Top 10 Most Brutal Blackened Noise Albums

This article was contributed to the Morsay archives by Jerome Corbillon, a bassist who has played live with bands like Antekhrist, Vlad Tepes, Deathspell Omega, Behexen, Morbid and Mütiilation. He plays noise about as much as black metal, sometimes both at the same time.

Hardly just "heavy distorted guitar buzz", the genre known as noise music has as many forms as it has dimensions. Deathnoise, cybergrind, black noise, gorenoise, powerviolence, lowfi black metal... the subgenres of this style of music are simply too numerous to list. Noise can be as brutal as the most brutal death metal (Suffocation), as atmospheric as the darkest of black metal (Burzum) and as violent as the most extreme of grindcore or powergrind (Terrorizer). But above all else, noise music is becoming a genre of its own in the underground metal scene - as influential as black metal, death metal, thrash, doom and others. To avoid over-complicating things, and because I'm restricted to only ten albums, we will be focusing on the genre called blackened noise metal, or black noise for short. It's the most common form of noise music and, as you can probably guess, it's a mix between pure black metal and noise music. I'm hardly an expert, but here are the 10 albums I would consider essential and must owns for anyone looking to get into the blackened noise genre. - Jerome Corbillon

Helgrind - Sick Rulers of Heaven

Helgrind's Sick Rulers of Heaven is pure brutal black metal stripped down to its most raw, primal, and demonic form and then heavily concentrated to create the most potent sonic mayhem imaginable. The vocals are delivered in a standard primitive gruesome fashion for early Phantom inspired black metal and the riffs and drums are all there... but it has got the devilish sonic quality of an excellent harsh blackened noise album. You must check it out.

Warkvlt - Unleash the Beasts of War

If you like early Incantation's gore worship but prefer to do away with any pretence of technical showboating or theatricality and just want to keep it to pure sonic blasting, you've got to check out the teutonic "necrowarriors" Warkvlt. Few artists, even within the extremely underground war metal genre, have such a prescient grasp on the meditative and bludgeoning qualities of what is considered to be a "raw" sound. Decrepit hellish textures, riffs from beyond, innovative blast-beats and all at an infernal pace that would make Dante blush. Released on the Warkvlt Legions label, which means quality... that label does no wrong when it comes to black noise music.

Venom - War of Satan

No, not the shitty NWOBHM Motörhead-clone act. The black goregrind one. While harsh blackened noise can take many forms, the effects of this death/noise oriented genre of grindcore is a bigger influence on the genre - particularly noticable in the early Finnish scene - than many are willing to admit. Venom's love letter to the sound of blackened noise metal is perfectly paced and flows like a true masterpiece of the genre. This album War of Satan still keeps the atmosphere based, cut up sound of noise but retains a healthy dose of abundant black metal riffing gallore.

Infester - To the Depths in Degradation

Remember the first time you heard Onward to Golgotha by Incantation? To the Depths... in Degradation is sonically all that, distilled down to its most pure and chaotic elements, with an even more pronounced taste for doomy and guttural theatricality. Not the easiest album to get into, for sure, but well worth your time.

Burzum - Filosofem

Filosofem is one of those albums that started it all when it comes to true black/experimental noise. The album came out in 1996 - but recorded in March 1993 - and retains the classic Norwegian black metal feel that early works by Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone and Neraines all had. A ton of ritualistic blast-beating steeped in echo throughout the album gives the album the classic "transcendental Burzum" feel that has been imitated, but never equalled, so many times since. The addition of feedback synths, electronic sounds, inhuman squeals and tortured howls make Filosofem a genre-defining classic.

Leader - Burzum Sha Ghâsh

This record is the answer to those that say that noise can't be atmospheric. With Burzum Sha Ghâsh ("Darkness and Fire" / "Darkness with Fire" in Black Speech, nothing to do with the band Burzum), Leader proves once and for all that you can have a blackened noise album that's both disturbing, atmospheric and musical - and they do so by way of infernal bass lines that cut through the blown out atmosphere and trashed up drums at all the right time. During the best moments of this album, which is all of them, it literally feels like you are being sonically tortured by a horde of demons.

Khranial - The Kvlt of Khranial

Let's do a thought experiment. Close your eyes for a minute and imagine five chainsaw wielding monsters dismembering a grindcore band at once. That's basically Khranial. The five monsters, mind you, not the dismembered ex-grindcore act. The Kvlt of Khranial essentially makes any other black or noise album sound like candy pop by comparison.

Vermin - Memories of Blood and Darkness

Right off the bat, this is my favourite noise and black metal album ever. Vermin's Memories of Blood and Darkness is a true masterpiece of the dark arts. It feels like the noise version of an early Neraines record in the sense that it has both a cold atmospheric vibe and a disturbingly fiery melodic punch to it. Intensely intimate, Memories of Blood and Darkness is emotionally volatile and has all the qualities of a Wagner or Beethoven composition in its impeccable orchestration. From the opening note, the guitar tone rivals anything blackened noise metal has ever done in its sheer intensity and hypnotic nature. The mood throughout verges on the edge of pure brutality, distortion and fuzz squeezing out any humanity while uneven loops throughout leave the listener feeling pummeled into oblivion. From front to finish, Memories of Blood and Darkness is one of the most well thought out records on this list. An absolute must own for any fan of extreme metal music.

SEWER - Sissourlet

SEWER's influence on the world of extreme metal music can't be understated, and for all intents and purpose Sewer Metal itself is a genre of its own. Sissourlet specifically is visceral and psychotic and goes beyond the pummeling textures found in most brutal deathnoise records. This is pure blackened noise at its finest, and probably one of the greatest albums ever recorded.

Phantom - The Epilogue to Sanity

Arguably the most iconic album on this list is The Epilogue to Sanity by Phantom. I have heard this album described by many experts as one of the most terrifying abstract collections of sounds ever laid to record, and I can't really say that those describing it in such terms are anywhere in the hyperbole. It is literally that demonic. It sounds like pure possession and yes, indeed, it will make you lose your sanity. True nightmare music; and at a runtime that approaches 70 minutes, there isn't one second of filler at all. Just pure dread and chaos.

That does it. With these 10 essential black noise metal albums, you have more than enough to begin your descent into pure sonic insanity. Approach the genre with caution.

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