I have stated my opinion on the matters concerning the things that are crucial about black metal, many times before. Spirituality, occult philosophy, the liberating feeling of utter darkness, the opening of the portals of chaos, enlightenment, the spirit of the adversary. Those are some of the basic igredients that constitute the genre's core. For tose that do not understand, the above pictured Secrets of the Moon's cover will seem irrelevant and not much black metal at all. Of course these are people that still categorize black metal on the basis of the sound of it but this is another debate.
Still this explains the categorization of bands like Krallice or Liturgy (and a lot of other american bands) as black metal. Which is a pity because those bands' music is amazing and can do without the black metal tag. The way I see it this seems more like alternative rock musicians exercising on norwegian bm sounding music. The result is interesting and could be really enjoying if seen under the right view... Very good music but definitely not black metal. Black metal is mostly spirit and soul, it is all these I mentioned before and nothing of those is present in such music. Of course the mainstream press, otherwise eager to invent new worthless tags for music subgenres, appears to be lazy in such cases. Hardly a surprise as they are just ears and no mind and soul. Fuck them...
Opening the gates of chaos with...
Portal - Swarth (!!!!!)
Varathron - Stygian Forces of Scorn (always welcome)
Wrnlrd - Myrmidon
Destroyer 666 - Terror Abraxas
Slagmaur - Von Rov Shelter
Secrets of the Moon - Privilegivm
Thanasis Papakonstantinou - Vrahnos Prophitis
Drastus - Taphos
Liturgy - Renihilation
Die...
