Best Canadian black metal bands

[BlackMetalWar]

Canada has the best black metal in the world, bar none. The coldest metal from the coldest country in the world

Woods of Ypres is, of course, at the top of my list, but my other favourites are:

Operation Winter Mist, Megiddo, Funeral Fog, Unquintessence, Godless North, Feral Horde, Ur Falc'h, Pagan Hellfire, Triskèle, Wolven Ancestry, A Raven's Forest, Niflheim, Sombres Forets, Emyprean Plague, Monarque, Caliginous, Heritage Mystique, Rigorous Obliteration, Eternal.

Unfortunately, we have some of the worst joke bands ever, such as "w00d5b17ch" and "Doing Nuns in the Butt for Satan." Ugh.

 

[SPLASTiK]

Blasphemy

 

[Darth Grimby]

Hellacaust!

 

[Marc]

Bloodaxe

 

[Demilich]

Funeral Fog, Utlagr, Wolven Ancestry, Operation Winter Mist

those are a couple of my favourites, i know i'm forgetting a lot.

 

[sdmf2]

I thought Triskele were from Europe

 

[BlackMetalWar]

I thought Triskele were from Europe

Nope, homegrown Quebecois black metal, I'm not sure from where exactly. I know they're opening for Nargaroth, however.

 

[zekeyou]

Let's not forget
Vanquished, Anhkrehg, Arctic Circle
and
the now 'deceased' Dead of Winter....

And problaby the most extreme/abrasive black metal band, WOLD.

 

[Dauden]

Definitely Norway has way better BM, haha. WoY has to be one of the best black metal bands from Canada right now, makes me proud to be Canadian. Wolven Ancestry and Will of the Ancients own too. I don't know any besides what was mentioned up top though.

 

[David Gold]

There are so many interpretations of what 'black metal' is, but let's say for this example that black metal is used to categorise music with dark, emotionally heavy riffs and blast beats, regardless of lyrical content. In this case, I predict that Canada will have an EXPLOSION of 'black metal' bands emerging in the next 5 years or so. Canada as a whole is already 15 years late in 'realising' this style and embracing the power of the cold riff, but it's still going to happen...in fact were seeing it happen already! It seems as though 'black metal' is just catching on around us here and so many more people are just starting to learn how to express themselves through it.

 

[zekeyou]

How could I forget Axis of Advance? Definitely a must for fans of black metal in the vein of Destroyer 666.....

 

[SPLASTiK]

Canada as a whole is already 15 years late in 'realising' this style... It seems as though 'black metal' is just catching on around us here

Which is odd since Blasphemy have been around since the 80's and even toured Europe with Immortal in 1994! Kind of interesting but not so surprising that an early originator of black metal would be from Canada.

 

[CaGeD iN]

hmmm only bands that i know are from canada are WoY, kataklysm, and into eternity, but i dont always read bios on every band i listen to

 

[chrisdoig24k]

From the small amount I've heard, I prefer north american black metal to Norwegian black metal. Sure, I ADORE Burzum and Ulver, but WoY and Agalloch and such have such a different sound, and I prefer it heaps. Plus, Norway has too much 'brutal' black metal that bores me to tears, a la Darkthrone, Gorgoroth etc.

 

[David Gold]

Here's an observation that I'd like you to keep in mind when comparing Canada's black metal scene to the scenes of other countries, Norway's for example: Canada's black metal scene is completely underground! ...as in there are NO Canadian black metal bands on big, or even semi-big labels, and hardly any of them are on labels at all. In fact, most Canadian bands mentioned in this thread are and have always been completely independent, Woods of Ypres included. My point is that I find it very difficult to compare our bm scene to that of world famous and infamous 15 + year old Norwegian scene, with the likes of the genre founding bands (+ Dimmu Borgir, Darkthrone, Gorgoroth, Ulver, Arcturus, + all of their underground stuff, etc...).

Though Black Metal may be seen as an "old" genre already to some of the world, Canada is a young country for black metal. Like I mentioned earlier, it seems that things are just starting to happen in Canada. I've been getting e-mails from so many people accross the country lately who are just starting new bm projects and bands right now that it's scary to think about what's going to happen in the near future! My advice to them is always simply to spend LOTS of time on writing and developping their sound and their songs, espcially their first few songs, and not to rush it.

If I have one criticism of the some of the newcomers to the Canadian scene is that too many people have mailed Dan Hulse and I some pretty weak, cliched and obviously rushed bm band/project demo CDrs over the last couple years. I just wish these people would have made more of an investment of their time when writing and recording their songs before sending anything out for the world to hear. In all of those cases when receiving these CDs in the mail, I really wanted to like what I heard, but I simply couldn't. Not only was it disapointing when this happened, but I worried that releases like those would water down and cheapen the overall whole of the rest of us in the Canadian bm 'scene'. I would love to listen to more new Candian bm bands and be able to say "This is fucking awesome!!!".

We'll see what we make of the future!

 

[Trows]

I think when it comes to black metal, I am most enjoyed by the French scene, it just seems to have a "majestic" sound to it. Check out Amesoeurs too.

I heard this towards the end of last year, and the three tracks on their EP QUICKLY raised to the top of my most listened tracks to on last.fm, and it rose to my favourite release of 2006. Simple reason too, their mix of post-rock and black metal is brilliant.

 

[Burning Missive]

Bloodaxe

I love this band; it was one of the first black metal bands I really enjoyed, alongside Operation Winter Mist. Bloodaxe is criminally underrated and I look forward to hearing the new album.

 

[chrisdoig24k]

Aye, there are some GREAT french BM bands. Particularly Nocturnal Depression and Blut Aus Nord IMO. Not too much of a fan of Anorexia Nervosa... France also has some other great death metal!

 

[zekeyou]

You can't mention France and not mention Antaeus....

 

[Demilich]

I just got in the Amesoeurs EP yesterday if we're talking about French BM.

Definitely gonna check out the rest of Niege and Noktu's projects based on what I've heard so far!