Curious about Black Metal....

[ADS]

Being a musician, I tend to gravitate towards music that's overflowing with talent, and tend to be seriously turned off by stuff that's talentless or overrated. And with this approach, I honestly can't name a single genre out there that I haven't been able to find great music in.

It always seemed to me that if you forget about the image and ideology behind the music, and just listen to the music FOR the music (disregarding stuff with shitty production if you don't like that), then I find that there's a whole lot of music out there in a ton of different genres that's seriously good, and worth a listen or two. After all, when the CD is in the CD player, what the hell do I care if the guy on the CD cover is wearing corpsepaint? The more styles you listen to, the more exposed you are to an enormous amount of different ideas, philosophies, moods, atmospheres and messages. I personally love that kind of stuff... I love experiencing different ideas, regardless of whether I subscribe to their individual points of view.

Like Satan and black metal, for example... I don't worship Satan, and have no desire to do so... but forget about the fact that these bands are singing about Satan, and think about what their interests in Satan are doing to their music, and how it reflects in their mood and atmosphere. It can be seriously intense!! Makes for some killer dark moody music. But of course, if you don't like dark moody music, then I'm sure it won't be to your liking.

My suggestion to the original poster is... check out as many of the bands mentioned in this thread as you can... there's a lot of great stuff mentioned here. Decide for yourself what's good and what's not, and forget about bullet belts, corpsepaint or Satan. Most of these bands have web pages where you can listen to samples of their stuff. Spend an hour some night and see for yourself... Google will find most of the web pages for you. Who knows... maybe you'll think it all sucks. BM certainly isn't for everyone... and some of it can take a very special ear to enjoy.

 

[anonymousnick2001]

^ Awesome post. Except a lot of BM bands don't talk about Satan.

 

[ADS]

^ Awesome post. Except a lot of BM bands don't talk about Satan.

Very true. I was stereotyping for the sake of argument

 

[anonymousnick2001]

Ok

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

I've never been able to get into black metal, due to all the gay theatrical bullshit (corpse paint, fake blood, keyboard solos, etc...).

Yeah, if by that you mean Cradle of Filth, they're not even BM.

 

[ShadowOfDeath]

Guh

1) Cradle of Flith is NOT black metal. Since that was the only band you named you obviously have a skewed vision of black metal

2) What you call bad production is actually the (more often then not) the best way to sonically express what the artists are trying to convey, if you can't figure that out then you'll never get black metal. It's hard to express such anti-chirstian views when you are abiding to a christain view of beauty.

3) For the keyboards, your learn to see their beauty in time. At first they may come off as cheesey, but the more you listen the more you'll see their importance.

Ok heres some albums to start out with:

Dissection- Storm of the Lights Bane Very good clean production, almost no keyboards, but yet the atmosphere is disinctly dark. The songwriting is top notch as well.

Burzum- Hvis Lyset Tar Oss This is an excellent example of keyboards being used tastfully. Lush, layered, dense and undeniably powerful this album is a must. Give it time, at first listen it won't quite click.

Emperor- Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk Another example of keyboards being used tastfully. Give it time, as this is truly one of the greatest works ever, but it takes time to reveal itself.

Ok heres some more starters:
Blut Aus Nord- The Work Which Transforms God
Mutiilation- Vampires of Black Imperial Blood (you're gonna have to get over the production thing, really...)
Nargaroth- Herbstleyd
Enslaved- Vikingligr Veldi
Xasthur-Nocturnal Poisoning

Anyways thats a good diverse list of black metal to let you get familair with some of the different stylings and attitudes the genre contains. None of them are too keyboard heavy except the Emperor, but that album is brillant...

Nagaroth? When i listened to them it was merely shitty instrumentals that were slow and boring. Perhaps i listened to the wrong album. But i don't even see black metal aspects in Nagaroth, i was really disspointed with them.

To add to your production: Many black metal guitarists use basic power chords or punk based playing. I think i heard that was the case with a lot of emperor songs, though i myself haven't ever played emperor on guitar so i don't know this for sure. If it didn't have shitty production it wouldn't sound as great, AT ALL!

Cradle of Filth actually is symphonic black metal. A very bad excuse for it but still is black metal. Same with Dimmu Borgir. I hate to say it but the truth is the truth. Besides before they became popular i bet many people would've said they're black metal. Now that they've become popular people don't consider them so anymore. Unless you can tell me otherwise how it's not in any way shape or form black metal. Yes, Symphonic Black Metal is still black metal, if it wasn't then we could all say Emperor are not black metal, and that's plain insanity. I have to agree with you that listening to Cradle of Filth is not the idea if you're going to judge black metal, go with Emperor, Darkthrone, pioneers before making a decision on it. And even merely a few bands does not show the door to what black metal is. Many bands have their own element that makes their overall sound unique.

Keyboards are nice with black metal, but not necessary. I don't recall darkthrone having keyboards. Just an extra to make the music more atmospheric.

