It’s easy to forget just how much of a shock to the system black metal was when it exploded in the early 1990s. Even beyond the controversy – namely murder and church burning – it pushed metal to abrasive new extremes.
Today, black metal has become respected, if not respectable. Bands such as Emperor, Mayhem, Satyricon and Dimmu Borgir or no longer feared, hated or ridiculed, but held up as the pioneers they truly are.
But there are still countless black metal bands who have never got the attention they deserve outside underground circles. Their contribution to the development of the genre is largely unacknowledged despite being as good as their better-known counterparts.
From South American trailblazers to enigmatic one-man projects, these are five black metal bands who should be way, way bigger.
Arguably more than Sepultura, Sarcófago represent the true, sacrilegious spirit of South American extreme metal. Their 1987 debut album, I.N.R.I. – a primitive but potent stew of caged-animal proto-black metal, death and thrash, with its iconic graveside cover – inspired innumerable bands to swear to the dark. A true game-changer.
Listen to: I.N.R.I. (1987)
Although one of the lesser-known bands in the black metal canon, largely on the basis of having only one album to their name, Ved Buens Ende weren’t just instrumental in the scene’s shift into more avant-garde realms, but a seminal act whose reverberations are still felt today. A roving, Kurt Weill-esque lurch awash in spindly riffs and portentous, intoxicated vocals, 1995’s Written In Waters cast a hallucinatory spell throughout Norway and beyond. Akercocke, Voices and incorporated the off-kilter narrative approach, while more blackened tracks such as Den Saakaldte sound like a blueprint for cosmonauts such as Blut Aus Nord.
Listen to: Written In Waters (1995)
Though Norway is obviously the more famous country as far as black metal goes, Finland deserve serious kudos for giving birth to Beherit in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s. Explicitly Satanic and utterly primal, their ritualistic assault earned a legion of followers and influenced many later groups, before they took a fascinating turn into electronic/ambient music.
Listen to: Drawing Down The Moon (1993
It’s impossible to overstate the impact of Thorns on black metal. Primarily the work of obsessive innovator Snorre Ruch, the inspired the still-developing movement of the early ’90s with eerie (and largely instrumental) demo recordings, before moving into industrial black territories in the latter half of the decade via their self-titled debut album, released in 2001. Snorre is rumoured to have completed a second album, though whether it ever materialises is another matter.
Listen to: Grymyrk (demo, 1991)
