• AN EXHAUSTIVE STUDY: Here I present Part III of a series of a comprehensive sub-genre analysis features that began back in 2015 (Technical Thrash Metal, Melodic Hardcore/Skatepunk) on another site. This second pass for Melodic Black Metal will be a more comprehensive redux of the series which began back in 2017 and generally completed in 2018 wherein seven enormous entries detailed key releases from 1991-2005. It is necessary to rewrite, ‘remaster’ and approach this subject another time due to the old columns no longer linking to their album artwork, most of them weren’t very thoughtfully written, and the type of posts used were not created for mobile readership rendering them impossible to read. This will not be a plain recreation of that list but rather a more complete, far more in-depth format which makes less of an effort to draw the line between sub-genres and instead aims to better understand the delineation between melodic black metal and the general evolutionary origin of the sub-genre next to many others.
The method for this type of feature is simple: I procure a chronological list of demos, EPs, splits and full-lengths from various sources. I then re-listen to every release in order, research each band, and report my thoughts and observations including trivia and any relevant context. This time around I will include ~6-10 items per entry and each one will (eventually) include a short video. Instead of deciding if these releases truly resemble the sub-genre suggested per available public databases (Metal Archives, Discogs, Rateyourmusic, etc.) I will further make the argument for what releases I believe are in keeping with the canonical highest standard, identifying influential or important items for the melodic black metal form. This should allow some understanding of this musical style and the need for distinction between subculture movements in underground music and the incessant waves of imitation beyond the original thought. — This third entry will continue to consider the sub-genre in its formative stages and will call for at least some general narration of the various black metal scenes, styles, and trains of thought which lead to certain bands being labeled “melodic” then and in hindsight. Level headed, respectful feedback is welcomed by way of grizzlybutts@hotmail.com
If you missed Part II, which covered 1992, catch up here:
An Exhaustive Study: Melodic Black Metal Redux [Pt. II] – ‘Mourning, Gravestones and Ghasts’
MCMXCIII – Decrypting Dark Ages
Anno 1993 CE will prove eventful enough that it will have to span at least two entries as we are suddenly tasked with double the amount of relevant demo tapes and our first chunk of mostly relevant full-length albums. Keep in mind that back in 2017 I included a total of five releases from 1993 and on our second pass there will be at eighteen items. This level of consideration becomes increasingly complicated, chaotic as we consider classic early 90’s black metal releases in context alongside our first taste of rich atmosphere, arcane perspectives from early innovators, and more potential pathways as to where melodic death metal exploded into view and where black/death metal bands course corrected by the time 1994 arrived. At this point it would only make sense to mention the self-titled Emperor release, Beherit‘s debut LP, Satyricon‘s first album, and perhaps demos from Carpathian Forest and such for some key context as influential records which did not necessarily shy away from melody in its most literal definition. We should also look to death metal for aesthetics, guitar techniques, and the logical peaking result of the early Scandinavian blackened death metal scene within records like Necrophobic‘s incredible ‘The Nocturnal Silence‘ and Marduk‘s ‘Those of the Unlight‘ not to mention the exceptional second full-length from Finnish band Sentenced, ‘North From Here‘ which was perhaps one of few contemporaries to ‘The Somberlain‘ at the time. We should also consider the impact of ‘Wolverine Blues‘ upon Scandinavian popular metal alongside the heavy rocking ‘Heartwork‘ and the peak of Carcass‘ popularity as efforts to infuse death metal with songwriting bled into the vernacular of many extreme metal bands looking for accessible angles. We need to get past this year before the ex-death metal sellouts and the embarrassing pop metal transformations would fully set in, savor what you can before it all becomes commodified by replicants.
We won’t touch upon Necromantia at all per this exploration and we will skip the first Varathron record as I feel both albums belong in a discussion about heavy metal, doom metal and an entirely unique example of their relationship with black metal intent rather than outright melodicism. ‘His Majesty at the Swamp‘ is vitally important per my own taste but it will be more relevant to discuss their post-1994 output in terms of melodic black metal and the underlying shared and separate traits of prominent Hellenic black metal acts. We will however at least mention Agatus in preamble of future entries. We will also not touch upon much in the realm of USBM just yet though I would encourage folks to become intimately familiar with Havohej and Absu as those artists reached their first full-length milestones with very important contributions to black/death metal. Listen to Blasphemy‘s second album at least twice along with every other record mentioned prior in this pre-amble and you’re ready to consider this blend of deep underground tapes and surface breaching full-lengths.
