subgenres.
- Black Metal
- - Atmospheric Black Metal
    Focuses on the atmospheric element using slowly developing riffs, repetitive melodies, usually slow to medium tempos, and commonly synthesized ambient textures.
    - Blackgaze
      Melds tremolo-picked riffing, high-gain guitars, and harsh, often wailing, vocals with mellow, dreamy textures and melodic song structures.
  - Black 'n' Roll
    Incorporates elements of Hard Rock, Glam Rock, and Heavy Metal.
  - Black Noise
    Incorporates unconventional sounds with overpowering or constant Noise and Black Metal elements, often being heavily texture-oriented, abrasive, dissonant, atonal, or repetitive.
  - Depressive Black Metal
    Characterized by lethargic atmospheres; usually repetitive song structures and slow-mid tempos; high-pitched wailing and gruff vocals; and usage of non-distorted instruments like keyboards and acoustic guitars.
  - Melodic Black Metal
    Cleaner production, more diverse arrangements, and a stronger emphasis on melody than is typical for Black Metal.
  - Pagan Black Metal
    Incorporates acoustic guitar and traditional instrument passages, cleanly sung vocals, folk songs' melodies, and paganistic themes.
  - Symphonic Black Metal
    Symphonic soundscapes, typically but not always synthesized.
  - War Metal
    Aggressive, chaotic, and heavily Death Metal-influenced.

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