Sunday, September 9, 2012

French Black Metal Top Ten

I loooove French black metal...and so should You! Here are 10 reasons why

1. Antaeus - De Principii Evangelikum
A militant evil suffocating 28 minute hellride. One of the most devastating atmospheres of any metal album I've ever experienced....you will want this on repeat for a while.

2. Anorexia Nervosa - Exile
AN are a strange duck - starting with the band name and moving on to their drastic change in musical direction after this album. In fact, if one knows of this band, it's probably from their later symphonic bombastic Dimmu-esque albums...which are pretty decent in their own right. But it is this one...this surreal Industrial Prog/black metal opus that takes the cake. Fucking scary.

3. Sa Meute - Hyperborée
The French version of Blackdeath...how is that a bad thing?

4. Deathspell Omega - Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum
Maybe the most hyped black metal band in existence, but not without good reason! Fas is by far my favorite DO album...although there is quite a bit of filler, when they really get going it's a total whirlfuck of complex technical blackness.

5. Blut Aus Nord - Odinist - The Destruction Of Reason By Illumination
If you haven't picked up from most of these album titles already the majority of French black metal acts concern themselves with existential topics-no mere "praise Satan" for these folks. Blut has been performing their warped version of existential Black metal for well over a decade and a half now. All of mainman Vindsval's releases are beyond solid, but Odinist has these especially woozy seasick guitars that meld so so well with the idiosyncratic drumbeats. Music to go slipping through wormholes to.

6. Nuit Noire - Infantile Espieglery
The very best of faerical blasting metal. The riffs are so simple but so good that I can't even stand it!

7. Mutiilation - Sorrow Galaxies
This actually isn't my favorite Mutiilation album (that would be the oh so fucked-up Black Millennium (Grimly Reborn) from 2001), but Sorrow Galaxies may very well be Monsieur Roussel's best work....streamlined, more technical, but still just as weird as ever. We're proud of ya Willie!

8. Blacklodge - Login:satan
Inject pure satan into your veins...drugged up, cyber-fetishist excellence.

9. Wolok - Caput Mortuum 
By mutants for mutants.

10. Vlad Tepes/Belketre - March To The Black Holocaust
Couldn't get through this list without at least one LLN release. 2 words. Diabolical Reaps.

5 comments:

  1. Good post. Also of note:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2ECrOYo9IU

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  2. no S.V.E.S.T??the list needs to be longer. DSO alone should take up 6 spots

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  3. Cythral are pretty sweet as well. Having said that, thanks for the post. That Wolok is pretty nuts

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  4. Wow, Bael and S.V.E.S.T. sound pretty nuts, I actually posted a Cythrawl album awhile back....
    http://grimmerthanthou.blogspot.com/2011/09/cythrawl-ar-karv-du.html
    they released a slightly less bug-eyed album as CYT also can't forget this one
    http://grimmerthanthou.blogspot.com/2011/09/sadastor-herald-of-confusion.html

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  5. Thanks for posting this. Today I watched documentary film about Norwegian black metal titled Until the Light Takes Us. This is must watch for those who love Black metal music and those who love music.

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