lolling at a lot of the misconceptions in this thread.
I'd like to see someone say that black metal sucks, after they listen to "Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum" (Deathspell Omega), "Om" (Negura Bunget), "Nouveau Gloaming" (Code), and "Massive Conspiracy Against All Life" (Leviathan.) Fas is one of the most technical albums I've ever heard in metal, with very well-written lyrics and a general atmosphere of controlled chaos. "Memoria Vetusta II: A Dialogue with the Stars" (Blut Alus Nord) is also an amazing album from the current-day black metal scene.
Someone said that even Mayhem are a "laughing stock" of bm or some other nonsense. I'd have to disagree here, once you get past the shit that plagued the band in its early days. Some don't like the Blasphemer era of the band, but the man wrote their best material imo. "Wolf's Lair Abyss" is an amazing EP and a gigantic "fuck you" to everyone who said the band was over when Aarseth was murdered, and "Chimera" was their pinnacle with Maniac. "Ordo Ad Chao" borrows a lot of influence from Deathspell Omega in the atmosphere and playing - even "Grand Declaration of War" is a great album (if you get past the shitty electronic song that's plopped in the middle.)
Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, and newer Satyricon are not fair representation to the genre - none of them contain a black metal sound at all anymore. Even current-day Enslaved don't really have much to do with black metal anymore.
Of course, you also have bands like Watain (who some will label a Dissection clone due to the very similar sounds), Funeral Mist, Ofermod, Ondskapt, and Malign spearheading the "orthodox black metal" movement (along with DsO). Generally these bands write more technical music, with lyrics about Satanism in a literal sense (as opposed to the LaVeyan sense, or just saying JESUS SUCKS etc.) Funeral Mist in particular have a very poignant lyrical style - Arioch also writes lyrics and does vocals for Marduk now.
I recently discovered a band called Klabautamann who play a very progressive style of BM, almost similar to Negura Bunget's last few albums. Check out "Merkur."
There are also bands like Katharsis and Kathaaria who have a similar sound to the orthodox bm movement, but are a bit more raw. They also don't feature "orthodox" lyrics like the other bands do.
If you can find no redeeming characteristics in any of the bands I named, then you'll probably never "get" black metal. There's more to the genre, especially nowadays, than the corpse paint and silly budget videos.
