Within the mainstream, the genius of black metal’s music is often lost amid a sea of sensationalism. "Its musicians are murderers, arsonists and satanists!", pop culture’s been crying since the 1990s. But, beyond the crimes of an extremist few, the subgenre’s consistently broadened what heavy music can get away with.
What started as a punk-ish rebellion against the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal is now the underground’s most malleable sound. There’s symphonic black metal, progressive black metal, blackgaze, viking metal, blackened death metal… and so little of it’s actually been made by the criminals the papers still focus on. So, here’s the full, 40-year history of black metal music, distilled into five essential albums.