NOTES: First, I won’t consider the first three Twin Obscenity demos as they never quite fit into this discussion but you can feel free to argue before their inevitable trio of LPs arrive. Otherwise there are yet a handful of 1993 released tapes which I’ve no access to: [1] German black metal band Mortal Discipline‘s promotional tape ‘The Death is New Born‘, though I will be able to cover their 1995 LP. [2] Pegasus, a band described as black/heavy metal which eventually evolved into a power metal group put out a formative demo, ‘When Darkness Begins‘ which I’ve not been able to find. [3] We just won’t include Swedish melodic death band Miscreant‘s demo tape ‘Ashes‘ or the promo from the same year but I’d encourage folks to take note of their album ‘Dreaming in Ice‘ from 1994. If you have access to any of these tapes and are willing to upload them to YouTube, please do so and get in touch.
The first of nine entries in this third part of our exploration begins with yet another quickly sophisticated Swedish band from a small town that’d eventually relocate closer to the Gothenburg epicenter. Sacramentum began under the name Tumulus back in 1990 and their development was well connected with the death and black metal of the time while also paying tribute to Bathory, Crowley and even mentioning Decameron in the liner notes for this technically impressive but very quiet, muffled demo tape recorded in the winter of 1992. Their sound had reached a point of melodious blackened death metal on this tape and despite the engineer not knowing exactly how to render their performances enough of their acts survive to easily discern the sophisticated patternation of their dual guitar focal point, the already over the top vocals of central figure Nisse Karlén, and their clear knack for technical yet steadily flowing pieces. If we were to compare their work with adjacent peers this is perhaps one of the more complete thoughts managed beyond the ‘Somberlain‘ promo tape and by contrast with many others Sacramentum clearly had a knack for fastidious composition, a talent for arrangement which was nearly overzealous here but refined into something which already felt singular in what the demo quality implies. Their second demo in 1995 will begin to clarify/compound these unique traits.
More Info:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aguNjFXwIig
Band website: https://sacramentum.se/
German gothic blackened death metal band Ancient Ceremony would ultimately become best known for being sued by the Catholic church circa 2004 in an attempt to censor their increasingly blasphemic imagery. While this only makes them that much cooler in hindsight, as cool as a “dark metal” band could be, their music in its most nascent state may not be so easily approached. At this point they’d gathered a loose form of gothic death metal which hadn’t yet pushed beyond its fumbling Paradise Lost inspired sound. The songs on this demo particularly benefit from an unclear sense of black metal riffs applied to death metal pacing, it is an aggressive and somewhat cheesy sound which lacks the charm of say, Evol (Italy). Though their discography is moderately interesting at best and doesn’t fit our purposes this tape provides a fairly typical example of the sort of gothic extreme metal bands which began to spring forth as interest in death metal waned, one trend to another, while still retaining traits of their extreme metal beginnings.
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The first Swedish melodic black/death metal full-length album to release (February, 1993) could still be considered an underappreciated gem despite having been celebrated quite a bit these last twenty or so years through a couple series of reissues and remasters. Before you chip into the remastered version I’d encourage the listener to first enjoy the album in its original state (per the YouTube link in the More Info tab) where the timbre of the recording and its original mix were entirely unique (per Anders Olsson) before we began to see certain uniformities brought to the No Fashion label. Unanimated‘s diverse evolution beyond the unsteady band we’d found barely scratching out a 4-count on their first demo back in 1990 side-swiped many folks considering they’d gone from a mostly conceptual demo to and overstated full-length in the space of just over one year.
A series of several unique choices brought them to this point but we can point to the drumming of Peter Stjärnvind (Merciless, Entombed, et al.) as the most important skilling-up which acts as the glue for this estranged death metal record. Their ability to effortlessly trade between its menacing, ornated death metal beasthood for striding and slapping elements pulled in admiration of Bathory, Venom and Slayer makes for an album which was sophisticated yet bizarre enough to sit perfectly next to the equally brilliant strides made by Necrophobic and Dissection that same year and it should’ve always been equally appreciated. Though this placement doesn’t necessarily get us fully basking in the glory of melodic black metal just yet we do find one sector of the Swedish sound beginning to arrive in viable album-sized chunks and this one should interest fans who enjoy the crossover between black and death metal traits within ‘old school’ acts like this.
