GMD Votes: Top 20 Black Metal Albums

[Dak]

Oh look, Darkthrone/Mayhem/Burzum masturbation.

 

[divine_torture]

Windir doesn't belong at all. Softball black metal.

Storm is excellent from start to finish. Every track is excellent and distinct. Somberlain is solid, but nowhere near as consistent or cohesive.

I agree. The Somberlain has a lot of really great moments, but Storm is really great in it's entirety.

 

[The Butt]

01 - Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
02 - Burzum - Filosofem
03 - Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
04 - Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark
05 - Deathspell Omega - Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice
06 - Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger
07 - Graveland - Thousand Swords
08 - Ulver - Bergtatt: Et eeventyr i 5 capitler
09 - Beherit - Drawing Down The Moon
10 - Master's Hammer - Ritual
11 - Sacramentum - Far Away from the Sun
12 - Immortal - Pure Holocaust
13 - Darkthrone - A Blaze In the Northern Sky
14 - Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
15 - Enslaved - Vikingligr veldi
16 - Gorgoroth - Pentagram
17 - Negura Bunget - OM
18 - Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane
19 - Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
20 - Windir - 1184

 

[Nephilim96]

1. Burzum - Filosofem
2. Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
3. Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger
4. Negura Bunget - OM
5. Immortal - Pure Holocaust
6. Deathspell - Omega Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice
7. Darkthrone - A Blaze In the Northern Sky
8. Windir - 1184
9. Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
10. Enslaved - Vikingligr veldi
11. Master's Hammer - Ritual
12. Ulver - Bergtatt: Et eeventyr i 5 capitler
13. Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark
14. Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane
15. Graveland - Thousand Swords
16. Sacramentum - Far Away from the Sun
17. Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
18. Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
19. Gorgoroth - Pentagram
20. Beherit - Drawing Down The Moon

I really don't care for Emperor or Gorgoroth. So many better albums got left out.

EDIT: Do you know what? Fuck it, I just gave a few songs from DDTM a listen and it's definitely at the bottom.

 

[Slayed Necros]

1. Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark
2. Sacramentum - Far Away From the Sun
3. Gorgoroth - Pentagram
4. Master's Hammer - Ritual
5. Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
6. Beherit - Drawing Down the Moon
7. Graveland - Thousand Swords
8. Immortal - Pure Holocaust
9. Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky
10. Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger
11. Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
12. Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane
13. Enslaved - Vikingligr Veldi
14. Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
15. Burzum - Filosofem
16. Deathspell Omega - Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice
17. Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
18. Ulver - Bergtatt: Et eeventyr i 5 capitler
19. Negura Bunget - Om
20. Windir - 1184

Those last four made it and Thy Mighty Contract didn't? Good going, GMD. Get better taste.

 

[Nephilim96]

That was my first thought exactly. Though I think too many split their votes between Autumn Aurora and Blood in our Wells. Same deal with Blut Aus Nord... Would be interested to see a top 10 tabulated based on artist rather than album.

Yeah, I think it would be interesting to re-do these threads but with bands instead of albums. Maybe we should do that later on?

 

[Nephilim96]

Those last four made it and Thy Mighty Contract didn't? Good going, GMD. Get better taste.

Says the guy who put Beherit 6th... Serious, I just don't get the appeal of that album. I don't even like Engram, but that's easily a better album.

I mean, I can totally understand why some people don't like OM or 1184, but I'll never understand the appeal of Drawing Down The Moon. The only thing cool about that album is the distorted vocals.

 

[Slayed Necros]

Wrong. Have fun "not getting" classics of the genre, though.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Those last four made it and Thy Mighty Contract didn't? Good going, GMD. Get better taste.

Thy Mighty Contract was #21 and is certainly better than a number of albums on this list. However, suggesting it's better than Anthems is laughable.

 

[Draehl]

Maybe I've outgrown it, but so many of these finalists just don't interest me any more. The satanic/kvlt/message driven stuff, mostly. The Windir hate is pretty amazing too...

 

[Slayed Necros]

It's better than Anthems. It's not hard to be better than Anthems, so that isn't a great feat.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Wrong. Have fun "not getting" classics of the genre, though.

Haha there's nothing to "get" about Drawing Down the Moon, which is degenerate simulacrum of black metal that displays nothing of musical, compositional, vocal, or conceptual value.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Maybe I've outgrown it, but so many of these finalists just don't interest me any more. The satanic/kvlt/message driven stuff, mostly. The Windir hate is pretty amazing too...

It's hard to hate the pedestrian. There's just nothing exceptional about it.

 

[Nephilim96]

Wrong. Have fun "not getting" classics of the genre, though.

Can you explain why you think it's a good album? Seriously, I would like to know.

 

[Slayed Necros]

Savage, ritualistic, and as floyd so aptly put it, purely degenerate black metal. What's not to like? Also, it has cool riffs and shit.

 

[Nephilim96]

Dude, the riffs are fucking basic bullshit. Easily some of the worst riffage among the "Classic" black metal albums.

 

[Manic Ferocity]

Can you explain why you think it's a good album? Seriously, I would like to know.

Cut out the flowery Windir shit for a while, lock yourself in a room, and blast this album until you get it. Drawing Down the Moon was a monumental album for black metal. No excuse.

Basic, raw, filthy, and ugly riffs, you're right. Come back when you have taste.

 

[Krow]

Beherit is the start of war metal along with Blasphemy. Theyre in the same boat as Devourment in death metal. Started a simplistic, polarizing genre with hundreds of copycats... Important but not exactly uniformly loved. Im sure everyone will love the comparison.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

It's so funny to see people get on a high horse to defend something as empty as Drawing Down the Moon. It's garbage. Nothing the least bit powerful about the riffs: bumbling, clumsy, sloppy and generic. Plus it has the most laughably generic cookie monster growls. The let's not forget the totally out of place Amazonian electronica interludes. Unworthy of the top 1,000 black metal albums, let alone the top 20.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Cut out the flowery Windir shit for a while, lock yourself in a room, and blast this album until you get it. Drawing Down the Moon was a monumental album for black metal. No excuse.

Basic, raw, filthy, and ugly riffs, you're right. Come back when you have taste.

In other words, "listen to this crappy album enough times and maybe you'll eventually convince yourself it's good and earn a kvlt sticker."