Metal Reviews

Don't get me wrong. I love Black Metal. But most of the bands with a very positive rating by the reviewers here have the worst guitar sound in the world. It seriously reminds me of just static noise when my TV breaks. It is beginning to frustrate me.

This is why I prefer Death Metal. Everything is tight and well produced. I understand that the buzzsaw sound is what Black Metal guitarists seek to achieve, but there has to be some sort of noise reduction or the whole album goes to Hell. (literally)

Are you fucking kidding me? Did you just make a post about black metal guitar sound?

Look, I think we can all agree that BM for the most part isn't very polished. But seriously, is it supposed to be polished? I think not! Black Metal is about delivering a message in a provocative way and most bands choose to sound evil. The guitars are razor-sharp, and if you don't like that, then fine, go listen to something else. Black Metal is supposed to have a blackened atmosphere and an overall evil mood. Not happy like power metal or brutal like death. Pure fucking evil, and what is better than buzz-saw guitarsound and evil shrieking vocals then?

The early Norwegian bands actually stated that one of their aims in creating what we now call second wave black metal was to rebel against the increasingly commercial nature of death metal. They didn't like death metal bands playing with perfect production.

And personally, I love hearing waves of feedback and static and stuff passing over me. Case in point, later Burzum.

Finally, many bm bands do incorporate some death metal influences, and play with a 'good' guitar sound. An obvious example would be Deathspell Omega.

I'm well aware of the primal sound that the first BM musicians tried to intentionally get. Even Burzum is more polished than most of the BM on my mp3 player. I know about them trying to rebel directly against Death Metal.

I do love BM and sometimes that evil, amorphic guitar sounds suits my tastes. I just have to be in the mood for it.

I guess living 2 hours away from the DM capital of the world helped shape my preference at a young age.

Jesus, can we learn to spell around here?

Anyways, to contribute to the discussion it's a whole different genre. Death Metal is about deep riffs and headbanging, Black Metal is about living in the forest and being evil. Of course they're going to sound different.

I understand where Skig is coming from which is why I just listen to DsO. I wish I could think of some others to add to the list.

yeah this has been something that's always bugged me about black metal too.

I think that Black Metal is great. It is completely different from Death Metal. This is why I found it pointless when they decided to intentionally skew their sound just so it would sound worse than DM. I can't stand it when musicians take another cause and lift it higher than the music itself. It's fine to play music for a reason whether it be politics, religion, etc. But to fuck up your sound just to get at musicians across the Atlantic playing a completely different style is just stupid.

You guys make it sound like DSO is the only black metal band whose production doesn't suck. I don't really like black metal that much, but Naglfar, Sigh, and Mortuary Drape come to mind (granted the latter two are hardly orthodox BM). Taake's isn't that bad. Dub Buk sound good but they're Nazis so I won't listen to them. Someone who's actually into black metal could give a much better list than I could though.

If I ever need black metal now, I just listen to Deathspell Omega or Marduk, because its a lot closer to what I'm used to nowadays. I used to listen to more raw bands, but now I'm not too fond of it.

Wasn't trying to. Simply couldn't think of any black metal with stand-out guitar work. Still can't think of many besides Impaled Nazarene or Anaal Nathrakh. Maybe Diabolical Masquerade, Khold or Peste Noire.

Some static production can actually end up sounding very sweet to the ears, tickling them gently. Case in point - Nargaroth / Rasluka Part II.

It took me a second to realize that DSO stands for Deathspell Omega. You guys abbreviate everything. By the way, I just checked out Anaal Nathrakh. They're pretty awesome... Those clean vocals added in make it pretty creepy...

Just listen to newer Satyricon, newer Emperor, Watain, Dimmu Borgir [and even the new and old Cradle of Filth] and then you will get Black Metal with a relatively clean and good production.

Anaal Nathrakh are indeed fucking great. I love Hell Is Empty. The last track Castigation and Betrayal is jaw dropping.

The perfect bm guitar tone is something in the range of Burzum/Noenum/Blood Red Fog.

Watain is pretty badass too and recommended.

I've just recently been getting into Anaal Nathrakh due to their latest album being so awesome. They're amazing.

Especially "Sworn to the Dark" shows, that good BM does not need a bad production. Whereas the middle Darkthrone albums like "Plaguewielder", "Hate them" or "Sardonic Wrath" have also a surprisingly good guitar sound.

BM doesn't understand automatic non-conformity for its own sake is hypocrisy.

:Sigh:

They will never please Satan with that attitude. Or Loki, Odin or Thor, or whatever.

I thought that Immortal got the perfect Black Metal guitar sound on Sons of Northern Darkness. It stayed primitive buy you could actually hear the notes.