Black Metal in rude health

[Grim Reality]

Personally speaking after a lull in interest in underground metal for a few years in the last decade I find myself completely captivated again by black metal. I had more or less turned old fart and was resigned to loving only the 80's and 90's classics and disregarded anything new.

In the last couple of years though I have opened my ears up to some of the contemporary BM scenes and have been delighted to discover that the old spirit is alive and well. For sure classic 2nd wave BM is an overriding influence and that is never shied away from. But these modern day bands operating 20 or 25 years later from the originals have enough about them to  command their own style, scene and respect.

There's so much out there its impossible to keep up but here are some of my current favourite bands.

FRANCE: necropole, caverne, cenotaphe, norman shores

FINLAND:  vargav, white death, warmoon Lord, old sorcery, kalmankantaja, mooncitadel.... the list is endless with Finland.......hundreds of good bands

POLAND: evilfeast , wartodd

SWEDEN: countless bands revolving around Sir N ( svartrit) and swartadaupuz(beketh nexehmu)

Active labels aswell and a lot of old stuff re released.

Ancient records(swe), werewolf records(fin),ancient dead(pol) for eg.

Lots of other scenes to explore such as Portugal, Netherlands, Balkans.

Any thoughts or contributions lads/ladies?

[lifeeternal]

Deathspell Omega and Blut Aus Nord have really pushed the boat out resulting in bands like Thantifaxath, Dodecahedron etc. The likes of Mammaleek, Cultes des Ghoules and Jute Gyte have their completely own mental thing going. Black metal is better now than it ever was. Mgla have taken that Burzum Filosofem sound that was aped so badly by so many bands and actually modernised it and they have some serious technical chops.

[Kurt Cocaine]

Black Metal Matters

[Eoin McLove]

Kind of on an opposite trajectory the past few years but would have very much been in agreement until then. No doubt there's a Hell of a lot of activity and maybe some innovation but the scene seems completely flooded to me to the point that I have almost no interest in listening to new stuff with the exception of a small handful of bands like Mooncitadel, Gjendød and Dold Vorde Ens Navn off the top of my head. It's more an issue of my own present jadedness than anything but I'm enjoying digging into the 90s stuff a lot more.

[Circlepit]

For a long time I was only aware of the bigger names; Emperor, Mayhem, Satyricon etc.
It's only since last September/October I've started going through more and more stuff.
That Thomas  Eriksen podcast has me going through the catalogues of who he meets .
I still love the Emperor , Darkthrone, Satyricon stuff but for newer stuff it's all about Mork, Gjendød and Kjeld st the moment got me.
It has the song writing quality to fit with the 90s without that blast for the sake of  it style.

[open face surgery]

In relation to the bands from France and Finland it's seems that the same people seem to be responsible for a lot of the acts.

I find there's always loads of any style to listen to at any given time.

[Blackout]

I'm probably in the minority but Black Metal for me hasn't had decent output since the naughties and I know I'm going to get a lot of flak for saying so. I think bands focus way too much on the style over substance and have forgotten what Black Metal is about which is epic songwriting. I listen to such an eclectic mix of music genres yet I cannot get on board with modern black metal.

And there's me in the Now Playing thread mentioning Black metal purists 

[Eoin McLove]

Surely 00s black metal is modern black metal? What stuff from that era are you specifically into? I think there are always a few cool bands operating and doing something that is their own but I agree that there seems to be a lot of Instagram BM about which seems to miss the point of the whole thing to a degree. Another factor that puts me off, and possibly it's a foolish reason, is how every band uses the same few artists to design their albums, or more so seem to use the same exact imagery. It's a bit mind numbing to look at and gives a possibly false impression of musical interchangeability. It all comes back to over-saturation I think, which is pushing me in other directions.

[Blackout]

Surely 00s black metal is modern black metal? What stuff from that era are you specifically into? I think there are always a few cool bands operating and doing something that is their own but I agree that there seems to be a lot of Instagram BM about which seems to miss the point of the whole thing to a degree. Another factor that puts me off, and possibly it's a foolish reason, is how every band uses the same few artists to design their albums, or more so seem to use the same exact imagery. It's a bit mind numbing to look at and gives a possibly false impression of musical interchangeability. It all comes back to over-saturation I think, which is pushing me in other directions.

00s ended 10 years ago but I get you.

Modern Black metal is missing that undeniable atmosphere and individuality from earlier outputs. Black metal has a blue print but De mysterious sounds so different from the likes of a Pure Holocaust or Filosfem.

I'm into a lot of Marduk, Dark Funeral, 1349 etc and those bands had the same ethos in that the music was incredible, had the same style with slightly better production.  However its not the production that annoys me about modern BM, it just seems that a lot of modern black metal bands are attempting to be Burzum rather than forge their own direction.  The slow plodding lo-fi tracks have only ever sounded good with Varg and Burzum composing same. 

[Eoin McLove]

I'd disagree with your last point when I consider some of the brilliant work by Nocternity and Gjendød  in that slow plodding style. That approach is some of the most effective for me.

[Eoin McLove]

This morning on the way to work I stuck on Rahu's self titled album. It's grand. It held my attention for three or four songs and then I lost interest in it. I switched over to Mysteries of the Nocturnal Forest by Evilfeast instead. This is much more like it. There is nothing remotely original to be found but GrimSpirit is a master at capturing that raw, epic 90s style. Perfect music for this harsh, freezing cunt of a February.

