Ever since I started listening to metal, black metal held a place in me. What are your favorite bands (and songs if you want. Please post videos if so!)

Mine are

Peste Noire
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0PfeW47ft ... b3lldXg%3D

Burzum
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce7PVdN4r ... YXJuZXQ%3D

Forgotten Woods
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gKa66lUgl ... Fyaw%3D%3D

Destroyer 666
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yg-Kva94R ... b2x2ZXM%3D

Agalloch
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qAaq0mpk9 ... luZyBzbm93

I have a love/hate relationship with this genre, I think is one of those genres that underground bands are better than the most known ones. I don't know if that happens with other genres, it reminds me a little bit of hardcore in that sense. I deeply despise Depressive Suicidal Black Metal, for a lot of reasons, but mostly because I disagree with the message of that genre. Atmospheric black metal is another one that I don't like at all because I can't stand the music. Raw black metal is also terrible for my taste, so I have a very specific taste regarding this genre and kind of music.

My top ten black metal albums would be something like this, without repeating bands.

1) Dissection - The Somberlain
2) Immortal - At the Heart of Winter
3) Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
4) Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion
5) Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark
6) Sacramentum - Far Away from the Sun
7) Naglfar - Vittra
8) Windir - Arntor
9) Dawn - Slaughtersun (Crown of the Triarchy)
10) Vinterland - Welcome My Last Chapter

Not sure if this'll be more than just a newbie guide/recommendations thread, but anyway. My favorites list would be pretty typical - many of the Norwegian classics, etc. I'll just throw out a couple things I've been really coming around to lately...

I'm late to the party for sure, but Mgła has finally been clicking with me. Somehow Exercises In Futility has gotten about 7M views on YouTube. I'm a little hesitant to ask if anyone knows how.


I've also been digging Virus, the follow-up project to Ved Buens Ende. Not exactly BM, but still quite cool. Definitely has its own unusual "voice," can't think of any others quite like it. (I heard Fleurety years ago, but didn't find it as interesting.)

"Under the Sign of the Black Mark" is an undisputed classic black metal album for sure. A landmark album of the genre. Oddly for me, this album never clicked for me except for the slower tracks, as I found the drum work to be too repetitive. Same with Mayhem's groundbreaking, genre-defining masterpiece- undeniably a great album start to finish but I found the best tracks on it to be "Life Eternal" and "Freezing Moon-" because there wasn't enough rhythmic variation in the rest of the tracks.

I would pick "Filosofem" and some of his later work as essential albums- and yeah I know he's a douchebag but thankfully he tends to keep his opinions separate from his music. Dark Throne's first album is excellent as well.

Nowadays I listen to less black metal than I used to, but I've found that means my favorites have solidified over the years. Bathory are and have been my favorite metal band period, with the self-titled debut and Under the Sign of the Black Mark being the apex of that early black metal style. I find that first-wave black metal is probably one of my favorite styles of metal overall, I've listened to Venom, Bathory, Celtic Frost, and Sarcofago consistently ever since I was in high school, and I've more recently got heavily into Sabbat (JPN). I think there's just this energy and sense of fun in a lot of the first-wave bands that you don't find it later black metal that really appeals to me (and yes, I know the debate around first-wave black metal not actually being "black metal," but w/e, close enough).

Weirdly enough I've found myself caring for a lot of the big second wave bands less and less over the years, especially the Norwegian scene. More into bands outside that scene that developed their own unique sound building off of the second wave, like Summoning, Moonsorrow, and Primordial. I've only started to recently delve into the Hellenic scene, but so far I love the first two albums from Varathron, truly excellent and unique takes on black metal.

If we're going by the amount of time I spent listening to them, I'd have to say Agalloch, Sigh and Arcturus would be pretty far up there, but they aren't really "pure black metal", so I don't know if they count or if all their material counts.

As for more straight-forward more "by the book" black metal, I'd have to say that Panopticon, Ulver, Darkthrone, Bathory and Immortal are among my favorites as well.

After these, I'd have to give a shoutout to Alcest, even if a lot of their stuff is more on the shoegaze and post-black side of the equation. Still, I enjoy most of their stuff, even the very early black metal stuff on Tristesse Hivernale, for instance.

Balrog is probably my first pick that's kind of outside of the big names that we often hear. But the band's first LP, entitled Ars Talionis - The Art of Murder, is some of the most vicious, raw and violent black metal there is. I simply love it.

I recent years my love for bands like Mgla and Blut Aus Nord has grown quite a bit. I love BAN's modern stuff, but their first LP, Ultima Thule is one of the most gorgeous black metal record there is, IMHO.

