From the primordial depravity of its Eighties-era innovators, to the controversial wave of Scandinavian tastemakers that shocked the heavy-music community and the general populace with their on-and-offstage brutality, and into the modern era, few subgenres of metal have left as much of a cultural imprint as black metal.
Musically, the most infamous bands of the bunch captured imaginations along the way with their blistering blasts, chilling melodies, tortured screams and blasphemous aesthetic — all of this wrapped up in a sinister veneer of corpse paint.
But who delivered the truest black-metal anthem of them all? We asked our readers this very question, and they ranked their five kvlt-est classics accordingly.
Mayhem – “Freezing Moon”
As in ancient times — by which we mean the early Nineties — Mayhem’s “Freezing Moon” still resonates with plenty of metal fans in our present era.
The second track on the genre-codifying De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is about as simple and as savage as you can get, consisting of a few crunchingly chromatic riffs — either above a speedy scissor beat or a slow-mo crush — amid Attila Csihar’s grisly grunts of an unending darkness (via lyrics penned by Mayhem’s late frontman, Dead).
All the same, it’s a mark of scene-galvanizing heaviness — a staple covered by indebted extremists including Behemoth, Cradle of Filth, Dissection and many more. In other words, “Freezing Moon” has pleased the hunger of many — including poll voters.
Dimmu Borgir – “Mourning Palace”
Blackhearted angels across the metalverse have flocked en masse to worship within Dimmu Borgir’s monolithic “Mourning Palace.”
You certainly feel the gloom of restless spirits swirling through the Norwegian outfit’s dourly-hammered-down statement piece. Following a brief fantasy-synth intro, Dimmu Borgir bring the pain with distortion-dimmed heaviness and Shagrath’s cries over those trapped within an eternal life of misery and despair.
Though they’d been possessed by the search of utter darkness, Dimmu Borgir pulled a gleaming black-metal favorite out of the void.
Dissection – “Night’s Blood”
This week we confirmed that our readers can’t resist the night’s sweet blood.
A generally relentless, blackened-thrash pace abounds through Dissection’s “Night’s Blood,” a lacerating yet melancholic attack from the Swedish extremists’ second studio LP, 1995’s Storm of the Light’s Bane. Yet the tune also comes peppered with brief folk digressions, and an almost giddy harmony section at one point.
Many have drunk deep on damnation’s wine, and it’s apparently warmed them to the core.
Satyricon – “Mother North”
Sights and visions, prophecies and horror — they all come packaged in one epic mash-out from Satyricon’s third full-length effort, 1996’s Nemesis Divina.
The Norwegian force batter down the doors while contrasting savage blasts with bleak, waltzing guitar passages and Satyr’s feverish, rage-intensified screams about an encroaching danger.
Often, in the dead of night, “Mother North” mesmerizes the souls of our readership.
Emperor – “I Am the Black Wizards”
“My wizards are many, but their essence is mine”
Revolver readers crawled out of their ancient caves to scream from the mountaintops that they’ve been under the spell of Emperor’s enduring “I Am the Black Wizards” since it was first cast out into the wild in the mid Nineties.
From the barrel-beating gallop and minor key trills of its first half, to its synth-phonic frigidity, to Ihsahn screeching about the power of a million mages coursing through his very fiber, “I Am the Black Wizards” is a magically banging favorite for the black-metal legions.