Doctor of Metal wrote:
The fact alone that I have never heard of this album before is reason enough for probably many of us not to consider this a classic.
In other words: If this were to be a classic I would have known the existence of it.
You pretty well expressed my thoughts.
I didn't realize too, that HSB ... WWAG is the album title only. Of course I have heard about Marduk (I remeber the "Panzerdivision" (or so) album, which I didn't like at all) but I can not judge, if HSB ... WWAG was crucial for the development of Black Metal. However, I don't think that it significantly affected Metal history in general.
It pretty much depends on how you define a Classic. For me it should have a significant influence on Metal History, e.g. be a precourser of a new style/genre, or cement the shape of a popular genre. Or it could simply be a Classic by common sense of the Metal community (e.g "Number of the Beast").
Raw BM alway was and always will be on the fringes, but one can not deny it's enormous influence on more popular genres. So I agree that early BM has produced some Classics, but unlike HSB ... WWAG these are well known by the general public.