Domgård, maybe. Keyboards aren't around all the time, and are often pretty subtle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w9jcR86X-o

The CD will be at Candlelight USA webstore soon (a week or so). You could get it from Plastic Head now if you want to overpay.

ohhh ok, guess they're making all the North Americans wait an extra month as usual again.

Hey guys! Ive been listening to Satanic Warmaster-Carelian Satanist Madness non stop over the past couple weeks and im digging the mid-pace black metal Satanic Tyrant Werwolf creates and im looking for others with this very raw production sound. Thanks

Just look at the "similar artists" tab on Satanic Warmaster's page, that'll give you more than enough bands from the same scene/that have a similar approach to black metal. No need for us to spoonfeed the same bands to you here.

Particularly Goatmoon, if you like the considerably raw production and extremely histrionic riffing. Horna is far better than either band though, and aside from a couple of early 2000s releases, they have a consistently raw sound. The rawest full-length is Ääniä Yössä. Stylistically closest to that of all SW releases might be Black Katharsis, but Ääniä Yössä is far darker and more depressive.

Looking for bands similar to Todtgelichter. Very close to atmopsheric black metal, but with clean female vocals as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbbkj5LWLAo

Kvist's "For Kunsten Maa Vi Evig Vike" has some tracks that at least end in such a beautiful, simple melody. Though, taking Burzum as an example, they rather remind me of "Det Som Engang Var". "Dunkelheit" has a rather electronic feeling to the keyboard, while the latter sounds a tad more symphonic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXuCcXWOarU#t=5m02s

I looked for the same kind of black metal some pages ago, but couldn't quite find anything sounding too close to what I wanted. Predominantly typical black metal riffing, with one keyboard playing a beautiful, simple melody in the background. No crazy symphonic arrangements, no shredding or overly melodic lead guitars or the like, and nothing that sounds remotely like that chaotic piece of junk which I think Tartaros' "Red Jewel" is.
I've seen Viking Metal bands use keyboards like that in certain passages, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFaAFBUH3mc#t=5m13s) but other than that their sound remains Viking Metal-like and thus not what I'm really looking for either at the moment.

You could try Mustan Kuun Lapset - Kauniinhauta. It's far more streamlined and melodic than Todtgelichter, and I don't consider it to be any good, particularly. It has clean female vocals though, and it could be described as atmospheric, if merely in that saccharine sense.

Any recommendations for "black metal" with meandering, soaring riffs and dual guitar lines with harmonizing and/or counterpoint? Specifically like Alcest's "Le Secret" and WITTR's "Two Hunters". In particular, it would be awesome if the drums and guitars created a kind of hypnotic, drawn-out experience. Even more awesome would be clean vocals as in the song "Le Secret".

@Snarf:

Is it this kind of sound you're looking for?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r24xMbGeJ8#t=1m57s

Standard recommendations for your request would be Les Discrets and Drudkh's "A Handful of Stars"/"The Eternal Turn of the Wheel". I'm pretty sure you'd also like, as previously hinted, FrostSeele's "Architektur des Seins". The latter two recommendations don't have predominantly clean vocals though.

Give Let the Devil in by Sargeist a try. Pretty raw, but not way under produced.

Yeah, that's pretty close, although a bit less bleak sounding than I'd prefer. I have Les Discrets' album, and I will have to check out those Drudkh albums (I have a few others). Really I'm trying to get at something a little more drawn out and "majestic" sounding, like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLfLBbSg_Cc#t=6m21s or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVzLJqZY3lo#t=10m31s

Hmm. My empathy is not as refined as I thought it would be, it seems. I'm afraid I'll have to throw a couple of more examples in, hoping you gradually point me into the right direction.

So this one is not drawn out enough for your tastes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxH-kI2ApY8#t=4m55s


while this one is just about right, except that it's too shoegazy/not raw enough?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWGojCaIzTg#t=4m25s

Thanks for the help. I'm already familiar with Lantlos. To me, the guitar doesn't have the same kind of hypnotic drone or the soaring riffs as the WITTR/Alcest songs I pointed out. There's a kind of nature-y overtone about them, whereas Lantlos is more cold and urban feeling.

