Metallattorney's 10 Favorite Debuts of the Last 25 Years

Spurred by the abomination that was Metal Hammer's list, I decided to do one on my own.

In no particular order:

SEPULTURA: MORBID VISIONS
Absolutely raw and rough around the edges, this is an album that had a very large influence on the formation of death and black metal. It is completely unlike anything the band did afterwards. With an impressively evil atmosphere and some of the most beastly vocals Max Cavalera ever uttered, this is a very chaotic listen. The frenetic intensity of the album is its greatest quality. Sepultura refined their craft quite a bit since this, but this still remains my favorite album by the band.

DISSECTION: THE SOMBERLAIN
Dissection is a group that surpassed their debut album with their sophomore album, but that does not make their debut any less impressive. The band developed a feel for writing cold and merciless melodic black metal and that feel was evident even from their first album. The drumming is the standout on this album as the drum patterns constantly change but never vary their power. As with other groups, Dissection eventually smoothed out some of their rough edges, but they did keep their intensity, particularly on their follow-up.

SWALLOW THE SUN: THE MORNING NEVER CAME
The Swallow the Sun debut was one of my first real experiences with death/doom and I was simply blown away. The album cover caught my eye and I had to pick it up immediately and I was glad I did. Swallow the Sun does somber and yet menacing music extremely well. Their cover of Candlemass's "Solitude" is on par with the original version. I have said it before and I will say it again, the cover art on this album perfectly matches the music.

EMPEROR: IN THE NIGHTSIDE ECLIPSE
The bands of the Norwegian Second Wave of Black Metal almost to a band released great debut albums. Mayhem's debut, Immortal's debut, and Satyricon's debut were all strongly considered for this list, but I ultimately picked just this one. Emperor was always much more grandiose and musical than their countrymen, and this debut is one example. While other bands strived for brutality through simplicity, Emperor tried to find the beautiful in the very ugly. Both sides are very evident in this release, which still remains one of my all-time favorite black metal albums.

IMMOLATION: DAWN OF POSSESSION
Like Emperor for black metal, Immolation's debut is one of a number of great death metal debuts in the early 1990's. Immolation is a band who really helped death metal distinguish itself from thrash metal with their bass heavy slow and lumbering riffs and the deep guttural roaring vocal style. Immolation was a fairly early occult death metal band from the same New York scene that spawned Incantation and Cannibal Corpse among others, but Immolation's debut was more impressive.

DEICIDE: DEICIDE
Deicide rose out of the Tampa, Florida death metal scene and were immediately one of the most frightening death metal bands going. Their lyrics were unapologetically Anti-Christian and often invoked the devil and all sorts of other hellish demons. In addition, their music was fast and loud. Of course this was all eventually revealed to be a big joke, that Glen Benton has a, let's say interesting sense of humor. Their first two albums are excellent pieces of fast-paced, evil death metal.

MORBID ANGEL: ALTARS OF MADNESS
One of the very first death metal groups, Morbid Angel's debut was completely unlike anything ever heard before. Morbid Angel took the speed and intensity of thrash metal and added occult lyrics and growling vocals. This was one of the first death metal albums and a definite influence on a lot of bands that would arrive in later years. This is also still one of my favorite albums by the seminal death metal band, possibly only surpassed by Covenant.

OPETH: ORCHID
Speaking of bands who did something no one had really ever heard before, here is Opeth. Opeth started out as a death metal band with a little bit of an interesting twist, they incorporated a lot of 1970's progressive rock elements to their music. They were a little bit long-winded and this album was still something of a work in progress, but the ideas were definitely there and they were definitely fresh. Opeth just needed to build on them some more.

AMON AMARTH: ONCE SENT FROM THE GOLDEN HALL
With this album, Amon Amarth began their long career of releasing basically the same album. This one is a little bit further along the death metal lines than some of their later releases, and it is a little heavier as well, but other than that Amon Amarth has made a career out of re-releasing this album. Which really is not as problematic as one might think. That is how truly great this album really is. It is hard to pick a favorite album by this band, the debut is certainly a worthy choice.

SUFFOCATION: EFFIGY OF THE FORGOTTEN
Suffocation rose out of the same New York scene as Immolation, but their music was decidedly different. Suffocation incorporated a lot more technical elements to their sound and also emphasized brutal breakdowns. Their influence can be felt in slam death, brutal death metal, and technical death metal. All three subgenres owe a massive debt of gratitude to this release. Suffocation has continued with the sound that they developed, but this is still probably their best.

