Metal Reviews

is it possible ? does it already exist ? if it does is it any good ?

it would sound fvkking empty, maybe an electric violin with VERY heavy distortion could replace it. It does exist though, go for Bunkur, hmm naa on second thought, that's more like doom...

i don't know black metal is about atmosphere isn't　it, if they can manage to do it without the guitars and sounds good i don't see why not. i like summoning who almost don't use guitars, but if there is a really good band that doesn't use guitars at all, and makes great black metal i'll like to hear it.

exactly my thoughts Metalworker !

but since Misha doesn't know any band fitting that description, I guess it just doesn't exist though it could... :roll:

I've always thought of Ulver's Kveldssanger, as an acoustic BM album...

I dont think you can...

THATS IT!!
I'LL MAKE THE FIRST ONE!! WHO WANTS IN?

i can sing and play a few kboards !

and I have a cool nekro pic too !

That violin thing: NOXAGT.

Me and my sister made a BM song, she played violin, I played drums.

SOUNDED NEKRO AND Tr00!

But acoustic guitars are guitars as well ;)

I really don't know what to say about this... at first the thought of BM (or Metal in general for that matter) without guitars felt like "what's next, choir pieces without vocals?", but on a second though... I'd better stop here or I think I'm in for another glorious headache, as I'm not very inspired at the moment.

I don't think it would be possible. Just because Black metal has amtophere it is still metal music. Without guitars it would be "black noise"

Hails and welcome to the forums! You're probably right there, I've actually seen the term black noise used. The band would have a black influence, but would not be black metal.

Too bad TIE ;) I can give you some electro/industrial bands with BM influences, but Desolate has probably more knowledge of this. Ask him. Maybe Mortiis is something to start with...

Hmm, why the hell not? Sounds like an interesting musical experiment. Think an amalgation of VivisectVI-Too Dark Park era Skinny Puppy and Filesofem-era Burzum. Record the sounds of an oncoming train, and loop it, distort a little, and use a synthesizer to play it-voila, a riff. The best part is that it would change depending on the exact place you were standing on the platform when the train arrived. Hell, that's hundreds of riffs, if you have the time to record all that.

Then play it hypnotically, and add in BWWAAAARGH vocals and nonsensical song structures with no actual composition: somewhat like Cryptopsy, in that the train-riffs could theoretically be fucked with and rearranged until they were entirely atonal, and then you have absolute freedom in terms of structure. Of course, there could be other sources for riffs that have nothing to do with trains, or you could make them up yourself, but I got onto a tangent here, so let me go on that point, mmkay?

Sure, a lot of work goes into that, but the results could be interesting. Sounds pretty doable to me.

Electric violin with heavy distortion? That would kinda sound like fingernails on a blackboard, wouldn't it?

It's entirely possible to create a guitar-less black metal song. Just hook-up a keyboard to a Marshall stack, turn the gain up to ten, and record a riff. It probably won't sound as good, but it gets the job done. Anyone heard the Van Halen song And the Cradle will Rock? That entire song, minus the guitar solo, is played on a keyboard in this way, and nobody ever seemed to notice the difference.

That being said, it seems pointless, because all you would really be trying to do would be to mimic a guitar sound. Mimicking a guitar tone on another instrument is nothing new, so you wouldn’t be breaking any new ground. What is the advantage of using another instrument to create the same sound?

Velvet Cacoon did this on Genevieve, techically. Though they did use a guitar-like instrument.

But, in general, I'm going to have to agree with Lord Jotun...

Without guitars they will sound fucking empty.. Hell no.. No way this is gonna work out..

Yep, totally agreed. Generally metal without guitars is not a thing possible imo.

I mean if someone does it then it is done but it wouldn't feel right.

I think many instruments can easily replace the guitar and therefore create a different mood though it would still be black metal... a heavily distorted saxophone, an electrified cello or violin, some evil sounding keyboards, steel percussions etc...

a crazy idea would be to make a bm album using only voices, kind of a doo-wop bm album (a good reference could be the last Björk album but in a BM way) :roll:

drums are not so easily replaced and vocals can not fill in for them. guitars could be easily replaced by constant intruments of different tunes, most likely wind instruments. maybe some exotic intruments could make some interesting atmospheres. the other day i heard some indu inspired black metal andthought that it was quite cool, can't remember the artist though. does somebody know anything like that.