Black Metal.

Anyone know who did the covert art for Anthems? I was checking Necrolord's site and he only has ITNSE listed as his work.
 
Do you guys know any good black metal bands for beginners? I'm trying to get into black metal, but a lot of it seems a little too complex for me.
 
Would post youtube videos but I don't want to go fucking the thread for everyone, so:

Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark, The Return...
Tormentor - Anno Domini
Venom - Black Metal
Master's Hammer - Ritual

Darkthrone - Transylvanian Hunger, A Blaze in the Northern Sky
Enslaved - Eld, Frost
Immortal - Pure Holocaust
Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
Darkthrone - Hvis Lyset tar Oss, Det Som Engang Var
Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

Sacramentum - Far Away from the Sun
Nagelfar - Hünengrab im Herbst
Dawn - Slaughtersun
Isvind - Dark Waters Stir
Ved Buens Ende - Written in Waters
Absu - Tara
Behexen - By the Blessing of Satan


Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God, Memoria Vetusta II
Dodsengel - Mirium Occultum
Negura Bunget - Om
Aosoth - Arrow in Heart
Paysage d'Hiver - Das Tor
The Ruins of Beverast - Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite
Primordial - The Gathering Wilderness
Spite Extrme Wing - Vltra
Mgla - With Hearts Towards None
Drudkh - Blood in Our Wells
Oranssi Pazuzu - Kosmonument
Inquisition - Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm


Grouped them vaguely chronologically. Tried to cover a variety of styles. Everyone else would probably mention Summoning but I don't like them so I can't say what album is their best. Same goes for the big Greek bands.

Even the more 'complex' bands like Ved Buens Ende and Blut Aus Nord aren't really that complex. If you like what you hear, you like what you hear. I don't see the point in listening to something if you're not enjoying it. I'd have thought anyone with an interest in metal would like at least a few of these though.
 
The above list is solid. Here's 5 to narrow things down a bit.

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II
Burzum - Filosofem
Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane
Drudkh - Blood in Our Wells
Master's Hammer - Ritual
 
Do you guys know any good black metal bands for beginners? I'm trying to get into black metal, but a lot of it seems a little too complex for me.

I'm also a Black Metal beginner, and there seems to be many routes into the genre depending on your tastes.

Previously, my only interest in "extreme" music was Slayer and Opeth; everything else I listen to (rock and metal) has clean vocals. It was actually Agalloch's "Marrow Of The Spirit" that I first heard and enjoyed. Not true Black Metal, but it had that new sound and vocal style that I wasn't used to, and I couldn't stop playing that album. I got the rest of their stuff, and looked around for other things I liked, the next being Fen, Altar Of Plagues, October Falls and Gallowbraid. Then came the much more extreme (for me) Moonsorrow which I just kept listening to until I got used to that intense sound. And that was it for a couple of years.

More recently, I was interested in getting back into the scene, and spent a lot of time researching for things I like, going down my own path, and pretty much ignoring the recommended classics (often from the 2nd Wave) primarily because my ears aren't tuned into that style. The stuff that I've been listening to and enjoying is more recent (2000's onwards), and tends to be in the "atmospheric" category, or stuff with more melody or punctuated with lighter acoustic passages. For example, Ashbringer, Downfall Of Nur, Drudkh, Dynfari, Falls Of Rauros, A Forest Of Stars, FrostSeele, Nagelfar, Nattsol, Negura Bunget, Saor, Thy Serpent, Waldgefluster, Winterfylleth, Wodensthrone, Wolves In The Throne Room.

Production values are important to me, so even if the sound of the playing is quite raw, as long as there is sufficient range dynamics in the recording quality then that is perfectly acceptable to me. Something like Ruins Of Beverast "Rain Upon The Impure" is not something I can listen to because of the awful sound, but to others that is part of the Black Metal sound. However, as I'm finding so much stuff that does have good sound quality, I don't mind passing on anything that is too monotone, muffled or tinny, regardless of how highly praised or "classic" status they are, and moving on to sampling something else.

Anyway, some of the weird stuff with wailing vocals also interests me, such as Austere, Ghost Bath, Pensees Nocturnes. And these aroused my curiosity to look further into the "depressive" side of Black Metal, where further enjoyable discoveries have included Sombres Forets, Gris, Silencer and Shining.

I'm slowly checking out some of the more extreme bands, although I am struggling with what often sounds like a "wall of noise" (or complexity?). I am enjoying Emperor ("IX Equilibrium" and "Anthems..."), but a lot of the "classics" from the 2nd Wave that I've listened to aren't really my thing. Maybe some day I'll feel different, but not right now.

A lot of this journey has been by simply listening to albums on YouTube, and then clicking on the other recommendations and seeing what else I can discover. When you find something you like, listen to some similar stuff and try and branch out from there, as there is certainly enough variety in the genre...
 
You pretty much summed up my tastes in Black Metal. I don't understand the love for some of the so called golden era of Norwegian Black Metal and even though I have listen to BM for like 15 years those albums never grew on me like many fans assured me they would. I get that it important to some people and that the bad sound adds to the rawness, but I am unable to make any kind of personal connection to it which I think is essential to enjoying it.

Youtube is truly a great tool for finding music. It is so much easier and you don't have to dig through the bowels of the internet or music stores to find something you enjoy enough, that you want to keep looking into the genre. I had to start with easy BM albums like late 90s Dimmu Borgir because it was easy to find. From there it was a painful journey because all the recommendations were either the old school burzum albums I did not like or bands so polished it was clinical sounding and without feeling (Dimmu, Cradle of Filth for those who called it BM). There was very little in terms of middleground.

It was actually Usenet that allowed me to find a majority of the bands I came to love.

These days I tend to stick to a fairly basic roster of atmospheric bands mixed with some traditional sounding but well executed heavy stuff.
 
It's a genre that's proved to be difficult for me to really embrace. I quite like Emperor and older Immortal and some other classic bands, but for some reason I can't get into many others that most people suggest. Even legendary bands like Burzum and Bathory just don't really click with me. Of atypical stuff, Nokturnal Mortum is by far my favorite. They put out out one of my favorite extreme albums ever in 2009/2010 (I forget the year) with Voice of Steel. I also got into Lunar Aurora recently and they're quite good. This year I was impressed with (as I stated a few posts up) Azaghal and very recently Akhlys. I often find that my getting into black metal bands is a very random happening. I tend to like most death metal I hear to varying degrees, but with black metal, if I listen to two bands that share a very similar style I can be easily and immediately drawn to one yet completely dismissive of the other.
 
Lunar Aurora are also new for me as well, although I went for the "Hoagascht" CD which arrived yesterday, since I couldn't find a full album of "Andacht" (which gets more recommendations) to listen to on YouTube. However I get the impression from the reviews that "Hoagascht" is slightly lighter in style anyway, so probably more to my taste.
 
To the peeps not enjoying the earlier black metal bands: I'm not a big Emperor fan. They're ok, but it's always background music for me. Not a huge Burzum fan either. You guys should play Transylvanian Hunger on repeat till it clicks, you'll get it. Also check out Enslaved because all they do is pretty damn sick.
 
Would you guys be so kind as to suggest some of the main online Black Metal stores for CDs.

Amazon and EBay is all I'm used to, but I have built a small list so far of CDs that I can't find listed. I noticed the Panopticon Bandcamp page lists two stores that are carrying their new album, so that prompted me to ask what are the main online suppliers for the genre that I could look at who are likely to stock the more obscure stuff as well.