My 100 Favorite Metal Bands Pt. 39: Emperor

One of the most difficult countries to name a favorite band from was Norway. I eventually decided on Immortal, but Emperor was one of the bands that was very difficult to pass up. Emperor was the first true black metal band that I ever really got into. Their melodic and symphonic take on black metal was extremely influential and helped spawn a whole subgenre, along with their countrymen Dimmu Borgir. Emperor though has always had much better music. In fact, their second album still rates as one of my all-time favorite black metal albums.

FAVORITE ALBUM: ANTHEMS TO THE WELKIN AT DUSK

Year in Metal: 1997

I know I say this a lot lately, but I really do intend to get back to posting more regularly. Starting up a law firm is a bit more work than I thought. I still do not have office space at this time. Once that is taken care of, perhaps things will be a little easier.

DECEASED...: FEARLESS UNDEAD MACHINES
A concept album covering George A. Romero's zombie movies such as Night of the Living Dead and others, this album is all about zombies. On this album, Deceased... shed most of their death metal sound and went for a more thrash/heavy metal style. The vocals were still rough though. This is the band's masterpiece album, heavily melodic and powerful at the same time. Deceased... is one of the most underrated bands in American metal.

DESTROYER 666: UNCHAIN THE WOLVES
Australian blackened thrash metal masters Destroyer 666 released their first full-length album in 1997. This one is far closer to black metal than their more recent output, bearing a strong resemblance to acts like Blasphemy and Bestial Warlust. Tons of imitators sprang up after this album was released and the "war metal" scene was born.

EMPEROR: ANTHEMS TO THE WELKIN AT DUSK
One of the more popular Norwegian black metal albums ever, Emperor truly found their sound on this one. Featuring bombastic symphonic elements amidst the black metal riffing, Emperor truly came into their own here. Unfortunately, it was all downhill after this album. The only complaint I have about this album is that the vocals get a little buried, other than that, it's a great album.

GAMMA RAY: SOMEWHERE OUT IN SPACE
One of the better albums from the band that was formed by Kai Hanson after leaving Helloween. This is German power/speed metal at its best. Melodic and infectious, Gamma Ray put out a great album at the height of this scene. This album holds up very well next to the best albums from Blind Guardian, Helloween, Hammerfall and other European power/speed metal albums.

IN FLAMES: WHORACLE
The second In Flames album under Anders Friden was the first fully developed melodic death metal album by the band. In Flames had ditched most of the folk influences by this point and the result was a streamlined melodeath masterpiece. In Flames took over the throne as the top Gothenburg band with this album, but would lose it soon after to Dark Tranquillity.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: I had a hard time coming up with five albums. If I forgot something, I probably have not heard it enough.

BANDS THAT FORMED IN 1997: Akercocke, Finntroll.

Reader Requested Post: Norwegian vs. Swedish Black Metal

This is the final reader-requested post. This was requested by an anonymous commenter. Please feel free to ask for more at any time.

This was the toughest one for me to do, even moreso than the true metal vs. false metal post. As much as I tried to spell out the differences between these two scenes, I could not decide which point was in favor of one side or the other. The issue being that my listening habits within the metal genre are so varied that, at some times, I prefer Swedish black metal and at others, I prefer Norwegian black metal. What I ended up doing then was to make distinctions between the scenes and lay out my favorite bands. If the readers want to decide on their own which they would prefer to listen to based on those distinctions, that is their decision.

NORWEGIAN BLACK METAL
This is inarguably the most famous black metal scene. But what makes it famous is not the music. It's the crimes committed by many of its members. The scene is marked by the suicide of Mayhem vocalist Dead, the murder of Mayhem guitarist Euronymous by bassist and Burzum founding member Varg Vikernes, the murder of a gay man by Emperor drummer Bard Eithun, and a few dozen church burnings. With a backstory like that, it's no wonder the scene became so infamous. However, this infamy has cast a large shadow over what was a very vibrant music scene.

The music evolved out of darker thrash metal groups such as Bathory, Hellhammer, Sodom, Venom, and got its visual aesthetics from groups like Mercyful Fate. The music was often comprised of higher-pitched guitar tones with a lot of distortion, double-bass or blastbeat drums, and high-pitched shrieking vocals. The production is often very low quality. Norwegian black metal can be oftentimes very fast and complex as in groups like Immortal, or slower with one basic riff idea repeated ad nauseum, such as Darkthrone. Some bands evolved a more melodic approach with the influence of classical music such as Emperor and Ancient.

Norwegian black metal emphasizes the dark and cold atmosphere of its compositions. It arose mostly in opposition to death metal. As Euronymous once stated, death metal was not "cool" in Oslo, Norway. It can therefore be easily distinguished from that other form of extreme metal. When dissecting the riffs, it is often true that they are traditional metal or thrash metal riffs, either played very fast or slowed way down. Some punk and post-punk influence is also apparent in the early groups.

