I’ve always liked metal, but it took me a long time to come around to black metal. First, there’s the culture. I have a strong negative reaction to the self-righteousness of white males slavishly copying a handful of mentally ill teenaged white males from decades ago. Besides the cultural *shudder* “purity” of a movement, there’s the sonic rigidity. The tropes of #trveNorwegianblackmetal are so rigid that I struggle to tell any of the thousands of copy cats apart. But black metal is ubiquitous, so it was inevitable that I would find a few bands to enjoy. In fact, one of the best concerts I’ve been to in recent history had a line up heavily skewed towards black metal. Mostly I enjoy groups whose blackness is polluted with other colors, or bands who blacken other genres. Anyway, here are a few black metal and black metal adjacent bands I’ve enjoyed lately.
