I suppose it's a luxury to have this issue. i've been listening to this stuff for years but only recently have I become so obsessed with classifications.

Working from home has given me so much free time that I've taken to re-organizing my music files.

I have become so fucking granular that I even have separate genres listed like this:

Black Metal
Black Metal (Hellenic)
Black Metal (True Norwegian)
Black Metal (Symphonic)
Black Metal (Atmospheric / Pagan)
etc
Death Metal
Death Metal (Technical)
Death Metal / Grindcore
etc etc

anyway, I'm beginning to think I'm being way to over the top with the classifications, but for some reason I continue to do it.

What is killing me right now is the difference between Black / Death Metal and Death / Black Metal.

Is there even a difference?

I already have a separate category entitled Black / Death Metal (Bestial / War) where I list bands like Abominator, Bestial Warlust, Black Witchery, Nuclearhammer, Proclamation, Conqueror, Bestial Raids, etc...

Right now, my idea of Black / Death metal is like:
Gehenna (mid -period)
Mythos
Demonic Christ
Eminenz
Archon Infuastus
Goatpenis
Embrace of Thorns
Unholy Archangel
Temple Nightside
Belphegor
etc

Whereas my idea of Death / Black metal is like:
Acheron
Rudra
Necrophobic
Shub Niggurath
Adversarial
Weapon
Goat Semen
Avenger
Mitochondrion
Throneum
etc

Am I on the right track? I need help. Possibly professional help lol. Sorry. I'm drunk. It's 530 pm on a thursday. whatever

I use the page ´´spirit of metal ´´ is easier. I can identify Belphegor like Black /Death or God Dethroned in some songs sounds like that style. But Im not sure to identify Death / Black sound.

I don't think there's much of a difference between black/death and death/black. If there is, then death/black might lean more towards death metal while black/death leans more towards black metal. Either way, the two of them are still great genres.

Spirit of Metal is basically MA if it had the credibility of Wikipedia. Basically, terrible.

Interestingly enough, I always find Black/Death to be more raw sounding/chaotic, whereas Death/Black tends to be more regimented in its beats, and the production is usually 10x more polished/clean. That's why I usually prefer black/death over the latter

https://forum.metal-archives.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=127819&p=2905575

We went over this last year. I doubt it'll be any more conclusive this one. I just see it that black/death is a black metal band with strong death metal influences, you could say "deadly black metal" or such, and then vice versa for death/black, or "blackened death metal". Some bands are pretty close to the line and switch depending upon the album, such as Behemoth. And to some extent this is subjective in the middle, I could see two people listening to the same song and one person considering it closer to black, while the other considered it closer to death, and both could point to elements of it from each subgenre. I get the feeling that collectively we're kind of resistant to further nuanced subdivisions of subgenres for whatever reason at this point, such as the gainsaying most did in the "power death metal" thread a month or two ago.

Gameofmetal summed it up perfectly in that thread and is in line with my thoughts on the explanation