The lyrics of Norwegian black metal often touch on Satanism, Anti-Christianity or occult topics. However there is also some amount of fantasy-inspired lyrics. Immortal created an entire fantasy world that is explored in their music. Mythology is also often present and the darker aspects of the human experience. Enslaved started presenting lyrics about Vikings and became one of the leaders in the development of viking metal.

Norwegian black metal was one of the first scenes in the black metal genre I explored deeply. For obvious reasons, it is the most well-known scene and most people who know anything about black metal can rattle off the names of some of these bands. The bands have evolved into often considerably different forms from the time when the scene was at its peak. Mayhem has been exploring extremely chaotic song structures, Darkthrone has returned to the roots of metal, Emperor vocalist Ihsahn has formed a self-titled band in which he experiments with progressive rock, Enslaved has evolved into the black metal equivalent of Opeth, and Satyricon has been experimenting with simple rock structures to form what has been called black 'n roll. Only Immortal is still playing anything close to what they played in the early 1990's but even they have slowed down considerably.

If I had to pick a single favorite band from the Norwegian black metal scene, it would be Emperor, Immortal would come a close second. Emperor was the most interesting band musically because of the combination of raw black metal with classical music and keyboards. Many of the other bands were fairly simple from a compositional standpoint, but Emperor's music was highly complex.
SWEDISH BLACK METAL
The first black metal band I ever bought an album from was Dissection. Despite this, it took quite awhile before I really looked into the Swedish black metal scene. Even now, I am still not entirely familiar with many of the early albums by Swedish black metal bands like Naglfar, Nifelheim, and Arckanum. I am able to form an opinion on much of the scene from the same time period based on what I have heard from groups like Dissection, Marduk, Dark Funeral, and Lord Belial.

Black metal essentially started in Sweden. Groups like Venom and Hellhammer from the U.K. and Switzerland respectively, certainly had an influence on the formation of the genre, but Bathory was quite possibly the first real black metal band. They laid the framework for the basic black metal sound. Despite this, the second wave Swedish black metal bands did not sound much like that framework. The second wave Swedish bands were heavily influenced by death metal. Marduk was essentially a death metal-influenced take on black metal. Dissection had heavy melodic death metal touches in their music and eventually, on their final album, became a melodic death metal band. Groups like Naglfar and Lord Belial have evolved more into blackened death metal bands.

Some Swedish black metal bands have been derogatively called "Norsecore" due to the heavy death metal influences in their music. Marduk and Dark Funeral are two of the bands most commonly referred to as such. The term is meant to refer to the Swedish bands taking some of the Norwegian elements and focusing entirely on them and distorting them into a parody of the Norwegian sound. For instance, the lyrics become outlandishly Satanic and the sound becomes extremely heavy and fast. Swedish black metal bands in this style are often focused on brutality and speed with very little melody.

Other bands such as Dissection, Arckanum, and Nifelheim are extremely melodic, using guitar leads and melodies influenced by traditional metal bands and tremolo riffing, and infusing that with the blasting drums to make up the majority of their sound. These bands are much closer in relation to the Stockholm and Gothenburg death metal scenes than they are to the Norwegian black metal scene. Many bands have crossed over into the Swedish death scene. Other Swedish death metal bands have had black metal influences early in their careers, such as Dark Tranquillity and At The Gates.

The Swedish scene is not nearly as well-known as the Norwegian scene. Groups like Marduk and Dissection have had a considerable amount of influence on the further formation of the genre, but are not often spoken of in the same breath as some of the more famous Norwegian bands. Despite this, there was a very large diversity of styles in Sweden and it should not be overlooked.

Picking a favorite Swedish black metal band is much easier than picking a favorite Norwegian black metal band. I am a huge fan of Dissection's first two albums, even placing Storm of the Light's Bane in my top five all-time favorite albums. It's not even really close.
CONCLUSION
If I had to pick my favorite of these two scenes, I would probably go with Norway. I really enjoy the music of most of the Norwegian bands. Even though Dissection is my favorite black metal band, I am not as interested in Marduk, Dark Funeral, and the like as I am in Immortal, Darkthrone, Mayhem, Satyricon, and other Norwegian bands. Norway's scene has also evolved more. Dark Funeral and Marduk still sound the same, whereas the Norwegian bands have changed their sound markedly.

Strange Album Covers Pt. 4: Horror Finally the End

Finally the last entry in this series. So, let's get it done already:

EMPEROR: ANTHEMS TO THE WELKIN AT DUSK

The great Emperor appears here on their last great album. The band broke up a few years and one more full length later. This cover features a war between angels, that is if you can actually see anything here thanks to the incredibly dark shades of green and black. An amazing album that was the final culmination of the work the band had been leading towards since they formed.

