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Forums - Music Discussion - What are your favourite death/black metal albums?

No love for Celtic Frost / Triptykon?  Morbid Tales and To Mega Therion are some of the most influential albums of the "extreme" metal genres like death and black metal.  And I really liked their latest offering Melana Chasmata, some great stuff on there that shows some 30-odd years later that Tom G Warrior's still got it.

Other than that I'm not that big on most straight up death / black metal, but do enjoy bands that feature some of those elements in their sound like Bathory (another huge influence of the genre), and up until the last couple of albums I really liked Mercenary, who have a progressive / melodeath sound to them.

Therion is also one of my favorite metal bands and are HUGELY underrated in the metal scene.  They started off as straight up death metal but most of their best and well known stuff was after they changed their sound to a more gothic / symphonic style with some classic heavy metal riffs thrown in.  You gotta check out everything from these guys from Theli (1997) to Gothic Kaballah (2007), a decade's worth of amazing stuff.  My favorite from them is probably the double album Lemuria / Sirius B (2004), which is what originally got me into them.



On 2/24/13, MB1025 said:
You know I was always wondering why no one ever used the dollar sign for $ony, but then I realized they have no money so it would be pointless.

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AbbathTheGrim said:
VGPolyglot said:

Well, whether or not that individual story was true, all you have to do is watch his YouTube videos to know that he's a racist. However, he hasn't made a metal album in a while, so maybe he decided that later on?

Chances are he is a racist, but the claim about him saying he would not use guitars anymore needs more evidence I can't find, but I do remember reading about it just like you.

I remember that this assertion about Burzum not using guitars anymore came during his incarceration and I remember that this assertion was the explanation why Varg released those albums using MIDI and not instruments.

But then I remember an interview several years ago after he was out where Varg said he didn't make those MIDI albums for no other reason apart from him having no access to other musical instruments during his years in prison.

Then he came out of prison and released those albums with guitars.

 

CladInShadows said:
AbbathTheGrim said:

Chances are he is a racist, but the claim about him saying he would not use guitars anymore needs more evidence I can't find, but I do remember reading about it just like you.

I remember that this assertion about Burzum not using guitars anymore came during his incarceration and I remember that this assertion was the explanation why Varg released those albums using MIDI and not instruments.

Yep, I remember hearing that back in the day too.  I think it was just an excuse because he only had access to synthesizers in jail.

Here's an interview I found from 2005, where he does state that he believes that metal culture is "n****r culture", but that was before he got out of jail:

http://www.metalcrypt.com/pages/interviews.php?intid=170



NightDragon83 said:

No love for Celtic Frost / Triptykon?  Morbid Tales and To Mega Therion are some of the most influential albums of the "extreme" metal genres like death and black metal.  And I really liked their latest offering Melana Chasmata, some great stuff on there that shows some 30-odd years later that Tom G Warrior's still got it.

Other than that I'm not that big on most straight up death / black metal, but do enjoy bands that feature some of those elements in their sound like Bathory (another huge influence of the genre), and up until the last couple of albums I really liked Mercenary, who have a progressive / melodeath sound to them.

Therion is also one of my favorite metal bands and are HUGELY underrated in the metal scene.  They started off as straight up death metal but most of their best and well known stuff was after they changed their sound to a more gothic / symphonic style with some classic heavy metal riffs thrown in.  You gotta check out everything from these guys from Theli (1997) to Gothic Kaballah (2007), a decade's worth of amazing stuff.  My favorite from them is probably the double album Lemuria / Sirius B (2004), which is what originally got me into them.

I do like Celtic Frost and Bathory, but I didn't include the former because I didn't really consider it either of the two, and I didn't include Bathory because I didn't want to have too many albums listed in the OP.



Does "Blackwater Park" from Opeth counts?



CladInShadows said:

Dissection - The Somberlain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlAcZjv9lno

Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOGFXD7Z9WE

Dissection is the shit! I have all their albums and their concert DVD. Where Dead Angels Lie from the Rebirth concert is a must in my playlists. All those bands you listed are great as well.

CladInShadows said:

Yep, I remember hearing that back in the day too.  I think it was just an excuse because he only had access to synthesizers in jail.

It could have been. I think we need to find the source of that claim if we are to find the truth,

archbrix said:

My single favorite album related to anything death metal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbf3DI7wtYg

Dude! You must listen to this if you haven't:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5JHLlTbVMg

NightDragon83 said:

No love for Celtic Frost / Triptykon?  Morbid Tales and To Mega Therion are some of the most influential albums of the "extreme" metal genres like death and black metal.  And I really liked their latest offering Melana Chasmata, some great stuff on there that shows some 30-odd years later that Tom G Warrior's still got it.

Other than that I'm not that big on most straight up death / black metal, but do enjoy bands that feature some of those elements in their sound like Bathory (another huge influence of the genre), and up until the last couple of albums I really liked Mercenary, who have a progressive / melodeath sound to them.