I have yet to listen to the Drudkh you recommended, so I will let you know what I feel about that.

Kaltetod - Reue

This album is one of the best Depressive Black Metal albums released. Check it out

Can anyone recommend anything similar to Inquisition's Ominous Doctrines? Listened to samples of their other albums and it isn't quite the same.

Just downloaded ill give it a couple listens thanks! Thanks for whoever recced me Goatmoon, Death Before Dishonour is pretty much all ive been listening to the past week

Hi, I didn't know which thread to ask for this hybrid genre. I figure black is the dominant trait in this case. I'm looking for entirely mid tempo (if that's the correct term) black/death. I like black death for the feeling it delivers not the relentless blasting. I'm a big fan of sarcofago, necrophobic, beherit and a little blasphemy here and there (beherit's drawing down the moon being my favorite of the brood). If someone can help me what i'm looking for is essentially black/death to the bone if you get what I mean. No compensation, black and white album cover with red text yadda yadda. I like this genre of music, but when it becomes more of an act of aggression than an art form, it starts to become unlistenable for me. I would appreciate it. I hope my request isn't a black hole of nonsense to some people.

I'm looking for DSBM, but with really good production. Shining and Miserere Luminis are the only bands like this that I know of.

Nyktalgia's second album Peisithanatos might do the trick. Although, be warned, the first track is a bit out of place and you shouldn't judge the album by that one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRhsIKCA ... re=related

Imperium Dekadenz
Nae'blis:"Sketches of Reality"

Lately, I've been revisiting some old favorites of 90s black metal and discovering some 90s classics for the first time (listening to Dawn's first album right now)....

Anyway, what I want to know is, what are some of the very best BM releases of the 2000s? I've ordered the Weakling CD and have some things by Paysage d'Hiver, Blut Aus Nord, and Deathspell Omega on deck to check out but I'm wondering what else is out there.

Caveats: I really don't care about bands that are just re-hashing old Burzum and Darkthrone type stuff. Likewise I have no at all interest in "NSBM" and I'm not sure "DSBM" would be my cup of tea either. I'm open to BM combined with other genres of music, or anything that has it's own unique flavor even if it's not super-groundbreaking (*some* originality would be nice though).

You can check these out,

Spite Extreme Wing - Vltra

JANVS - FVLGVRES and Vega

Nocte Obducta - Nektar I and II

Kathaaria - The Complex Void of Negativity

Agrypnie - 16[485]

Black metal with gore lyrics, like early Mayhem? May aswell be black/thrash or black/death provided that black metal is the most prevalent style. The lyrics absolutely need not be as simplistic and goofy as Mayhem - Carnage, but it doesn't matter if they are slightly retarded as long as the imagery is gory and violent - something with that oldschool atmosphere from the time when death and black metal weren't so obviously separated.

To be honest I can't think of another one right now. Mutilation Rites has a gory name, but the lyrics are some neckbeard nonsense.

Averse Sefira- Advent Parallax
Summoning- Oath Bound
Paragon Impure- To Gaius
Obsequiae- Suspended in the Brume of Eos
Midnight Odyssey- Funerals From the Astral Sphere
Dead Hills- Purgatory/Winds of Time
Conqueror- War Cult Supremacy
The Ruins of Beverast- Rain Upon the Impure
Drautran- Unter dem Banner der Nordwinde

That's most bands, cvac. That said, I disagree with all of PromeIncarn's suggestions.

John, if that's really true that's too bad. I've not had time to go through all of BB or PI's suggestions yet. I did find Dead Hills on bandcamp and it wasn't really what I was looking for.

However, it wouldn't surprise me either. Are there any 90s obscurities or underrated albums in particular you'd suggest? Maybe I should just keep digging for old stuff or maybe go through Sabbat's (Jpn) catalog?

