Black Metal.

[EspaDa]

Straight to my 'check out' list.

Cobalt is one of my all time favourite bands! Their drummer Erik, the founder of the band, is a friend of mine. He's a super nice dude who listens to lots of great music. He's also one of the best black metal drummers I've ever heard. Be sure to check them out, matey.

 

[The Butt]

Black metal albums rarely have drumming that stands out, that's usually by design I suppose because it's supposed to create an atmosphere via repetition, but I love the drumming on Thousand Swords. The cymbal work makes it sound like an actual sword battle is going on throughout the record, it's fucking fantastic.

Mgła is a band that has fantastic drumming imo.

 

[Onder]

Goddamit.

 

[Allfader]

Black metal albums rarely have drumming that stands out, that's usually by design I suppose because it's supposed to create an atmosphere via repetition, but I love the drumming on Thousand Swords. The cymbal work makes it sound like an actual sword battle is going on throughout the record, it's fucking fantastic.

I think that's changing now. Plenty of modern black metal features competent to fantastic drumming. Kriegsmachine is an excellent example.

Still, many old black metal albums/bands also had good drumming, I mean, guys like Hellhammer, Frost, Grim, Trym, Dirge Rep, Horgh, Nick Barker, Czral, Themis, Proscriptor, etc, were/are all excellent performers.

 

[CiG]

I'm not making statements about objective talent, just stylistic preferences. I don't particularly want to hear black metal with technical death metal drumming, or whatever.

Drums that stand out aren't necessarily drums that are played technically, just interestingly. "Good drumming" in the context of black metal, to me, is drumming that does its job and helps to create an atmosphere.

Thousand Swords just happens to feature some very cool cymbal work that I like. That said, Hellhammer is definitely a monster.

 

[Allfader]

Not all guys I mentioned are technically espectacular either. I was going for drummers that add value to the music they play.

Grim was technically a quite average metal drummer but he played with such intensity that almost all the albums he recorded have that sense of merciless beating.

I would say that black metal in general became far more professional in the last 10-15 years; the albums are more or less well produced and the musicianship has vastly improved.

 

[CiG]

Black metal drummers doing what black metal drummers usually do is adding value to the music they play.

 

[CiG]

Still get a massive kick out of this Bulgarian black metal demo. Wonder where he went and why he suddenly stopped making any music or having any online presence.

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

Here's a recent find that's really made an impression. The music is filled to the brim with those eerie melodies that make black metal great.

 

[CiG]

Oh yeah, this is slaying me. Good find.

 

[Einherjar86]

Straight to my 'check out' list.

Cobalt fucking rules, although I prefer Slow Forever over Eater of Birds. Also, Wunder's side project, Man's Gin, is an awesome dark folk act.

A few highlights from 2018 for me were new ones by Uada, Sojourner, and Mesarthim. Definitely a lot I haven't had time to check out, but I'm hoping for some nice surprises in 2019.

 

[EspaDa]

In my country people keep slating Uada for ripping off Mgla's sound. I've never listened to Uada, so I can't really tell how I feel about that.

 

[Phylactery]

I mean they don't sound that much like Mgla to the point of ripping them off, and it's not like Mgla's sound is that unique tbh.

Reminder that this is Mgla's best song:



So good. These vocals are disgusting and wretched.

 

[dwellerINTHEdark]

There's no such thing as plagiarism in black metal.

 

[CiG]

Finally checked out Eater of Birds and I completely agree about the praise for the drumming. They sounded so massive, but the cymbal work drills into your head perfectly. Good shit, cheers for the recommendation!

 

[EspaDa]

Their last offering slays too. I might like it even more than any other release of theirs.

 

[CiG]

Is this fucking black stoner metal?

 

[Phylactery]

Yeah, Jesus Christ, that was fucking horrendous.

 

[dwellerINTHEdark]

The last Cobalt album has the dude from Lord Mantis on vocals so it has that blackened sludgeness about it. Although I still like the album a lot, I do feel it is their weakest release based on the vox. But that album is nowhere near horrendous.

 

[CiG]

That song was atrocious to me, hard pass on the whole album if it's anything like that. I barely even like regular stoner metal and Lord Mantis never did a thing for me even when I was at my most balls deep in sludge metal.