If you are already a fan of this record and enjoy the more thrashing pieces and the ‘Blood, Fire Death‘ edge of certain songs I’d suggest ‘Unbound‘ from Merciless as a perfect companion and I suppose a more focused ride.
More Info:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAzlV8v-fb4
2017 Comments: “This was recorded and released before The Somberlain and Thy Mighty Contract, and it might be the messiah of melodic black metal if it wasn’t primarily an At the Gates style death metal record. Whoa now, it is a very good death metal record and the things that Dissection would put out almost a year later refined this sound quite a bit. Did Dissection rip off Unanimated? No, it seems like they all influenced each other at the time and this has its own style. Great death metal album but this one only gets a melodic black metal secondary because it focuses pretty hard on being death metal. If you haven’t heard this record and you like old school death metal it might blow your mind.“
This short lived Finnish band featuring members of Black Crucifixion would undergo a quick (but not painless) transition between what I’d consider some manner of gothic black/doom metal on their first demo and this 7″ EP before changing their tune to sappy gothic metal by 1996 for their full-length ‘De Profundis‘. This recording is especially bright, arguably “corny” per its rousing keyboard melodies and dramatic sound which recalls the keyboard driven side of melodic death/doom initially but does have some blackened death metal tendencies once things get moving. Tuneful, melodic, and plausibly black metal for its time this is not a bad record and might be something to juxtapose with the approach of a band like Opthalamia or even Thy Serpent later on.
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Just as Unanimated gave us a viable early example of a Swedish melodic black/death metal full-length so does Eucharist arrive upon their own genius within melodic death metal and they’ve done much more than deliver upon the promise of their rehearsals and demos, each piece included presents the quality suggested per “Greeting Immortality” and surpasses that thought with variations which experiment beyond expectation. The material here comes from a place of mastery which is thinking deep and expressing in a voice far more mature than their years. Though this album has never been questioned as a pivotal influential classic much like ‘In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead‘ the production values by way of Fredrik Larnemo (who went on to produce/engineer circa ’96 sharper rendered debuts for Ablaze My Sorrow and Decameron) were considered less than dynamic by folks discovering melodic death metal in retrospect when the album first reissued back in 2001.
The timbre of the original recordings is distinct, timeless and while it buries the bass in the mix slightly it allows the vocals to reach shocking presence and expression, one of my favorite vocal performances in this realm and the perfect tortured soul to compliment the often technical parallax of the two rhythm guitars. Much in the way ‘Slumber of Sullen Eyes‘ never needed remastering in any form too much of the original charm is sacrificed when introducing a well-rounded dynamic render to this imperfect dance, at least for my own taste. That said any version of this album soars on the hummingbird heart which powers its finesse heavy rhythms and dramatic voicing, a sound which (in my opinion) we find A Canorous Quintet picking up and expanding in spirit with ‘Silence of the World Beyond‘ but never equaled, even on their respectable follow-up circa 1997.
How does work this apply to melodic black metal? We find these rhythms writ for two guitars as an early example of melodic black/death metal’s most elite modus over the course of the following several decades though we especially find mid-to-late 90’s melodic black metal acts out of Scandinavia focused on expanding upon this very high standard, sometimes attaining a more sophisticated result but never anything quite as dark and sentimental. Melodic death metal lost is veil of believable pallor very quickly beyond 1993 yet here the dark shroud which hangs over this album absolutely holds up and this lead to a bevvy of sullen, meandering and high-level melodic black/death metal records we’ll include here and there where applicable.