I listened to Negura Bunget's OM today...not pure BM per se but a pretty good, if imperfect album that I enjoyed overall. I did like the Paysage d'Hiver album (s/t) I tried. Too bad their releases are mostly sold out/high priced right now.

On the 90s front, I'm listening to Mutiilation now...very mixed thoughts on this...all the sloppiness of an 80s crust live boot...

Which albums do you have? And which of those did you like?

I don't have any Sabbat yet.

[quote="cvac"][/quote]

I meant old stuff/obscure 90's releases. I know a bunch, maybe almost all of them.

Right now I'm just focusing on buying up CDs of most of the big name 2nd wave Norwegian (and some Swedish) bands for the albums/period l like.

I'm just barely diving into the more obscure stuff, or what would've been obscure to me back when I first heard BM back in 1997 or whatever. I've bought CDs from Master's Hammer and Poison (Ger.) for example, but I haven't really gotten deeply into a bunch of bands that only made demos or an album that was never reissued.

It's bad that most BM bands sound identifiably different from one another but adhere to the fundamentals of black metal? I thought that was a good thing, myself.

I don't really have anything to say about what the "best" of all these bands is within the context of recommending something to you. I could only say what bands I or others think are the best without knowing whether or not you would likely agree since the only criteria you've given to narrow the field includes the majority of bands in existence. Try adding some specific musical features you like to your request if you want something specific to you. If you want to know what are the most popular bands of recent decades you could ask something more along those lines, or if you want to know what a specific person who's taste and analysis you trust thinks on the matter you should just ask them.

John, I think we are misunderstanding each other a little bit. I don't have a problem with bands sticking to the fundamentals of black metal at all, as long as they are injecting a bit of their own "personality" or putting just a little bit of their own spin on things. A lot of the Norwegian 2nd wave bands sound like they'd be nowhere without Bathory, but they don't all sound exactly the same either.

Out of sheer curiosity, I *would* be interested in knowing what the most popular bands/key albums from the last decade are. Again, I am revisiting BM for the first time since the late 90s so I really know very little about newer bands.

Key features I like:

Hypnotic riffs like TH-Darkthrone, without feeling like a blatant copy.

Doomier/midpaced,Celtic Frost/Hellhammer influenced stuff like Samael's first 3 albums.

Bands that use the occasional folk touches like Borknagar's first, Satyricon's 2nd, or Enslaved's first couple of albums.

Something that does a good job of combining 80s Thrash with BM (can't think of anything specific, but I'm guessing it exists).

Bands with a good amount of tempo variation, but with decent enough songwriting to tie it all together.

Infernal Stronghold combine thrashy elements akin to Destruction etc. with their black metal quite well, especially on their older jams. The newer stuff leans way harder on the black metal than their thrash/punk influences. They have several releases on their bandcamp so give it all a listen.

Older:
http://infernalstronghold.bandcamp.com/ ... hed-empire

Newer:
http://infernalstronghold.bandcamp.com/ ... popularity

I want some doomy black metal in a similar vein to Shining - V. It doen't necessarily have to be DSBM, but that works. Also, maybe with the atmosphere of Velvet Cacoon?

Sterbend (GER) - Depressing Paths Through Fullmoon Forests
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0vRYdRVeGk

Silencer (SWE) - Death - Pierce me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZlZuYp1fZc

I need some mystical shit.
like. black metal that reminds you of dungeon synth in a way.
black magic and all that jazz - robes and spells, yknow?

Looking for some (preferably) atmospheric BM with clean female vocals. I've been listening to Love Lies Bleeding's Behold My Vain Sacrifice and I quite like it, something similar would be excellent. If there are harsh vocals in addition, that's fine, bonus points for some doom influence.

I've been listening to black metal for a couple years now and all this time I've mainly listened to all the classics like Mayhem, Darkthrone, Immortal, Burzum, etc. Can anyone recommend me some of the best "new" black metal bands. So bands who released their debut in the past couple of years, like these: http://www.metalinjection.net/black-met ... etal-bands

Thank you!