BLOODBATH: THE FATHOMLESS MASTERY

Bloodbath is a supergroup from some of Sweden's finest death metal bands and has featured a revolving door of members from groups like Opeth, Katatonia, Edge of Sanity, Hypocrisy, and more. This is their latest album that has a cover featuring either zombies or ghosts, tough to say, although the artwork is incredibly macabre.

MERCILESS DEATH: REALM OF TERROR

Merciless Death is one of the many bands from the new trend towards of classic thrash metal. Merciless Death is closer in sound to Dark Angel's heyday than bands like Metallica or Megadeth though. This album cover features a malevolent spirit attacking a priest in a church.

COFFINS: BURIED DEATH

Yes, zombies! Zombies are fucking awesome and everyone, even doom/death bands from Japan like Coffins, know it. I chose this one, even though the cover to their previous album is even more grotesque and awful.

ATROCIOUS ABNORMALITY: ECHOES OF THE ROTTING

See above, more zombies! Woo hoo! Atrocious Abnormality is a brutal death metal band from North Carolina that I previously reviewed on this blog.

5 Important Bands, 1 Genre Pt. 2: Black Metal

I've been thinking a lot about black metal of late. It's a genre that I enjoy, but I really do not listen to all that often. My problem with black metal lately seems to be that it has become a little trendy and a bunch of bands have been coming out of the woodwork that sound the same and/or really are not that good.

I started getting into black metal in high school actually, but it was not until after I finished law school that I really began exploring the genre. So, similar to the earlier post on power metal, here are five bands that were instrumental in me becoming a fan of black metal. Some of them may be a little less on the black metal side of things than others, but nevertheless, here they are in no particular order, the bands that lead me over to the dark side.

CELTIC FROST

I have discussed Celtic Frost at length in other parts of this blog. To be put simply, Celtic Frost was hugely influential on the early black metal scene. The band itself really was not a black metal band, but so many bands from the early black metal scenes took influence from this band that it really does not matter. For me in particular, I checked out the Celtic Frost tribute album which featured songs from black metal bands such as Emperor and Mayhem. This lead me into checking out the albums by those bands. Later on, I started checking out the band's actual music. Celtic Frost was so far ahead of its time, it's shocking. At the time, there was only Celtic Frost, several years later, other bands started to try to adapt their sound, but Celtic Frost stood alone at the time.

DISSECTION

I love Dissection. I have also discussed this band in other places on this blog, but they deserve mention here as well. I ordered Storm of the Light's Bane through a bookstore of all places, but immediately took to the album. It is still one of the coldest, most evil sounding albums I have ever heard. As dark as it is though, The Somberlain is perhaps even darker. At the time I heard the band, I had not heard anything else like it, it was fast, evil-sounding, and terrifying. It was amazing. Dissection was on hiatus for several years while Jon Nodtveidt was in prison for murder, but they came back upon his release. Unfortunately, their comeback album did not have any of the atmosphere that the earlier releases did. Soon thereafter, Nodtveidt committed suicide and Dissection was no more.

EMPEROR

Emperor was one of the earliest true Norwegian black metal bands I got into. I started with Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk, one of the more melodic, keyboard-driven albums by the band. I was impressed by the dark atmosphere and the riffs, but the vocals couldn't be heard very well. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the album a lot and looked back into their earlier catalog, but avoided their newer stuff. The band's leader Ihsahn has released two amazing solo albums since the band broke up, and the other members of the band are doing their own projects. Emperor is one of the most well-known bands from the Norwegian scene.

DIMMU BORGIR

Another group from the Norwegian scene, however Dimmu Borgir has been mostly dismissed from black metal circles due to the declining quality of their music and their mainstream successes. Dimmu Borgir has incorporated more and more keyboard flourishes, to the point where some have accused the band of sounding like circus musicians. At the time that I heard Death Cult Armageddon though, it was one of the most evil-sounding albums I had heard to date. I still go back to that album on occasion, but it does not hold the same high place in my listening hierarchy. Dimmu Borgir though was something of a gateway at the time to get into other black metal bands from the area.

CRADLE OF FILTH

Cradle of Filth is another band like Dimmu Borgir who has been blacklisted as a black metal band. The band is more of an extreme gothic metal band with some early black metal influences. Nevertheless, their mainstream nature makes them a suitable gateway band for those that are unfamiliar with the genre. I am a big fan of Cradle of Filth though, for their amazing lyrics and incredible storytelling talents. The band creates a impressive dark atmosphere combining elements of gothic horror and lust and depravity. The vocals can be a little grating at times, but to my ears, it just adds to the effect of the band.

From these gateway bands, I started getting into groups like Bathory, Mayhem, Satyricon, and several bands that cross several different genres.