I also love me some black crust stuff like Iskra.

Beyond this, I would have to say that bands like Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult

Carpathian Forest, Wolves in the Throne Room, Darkspace, Taake, are also bands that I spin quite a bit.

Oh! And Stormkeep's debut album was mind-blowing! I hope they makre more stuff like it in the following years.

I prefer Swedish BM or other BM bands from other countries then the Norway BM scene. My favorite BM are:

Dark Funeral
Unlord
Rotting Christ
Bathory
Hellhammer

I know I sound generic but I am really picky on this genre. Recent BM I had enjoyed are


Syn -wilk

https://youtu.be/Yx-k3Fzc9bE?si=ge1t4Zmn3XxxOczh

Mordant Rhed Hatred for Humanity Demo

https://youtu.be/BMXA0mCBIhg?si=d7g4th7YfEpxKcxV

Bathory...'s first four albums, developing the sound from thrash with screechy vocals to something more its own... and then developing his own take with the epic Blood Fire Death.
Melechesh have fuckin' riffs - in particular, dense riffs capitulating a massive fiery desert sound.
Sigh due to their more unique take on the sound, mixing horror with kabuki theatrics.
Anaal Nathrakh as their music is like a soundtrack to the apocalypse.
White Ward for their mix of black metal and dark jazz making for some truly all-encompassing atmospheric music that their contemporaries aren't even fit to shine the shoes of. Particularly Love Exchange Failure, which is a masterclass in conveying that feeling of claustrophobic loneliness you could only get in a city.

Honorable mentions go to the unholy trinities from Darkthrone and Gorgoroth, as well as Mayhem's Deathcrush and De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas.

I've been playing Paysage d'Hiver a lot lately. Really excellent lo-fi/raw black metal. If your ears are attuned to the harsh presentation, you will discover some truly magnificent melodies and structures.

My all-time favorite is probably the German band Nagelfar. The 2nd album Srontgorrth is probably my nr 1 favourite album of all time, regardless of genre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA5lC4Z ... lPromotion

I've mostly fallen off black metal these days since I'm not nearly as depressed a person as I used to be, and that super dark atmosphere doesn't do a ton for me. The bands I still like tend to be more on the prog or blackened death side of things.

My all-time classic black metal faves are the usual ones from Scandinavia... Immortal, Emperor, Dissection, Enslaved and early Borknagar if you want to count them. For newer and less "traditional" black metal, I'm still a huge fan of Ihsahn, and I like other stuff like Tribulation, DHG, Agalloch, Myrkur, Summoning, Necrophobic, Sulphur Aeon, Thulcandra... anything too depressive and dark is not really my thing though.

Seconding this one as also my favourite album of all time of any genre. Such a stunning work.

Some favourite black metal bands of mine:
Abigor
Altar of Plagues
Bathory
Darkspace
Hirilorn
Midnight Odyssey
Nagelfar
Nokturnal Mortum
Tyrannic

Good call on Paysage. I own his "Im Wald" lp and still regularly crank it.

I always had a hard time catching the feel for BM until i found Basalte and their album Vertige. Band from Quebec (where I'm from!) and they totally opened my eyes to atmospheric black metal. Hope you enjoy!

Venom and Mercyful Fate.

There are very few BM bands where I really love their entire discography, so I'll list some albums instead. I'll also try to keep it to mostly "true" black metal, and not death/black, war metal, black/thrash or whatever.

Ash Borer - Ash Borer
Burzum - Filosofem
Marduk - Panzer Division Marduk
Darkthrone - Panzerfaust
Alcest - Kodama
Skogen - I döden
Cultes des Ghoules - Henbane
Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi
Void Meditation Cult - Utter the Tongue of the Dead
Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark

I've been listening to black metal since 2006, have gone pretty deep down the rabbit hole. Don't listen much to it in the past couple of years. Favorite bands and albums:

Darkthrone: Especially early and mid black metal era.
Burzum: All the 90s black metal albums before prison.
Lifelover: Not pure black metal musically but were fully part of the BM scene.
Furia: very innovative Polish black metal band.
Armagedda: Especially their magnus opus 'Ond Spiritism'.
Deathspell Omega: Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Circvmspice, Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum and Paracletus.
Aosoth: Arrow in the Heart.
Summoning: Stronghold and Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame.
Negura Bunget: Om (ignore everything after Om).
Leviathan: Great all across the board, favorite is Scar Sighted.
Dissection: Everything especially second album.
Satyricon: Up and until Rebel Extravaganza, everything after sucks.
Mgla: With Hearts Toward None.


