I find your approach charming in that you’re so open about things, not really being an “expert” on black metal. Thanks for posting this, and for including Master’s Hammer and Sepultura!
I appreciate your kind words. There’s very little I’m an “expert” on and I certainly don’t know everything even when I do know a lot. It’s all about learning more all the time. Gotta stay open if you wanna learn new stuff. I’m glad I was able to get the Master’s Hammer CD just before recording the video!
Also, Ritual from Master's Hammer is definitely one of my favourite BM albums. Amazing riffs and atmosphere throughout and yes, it's very well recorded. Root is also a great one from Czechia.
I was trying to get a hold of Root and also KAT but I was not yet successful. At least I had a chance to hear then on RUclips. I want to get the Poison compilation CD because then I'd finally have a Poison album in my collection and it would be a black metal band and not the glam one.
haha..yes. much better than that US Poison. I actually never listened to the US Poison till very recently. Like I mentioend before, a lot of the so-called glam metal stuff was just way out of my purview. I do have a (not legitimate) copy of German Poison's Down into the Abyss or whatever it's called. Their earlier demos are very very rough sounding but that recording rules.@@musicisajourney
Great video. THe thrash vs black metal car analogy was so funny, but kind of accurate. That Tormentor is so cool. I actually hear a lot of Iron maiden in the guitar, but often just really fast and crazy and with Atilla's wild vocals over it. Speaking of wild, the reformed Tormentor album from 1998 is one of the weirdest things ever. Not black metal at all. Very hard to describe, but there is eccentric personality all over it that's for sure. The Greek BM sound is really distinctive and unique. As well as Rotting Christ, there's the great Varathron, and the eventually-great Necromantia, and Zemial, and Agatus, and a lot of other really cool bands. And over there in Italy there's also Mortuary Drape of course, who it hink you mentioned early on in the video. They didn't et an album out till 1994 but they had lots of demos and EPs before that, and the albums kept getting better. They just put out a new one actually and I'm excited to hear it. I think bands like this, as wella st he Greek bands, lean a little more on the heavy metal riffs, and you can definitely hear more of the Mercyful Fate-ish kind of thing going with them, both in terms of musicianship and theatricality.
Oh, man! You really know your stuff! I need to snoop around more into those Greek bands you mentioned. Maiden? I’ll need to tune in more closely, but yes, I did feel the Tormentor album is different from most of the others. I was just looking into Mortuary Drape the other day and saw they have a new album indeed! I was hoping for an older one. I think I found that 94 one somewhere but it was too pricy at the moment for me. I prefer some killer riffs. Some bands just go for speed but the actual riffs aren’t exciting. A good heavy breakdown makes all the difference!
Varathron (the Greek band) has a new one coming really soon too.A bit unlike Rotting Christ, Varathron's most recent albums have been really fantastic. Yeah, my ex guitarist and I really got into the first wave and adjacent stuff, including Czech and mediterranean black metal bands and of course Sabbat, around the same time, and it was one of the things that made us start up our band. We even got to share the stage with Mortuary Drape, Zemial and Varathron on separate occasions. Mortuary Drape's All the Witches Dance, their first album, has some really legendary old songs on it, and it's definitely good, but I think has a slightly weaker sound than the later ones. I don't think that's really their fault and the songs are strong, and with Drape you can always count on killer riffs and insane soloing as well as some really prominent bass.F@@musicisajourney
Great overview, this era of metal is the best IMO, nothing was codified, everyone wanted to push the envelope but without obviously copying others styles like today. One of my favourite "1st wave" - if we keep to the 81/91 timeframe - is Samael's "Worship him" (recorded in march 1990), really fantastic. I always disliked the idea of "1st wave" BM grouping of all these bands as they sound quite different to each other. Also, I dont understand when the 2nd wave starts! If you want yo dig deeper there are LOTS of crazy good demos from this era.
Hey, thanks so much for the great comment! Samael, eh? I heard the name somewhere while digging about. I’ll give them a listen. I found some really cool albums this time round, so I’m open to hearing another good one. Yeah, while there are similarities that put these groups into a “darker than thrash” category, thankfully(!) each of them had their own take on the music, some standing apart more than others. I think it’s similar to NWOBHM. So many bands were part of the scene but each with their own style. It’s not a genre but an era, a period, whatever you want to call it. But both NWOBHM and FWBM were exciting times as young bands pushed metal music rapidly in new directions. I still feel metal is the genre that is quickest to move in new directions. That’s why there are so many labels!
