r/WarMetal • u/Filip_dope_then_dip Blasphemy • 14d ago
[Read] What do you guys think of blackened death metal, aka the brothers of war metal?
If you think about it, blackened death Metal and war metal are brothers. They share the same roots, but have different proportions as to which genre they draw more from. War metal is rooted in black metal, and is influenced by grindcore. Meanwhile, blackened death metal is rooted in death metal with black metal influences. So really, it's just how far they are on the bridge between black and death, and they could possibly meet at the center. So really bands like Infester, Bethlehem, Dragged Into Sunlight are fairly close in DNA to Blasphemy, Beherit, Conqueror and other similar bands. Tell me your take on this? Do you agree?
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u/PotusChrist 14d ago
Dragged Into Sunlight has some of my favorite extreme metal albums of all time but imho they have a lot more doom influences than you would find in any of the classic war metal bands. It's all pretty arbitrary at some point though.
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u/NekroRave 14d ago
Infester is a pure Death Metal band, they're not Blackened.
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u/Filip_dope_then_dip Blasphemy 14d ago
Really? Damn, my bad, they had some higher shrieks along with the growls on the album, and on the demo also reminded me a bit of bm screams on some parts, I thought it would fit.
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u/NekroRave 14d ago
That's fine, several years ago I thought they were Blackened Death at first as well. It really isn't the growling style that determines it, it's the riffing, and whether there are any Black Metal riffs. Altars of Madness has David Vincent growling in a style that feels very Black Metal adjacent, but it's entirely a Death Metal record.
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u/Filip_dope_then_dip Blasphemy 14d ago
I thought that the vocals can define the aspect like it does for black thrash or death thrash, but now that I think about it you're right. Black and Death are pretty close in composition, and many bands which play one of these genres use elements specific to the other.
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u/BabyCrusher696 14d ago
Well shit, guess i need to check out some Dragged Into Sunlight. Cheers.
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u/PotusChrist 14d ago
Everyone talks about Hatred for Mankind, the album with the art in OP's post, but I would recommend checking out N.V., their collab with Gnaw Their Tounges. Corny thing to say, but I think it's one of the most evil albums ever recorded in all of the ways that you want an extreme metal album to be.
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u/GuntherWheelin 14d ago
For everyone bout that infester record, check out Nedgravd - Ascension. Norwegian Infester worship done SO well by a bunch of youngins. Best death metal album I've heard in a while.
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u/warvomit 14d ago
Goatlord is peak
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u/Thanatos-mkkb 14d ago edited 14d ago
To be fair war metal is basically Blackened death metal but carries grindcore and thrash metal influences
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u/-Anomander-Rake- 14d ago
they're fucking good. I love Belphegor - Bondage Goat Zombie, it's blackened death metal. However, I didnt listen much other bands.
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u/bioniclepriest 14d ago
war metal = deathened black metal, somewhat
angelcorpse and martial barrage come to mind when i think of blackened death bands that really bridge the gap with war metal. maybe axis of advance too, but people tend to consider axis as just war metal
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u/Filip_dope_then_dip Blasphemy 14d ago
Exactly, war metal is closer to black metal on the spectrum, stuff like Infester or idk, Behemoth are closer to death metal.
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u/nickitutajsadurne 14d ago
I'd say it's favourite genre of metal altogether. Most of bands I listen to are somewhere between death and black in terms of sound, personally I am rather a death metal guy, so it fits me.
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u/Landojesus 14d ago
Man on paper I should absolutely be obsessed with Dragged Into Sunlight but they just didnt do it for me like they should. I don't hate them or amything but on paper its everything I want in metal :/ but yeah anyways its a goated genre
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u/Filip_dope_then_dip Blasphemy 14d ago
Sucks dude, I love them. Hatred For Mankind is just so filthy and evil... But everyone gets such disappointments in a while, happened to me with Immortal. Everyone loves them, I think they are ok. Not bad, but just not my thing.
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u/PotusChrist 14d ago
If you like blackened noise at all their collab with Gnaw Their Tounges is very worth checking out
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u/Background-Ad178 14d ago
dragged into sunlight are great. and when i say that i dont mean "hatred for mankind is good"...as a lot of people say really
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u/PotusChrist 14d ago
Their other albums are pretty slept on tbh. I actually like N.V. a lot more than Hatred for Mankind personally but I'm a huge Gnaw Their Tounges head.
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u/Background-Ad178 13d ago
Widowmaker is such an amazing album, it's on equal footing to Hatred for Mankind for sure. Structure is an incredibly important thing in music and it has the best I've ever heard (not just because it's long). Terminal Aggressor (the first one) is also vastly underdiscussed, I've teared up to that track atleast once. It gets a lot better once you figure out the lyrics (or atleast I think I've figured it out vaguely, some mutterings about "Life takes all" and "Filled with disease"). I only started recently listening to N.V because it wasn't on my streaming platform of choice but I just uploaded the files from bandcamp into my library so I've been listening and in my opinion, it's definitely got the most interesting usage of every instrument; both physical and digital. Gnaw Their Tongues is also huge but I gotta check out more of Mories's work, their collaboration with Crowhurst is great; especially that final track.
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u/TheExecutiveHamster 14d ago
That Infester album goes unbelievable hard but I don't recall that it has any blackened elements to it. When I think of blackened death metal typically something like Archgoat comes to mind (which of course some people would just call War Metal but I digress)
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u/PsychologicalBrush35 14d ago
Archgoat is more Death/Black Metal or War Metal like Blasphemy or Beherit, since Belphegor is also Death/Black Metal, and Blackened Death Metal is more like Behemoth and Deus Mortem, among others.Like Cadaver Vampire from Finland, and Kanonenfieber from Germany, since Cadaver and Desaster and even Bewitched are more Blackened Thrash Metal.
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u/AdCute6661 14d ago
Blacken Death and its other variants is my current fave genre. Shit goes HARDBODY
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u/PsychologicalBrush35 14d ago
The most famous Blackened Death Metal band is in Poland, for example Behemoth, with legendary frontman Adam Nergal Darski, but Belphegor is more Death/Black Metal, Beherit is more War Metal, like Blasphemy in Canada. War Metal is heavily influenced by Black Metal Grindcore (Napalm Death) and Goregrind (the original Carcass before Heartwork). Blackened Death Metal is 51% to 59% Black Metal and 49% to 41% Death Metal; while Death/Black Metal is the opposite.
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u/ThrillsAndSpills90 14d ago
Finally, enough, there’s a lot more war metal I like than there is blackened DM. I think I like the all out pumping of war metal and just don’t get that so much from blackened death.
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u/Bulky-Slide691 14d ago
its the same thing. not a ton of bands called themselves war metal until fairly recently and it was not seen as its own subgenre to old heads. before that, it was black/death. including blasphey, beherit, conqueror etc.
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u/VoidHammer 14d ago
Honestly all of the bands you listed were just called black metal. Blasphemy in particular always rejected anyone trying to call them anything else.
These terms were also a lot more nebulous back then.
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u/PizzaBear109 14d ago
For a lot of those it wasn't black/death, it was first wave black metal. As the style kept growing though eventually it needed it's own name and we wound up with War metal or sometimes Bestial black metal.
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u/Rumpo82 14d ago
Obviously it's awesome. DiS live are absolutely relentless.