EXTREME METAL

[Nordicdusk]

Darkthrones Nocturno Culto and his film The Misanthrope. Some fantastic music and beautiful shots of Norway. This is a beautiful film bursting with atmospheric music and imagery.

[applecore]

I'm still fairly uneducated with a lot of Black Metal, but I think my first dabble in it was hearing Cradle of Filth's "Her Ghost In The Fog" on Kerrang! TV. I realise that they weren't really Black Metal by that point, but that was really my first taste of anything remotely outside the mainstream. I got their "Lovecraft and Witchhearts" album and had a few favourites on there (despite not being much of a CoF fan anymore, "For Those Who Died" is still a cracking song).
Then I kind of stuck with the mainstream for a few more years. Found a few bands like GWAR and Manowar thanks to the internet, but not really any Black Metal (I'd heard about the church burnings and murders but never really thought to listen to any of it). Until I read Metal Hammer's review of Wacken 2006, anyway.
I remember I was sat in my work experience placement's staff room on my lunch break, when suddenly I was greeted by an image of a band (I forget who. I thought Emperor but it probably wasn't) performing onstage with a goat's head on a spike. I then went to my best mate Adam (who was - and still is - a bigger metalhead than me) and told him we had to go next year. So we did.
I'd heard the odd Immortal track before, but when we knew we were going to Wacken and they were headlining, I bought "Sons of Northern Darkness", "Damned in Black" and "At The Heart of Winter" - the former being probably my favourite Black Metal album and the latter being the most atmospheric metal music I had ever heard at that point.
Weirdly, Wacken that year didn't introduce me to any new Black Metal, but it did increase my interest in Power Metal. However over the next year (with plans to return for Wacken 2008) I looked up more bands (1349, Emperor, Belphegor to name a few). Seeing Gorgoroth (as they were named at the time) live at Wacken '08 was a pretty awesome experience, too.
I pretty much stuck with what I knew for a few years after that. Then Adam mentioned that one of his old uni mates had joined a Black Metal band called Winterfylleth and we checked them out at Bloodstock 2010 - I've been a fan of theirs since. Not long after that, a mate of mine from Peterborough formed a band called The Infernal Sea and their shows introduced me to a lot more underground extreme metal (their show in a pub in King's Lynn with Old Corpse Road and Aloeswood springs to mind).
Nowadays I really only listen to Immortal, Winterfylleth and The Infernal Sea, but given the chance I'd love to go see more live Black Metal. In my time at festivals I've seen a bunch of bands, but always seem to forget to really look them up afterwards. Then when I do, I'm not in the mood to listen to Black Metal. Weird.

[applecore]

In fact, here's The Infernal Sea's "Ritual Incantation" from their debut album "Call of The Augr"


As well as Winterfylleth's "Mam Tor: The Shivering Mountain" from their "Ghost of Heritage" album.

[Susan Foreman]

My favourite Venom song

Not just Black metal - pretty much ever genre of rock included!

[Nordicdusk]

My first Emperor album i must admit the first time i heard it i was overwhelmed there just seemed to be so much going on.

[Nordicdusk]

Bathory took what Venom started and pushed it even further with more extreme vocals and satanic subject matter that felt more heartfelt and genuine.

[Nordicdusk]

Mayhem Live in Leipzig is an amazing record that captures the feeling the anger the fury the darkness the rawness and the evil spirit of the Black Metal scene at that time. The album cover is one of the most iconic images of Black Metal it captures all the feeling you get from the music in just that one picture of Dead.

[Nordicdusk]

From Immortals debut album

[Nordicdusk]

Getting a bit more obsure with Abruptum. This is really not for everyone but they stood out from all the other Black Metal bands on the scene in the early 90s.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by nordicdusk

Bathory took what Venom started and pushed it even further with more extreme vocals and satanic subject matter that felt more heartfelt and genuine.

Blood, Fire, Death was my first real introduction to Black Metal.

Forget Venom and their dodgy production, this was the real deal. Tracks such as A Fine Day to Die and Holocaust just knocked me for six.

It still stands head and shoulders above 98% of the BM genre today, much the same as Slayer's Reign in Blood does with Thrash metal.



Gotta admit the previous years Under The Sign of The Black Mark is even more evil and thunderous in it's production.



13 Candles is probably my favourite of all Quorthon's songs. - Just fearsome.