I could name more but these are the bands from the top of my head I still like. Enjoy!

I totally forgot to call out Oranssi Pazuzu. Yes, one of the best black metal bands of the decade for sure.

Darkthrone, Kvist, Ulver, and Lunar Aurora have been my favorites for a while.

And somehow they just keep getting better with every album

My all time favourite black metal band is Arckanum. His first free albums are just perfect. Such a thick and enchanting atmosphere. After that he lost some of the initial spark, but has never released a bad album imo.

Of the Norwegian second wave classics, Darkthrone from Blaze through to Panzerfaust gets the most plays from me.

I also really enjoy a few of the Les Légions Noires projects. Mutiilation's Vampires of Black Imperial Blood is amazing and the Vlad Tepes/Belkètre split is definitely up there.

Some stuff that could be considered proto-dsbm is also great. Strid and Forgotten Woods on the gentler, more introspective side of things, and Malvery and Sortsind for raw torment. I'm very picky about later dsbm, but I like Wigrid and Lyrinx a lot.

More recent stuff I've been listening to regularly includes Trha, very atmosphere and unique black metal, Sorry..., a standout dsbm project, Keys to the Astral Gates and Mystic Doors, raw Darkthrone worship, and with a more experimental approach, Cosmic Church.

I’ve been listening to black metal for almost 30 years now. This is a really hard question to answer. I have favourites that vary a lot in sound within the style… I prefer to pull favourites from different scenes.

Eastern European BM bands like Root, Graveland, Veles, Master’s Hammer, Tormentor, Drudkh, Astrofaes, Maniac Butcher and Dark Storm.
German, Swiss and Austrian BM: Lunar Aurora, TRoB, Nagelfar, Nargaroth, Summoning, Amestigon, Abigor, Bethlehem, Tsotthoggua, Samael, Moonblood, Paysage D’hiver
USBM: Judas Iscariot, Weakling, Thornspawn, Absu, Leviathan, Krieg, Lurker of Chalice, Bloodstorm, Xasthur, Black Funeral, Inquisition, Weltmacht
Canadian BM: Blasphemy, Miasma, Frozen Shadows, Allfather, Niflheim, Sombre Forets, Nocturnal Departure, Spectral Wound, Sorciers des Glacé, Godless North
French BM: Antaeus, Aosoth, Bekhira, Mutiilation, Osculum Infâme, Vlad Tepes, Belketre, Belenos, Himinbjorg, Blut Aus Nord, Anorexia Nervosa
Norwegian/Niderosian BM: Thorns, Burzum, Fimbulwinter, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Emperor, Enslaved, Immortal, Hades, Forgotten Woods, Mare, Arcturus, Kaosritual, Carpathian Forest, Limbonic Art, Odium, Manes, Tsjuder
Swedish BM: Dawn, Dissection, Dark Funeral, Abruptum, Sacramentum, Craft, The Black, Vinterland, Marduk, Nifelheim, Niden Div. 187, Ondskapt, Naglfar, Ancient Wisdom, Bathory, Thy Primordial, Panphage, Jordablod, Armagedda
Finland: Horna, Behexen, Circle of Oroborus, Sargeist, Beherit, Impaled Nazarene, IC Rex, Satanic Warmaster
Dutch and Belgian BM: Urfaust, Lugubrum, Fluisterwoud, Galgeras, Botulistum, Enthroned,
Hellenic BM: Rotting Christ, Necromantia, Varathron, Zemial, Thou Art Lord, Dodsferd, Thy Darkened Shade, Nocternity, Agatus

Lots of other favourites: Midnight Odyssey, Sad Ex, Naxzul and Abyssic Hate from Australia, Altar of Perversion, Bulldozer, Beatrix and Ténèbrae in Perpetuum from Italy, Grima from Russia, Xibalba Itzaes from Mexico…

So many favs so little time… could keep going and going.

Same with me. I rarely reach for any BM at all these days, and when I do it's mainly the Borknagar / Enslaved / Emperor / Immortal / Winterfylleth ilk.