[open face surgery]

Surely 00s black metal is modern black metal? What stuff from that era are you specifically into? I think there are always a few cool bands operating and doing something that is their own but I agree that there seems to be a lot of Instagram BM about which seems to miss the point of the whole thing to a degree. Another factor that puts me off, and possibly it's a foolish reason, is how every band uses the same few artists to design their albums, or more so seem to use the same exact imagery. It's a bit mind numbing to look at and gives a possibly false impression of musical interchangeability. It all comes back to over-saturation I think, which is pushing me in other directions.

00s ended 10 years ago but I get you.

Modern Black metal is missing that undeniable atmosphere and individuality from earlier outputs. Black metal has a blue print but De mysterious sounds so different from the likes of a Pure Holocaust or Filosfem.

I'm into a lot of Marduk, Dark Funeral, 1349 etc and those bands had the same ethos in that the music was incredible, had the same style with slightly better production.  However its not the production that annoys me about modern BM, it just seems that a lot of modern black metal bands are attempting to be Burzum rather than forge their own direction.  The slow plodding lo-fi tracks have only ever sounded good with Varg and Burzum composing same.

Just out of interest, have you listened to many of the bands in the original post? Most, if not all, are better than Dark Funeral, 1349 and later Satyricon imo.

[lifeeternal]

Surely 00s black metal is modern black metal? What stuff from that era are you specifically into? I think there are always a few cool bands operating and doing something that is their own but I agree that there seems to be a lot of Instagram BM about which seems to miss the point of the whole thing to a degree. Another factor that puts me off, and possibly it's a foolish reason, is how every band uses the same few artists to design their albums, or more so seem to use the same exact imagery. It's a bit mind numbing to look at and gives a possibly false impression of musical interchangeability. It all comes back to over-saturation I think, which is pushing me in other directions.

00s ended 10 years ago but I get you.

Modern Black metal is missing that undeniable atmosphere and individuality from earlier outputs. Black metal has a blue print but De mysterious sounds so different from the likes of a Pure Holocaust or Filosfem.

I'm into a lot of Marduk, Dark Funeral, 1349 etc and those bands had the same ethos in that the music was incredible, had the same style with slightly better production.  However its not the production that annoys me about modern BM, it just seems that a lot of modern black metal bands are attempting to be Burzum rather than forge their own direction.  The slow plodding lo-fi tracks have only ever sounded good with Varg and Burzum composing same.

Just out of interest, have you listened to many of the bands in the original post? Most, if not all, are better than Dark Funeral, 1349 and later Satyricon imo.

Most black metal is better than 1349 tbf

[Blackout]

Surely 00s black metal is modern black metal? What stuff from that era are you specifically into? I think there are always a few cool bands operating and doing something that is their own but I agree that there seems to be a lot of Instagram BM about which seems to miss the point of the whole thing to a degree. Another factor that puts me off, and possibly it's a foolish reason, is how every band uses the same few artists to design their albums, or more so seem to use the same exact imagery. It's a bit mind numbing to look at and gives a possibly false impression of musical interchangeability. It all comes back to over-saturation I think, which is pushing me in other directions.

00s ended 10 years ago but I get you.

Modern Black metal is missing that undeniable atmosphere and individuality from earlier outputs. Black metal has a blue print but De mysterious sounds so different from the likes of a Pure Holocaust or Filosfem.

I'm into a lot of Marduk, Dark Funeral, 1349 etc and those bands had the same ethos in that the music was incredible, had the same style with slightly better production.  However its not the production that annoys me about modern BM, it just seems that a lot of modern black metal bands are attempting to be Burzum rather than forge their own direction.  The slow plodding lo-fi tracks have only ever sounded good with Varg and Burzum composing same.

Just out of interest, have you listened to many of the bands in the original post? Most, if not all, are better than Dark Funeral, 1349 and later Satyricon imo.

Most black metal is better than 1349 tbf

Incredibly succinct take there mate.

[Blackout]

Surely 00s black metal is modern black metal? What stuff from that era are you specifically into? I think there are always a few cool bands operating and doing something that is their own but I agree that there seems to be a lot of Instagram BM about which seems to miss the point of the whole thing to a degree. Another factor that puts me off, and possibly it's a foolish reason, is how every band uses the same few artists to design their albums, or more so seem to use the same exact imagery. It's a bit mind numbing to look at and gives a possibly false impression of musical interchangeability. It all comes back to over-saturation I think, which is pushing me in other directions.

00s ended 10 years ago but I get you.

Modern Black metal is missing that undeniable atmosphere and individuality from earlier outputs. Black metal has a blue print but De mysterious sounds so different from the likes of a Pure Holocaust or Filosfem.

I'm into a lot of Marduk, Dark Funeral, 1349 etc and those bands had the same ethos in that the music was incredible, had the same style with slightly better production.  However its not the production that annoys me about modern BM, it just seems that a lot of modern black metal bands are attempting to be Burzum rather than forge their own direction.  The slow plodding lo-fi tracks have only ever sounded good with Varg and Burzum composing same.

Just out of interest, have you listened to many of the bands in the original post? Most, if not all, are better than Dark Funeral, 1349 and later Satyricon imo.

Yes I have listened to a few of them. I try to listen to most pf the modern black metal that I can get my hands on. It just doesn't appeal to me bar the odd track.