Ambient Black Metal bands

Ambient Black Metal, sometimes called Dark Ambient, is a sub-genre of Black Metal music that combines traditional Black Metal elements with Ambient soundings.
It has become very popular after the rise of Weakling's Dead As Dreams, which is featured in the best black metal albums of all times.
Weakling's album was considered one of the pioneer productions of Ambient Black Metal, being a major influence towards nowadays bands.

Ambient Black Metal is an underground form of Black Metal, much less popular than mainstream bands because of the difficulty to get into this kind of music.

In the following hub I will present you five ambient black metal bands that revolutionized the genre, as well as one of their defining albums.

Weakling is not simply a progressive and ambient Black Metal band, Weakling is the first of the genre. Releasing only two demos and one full length album (Dead As Dreams) between 1998 and late 1999, they conserve a mysterious and cult history.

Their only album, Dead As Dreams, is the first ambient black metal album and still today is one of the most classic of the whole Black Metal genre. It has widely been acclaimed as a magical phenomenon due to its very mystical atmosphere.

Xasthur is one of the most notorious and acclaimed ambient Black Metal band, due to both its age and amount of releases. Launched in 1995 as a solo-project by Malefic, Xasthur is a defining ambient black metal band.

Disbanded in 2010 after the release of their final album, Portal of Sorrow, Xasthur has acquired a cult status in the underground Black Metal scene.

Portal of Sorrow is in itself a grandiose work of ambient nihilism and depression, embracing the style of suicidal Black Metal.

Leviathan is a Black Metal band that incorporates various Dark Ambient elements to its music. Formed in 1998, Leviathan has released six full-length albums, including the monumental masterpiece Massive Conspiracy Against All Life.

Massive Conspiracy Against All Life is the fifth full-length studio album of Leviathan, and one of the most inspiring ambient black metal albums ever produced.

Agalloch is one of the finest Black Metal bands of all times, they even appeared in my top 5 black metal bands list. They are an ambient black metal band with a very original style of ambient music, which contributes to the epic and folkloric atmosphere present on most Agalloch albums.

The Mantle is the second full-length studio album by Agalloch, and it is in my opinion the one that embraces the most the post-rock progressive aspect of their music.

Although I often cite their preceding album, Two Hunters, as a major inspiration for the ambient black metal scene, I chose to introduce Black Cascade this time as it incorporates several new ambient elements to the music.

Wolves in the Throne Room are one of the most classic bands that play Black Metal, even though they are still recent in comparison to Xasthur and others. Yet, both Black Cascade and Two Hunters are grandiose monuments to the ambient Black Metal sub-genre.