Death or Black (Which first?)

[Nate The Great]

Whick did you hear first, Death Metal or Black Metal, and what did you think when you heard the other?

I was listening to Morbid Angel, Death, and Obituary years before I heard my first black metal album. When I first purchased Emperor "Anthems . . .", I couldn't figure it out. The sound seemed so THIN. Then after a few more listens, I couldn't stop myself. I bought "Nightside" and now I think Emperor is the best thing since zippers. I like a lot of other black metal (and death metal), but that was my first experience.

 

[J.]

I was into death metal WAY before black metal. I'm still not sold on black metal except for Emperor, Immortal, Ulver and a few more lesser well-known acts like Aborym and Golden Dawn.

I was listening to Dark Tranquillity, At the Gates, and Hypocrisy. The band that got me to give black metal a try was Amon Amarth. Clearly A.A. is death metal, but occasionally the singer has a high pitched vocal line, so I decided to give black metal a shot.

I have been impressed with black metal(the aforementioned bands) and have been terribly disappointed (Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum).

That was my experience.

 

[MadeInNewJersey]

Well for the life of me, I can't figure out why Burzum is regarded so highly either, Dreamlord. They suck shit!

And on topic, In Flames, Arch Enemy, Satyricon & Children of Bodom are the first "extreme bands" I had ever heard, so I guess melodic death metal would be what I heard first.

Though I've found plenty of black metal since then that I now love and cherish!

 

[J.]

I think Burzum is so highly regarded because of his extracirricular activities. Also, because he is a media slut. He changes facades every so often to keep the press interested. Let's see he has been a black metal elitist, a Viking, and a skinhead. Anything else?

Quite lame actually.

 

[Board]

I also started out with death metal like Morbid Angel, Carcass ("Heartwork"), Hypocrisy, Dismember and so on, but got tired of it after about a half year or so. I still listen to black metal which I got more into when death started to bore me. I think I've listened to black metal since '96 or something.
Varg Vikernes does seem to change a lot between satanism, Odinism and so on. I think the Count has done some of the best black metal ever! "Hvis lyset tar oss" is still my favorite black metal record of all time! The first song on it, "Det som en gang var" is also the best black metal song that has ever been made if you ask me! All of his stuff is very simple and it doesn't sound like he's a particularly good musician either, but I think "Hvis lyset tar oss" is one of the only black metal records I'd be listening to in 20 years! For me the mood is more important than aggression. I don't mind aggression as long as there's a good melody and perhaps a good/spooky mood. This is also why Type O Negative is my favorite band. Their music is also very, very simple but has this spooky mood that I don't really find elsewhere.
When I first heard Mayhem I was like "Goddamn this sucks!!!", but a while ago I downloaded some songs off of "De mysteriis dom Sathanas" and I was pleasantly surprised and the record is now amongst the 5 best black metal records I've heard!
I also like Satyricon very much (although "Rebel extravaganza" was a little dissapointing) as they're aggressive, but still have nice melodies and moods!
Some of Darkthrone's material is shit, but songs like "Hans siste vinter" or "Unholy black metal" is kind of classic to me. The same thing with Immortal. Their "Battles in the north" record was the best selling black metal record that year, but it only has three good songs in my opinion. The rest is just noise. I'm not too happy about their new record though.
Although black metal is probably "my main genre" there's also loads of black metal I think that sounds like shit. For instance Cradle of Filth (except for "She mourns a lengthening shadow"), Solhverv (Danish black metal crap), Lord Belial, Grimoire (except for "Nevuath Ha 'Tom" and "...And on with darkness") and the newest Limbonic Art LP (their first was great though!). There's lots more, but if I didn't like them I kind of erased them from my mind.

 

[ricochet]

I started off listening to death metal before I heard any black metal bands. I really like Emperor, some of Ulver's work, Absu, and Lunaris. That is about the extent of my black metal. I just never really got into it. I prefer death metal much more. Also, I am not too fond of the image associated with many black metal bands. I knew a guy last year in school who was really into black metal...in fact, that was all he listened to or talked about. I am sure if I heard some other bands I'd like them, but overall I don't care for the sound or the bands I've heard.

Board, I noticed you are listening to Wishbone Ash. I love their "Argus" album...great dualing guitars. Classic sound. "Time waaaaaaaaas".

