It’s Father’s Day, celebrate the black metal way!
Before we get to the list, there’s a handful of things I want to points I want to make.
1. There’s no possible way Ve alone could comprehensively come up with a list of every black metal band worth knowing. If you know of someone that isn’t on this list and ought to be, by all means, please let Ve know with a comment.
2. Genres are at best an imperfect means of categorizing music. There’s bands on this list that probably wouldn’t be black metal by some people’s standards. Also, there’s probably bands that others classify as black metal that Ve decided weren’t appropriate for this list. Such is life.
3. Black metal is perhaps the most controversial style of music known to humankind. To that end, I want to make it clear that Ve is a blog solely interested in dispensing musical information, and has no political affiliation of any kind. As for myself personally, it would give me great pleasure to see every national socialist kicked in the nuts.
4. I used an Internet program to alphabetize this list. The program made all sorts of computer mistakes with the alphabetization, and I didn’t bother to go through and correct them. Sorry for the inconvinence.
5. If you don’t feel like clicking on link after link after link, I’ve made a YouTube playlist for your convenience. Here it is.
1349
Abruptum
Absurd
Arallu
Arckanum
Astarte
Astrofaes
Bathory
Beherit
Behexen
Belphegor
Vivian Black
Black Dawn
Brume d’Automne
Burzum
Cryfemal
Dark Domination
Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult
Dark Funeral
Dark War
Deathspell Omega
Death SS
December Wolves
Deinonychus
Demonic Christ
Destroyer 666
Dismantle
Dodsferd
Drudkh
Eluveitie
Emperor
Enslaved
Ereshkigal
Finntroll
Forest Silence
Funeral Winds
Furze
Gallhammer
Gehenna
Gorgoroth
Gozertröth
Grand Belial’s Key
Hecate Enthroned
Horna
Horned Almighty
I
Immortal
Impiety
Infernal Rites
Isengard
I Shall Become
Iskald
IXXI
Jagamong
K.O.B.U.S.
Keep of Kalessin
Khors
Krieg
Kroda
Kult ov Azazel
Lik
Loits
Majellyca
Malign
Mantak
Marduk
Moonblood
Moribund Oblivion
Mütiilation
Nadiwrath
Nastrond
Nazgûl
Nokturnal Mortum
Nåstrond
Oathean
Old Funeral
Ondskapt
Orcustus
Quo Vadis
Raped God 666
Rotting Christ
Sarcófago
Satanic Warmaster
Sear Bliss
Semen Of Satan
Serpent Lore
Shining
Sombres Forêts
Sorcier des Glaces
Stillhet
Summoning
Surrender of Divinity
Svartsyn
Szron
Sólstafir
Temnozor
The Stone
The True Werwolf
Thor’s Hammer
Thou Art Lord
Thunderbolt
Trelldom
Tsjuder
Tuman
Underthreat
Urfaust
Urgehal
Vordven
Watain
Woods of Infinity
Zarathustra
I think that Weakling (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxZU-vRbvcg), Wolves in the Throne Room (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07XF5uKZlgw and Fall of Efrafa (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBNeMAwC7IA&feature=related) are all essential listens for anyone looking at contemporary ("third wave") black metal. Menace Ruine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XpL0LwYC0s) is always worth a listen, too.
Black metal mostly gets associated with its weirdly-dressed northern European perpetrators from the early-mid 90s, the whole church burnings and satanism and bad make-up thing. But since the turn of the century the newly hybridized black metal of bands like Weakling, taking enormous influence from post-rock, doom, sludge and even shoegaze (and, later, heavy doses of drone) evolved into the "environmentalist" black metal scene, with bands like Bone Awl and Wolves in the Throne room living partially or fully off-the-grid on sustainable farms, sometimes even practicing their music entirely acoustically. Fall of Efrafa, from Brighton, had a similarly environmental message, mixing a crust punk attitude with a minimal post-rock aesthetic and black metallic sound. Often, however, the "progressive" black metal crowd go so far as to get cut out of the genre entirely, as is likely the case with Fall of Efrafa, and if you listen to them you usually can't help but agree that this isn't just black metal anymore.