Leap day makes this the last day of Black Metal History Month. It is sad that is has to end, even though after 29 days of black metal all blast beats were beginning to sound the same to me. So to ease your sadness I am posting the Top 10 Depressive Suicidal Black Metal albums. Of all time...I can't speak to that since all time has not come to an end yet, but I can say these are albums that I have listened to a lot and I find have the qualities I want out of the sub-genre, which is my favorite black metal sub-genre. It's low on the corpse paint and high on emotion.
10- Nocturnal Depression - Near to the Stars I was hopeful when I came across the new one by France's Nocturnal Depression. France normally makes some pretty quality metal. This band has been around for ten years and this album is it's 6th full length. Two of the three members of this project preformed live with Make a Change Kill Yourself.. which is high pedigree when it comes to this sub genre.The production is why it's at the bottom of the heap. This album is a very dynamic addition to the genre and it hits all the marks you need from this sort of thing.
9-Woods of Desolation - "Torn Beyond Reason"
Australia was once killing it when it came to depressive metal. This is not our first time with these guys as I reviewed there last album "As the Stars" , but in looking back in anger at some older depressive suicidal releases, this one is often thought of as the band at their peak. The screams paved the way for similar patterns that Deafheaven would later follow.
8-Wedard"Wo die Ewigkeit die Zeit berührt"
This might come closer to being a post-rock album, if it was not for the weird vocals that sounds like they were recorded from beneath a sheet of ice while the screams of agony bubbled up, as the singer drowned.Has sounds of nature to back up this theory. The clean guitar tone is center stage and they do not go to blast beats as their default mode. They do pick up the pace as the album progresses and this is sometimes done with double bass and almost punkish beats.
7-Xasthur - Portal of Sorrow"
The final album by this project, which might paint frowns on some as it's not the first album of the most overlooked album, but it is more fully realized and sounds better production wise than the bulk of the Xasthur catalogue which goes a long way in my book because it means you care about the songs. It's more like listening to a symphonic work that plays of themes rather than an album of songs, but the sound captured here are pretty incredible.
6-Weakling -"Dead As Dreams"
A band out of San Francisco that is one American black metal band that really got it right in a big way. Dispirit is really the only active metal band of note that bears former members though one of these guys have also played with the Fucking Champs.They are one of the most straight up metal bands on this list but I believe they still earn their spot here by the mood this album captures.
5-Coldworld - "Melancholie"
This album came out in 2008 and has the thundering momentum you want from more traditional black metal coupled with more atmospheric elements like clean vocals and odd little electronic flourishes. The guitar might fly with a metallic buzz when they are going full blast, but when the songs break down into the more melodic sections the tone is pretty chilling. Vocally you can hear where this influenced Deafheaven's singer, who name drops this band often. Though the vocals here are more varied than what Deafheaven does sometimes going into more of a croak.
The final album by a band that didn't play by the traditional black metal rules and sometimes made me wonder if they were black metal at all. However they still earned their place to be thought of as legends when it comes to this genre and this album is next to perfect with a wide dynamic range.
3- An Autumn For Crippled Children- "Everything"
These guys are now off in some other dark post-rock thing, this album still had post- rock elements but was more firmly rooted in this genre they beat out Lifelover on the basis that I still listen to the album more than Lifelover and it really has stood up to the test of time even if that test has so far only
been five years
.
2-Totalselfhatred - "Apocalypse In Your Heart" -
It was hard to pick between this one and their first album. This 2011 album might not be as depressive, it is one of the heaviest on here and also sounds but it sounds better than the self titled. The guitar playing rules pretty hard on this one, so hard until It's hard to argue against these guys, I wish they would put out another album.
1-Shining: "the Eerie Cold"
There last two albums don't even seem like they are from the same band since they began getting into death and roll, still one of my favorite bands ever and the guitar playing on this album is the only soulful shred that can stand up to Totalselfhatred when it comes to this genre. These guys won out because I think this album just defines the genre better.
10
\
<
No comments:
Post a Comment