Fear, Emptiness, Decibel: Special Issue Counts Down The Top 100 Black Metal Albums of All Time!

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

Right around this time of year, we traditionally make an effort to ruin Christmas with a special issue about music that lies in diametric opposition to all things J.C. And mission accomplished for 2013. The Top 100 Black Metal Albums of All Time issue is ready for public consumption. You may recall the Black Metal Hall of Fame Special Issue dropping a few years back, and are perhaps wondering what the difference is. I’ll get to that, but first, offer our rationale via a spoiler from Albert’s editor’s notes: “All of those lengthy HOF stories left space to cover only eight albums in what’s easily the most expansive, divisive and (social and musically) complicated extreme music subgenre of the last two decades.” In other words, we’ve barely scratched the scabrous surface.

So, for Top 100 Black Metal Albums of All Time, we strived to go deeper and darker while still providing 100 percent new, exclusive content. The staff assembled the most kvlt, ripping and influential black metal records to have scorched the earth since Venom coined the term just over 30 years ago. Scandinavian classics stand proud alongside one-man basement evildoers and modern avant-garde purveyors of the form. And extra bonus: we consulted the mighty Enslaved for a well-deserved second induction to the Hall of Fame, 2003’s game-changing Below the Lights.

You know the drill by now: This issue is not included with dB subscriptions, but is available for demented stocking stuffing pronto.