The riffs are completely different, it doesn't force-feed the listener "atmosphere" through 10+ minute songs, the drumming is more dynamic, and overall it doesn't sound anything like any other classic black metal album unless you want to point something out to me.
I think Burzum's S/T, early Darkthrone, and the first Immortal albums are good/great too btw.
First of all, I'm not trying to attack you or anything, I'm genuinely interested in your reasoning behind some of your opinions.
While I think all the early Norwegian bands had their own somewhat unique sound to some extent, I don't think that DMDS is significantly different enough from a lot of black metal to think it's great and the others are shitty. A song like "Pagan Fears" builds atmosphere through subtle manipulations of its main riff and repetition, a hallmark of lots of black metal.
"The riffs are completely different"
Some of them perhaps, but it's full of those tremolo melodies featured in a huge amount of black metal, many of which are directly influenced by this record (or more likely, earlier versions of songs that ended up on here). I find these riffs to mainly be vehicles for creating the dark and creepy atmosphere, again like a lot of what the genre aims for.
"i
t doesn't force-feed the listener "atmosphere" through 10+ minute songs"
Ok, so what? Plenty of black metal doesn't do this. You didn't initially mention Emperor, the songs on the
Emperor EP, and ItNE have similar lengths to DMDS tracks. The first 3 Gorgoroth records are full of short, to the point tracks, but you think they're terrible.
"the drumming is more dynamic"
Compared to what?
Transilvanian Hunger? I don't think this is valid, DMDS is still extremely heavy on the blasting. Hell, my 2 favourite tracks (the last 2) are pretty much just straight up blasting for the duration.
What do you think of the early Greek bands like Rotting Christ, Necromantia and Varathron. I'd consider them to be quite riffy black metal.
