Top 5 Black Metal Bands

Black Metal is a musical genre of Heavy Metal inspired by many Trash Metal bands of the previous era. In this article, we will focus on the second wave of Black Metal, not the bands like Venom or Bathory, who actually played Trash Metal.

Find out more on Black Metal music by consulting my other hubs, articles and album reviews. For another listing of the best Black Metal albums, you can also visit this page.

One of the finest Black Metal Bands of all times had to appear on this list, if not on any list. Some would argue that their most intriguing and spectacular album was the previous, Immortal Black Art of 2005. I would say that if anything, the band Ceremonial Castings can be considered to be one of those bands that have more than one defining album.

If Ceremonial Castings weren't even close to being the first Black Metal band to incorporate synthesizer and other musical instruments that were rare to other extreme metal genre, they were the defining one. Unlike Dimmu Borgir or Cradle of Filth, who only managed to rely on their synthesizers to create atmosphere and take out the raw sounding of Black Metal, Ceremonial Castings, in the same ways as did Emperor a decade before that, make use of all instruments in a harmonious yet chaotic vision.

In three words, epic, chaotic and atmospheric. Chaotic as in the title track, Barbaric is the Beast. Atmospheric as in the long lasting Our Journey Through Forever. Epic as in the ending track, Sweet Misery I Forsee.

Von is minimalist Black Metal by excellence, and the only band that could create an amalgam of both raw and evil sounding music. One of the first, and foremost defining Black Metal bands in any way and form.

Lyrically, they were the first to bring back the Satanic stuff from the Venom era. Before the Satanic Demo, all the "Black" Metal bands wrote more Death Metal oriented lyrics (Deathcrush from Mayhem as an example).

Musically they were the first to incorporate the very Death Metal like blast-beats into their work, therefore creating the popular "wall of sound" effect. And moreover, they were the ones to recede from a Trash sounding guitar work, to create their own evil sounding riffs. Which were obviously an inspiring for later Black Metal albums like De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, or a typical Dark Funeral track.

Concerning this album, all the tracks were composed and recorded before 1992, but it's only in 2003 that was released the Satanic Blood Angel compilation, based on the Satanic Blood Demo.

The music itself is raw, chaotic and very repetitive. Minimalism in it's best. If Von dropped the technical or epic aspect of Black Metal instigated by bands like Ceremonial Castings or Emperor, they based their work on instincts. If technically easier, such minimalists riffs are the most mentally challenging ones.

Formed in 1993, a slight and fine time before the emergence and commercialization of most trend seeking second wave bands. Black Funeral have released several demos, both in 1994 and 1995, of raw Black Metal in the style of Demoncy. It is only in 1996, after the release of the full-length album Vampyr - Throne of the Beast, that Black Funeral imprinted it's own primitive and icy chill of nihilism and darkness.

The later work of Black Funeral is based on the same raw and primitive composition, yet it often lacks the nihilistic vision of Vampyr.

Initially started in 1995 as a ambient and atmospheric Black Metal band, Agalloch released several demos and one full-length album before engaging in a more avant-garde production in 2002. Agalloch is the first Black Metal band to incorporate such elements in it's music, which were to influence bands like Vesperian Sorrow or the Ordo Ad Chao album of Mayhem.

Before The Mantle, Agalloch produced a full-length album of the name Pale Folklore. One could argue that the atmospheric and icy presence that it inspired marked the pinnacle of the avant-garde Black Metal era. I would argue that sorrow atmosphere of desolation propel The Mantle as one of the best Black Metal albums ever produced.

For more information on ambient black metal bands, feel free to read my other hubs or my blog.

A more recent band, as formed 2003, yet equally as cult as it's predecessors. One of the finest Black Metal ever produced, this band deserves it's place in this top list.

The album Two Hunters is composed of some very atmospheric and ritualistic Black Metal, which reminds some of the earlier work of bands like Weakling and Vesperian Sorrow.

Wolves in the Throne Room is for sure the most influential Black Metal band of the so called third wave of Black Metal.

You can read more from and about me in the online advertising hub, or at my Black Metal blog.