More Info:
YouTube (2001 Regain reissue): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxHPAFhF3M8
Although we have better known options at this point in 1993 Agatus‘ first demo tape offers one of the best raw inductions into the archetypal Hellenic black metal sound coming from Molon Lave Studios at the time and unless I am mistaken this was handled by Magus Wampyr Daoloth, who would change the name to Storm Studios soon after. ‘A Night of the Dark Ages’ is not presented as a melodic black metal relic so much as a strong marker for this classic sound, the drum machine and the symphonic hits of the keyboards hinting at melodic directive for what are essentially thrashing heavy metal songs, often mid-paced and scenic in their intent. Eskarth the Dark One was a fine guitarist from the start, less in terms of precision and moreso in capturing the tone of each song within simply layered movements and this tact must’ve come from admiration of Bathory on some level. We set our pin upon the beginnings of this band’s discography for the sake of exploring most of its “epic” and increasingly melodious work later on in more depth.
More Info:
Documentation which survives the era of print-only music coverage doesn’t necessarily do any justice to the sheer excitement surrounding ‘North From Here‘ when it’d released, even the old holdout hair metal/hard rock magazines were mentioning it at the time and Century Media made sure I’d seen the ad for the album at least five times over before I decided to buy it. The level of gushing over Sentenced‘s defining moment in death metal was ultimately justified, an exciting feat crafted from a strange (for its time) tapestry of aesthetic black metal elements, technical death metal, and somehow arranged these densely packed points of inspiration into an album which is successfully melodic as it is virtuosic. Of course time has whittled away at its magick as folks have done well to pick apart its points of inspiration and remasters have dulled some of the clangor of the original production values but make no mistake that everyone noticed this album in the summer of 1993.
Granted this album is basically creating the Finnish equivalent to Atheist‘s first two albums and by nature stretching that attempt out to something on the level with ‘The Somberlain‘, which wasn’t released ’til December. How does this relate to melodic black metal? It is admittedly veering halfway off-topic for the sake of illustrating the high standards of the time while also pointing to elite guitar techniques and compositional traits which would not survive the 90’s. There couldn’t be a more perfect admixture of the less obviate black metal influences driving Unanimated and the technical dual guitar rhythms of Eucharist in concert and of course we still need to add late-summer 1993 releases (such as ‘With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness‘) to the zeitgeist that would briefly form but ultimately the point is that black metal was one point of inspiration for most melodic death metal bands within the earliest stable, be it Bathory, Mayhem or groups which were further along in their discography at that point. The best guitarists we find in the obscure dregs of late 90’s and early 2000’s stuck with the canonical traditions of melodic black/death metal and often still had a grip upon the compositional wrath (lots of riffs, fast, their own voicing developed) of this album but we’ll never find another album which hits exactly like this.
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The inspiration offered by (and filtering into) the burgeoning Hellenic black metal underground was not exclusive to Europe in its reach, in fact it is surprising that Lord Blasphemate is our first chance thus far to emphasize the short list of melodic black/death metal groups to come from South America in the 90’s as we’d had some pretty substantial releases such as Genocidio‘s ‘Hoctaedrom‘ and Amen Corner‘s ‘Fall, Ascension, Domination‘ which don’t necessarily contribute to the conversation beyond having some notable Rotting Christ influence to some of their work amidst their focus on death, thrash, and doom otherwise. These folks efforts are perhaps no more or less distinctly pulled from pure black metal origins and the inclusion of this ~62 minute rehearsal tape is largely for the sake of where they would take these primitive (yet quickly developing) origins and craft a unique record around 1997. The long-winded, meandering and quasi-epic sometimes doomed movement of these songs haven’t yet shaped into anything beyond a waltz in the dark but they manage to insert fairly strong covers of “Countess Bathory” and a pretty spot-on “The Old Coffin Spirit” at the end. A good way to introduce where a band like this is coming from with some assurance that their music would only become more sophisticated from these tentative origins.
More Info:
As we walk away from the first half of 1993 CE there is the sense that we are none the wiser in terms of full-on melodic black metal but the brimming melodic black/death metal formulas are bristling with inspiration as we head into August knowing full well that the second half of the year would yield some incredible works which would move us both closer to (and much further away) from our discussion on the shared traits of melodic death metal, melodic black metal, and their natural fusion. Expect a primer on the most sophisticate works from Dark Tranquillity and At the Gates in Part IV to be the peak of our mention of melodic death metal-leaning records beyond a few supplemental releases here and there in the late 90’s. Otherwise we’ll hear a bit more from Norway, Poland, Greece and even Ohio of all places as we cover the second half of 1993 next time.
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