Therion is also one of my favorite metal bands and are HUGELY underrated in the metal scene.  They started off as straight up death metal but most of their best and well known stuff was after they changed their sound to a more gothic / symphonic style with some classic heavy metal riffs thrown in.  You gotta check out everything from these guys from Theli (1997) to Gothic Kaballah (2007), a decade's worth of amazing stuff.  My favorite from them is probably the double album Lemuria / Sirius B (2004), which is what originally got me into them.

Triptykon is tight! Actually I had a gif capture from their video with their bassist as sig for a while some months ago.

Among Bathory, Celtic and Venom, I prefer Bathory, but love the three bands.

VGPolyglot said

Here's an interview I found from 2005, where he does state that he believes that metal culture is "n****r culture", but that was before he got out of jail:

http://www.metalcrypt.com/pages/interviews.php?intid=170

He's a racist alright. No guitar comment though.



Nintendo is selling their IPs to Microsoft and this is true because:

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=221391&page=1

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Not big on black metal to be honest. If I do listen to it, it'd probably be the ultra melodic sort like Catamenia. That said, I do think Nemesis Divina is a great album, but again I generally prefer the more accessible / black n' roll stuff from Satyricon (Volcano my favourite from them). If you consider Cradle of Filth BM, then Dusk and Cruelty are both superb.

As for DM, Like an Ever Flowing Stream is king. Incredible atmosphere and riffs, plus the artwork is sublime. Decapitated's Winds of Creation is another good one chock full of riffs. They sadly seem to get worse with each passing album, and their current output is pretty much garbage in my mind. Sulphur Aeon - Swallowed By the Ocean's Tide is a cracker; dense, melodic and crushing. Worth checking out if you haven't heard it. I'll also throw Soul of a New Machine by Fear Factory out there, as I feel there's enough DM on the album to be relevant to this topic.

Pretty much any Morbid Angel other than Illud is worth a listen. Glad Tucker is back, as I think his era has some underrated stuff that'll hopefully be back in the set. Hypocrisy has a solid output, not top tier generally other than Virus but Tagtgren is my favourite DM vocalist so had to mention them.



I used to play in a metal band. I would often listen to Opeth and meshuggah.



drbunnig said:

Not big on black metal to be honest. If I do listen to it, it'd probably be the ultra melodic sort like Catamenia. That said, I do think Nemesis Divina is a great album, but again I generally prefer the more accessible / black n' roll stuff from Satyricon (Volcano my favourite from them). If you consider Cradle of Filth BM, then Dusk and Cruelty are both superb.

As for DM, Like an Ever Flowing Stream is king. Incredible atmosphere and riffs, plus the artwork is sublime. Decapitated's Winds of Creation is another good one chock full of riffs. They sadly seem to get worse with each passing album, and their current output is pretty much garbage in my mind. Sulphur Aeon - Swallowed By the Ocean's Tide is a cracker; dense, melodic and crushing. Worth checking out if you haven't heard it. I'll also throw Soul of a New Machine by Fear Factory out there, as I feel there's enough DM on the album to be relevant to this topic.

Pretty much any Morbid Angel other than Illud is worth a listen. Glad Tucker is back, as I think his era has some underrated stuff that'll hopefully be back in the set. Hypocrisy has a solid output, not top tier generally other than Virus but Tagtgren is my favourite DM vocalist so had to mention them.

LAEFS is one of my favourite death metal albums of all time, it may only be beaten by Crimson if I had to pick.



VGPolyglot said:

LAEFS is one of my favourite death metal albums of all time, it may only be beaten by Crimson if I had to pick.

Aye, was happy to see it posted in the OP. Dismember in general had a strong output. Where Ironcrosses Grow and The God That Never Was in particular are brilliant. Still hoping they'll reform to play a few shows at some point, as I never got to see them live. Only opportunity I got was a tour in 2006 with Entombed, Unleashed and Grave (what a line up) but I couldn't make it.

Quite like a lot of Deicide's stuff (didn't see them mentioned yet, could be wrong). Their albums tend to be short and to the point, which I like as it can be easy for DM to become monotonous as albums wear on.



drbunnig said:
VGPolyglot said:

LAEFS is one of my favourite death metal albums of all time, it may only be beaten by Crimson if I had to pick.

Aye, was happy to see it posted in the OP. Dismember in general had a strong output. Where Ironcrosses Grow and The God That Never Was in particular are brilliant. Still hoping they'll reform to play a few shows at some point, as I never got to see them live. Only opportunity I got was a tour in 2006 with Entombed, Unleashed and Grave (what a line up) but I couldn't make it.

Quite like a lot of Deicide's stuff (didn't see them mentioned yet, could be wrong). Their albums tend to be short and to the point, which I like as it can be easy for DM to become monotonous as albums wear on.

So, do you also like bands similar to Dismember like Entombed, Unleashed and Grave?