Sooooo, Black Metal...

I've never been really able to get into black metal. People have told me I'm too old, or I don't like the heavy stuff, or it's too "grim" for me, or some other nonsense like that. Bull! I love heavy music! Black metal doesn't even seem that heavy to me. Compare most black metal to something like the simple gutteral approach of Six Feet Under. SFU wins! Even Black Sabbath seems "heavier" to me than most black metal.

For whatever reason, black metal bores me. Even if I like a band, when listening to an album, after 2, 3, 4 songs, I'm bored with it. I have the new Antestor. The first song I was thinking, "yes, this is great!" Then by the mid-way point of the album it was quickly becoming background music. Forgettable and not commanding my attention. (A.D.D. perhaps?)

May be I am missing something. What am I missing? Black metal fans, what is it you like about it? Fill me in.

Black Metal is more harsh and abrasive than heavy, IMO. It's always been more about creating a certain kind of atmosphere than being "heavy".

I have discovered one or two bands that I really enjoy like Crimson Moonlight and perhaps Antestor. Even Antestor, I tune out after awhile.

Either way, I just find the "blur" of music if you will to be a wall of mush unable to distinguish good riffs, groves, etc. It's just speed and screaming for the sake of being faster. And for me, it doesn't bring me back.

The other major negative for me personally is the high-pitched screams. I just find the majority of them like nails on a chalk board. Downright annoying. Crimson Moonlight, I dig all his vocals.

Frost Like Ashes I like as well.

I don't own a ton of black metal, but I've always liked the evil, cold atmosphere of some of the bands I do listen to. Funny, Venom has always said that they are the only band to play black metal and that all the other groups that claim to play BM are just playing some type of death metal.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Black Metal is more harsh and abrasive than heavy, IMO. It's always been more about creating a certain kind of atmosphere than being "heavy".

this

I think that Black Metal is really, really diverse. I like some but really don't understand a lot of it. Beyond Deathcrush, Mayhem are a mystery! Some is way too cartoon evil as well. As I've said in another thread, I tend to like some bands who started out BM then progressed to a broader canvass such as Bathory, Ulver and Primordial.

I could never really get into black metal for whatever reason. I've heard some songs on comps here and there and always felt they were the weakest tunes on the comps.

I simply don't "get" black metal. Then again, I never "got" death metal either.

I mainly listen to the more melodic ones. Most of those use keyboards to add atmosphere to the music. In those cases, I just love the juxtipozition (sic) of dark, heavy, & evil mixed with beautiful orchestral arangements. The non-melodic ones just don't do anything for me as there is nothing memorable or appealing enough to bring me back to them. My biggest problem with black metal is due to the hateful lyrics and satanic imagery but there is enough bands that focuses on mythology, atrology, and the cold of Scandanavia and those tend to be of the melodic variety. I don't listen to it often, but when the mood strikes I will listen to it.

Black metal is the same as every kind of music. If you speak the language, it speaks to you, if you can see the colors, they'll be seen. The general style, production, and themes that tend to help make the hallmarks of the style are things that have a place in my emotional palate. It has to be approached objectively, how else does one approach art? Of course, that emotional palate holds things ranging from extreme joy to sadness to hate and love and everything in between. So a great song by Judas Priest or Labyrinth will likely not speak to the same part of me as something from Limbonic Art or Lengsel. Everyone with me so far?

Black metal is also the same as every kind of music in that there is some very good music, and then a whole lot of terrible bands doing genre-exercises. No difference in the good-poor ratio there either.

I'm a born-again Christian libertarian with a life-long deep interest and experience in the paranormal, and have experienced varying extreme degrees of emotional damage and/or addiction. I'm a hyper-aware, hyper-sensitive personality who is a writer and musician who sometimes has to struggle just to manage "everyday life" and the "mundane" things that go with it. And, the only single response a statement like that usually gets is some condescending comment about youth, or a recommendation to shove some Big Pharma drugs down my throat. So, it's safe to say I have a place for all metal.

Some of my favorite black metal:

Blut aus Nord
Lengsel
Emperor
Gris
Limbonic Art
Immortal
Wolves in the Throne Room
Lunaris

Its harsh and raw, and some of the most unique bands I find come from the genre. Honestly, I would suggest Sigh to anyone trying to transition into the genre.Lots of Black Sabbath style rock/metal influence in their older albums, plus they did have one album with nothing but clean vocals.
Also, the fact that they are the closest thing I have to a "favorite band" doesn't hurt






Their more thrash inspired album might be better to some people though.

Ult - try Dissection's album Storm Of The Lights Bane...

I have tried to get into black metal. It's not for me.

One of the main reasons I like black metal is that it does a great job of creating a cold, dark atmosphere that can't be found in other types of music. I also usually go for black metal genre-hybrids; stuff with folk influences, electronic/ambient influences, etc.

Wurthless wrote:

electronic/ambient influences, etc.

I would have listed Summoning too, but they're so far from so much black metal now you can't really call them that, with the exception of the first two. Definitely check them out and also the first two Limbonic Art records.

Wurthless wrote:

One of the main reasons I like black metal is that it does a great job of creating a cold, dark atmosphere that can't be found in other types of music. I also usually go for black metal genre-hybrids; stuff with folk influences, electronic/ambient influences, etc.

I'm wit you on the black metal genre hyrbrids. My favorite album of that kind:



That is actually one of my favorite metal albums of the 00's, period.

Also, what's the deal with almost every black metal band having a logo that's just impossible to read? I mean, if I know what letters and words I'm looking for, I can pick them out, but otherwise, I'm left scratching my head.

Go here to see some examples.

Along with Early Dimmu Borgir and Old Mans Child, Covenant (or The Kovenant) made some pretty awesome melodic black metal in their early days.
I love this album, and despite the fan hate, I love the remix/rerecording just as much if not more.

Never could get into it, not sure why, but it didn't click with me. Even saw a couple death metal bands at Maryland Deathfest last year (remember Sargeist the most).

I liked black metal as a teenager. I don't really think the appeal was ever in the music. It's just EVIL and EVIL was something mystical and cool for a kid.

It's just noise to me now.

A few years back I spent some time listening to some Black Metal. I made a comp of some of the more melodic/accessible type songs, and that seems to satisfy my needs. I rarely go deeper into the few things I've collected. I'm of Scandinavian/American heritage (1/4 Norwegian, 1/4 Swedish, and 1/4 Finnish- top that! Ha!) and sometimes I get sentimental about my ancestors, (usually while drinking), and that is when the Black Metal comp comes out. I find it sitting there in the morning along with an empty bottle. Thankfully this usually only happens during a snowstorm or if it's below zero outside. I doubt I've ever listened to Black Metal in the spring or summertime.

I like some of the more atmospheric stuff I've heard, it creates a very specific mood. I can respect that even if I don't often get in the mood to hear it.

I really liked Bathory back in like 1986. Pretty much ended for me after that.

Have seen a couple of documentaries on the Norske scene, and I understand it better now. But there is just so much more better music out there that I can let Scandinavia keep it. And their politics are not my politics anyways.

S.D. wrote:

I like some of the more atmospheric stuff I've heard, it creates a very specific mood.

Yes, for me it invokes ruminations of countless generations of Seasonal Affective Disorder and bad weather events.

I also should say that I'm glad I can't understand any of the words (even the few who supposedly sing in english), so the controversial content of some of these songs thankfully gets past me. If I understood the words I'm not sure I could enjoy the music very much. So I'm told anyway.