Bands

Mayhem
Immortal
Emperor
Bathory
Watain
Marduk
Darkthrone
Deathspell Omega
Bal-Sagoth
Summoning
Enslaved

Albums (one per band)

Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
Immortal - At the Heart of Winter
Emperor - In the Nigthside Eclipse
Bathory - The Return
Watain - Sworn to the Dark
Marduk - Plague Angel
Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky
Deathspell Omega - Kenose
Bal-Sagoth - The Power Cosmic
Summoning - Minas Morgul
Enslaved - Frost
Khold - Phantom
Stormkeep - Tales of Othertime
Gorgoroth - Incipit Satan
Craft - Terror Propaganda
Cradle of Filth - Dusk and Her Embrace
Dimmu Borgir - Enthrone Darkness Triumphant
Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernale
Anaal Nathrakh - The Codex Necro
Borknagar - Quintessence
Absu - Tara
Dark Funeral - The Secrets of the Black Arts
Agalloch - The Mantle
Venom - Black Metal
Ulver - Nattens Madrigal
Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
Satyricon - Nemesis Divina
1349 - Beyond the Apocalypse
Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane
Primordial - To the Nameless Dead
Drudkh - Autumn Aurora
Urgehal - Through Thick Fog Till Death
Hecate Enthroned - The Slaughter of Innocence, a Requiem for the Mighty
Siebenburgen - Delictum

Songs just 10

Mayhem - Life Eternal
Immortal - Withstand the Fall of Time
Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger
Watain - Legions of the Black Light
Cradle of Filth - Funeral in Carpathia
Emperor - Beyond the Great Vast Forest
Gorgoroth - Sorg
Dark Funeral - Shadows Over Transylvania
Khold - Døde Fuglers Sang
Stormkeep - The Seer

Let not this classic slide under the cracks.

Not the biggest BM fan unless it's stuff with other genres fused in there, Dissection, Later Immortal, Melechesh, Enslaved, Mithotyn

oh man i nearly did that

Yeah, Enslaved from the debut until... roughly at about Below the Lights is some good-to-great black metal.

This, Hordanes Land, Frost and Eld are some of the most impactful BM albums for me from any scene.

The main ones I enjoy listening to are Craft, Ludicra, Satyricon and Mayhem. Creeping and Exordium Mors from my country.

Also Aoratos even though there's only one album so far. Has great atmosphere that stands out from the members' other projects for me:

Aoratos are more death than black…

No one mention French,Greek scene or Canada pardon Quebec….
Bruh

Are you kidding? I… I specifically mentioned all of them.

Ok but I expected more mentioning

Swedish black metal is the best, my favorite school of BM. That country has created excellent metal during all its history.

A few favorites that I didn't see mentioned...

Anubi
Baxaxaxa
Celestial Bloodshed
Eternal Majesty
Faustcoven
Helheim
Mortuary Drape
Musta Surma
Nåstrond
Nuit Noire
Obtained Enslavement
Reverorum Ib Malacht
S.V.E.S.T.
Svartsyn
Ungod
Vitsaus

Lately mostly mgla.

Also Immortal, Mayhem, Satyricon.

I literally mentioned Aosoth and Deathspell Omega, both of whom are French.

Most black metal isn't that memorable for me and works best as background music. I will put on black metal promotion and let it run sometimes. For me I think I prefer most black metal when it is adding in other elements.

Always been a big fan of the Finnish scene, atmospheric and blackgaze to a lesser extent.

Horna - Sanojesi Aarelle

Sarastus - Enter the Necropolis

Sargeist - Satanic Black Devotion

An Autumn for Crippled Children - Only the Ocean Knows

Elderwind - The Magic of Nature

More of fan of the 80's and early 90's black metal:

Absu
Aura Noir
Bathory
Burzum
Darkthrone
Dawn
Desaster
Deströyer 666
Dissection
Emperor
Enslaved
Hellhammer/Celtic Frost/Triptykon
Immortal
Marduk
Master's Hammer
Mayhem
Melechesh
Mercyful Fate
Moonsorrow
Mortuary Drape
Order from Chaos
Primordial
Root
Rotting Christ
Sadistik Exekution
Samael
Satan's Host
Satyricon
Thorns
Varathron
Venom
Watain

Edit: Satan wanted it in alphabetical order.

Without order...

Bathory
Inquisition
Satanic warmaster
Burzum
Mayhem
Watain
Mgla
Impaled nazarene
Goatmoon
Absurd
Graveland
Darkthrone
Beherit
Blasphemy
Dissection
Rotting christ
Styricon (till nemesis divina)
Enslaved
Emperor
immortal
ulver( till madrigal's)
Falkenbach
Summoning
Immortal
Master's hammer
Destroyer 666
Ancient Rites
Los males del mundo
Peste noire

Bathory
Mystifier
Darkthrone
Gorgoroth - first three only
Windir
Taake
Kampfar
Helheim
Havukruunu
Malokarpatan
Melechesh
Paysage Dhiver
Wolves in the Throne Room
Panopticon
Fluisteraars
Oranssi Pazuzu