Nice filler.

I'll just point out some of the great black metal albums released between 1995 and 2003:

1995:

Ultima Thulee by Blut aus Nord

The Sun of Tiphareth by Absu

Storm of the Light's Bane by Dissection

A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria by Bal-Sagoth

Infidel Art by Sigh

1996:

The Dwelling by Sabbat (all my eternal hailz)

Nemesis Divina by Satyricon

Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers of the Icy Age by Blut aus Nord

Zirnindu Sa by Negura Bunget

Passage by Samael

Filosofem by Burzum

1997:
Goat Horns by Nokturnal Mortum

The Olden Domain by Borknagar

The Third Storm of Cythraul by Absu

Nattens Madrigal by Ulver

Under the Sign of Hell by Gorgoroth

1998:

Steineiche and Schattengang by Paysage d'Hiver

Destroyer by Gorgoroth

1999:

The Nightspectral Voyage by Obsidian Gate

To the Gates of Blasphemous Fire and NeChrist by Nokturnal Mortum

At the Heart of Winter by Immortal

Paysage d'Hiver by Paysage d'Hiver

Srontgorrth by Nagelfar

2000:

Maiastru Sfetnic by Negura Bunget

Creed of Iron by Graveland

I-Within Deep Dark Chambers by Shining

2001:

The Codex Necro by Anaal Nathrakh

Tara by Absu

II-Liviets Andhallplats by Shining

2002:

De Expugnatione Elfmuth by Nazgul

Sons of Northern Darkness by Immortal

Carnage in Worlds Beyond by Enthroned

Nocturnal Poisoning by Xasthur

2003:

Noontide by Fanisk

The Tenth Sublevel of Suicide by Leviathan

Deathcult Armageddon by Dimmu Borgir

and of course, the excellent Dark Space I by Darkspace

The main reason I love black metal is because there's so many ways it can go.  I'd like it a lot less if the only bands playing the style were a bunch of Transylvanian Hunger wannabes.  Seriously, if nobody tampered with the traditional heavy metal style, traditional heavy metal would be the only heavy metal.

What the fuck?  I'm not even going to bother.

Pelata wrote: http://www.examiner.com/metal-music-in-houston/the-return-of-true-metal Brett Stevens, Houston Metal Music Examiner  December 26, 2011  It's not so much that true metal is a genre, but a label that bands are applying to their music to say that they are not part of the newer hybrid genre, and that they want to return to the spirit that produced the great music of the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. The spirit is what allows bands to create music that carries the power of older metal, say fans, and many fans suggest that the newer music has lost that spirit because it's going in another direction. Whatever the case, the true metal movement is suggesting that metal isn't just a bunch of techniques and tropes, but a gestalt that ties them all together and communicates some kind of union with power and transcendence of the human condition, while more recent metal hybrids have been all about celebrating that human condition.

I don't bust a nut trying to over-categorize every single thing listen to.  I've never seen a need to label something as bombastically as blackened melodic funeral drone sludge thrashcore.  Bathory were as much of a black metal band as Darkthrone, Paysage d'Hiver, Sabbat, Shining, and even Dimmu Borgir are now.

The poster of the article seems opposed to any metal that isn't traditional metal with the reason that it isn't traditional.  I find that to be a pretty banal reason.  It's like a Dimmu Borgir fan writing a negative review for Filosofem because of its raw production, and lack of grandiose symphonic elements.  It works the other way though; a Burzum fan's critical review of Deathcult Armageddon for its lack of raw sounding "kvlt"ness is about as worthless to me as those bibles that are put in hotel rooms.  Are there genres I hate?  Yes, but I'm not going to rip on beatdown deathcore or pornogrind just because it isn't funeral doom metal or winter themed black metal.

The author also seems to forget that even those "traditional" bands had their moments of darkness.  Iron Maiden in albums 8 through 11, Anthrax's alternative metal phase, Metallica stating that their lifestyle determines their deathstyle then proclaiming that they are the table years later...What this guy doesn't realize is that metal has been making a "comeback" during the majority of the last decade.

Metal never left; it just went underground.  Today, with the prevalence of the internet, all those hidden albums have had new light shone upon them; and it's like they've always had a prestigious place in the collection of the metal collector.

 

Nope but it sure looked ugly