 

[Board]

I only have "Pilgrimage" by Wishbone Ash. I just found it the other day in a second hand store and it was the first time I heard them, but it sounded pretty good. I have to listen to them some more to say which impact they'll make on me.
I agree that some black metal bands has kind of crappy imagery around them like inverted crosses and lots of inverted pentagrams. A band like Dark Funeral is such. I like their "Secrets of the black arts" album. It also had a very nice digi-pack packaging. "Vobiscum satanas" looks more ridiculus. Besides their music being monotonous it gets tiresome looking at titles like "Enriched by evil", "Slava satana" and so on and their lyrics also is very stupid, but I only buy black metal for the music. I don't care about lyrics and image. If they wanna sing about Satan being their best friend they're welcome to do so, I don't care. I agree with Maniac (from Mayhem) that burning churches may not be the best way to fight christianity cause they build the churches again and people are gonna pay for that. I also agree that it's kind of stupid that they burn down those wooden churches in Norway. The black metal bands claim to be the most true Norwegians and they're burning down something that only exists in Norway.

 

[Terrifyer]

I started with death metal... exactly with cannibal corpse

 

[PaulRawNerve]

i was into death metal for about 8 years before finding black metal, and to be honest when i found black metal it was a blessing, cos some of the newer death metal that was happening around that time was getting a bit average, so black metal was a quality find, hearing things like burzum, mayhem, cradle of filth (principle of evil album, the only classic theyve ever done), emperor, enslaved, marduk and gorgoroth was most impressive to me,

i still love both styles, moreso still leaning to death metal but still have a major place for black metal in my heart as well,

 

[~UlvedaL~]

I started with "soft" things like Pantera and Sepultura, and always went for aggresive bands... When I get to know the scene a bit better (I was 12-13 or so), someone dropped me a couple deatmetal-albums (Illdisposed, Morbid Angel, Deicide and stuff), and I was sold... Later on I found the great scene of blackmetal and now, I have sold my entire soul for the cause of metal...(?)

 

[LoboUivante]

I started with Death (one of the best bands of all time!), the i heard some Obituary and decided to give up for a while on death metal because most of the times it's monotonous... then i got to hear Cannibal Corpse and decided to really give up for undertimnated time. My first black metal album was Dimmu Borgir - Puritanical Euphorical Misanthropia wich is great but i grew tired of this kind of music quick too. I prefer dark metal bands as At The Gates, Dark Tranquillity or Katatonia.

 

[xenophobe]

Well, I live in the Bay Area... Got into thrash when it was still kinda underground... about the time Bonded by Blood was released.

Now I'm into Death Metal...

Still haven't really heard any Black Metal that I have to buy, but some of it is pretty interesting, just not my thing.

 

[artificialreasons]

Originally posted by Dreamlord
I was into death metal WAY before black metal. I'm still not sold on black metal except for Emperor, Immortal, Ulver and a few more lesser well-known acts like Aborym and Golden Dawn.

I was listening to Dark Tranquillity, At the Gates, and Hypocrisy. The band that got me to give black metal a try was Amon Amarth. Clearly A.A. is death metal, but occasionally the singer has a high pitched vocal line, so I decided to give black metal a shot.

I have been impressed with black metal(the aforementioned bands) and have been terribly disappointed (Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum).

That was my experience.

I wouldnt consider DT, ATG, and hypocrisy black metal, more melodic death or the gothenburg sound whatever u want to call it. Even though ive always thought that the melodic death tag never really fit as those bands and others like them dont really sound like death metal...ok im rambling again, im gonna stop now.

 

[artificialreasons]

Originally posted by ~UlvedaL~
I started with "soft" things like Pantera and Sepultura,

lmao, ok maybe they arent as scary sounding as some death but cmon these are heavy bands

 

[artificialreasons]

hmm ive never really liked straight up death metal, the only cd i own like that is Beheaded-Recounts of Disembodiment, i prefer the more melodic death influenced stuff(Death, Arch Enemy, Opeth, at the gates, etc). Ive heard some cannibal corpse, vader and morbid angel (plus a bunch of lesser known bands) and thought it was all kinda repititive and boring(although MA was great live with pantera and slayer). as far as black metal my first was emperor-anthems to the welkins at dusk...i hated it at first! couldnt hear the vocals. but after many many listens it grew on me and i like it now. i also have dimmu borgir-puritanical euphoric misanthropia and while some dont consider this black metal i think it is pretty damn good, and is actually accesible upon first listen(maybe thats why some people dont like it).

 

[LoboUivante]

Originally posted by artificialreasons
i also have dimmu borgir-puritanical euphoric misanthropia and while some dont consider this black metal i think it is pretty damn good, and is actually accesible upon first listen(maybe thats why some people dont like it).

acording to true black metalheads Black Metal shouldn't be acessible, it should be "raw" and straightforward... well i say bullshit, there wouldn't be many good music if people perceived through a tube.

 

[artificialreasons]

Originally posted by LoboUivante


acording to true black metalheads Black Metal shouldn't be acessible, it should be "raw" and straightforward... well i say bullshit, there wouldn't be many good music if people perceived through a tube.

this man speaks the truth