 

[ShadowOfDeath]

Being a musician, I tend to gravitate towards music that's overflowing with talent, and tend to be seriously turned off by stuff that's talentless or overrated. And with this approach, I honestly can't name a single genre out there that I haven't been able to find great music in.

It always seemed to me that if you forget about the image and ideology behind the music, and just listen to the music FOR the music (disregarding stuff with shitty production if you don't like that), then I find that there's a whole lot of music out there in a ton of different genres that's seriously good, and worth a listen or two. After all, when the CD is in the CD player, what the hell do I care if the guy on the CD cover is wearing corpsepaint? The more styles you listen to, the more exposed you are to an enormous amount of different ideas, philosophies, moods, atmospheres and messages. I personally love that kind of stuff... I love experiencing different ideas, regardless of whether I subscribe to their individual points of view.

Like Satan and black metal, for example... I don't worship Satan, and have no desire to do so... but forget about the fact that these bands are singing about Satan, and think about what their interests in Satan are doing to their music, and how it reflects in their mood and atmosphere. It can be seriously intense!! Makes for some killer dark moody music. But of course, if you don't like dark moody music, then I'm sure it won't be to your liking.

My suggestion to the original poster is... check out as many of the bands mentioned in this thread as you can... there's a lot of great stuff mentioned here. Decide for yourself what's good and what's not, and forget about bullet belts, corpsepaint or Satan. Most of these bands have web pages where you can listen to samples of their stuff. Spend an hour some night and see for yourself... Google will find most of the web pages for you. Who knows... maybe you'll think it all sucks. BM certainly isn't for everyone... and some of it can take a very special ear to enjoy.

You made a lot of sense with that post. Usually i don't even pay attention to what bands look like until AFTER i've heard their music. I've never seen a black metal band play live. And my first Darkthrone album was Transilvanian Hunger. the only reason i knew what they looked like was because i had read interviews with the band and articles in magazines which had their picture. I'd try really hard to listen to a band and NEVER see or pay attention to what they look like. It makes you wonder what was going on when they recorded this. Sure we all know they gather in a studio and play the music, record it, mix it, whatever but that atmosphere and mood makes it really interesting, like Covenant's in times before the light(and it's remix) are both very atmospheric and closing your eyes to listen to them can make very powerful images. Hell even with my eyes open and staring at something i zone out and can feel it.

Black metal does not worship satan. Sometimes satan is influenced in the lyrics but the lyrics have lots of different topics to them. And even certain bands don't focus entirely on satan, but rather everything. My black metal lyrics are like that. It's more folk tales(sounds gay but since when has black metal been entirely about the lyrics) i make up and put into lyrical form, but i have lines in some that would go something like "Blood of christians stain my sword, As i stab their souls for thy true lord." which i guess would be considered blasphemous, but that would not set the standard for all of my lyrics nor would it for black metal as a whole. Also might i add that's the only song i wrote any form of blasphemy in. So don't assume it's all satanic shit.

Also i agree, certain ears can appreciate black metal. Just like certain ears can appreciate noise. I don't understand noise whatsoever. Doesn't mean it's not good. The works of merzbow may be good only to other listeners than myself. Just like black metal can only be appreciated by certain ears. Though it's sad many of those ears can be closed minded.

 

[LordFireworm]

i have lines in some that would go something like "Blood of christians stain my sword, As i stab their souls for thy true lord." which i guess would be considered blasphemous,

Hahahahahaha. Not blasphemous; contrived and pathetic.
Knock yourself out with the anti-Christian rhetoric, but at least put some effort into it rather than being so horribly obvious and stale.

 

[smågoth]

If you wanna get into black metal try the three latest imortal albums, they are quite thrashy. Some might say theyre not really bm, but many would say they are. its a matter of lyrical content. Anyway, theyre good albums in the epic tradition of thrashy black metal. These albums are also the kind that dont need so many spins before they grow on you;

immortal- at the heart of winter
immortal- damned in black
immortal- sons of northern darkness

by the way, they do use some face paint, dont let that keep you from discovering these fine albums.

 

[LordFireworm]

Has any mentioned Desaster yet?
Because they fit perfectly.

 

[Reign in Acai]

Sorry, I don't have the time to read such long messages.

Profånity Total Posts: 16,943 (46.87 posts per day)

You don't have the the time?

 

[Terrifyer]

The bands mentioned generally are not that developed when it comes to how technincal the music is and it's still better than most pop music. This is, however, not the point in case you believed that. The composition in these bands is generally very advanced.

advanced compared to what?

 

[LordFireworm]

advanced compared to what?

Drinking milk.

 

[polarity]

If you wanna get into black metal try the three latest imortal albums, they are quite thrashy. Some might say theyre not really bm, but many would say they are. its a matter of lyrical content.

No it isn't.

 

[Profanity]

I agree.