I don't see a legitimate 3rd wave of black metal out there. The practical difference between Immortal and Blut Aus Nord is much less than the distance between Brahms and Wagner, who were exact contemporaries working in the same genre. Striborg is more like Ildjarn (two generations back) than supposed fellow 3rd wavers like Deathspell Omega. Fundamentally, none of it is all that far removed from To Mega Therion, which was recorded the better part of a quarter century ago.
Of course Brahms and Wagner are quite different, because musical evolution is like a tree branching out, not linear. By the Romantic era, the range of diversity within music became wide. But classical music going from Baroque to Classical is taking a more narrowly-defined aesthetic and expanding upon it, adding new elements to the template.
Likewise the more recent bands have taken the Burzum and Darkthrone templates and modified them, adding new influences.
So it is fair to make the analogy of Bach is to Burzum as Mozart is to Deathspell Omega. If you view it in those terms, perhaps you can shed your silly prejudices against "derivative" new forms of Black Metal.
That's a reflection of cultural values: the mania for classification came out of the industrial revolution and the 19th century. It doesn't change the fact that Bach and Mozart are radically different at a fundamental level.
The mania for classification was a by-product of musical diversification, which proves my point that going from Baroque to Classical, which happened before the Industrial Revolution, was a linear transition within a genre before it drastically began branching out starting in the 19th century.
I've actually spent real time with all three records. Blut Aus Nord and Deathspell Omega have some interesting ideas poorly executed - Averse Sefira explores similar ground with more coherence and less reliance on melodrama. Drudkh just strikes me as Burzum as interpreted by someone with the editing sensibilities of Micheal Akerfeldt. Love the album covers, though.
I'm glad you gave these records their due time, but you need to form a new attitude. You have this notion of chronological inferiority, that because something came out later that it must be only a rehash of previous ideas. Guess what, your precious 90's bands are just as derivative of 80's influences as today's bands are of 90's influences.
Imagine someone 10 years older than you, who refuses to listen to Burzum and Emperor because they are merely rehashing the ideas of Celtic Frost and Bathory. You would think him a fool, wouldn't you? Well that's how we all here view you yourself.
