During the Christmas Season of 2014, my drummer Merlin gave me a book about black metal, a subgenre of metal known as much for teenage misbehavior as for substandard recordings. I'd already read Michael Moynihan's Lords of Chaos, which detailed some of these criminal rampages. This newer book, Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, mentions many of the same events, but is also more focused on the steps that these same bands took while evolving from early thrash through second-wave to avant-garde experiments. The author, Dayal Patterson, discusses the boundary-pushing that led to some of the milestones of the genre, such as Burzum's droning masterpiece of ambience Dunkelheit (the first black metal song I'd ever heard) or Wolves in the Throne Room's evolved production on post-black metal tour de force Two Hunters.In an effort to further understand a genre that I love and in accordance with completist tendencies, I listened to every album mentioned in the book. There were a few more that I came across or were suggested to me while working on this project that weren't listed in the book; I think of them as extra credit.
Keep in mind, each item listed below is an entire album, whether LP, EP, or split. This has been a 2 1/2 year listening project.
Venom - Welcome to Hell
Venom - Black Metal
Venom - At War With Satan
Mercyful Fate - Melissa
Mercyful Fate - Don't Break the Oath