@@musicisajourney yeah, I think defining it as an era makes sense, although I'm not sure why 1991 would be the cutoff (Live in Leipzig by Mayhem I suppose). I see you like Master's Hammer, they have just released a compilation of all their demos from the 80s I highly recommend it, it's maybe even better than what's on the album and it's all recorded in a proper studio so it sounds good. For more great demos check out Necromantia (Greece - "promo tape" 1990), Tormentor ("seventh day of doom" 1987), Mortuary Drape (Italy - "Necromancy" 1987), Obscurity (Sweden - "Damnations pride" 1987), Mystifier (Brazil - "Tormenting the holy trinity" 1989), Abhorer (Singapore - "Rumpus of the dead" 1989), Poison (Germany - "Into the abyss" 1987), Goatlord (USA - "sodomizing the goat" 1988)...and there's more! Thanks again for the taking the time to talk about this, it's fascinating!
Much appreciated, Steve! I do the same for others sometimes. I start watching and go, “Country? Reggae? Eighties dream pop?” Like. And then the finger hovers, ready to close the video. Ha ha! I knew this wouldn’t be your taste, but again, thank you for your thoughtful support!
Another fantastic video Peter, I have never been too familiar with the first wave of black metal like Venom, Bathory ext… I got into black metal with the second wave with bands like Darkthrone, emperor, Enslaved. The first black metal band I ever heard was Cradle of Filth with the song Her Ghost in the fog….they are controversial in the black metal scene for being more symphonic but they are near and dear to me been a fan of their music going on 20yrs now
Thanks for watching yet another long video, David. Cradle of Filth is a band I plan to check out sometime but most likely their older stuff. I heard they became more gothic later which is not really to my taste. But their earlier albums should be good. Dimmu Borgir also quickly went symphonic but I like the one album of theirs that I have. Do you have a favourite Cradle of Filth album?
Yeah, I’m 52 so I think we’re able the same age. I really dug and still dig Bathory. I never cared for Venom so much. As a guitar player on a technical angle they sucked moose balls. But I respect them for what they did. Bathory seemed like pure evil to me. Which I appreciated. And of course Hellhammer and Celtic Frost ruled.
I think Venom were a lot more “fun”. Bathory and Celtic Frost were the real deal. I can get a kick out of those Venom albums, but Bathory and Celtic Frost just feel awesome! That’s so much for watching this video!
excellent video as always Peter 🙂 the amount of hard work you put in really shows, as does your love and enthusiasm for rock music 🙂 black metal is not a genre of music I'm at all familiar with. Growing up in the UK with the NWOBHM I do remember hearing Venom - it must have been on the legendary Friday Night Rock Show with the late, great Tommy Vance. At the time they I considered them as just another metal band, and I thought of them along with the likes of Demon (whose first 2 albums I bought). Though Demon were a more outright satanic worship type band. I have seen that documentary about Mayhem. they were a very disturbed bunch, with tragic consequences.
Thank you so much for sparing your time for this video! I know this is not the music preference of many of my regular viewers, so I really appreciate you took the time to watch (even if you might have just skimmed through as I do sometimes for some videos). As you can gather, I’m really interested in the development of heavy metal, and this was happening when I was a teen. Unfortunately for me, I was the only one I knew who was that interested in it. My best friend bought some albums but preferred glam metal. One other boy in my junior high bought Bathory and Celtic Frost, I remember. Information on these bands was word of mouth and I was the only one really interested. I really see Venom as more of a party band using the Satanic imagery as their stage show. I have not heard Demon but I know of them. I will give them a listen. I might just be interested. Thanks as always for sharing your thoughts and experiences. I have a couple of your videos cued up for this week.
I find your approach charming in that you’re so open about things, not really being an “expert” on black metal. Thanks for posting this, and for including Master’s Hammer and Sepultura!
I appreciate your kind words. There’s very little I’m an “expert” on and I certainly don’t know everything even when I do know a lot. It’s all about learning more all the time. Gotta stay open if you wanna learn new stuff.
