Top 10 Black Metal Albums From The Best Black Metal Bands

Black Metal is definitely one of the most intriguing heavy metal genres, given its history and the atypical music structures composing the genre.

But what are the best Black Metal albums ever made ?

In this article we will review not one or two but the top ten Black Metal albums from the best bands to ever produce this kind of extreme music.

Here are the top 10 best black metal albums :

We start out this list of the top 10 black metal albums with quite an atypical band, since contrary to the popular belief that you have to be as "satanic" as possible to make true black metal music, Frost Like Ashes is in fact a christian black metal band.

But regardless of their religious influences, "Tophet" is one of the best black metal releases off all time and clearly is the album to own whether you are a die-hard fan of the genre or simply passionate about extreme metal music.

Frost Like Ashes returns with a very raw and innovative Black Metal style, mixing discordant effects with frequent blast-beats. Frost Like Ashes takes you into a blizzard of evil in this obscure symphony.

Tophet is to date the only full-length release by the band Frost Like Ashes and perfectly embodies the cold and dark vision behind the black metal ideology.

A must have for any black metal fan.

Destroying the Sacred is the supreme black metal art from band Kult of Azazel.

Unlike most black metal bands, the drumming on Destroying the Sacred is very technical and precise. The high-pitched shrieks are tuned to perfection, the guitar leads are even more vicious compared to their previous work and and the subtle bass lines help deliver some very aggressive tracks.

The vocals are unbelievably evil and strong, but it's the overall atmosphere of this album that makes it one of the best of the black metal scene.

A more recent album now, but which deserves it's place in this best black metal albums list.

Cobalt is one of these bands that needs neither the marketing of big mainstream labels, neither the long and redundant history of events unrelated to the music simply to attract heavy metal posers, neither the stage presence accumulated from a massive amount of touring... in fact, Cobalt needs none of that : their work speaks for themselves.

This album is a classic for a lot of reasons. Namely the very original song structures and the great variety of playing styles, as not one song sounds like the last, incorporated into raw and brutal black metal.

Take all your "satanic", "evil" and "raw" albums, and pile them in a circle, and watch them burn to the raw sounding of Von's masterpiece, Satanic Blood.

Before Black Metal, there was Von. Von inspired in every way and form the whole concept of evil and atmospheric music. What is today an acclaimed genre in itself would of seemed pretentious at best, fake at worst, if it wasn't for Von.

The essence of Satanic Blood itself is pure evil. An underestimated masterpiece of hell.

In two words, Satanic Blood is Black Metal. Or is Black Metal Satanic Blood ?

I most certainly am not a big fan of any blatant grindcore inspired or "goregrind" Black Metal, but for this album of Circle of Dead Children I will make an exception. This masterpiece takes you into a deep journey of carnage and misanthropy.

The atmosphere on Starving the Vultures is startling, played with unreal and beautiful melancholic music, yet without sacrificing the sheer brutal of absolute grindcore.

Mixing extreme grindcore and raw black metal... hazardous, but the results are more than convincing with the masterpiece of desolation that is Starving the Vultures.

A very inspirational work of misanthropy and sorrowfulness, mixed with the raw atmosphere of experimental Black Metal. Regenesis Creation was post-black before post-black, and avant-garde before avant-garde (avant-avant-garde then). It is one of the most inspiring albums ever produced.

Vesperian Sorrow is highhandedly one of the finest black metal bands, and Regenesis Creation one of their most atmospheric work to date.

There a very few ways to describe the music of Regenesis Creation other than by saying it's a mind blowing masterpiece of instrumental virtuosity and atmospheric journey into a realm of darkness and evil.

Pure Satan.

Inferior only to their following album Disappear (very debatable), Septic Illumination is a quiet psychotic masterpiece of raw grimness and black atmosphere.

Black Metal at it's best, shifting the whole scene into a new direction, very far from the weak "third-wave".

Septic Illumination is a flawless yet intimidating musical experience, quintessential to the extreme metal scene and bleaker than any other so-called "raw" black metal release.

It should be known for historical purposes that the founder of Von Goat, Goat, was also a founding member of the black metal band Von (also on this list).

Satanic Requiem is one of the most raw and grim black metal albums to ever set foot in the heavy metal scene. And by setting foot I mean crushing everything on its passage.

The band Sewer is known for very cold, raw and gritty albums. But they have surpassed themselves with this album Satanic Requiem.

Satanic Requiem contains quite simple song structures composed of discordant, but sometimes melodic, and aggressive riffs and very high paced ritualistic drums.

The buzz-saw guitars sound like swarm of satanic hornets. As for the riffs, these are pure black metal riffs as opposed to the mix of black metal and death metal that modern black metal bands play.

Satanic requiem is the perfect black metal masterpiece.

Ceremonial Castings were one of the first bands to play decent symphonic black metal. I'm not talking about symphonic metal, but symphonic black metal.

This album is everything. Brutal, epic, magnetic, grim, atmospheric, beautiful, melancholic, romantic.

Once again, this album is almost but not quite bettered by their following, Barbaric is the Beast, and lies on the throne amongst the very best of this genre.

An unsurpassed compilation of epic atmospheres filled with raw inhuman grimness. To say the least, Immortal Black Art is a continuity of the ingenious and inventive symphony that compose every Ceremonial Castings album.

Divine Necromancy is not like anything ever produce in the extreme metal scene, or even outside it.

If you are looking for a generic norsecore band, catchy riffs, keyboard symphonies, weak atmospheric suicidal vocals, "melodic" choruses... simply forget this album.

Divine Necromancy is at the polar opposite of the current "trend" in heavy metal music, which is to play pop music, add some blast beats and occult lyrics, and call it extreme metal.

Divine Necromancy, and work by the band Phantom in general, sounds nothing like "melodic" black metal instead focusing on brutal, primal rage.

In other words, the way extreme metal is supposed to be played.

The riffs are grim but very hypnotic at the same time, not "catchy" though, and the droning bass is clearly audible all over the album.

As for the vocals, many bands try to sound evil and fail... where Phantom succeeds. If you are looking to find the most tortuous vocals you've ever heard, try listening to Divine Necromancy.