Black Metal

Church burnings and fatal stabbings haven't just overshadowed black metal's history — they've defined it among people hungry for tabloid headlines and living, bleeding horror films. Which leaves out one minor detail: the music, which has been one of the most dominant forces in underground metal for decades. While they're essentially a bunch of thrash-worshipping speed demons, Venom gave the subgenre its name and pagan slant with their underground classic, "Black Metal," only to watch as a sea of first (Celtic Frost) and second-wave (the unholy trinity of Mayhem, Darkthrone, and Emperor) acts upped the more-extreme-than-thou ante with each and every album.

If you haven't run for cover yet, our Next Steps will really push your pain threshold to the point of no return.

With song titles like "S**ts of Hell," "Kill Everything," and "Chaosforms of Demonic Hate," you better believe the best black metal songs don't stop until you get enough . . . brutality, whether it's delivered through blizzard-like backing tracks (the blown-out amps and inhuman drumming of "Satanic Black Devotion" and "In Domine Sathana") or shards of atmospheric synths (the stained-glass textures of "Spellbound (by the Devil)" and "Inno a Satana") and melodic, dare-we-say-hummable hooks (the ravenous riffs of "I Am the Wooden Doors" and "Skjend Hans Lik").

If you're starting to feel like the sun's gone down and you're in the middle of a Norwegian forest with nothing but a tiny pack of matches, all we've got to say is embrace the darkness, because we still have a clued-in collection of Deep Cuts to share.

Much like the underground side of punk rock and hip-hop, black metal's always thrived on the demo-dubbing, tape-trading efforts of its most fanatical followers. That's why we treated the following tracks like a carefully crafted mixtape, weaving in unfiltered noise, runaway train riffs, and mile-a-minute tempos from Sweden (Dark Funeral, Nifelheim), Norway (Tsjuder, Einherjer), France (Blut aus Nord), England (Akercocke, Anaal Nathrakh), Israel (Melechesh), and, yes, even the U.S. (Judas Iscariot, the popular Wrest-led side project, Lurker of Chalice). Nothing like the universal language of human suffering to wake you up in the morning or lull you into a hypnotic haze at night.

Don't let corpse paint canisters, convicted murderers, and a whole lotta "hail Satan!" posturing scare you. Beyond the sordid, blood-caked history of black metal is the heaviest, richest — and, yes, darkest — form of cathartic chaos known to extreme music connoisseurs. While most black-metal songs are heavier than a one-way ticket to hell, the styles on display are as diverse as the many splintered subgenres and scenes of punk, hip-hop, and electronica. Let's see what we've got here: the slithery solos and cleaner chords of melodic black metal (Dissection, Old Man's Child, Rotting Christ), the orchestra-pit overtones of symphonic black metal (Cradle of Filth, Summoning, Emperor), the forest-channeling ambiance of folk black metal (Agalloch, Tyr, Nokturnal Mortum), and the shoegaze/synth-soaked effects of ambient black metal (Xasthur, Leviathan, Wolves In The Throne Room). All of which bring glimpses of pitch-black beauty to one of the bleakest forms of music known to man.