I’m glad I was able to get the Master’s Hammer CD just before recording the video!
Also, Ritual from Master's Hammer is definitely one of my favourite BM albums. Amazing riffs and atmosphere throughout and yes, it's very well recorded. Root is also a great one from Czechia.
I was trying to get a hold of Root and also KAT but I was not yet successful. At least I had a chance to hear then on RUclips. I want to get the Poison compilation CD because then I'd finally have a Poison album in my collection and it would be a black metal band and not the glam one.
haha..yes. much better than that US Poison. I actually never listened to the US Poison till very recently. Like I mentioend before, a lot of the so-called glam metal stuff was just way out of my purview. I do have a (not legitimate) copy of German Poison's Down into the Abyss or whatever it's called. Their earlier demos are very very rough sounding but that recording rules.@@musicisajourney
Great video. THe thrash vs black metal car analogy was so funny, but kind of accurate.
That Tormentor is so cool. I actually hear a lot of Iron maiden in the guitar, but often just really fast and crazy and with Atilla's wild vocals over it. Speaking of wild, the reformed Tormentor album from 1998 is one of the weirdest things ever. Not black metal at all. Very hard to describe, but there is eccentric personality all over it that's for sure.
The Greek BM sound is really distinctive and unique. As well as Rotting Christ, there's the great Varathron, and the eventually-great Necromantia, and Zemial, and Agatus, and a lot of other really cool bands.
And over there in Italy there's also Mortuary Drape of course, who it hink you mentioned early on in the video. They didn't et an album out till 1994 but they had lots of demos and EPs before that, and the albums kept getting better. They just put out a new one actually and I'm excited to hear it. I think bands like this, as wella st he Greek bands, lean a little more on the heavy metal riffs, and you can definitely hear more of the Mercyful Fate-ish kind of thing going with them, both in terms of musicianship and theatricality.
Oh, man! You really know your stuff! I need to snoop around more into those Greek bands you mentioned.
Maiden? I’ll need to tune in more closely, but yes, I did feel the Tormentor album is different from most of the others.
I was just looking into Mortuary Drape the other day and saw they have a new album indeed! I was hoping for an older one. I think I found that 94 one somewhere but it was too pricy at the moment for me.
I prefer some killer riffs. Some bands just go for speed but the actual riffs aren’t exciting. A good heavy breakdown makes all the difference!
Varathron (the Greek band) has a new one coming really soon too.A bit unlike Rotting Christ, Varathron's most recent albums have been really fantastic.
Yeah, my ex guitarist and I really got into the first wave and adjacent stuff, including Czech and mediterranean black metal bands and of course Sabbat, around the same time, and it was one of the things that made us start up our band. We even got to share the stage with Mortuary Drape, Zemial and Varathron on separate occasions.
Mortuary Drape's All the Witches Dance, their first album, has some really legendary old songs on it, and it's definitely good, but I think has a slightly weaker sound than the later ones. I don't think that's really their fault and the songs are strong, and with Drape you can always count on killer riffs and insane soloing as well as some really prominent bass.F@@musicisajourney
@@DamnableReverend I’ve got a growing list of bands and albums to check out next year. I think I’ll add Mortuary Drape and Varathron to that list.
Great overview, this era of metal is the best IMO, nothing was codified, everyone wanted to push the envelope but without obviously copying others styles like today.
One of my favourite "1st wave" - if we keep to the 81/91 timeframe - is Samael's "Worship him" (recorded in march 1990), really fantastic.
I always disliked the idea of "1st wave" BM grouping of all these bands as they sound quite different to each other. Also, I dont understand when the 2nd wave starts!
If you want yo dig deeper there are LOTS of crazy good demos from this era.
Hey, thanks so much for the great comment!
Samael, eh? I heard the name somewhere while digging about. I’ll give them a listen. I found some really cool albums this time round, so I’m open to hearing another good one.
Yeah, while there are similarities that put these groups into a “darker than thrash” category, thankfully(!) each of them had their own take on the music, some standing apart more than others.
I think it’s similar to NWOBHM. So many bands were part of the scene but each with their own style. It’s not a genre but an era, a period, whatever you want to call it. But both NWOBHM and FWBM were exciting times as young bands pushed metal music rapidly in new directions. I still feel metal is the genre that is quickest to move in new directions. That’s why there are so many labels!
