Metal Reviews

I always thought Temnozor was a bit light for my liking. Jaunty almost.
But you are right; there are some very good E. European / Slavic black metal bands / NSBM bands are out there. German, too.
Maybe boiling it down to strictly Burzum or Darkthrone spheres of influence is an oversimplification. ( a lot of bands are very obviously influenced by early Gorgoroth, which had their own distinct style of black metal) There are a lot of good BM bands that tap into their lands' folklore / folk music, lending a more exotic sound.

Which works well, because BM is of the romantic school of music.
Romanticization of a different time, value system and culture etc.
But Burzum and Darkthrone (and Gorgoroth) are the basic foundations of which most of todays BM artists are built upon. Not that they are clones, more that they subscribe to that respective style.

I like Weakling because they combine Immortal/Darkthrone's ability to write riffs with a cool rhythm/groove to them and Burzum's sad/desperate atmosphere. Probably don't have much BM credibility though because I listen to shit like Paramore

Farsot is an example of one German band I just really started to like. Temnozer/Walknut is a case where I think the nearly Burzum cloned band turned out better than the more adventurous version.

I would argue early Enslaved/Emperor majorly influenced at least some of these Eastern bands-- including bigger ones such as Negura Bunget (and Negura Bunget's English protege Wodensthrone), Drudkh, even Moonsorrow and Darkestrah to an extent. I tend to gravitate towards that sound as opposed to the Burzum/Darkthrone clones, but I would agree that the later are much more common.

I am just not sure how one would be pessimistic about the state of at least some strands of BM today; then again, you have witnessed more sea changes in metal than I have, and here I am feeling like an old-timer since my return.


And noodles, I appreciate you saying exactly why you like Weakling, maybe I will check it out again and see if my biases have colored me (wouldn't be the first time).

idk I've never been a big black metal fan but the first time I heard Dead As Dreams it struck me as the Ideal Black Metal Album because it had occasional brutal doom riffs, exploited the counterpointish possibilities of tremolo picked stuff, and didn't have extended acoustic folk/Gregorian chant/not metal parts. I also think rly long songs suit the style of music v well.

The Emperor / Enslaved influence is a bit sketchy... Emperor only put out two technically speaking black metal albums: ITNE and Wrath... if you go back to Thou Shalt Suffer (Into the Woods of Belial is an underappreciated example of how death metal and black metal can work together), three. Or rather two and 1/2, haha
Enslaved kind of abandoned black metal after the split with Emperor (Hordane's Land) and Frost, more or less.
The Emperor / Enslaved influence seems to be found mainly in symphonic (hybrids) and folk / heathen black metal, i.e., Nokturnal Mortum, Svartahrid, etc. which is a fairly strong sub-genre.
Still, all roads lead to Norway, interestingly enough.
Or Sweden, if we consider Bathory. And if we consider Bathory, we have to consider Venom, and ergo, the northern UK.
Mostly, I'm considering another drink, though...