@@musicisajourney yeah, I think defining it as an era makes sense, although I'm not sure why 1991 would be the cutoff (Live in Leipzig by Mayhem I suppose). I see you like Master's Hammer, they have just released a compilation of all their demos from the 80s I highly recommend it, it's maybe even better than what's on the album and it's all recorded in a proper studio so it sounds good.
For more great demos check out Necromantia (Greece - "promo tape" 1990), Tormentor ("seventh day of doom" 1987), Mortuary Drape (Italy - "Necromancy" 1987), Obscurity (Sweden - "Damnations pride" 1987), Mystifier (Brazil - "Tormenting the holy trinity" 1989), Abhorer (Singapore - "Rumpus of the dead" 1989), Poison (Germany - "Into the abyss" 1987), Goatlord (USA - "sodomizing the goat" 1988)...and there's more!
Thanks again for the taking the time to talk about this, it's fascinating!
Really comprehensive video. I really enjoyed it. :)
I'm glad to know that! Thank you for watching and commenting!
Hey Peter! Not my genre at all, but as always, I stopped by to give you a thumbs up.
Much appreciated, Steve! I do the same for others sometimes. I start watching and go, “Country? Reggae? Eighties dream pop?” Like. And then the finger hovers, ready to close the video. Ha ha! I knew this wouldn’t be your taste, but again, thank you for your thoughtful support!
Another fantastic video Peter, I have never been too familiar with the first wave of black metal like Venom, Bathory ext…
I got into black metal with the second wave with bands like Darkthrone, emperor, Enslaved. The first black metal band I ever heard was Cradle of Filth with the song Her Ghost in the fog….they are controversial in the black metal scene for being more symphonic but they are near and dear to me been a fan of their music going on 20yrs now
Thanks for watching yet another long video, David. Cradle of Filth is a band I plan to check out sometime but most likely their older stuff. I heard they became more gothic later which is not really to my taste. But their earlier albums should be good. Dimmu Borgir also quickly went symphonic but I like the one album of theirs that I have. Do you have a favourite Cradle of Filth album?
@@musicisajourney i actually enjoy the later cradle discography Darkly Darkly Venus Aversa is probably my favourite from 2010
@@musicisajourney Cruelty and the beast or Midian are usually considered their classic albums by most Cradle fans
@@davidgoodship3893 A good starting point for me then. Thanks once again!
Yeah, I’m 52 so I think we’re able the same age. I really dug and still dig Bathory. I never cared for Venom so much. As a guitar player on a technical angle they sucked moose balls. But I respect them for what they did. Bathory seemed like pure evil to me. Which I appreciated. And of course Hellhammer and Celtic Frost ruled.
I think Venom were a lot more “fun”. Bathory and Celtic Frost were the real deal. I can get a kick out of those Venom albums, but Bathory and Celtic Frost just feel awesome!
That’s so much for watching this video!
@@musicisajourney 👍
excellent video as always Peter 🙂 the amount of hard work you put in really shows, as does your love and enthusiasm for rock music 🙂
black metal is not a genre of music I'm at all familiar with. Growing up in the UK with the NWOBHM I do remember hearing Venom - it must have been on the legendary Friday Night Rock Show with the late, great Tommy Vance. At the time they I considered them as just another metal band, and I thought of them along with the likes of Demon (whose first 2 albums I bought). Though Demon were a more outright satanic worship type band.
I have seen that documentary about Mayhem. they were a very disturbed bunch, with tragic consequences.
Thank you so much for sparing your time for this video! I know this is not the music preference of many of my regular viewers, so I really appreciate you took the time to watch (even if you might have just skimmed through as I do sometimes for some videos).
As you can gather, I’m really interested in the development of heavy metal, and this was happening when I was a teen. Unfortunately for me, I was the only one I knew who was that interested in it. My best friend bought some albums but preferred glam metal. One other boy in my junior high bought Bathory and Celtic Frost, I remember. Information on these bands was word of mouth and I was the only one really interested.
I really see Venom as more of a party band using the Satanic imagery as their stage show. I have not heard Demon but I know of them. I will give them a listen. I might just be interested.
Thanks as always for sharing your thoughts and experiences. I have a couple of your videos cued up for this week.