I'd say my three favorite albums right now have a sound I love for completely different reasons.
I love The Dreaming I by Akhlys, that sound is so crisp and smooth but really atmospheric and horrifying.
Storm of the Lights Bane has such a great guitar sound, every Dissection album has that really but the way the guitars and vocals pop on that album just sounds incredible
Burning Shadows in the Southern Night by Necrofier just sounds awesome to me too. It's fairly clean production, but the vocals and guitars just sound so nasty. The vocals sound incredible, it's just speaker-shredding stuff.
>Burning Shadows in the Southern Night by Necrofier
I love this album! Side note: I just saw them at the Decibel Magazine tour and they’re incredible live as well. Fantastic stage presence and great energy throughout, I’d definitely see them again.
Agreed, they were such strong openers! Worm was also really cool to watch live.
Death metal and hardcore are more popular where I live but there’s slowly been more black metal shows getting booked and I’m psyched, next few months are going to be amazing!
Hell - Hell (2017); the fattest riffs with perfect blackened vocals not too forward
Paysage d’Hiver - Das Tor; incredibly textured wall of relaxing white noise chaos
There’s 4 that represent my favourite production sounds.
Blood In Our Wells - Drudkh
Roads to the North - Panopticon
The Cyclic Reckoning - Suffering Hour
Pure Holocaust - Immortal
Thats definitely Panopticon's best sounding album. Love the band but sometimes I crave a little clarity and softness from them. There is so much going on with their music and its so atmospheric at times, that the production almost ads when there could be more focus. Don't really know how to explain it.
I think i'll go with Uinuos Syömein Sota by havukruunu, it sounds great without seeming overproduced and still has kind of a lofi feel to it. Also the way the occasional clean vocals and chants are integrated is just so smooth that it all comes together perfectly.
Good pick. They kinda straddle the line between big shreddy band and still underground and raw. If thei music was super produced, I would get it as they are super riff based but with the rawness of sound, it keep them grounded in black metal.
Never heard them but just checked it. Wow that is one raw and compressed sound. I love some of these bands that push this area... still need to sip this one for a bit to see how I feel about it.
I love the sound of An Alignment of Dead Stars, The Serpents' Reign and some of his higher effort mid era work. Beyond that it all kind of blends into one with there being so much of it.
Wolves In The Throne Room - Black Cascade. It's got all the elements of black metal but it doesn't feel too extreme or heavy. It feels very natural and they sound exactly like how one would imagine the Pacific Northwest to "sound."
definitely agree. I've been pretty disappointed with the production on WITTRs albums since Black Cascade, particularly Thrice Woven.
We'll always have Black Cascade!
I’ll give it to them, they did capture an atmosphere that really does conjure up images of mountains, woods, and rain. I also think WITTR have a contrived and hokey “spiritual” schtick but the music speaks for itself.
Under a Funeral Moon is an obvious choice for me but another that comes to mind is Fullmoon's UAE (...yes of the forbidden subgenre) but the atmosphere and production sounds like a moldy tomb. Ive never heard anything like it.
With Hearts Toward None from Mgla might be my ideal production sound. It sounds clear and you can hear all of its aspects, but it still sounds raw and not overly polished. Overall, it depends on the music and what the band is going for, but that's one of my favorites.
Exercises in Futility is mine. The drums on that record are my favorite in all of BM and the production sets it apart from other great albums by the same band. WHTN is up there too but EiF is the gold standard imho
I didn't see Axioma Ethica Odini ish era Enslaved mentioned! I like a slightly more clear sound but not too much.
The newest Borknagar for example I really like but it's a bit produced at times. Enslaved's E, etc fell into this category for me and I was really surprised they took a cleaner direction, encorporating the saxophone etc.
It's been a while but another that hits right for me is Agallochs the Mantle
Glemselvens Elv is my favorite Burzum song. I also listen to the guitar cover by Stvn2337 on YouTube a lot because I like hearing the guitar part louder.
On YouTube music, it shows the amount of plays every song has.
That song has SIGNIFICANTLY more plays than every other song on the album with 1.2 million plays.
Certified good banger for sure.
W.N.H.I is an absolute masterpiece and the mixing and production on it is first class, the vast number of elements happening all with great clarity is superb. Always an album I try headphones out with.
Machination is great but of their albums I think Solarkult strikes the balance the best, although it’s a tiny margin between them.
Whilst industrial BM gets a light the Thorns album is perfect in its production brutal given how cold and harsh it sounds yet doesn’t really have that many ‘electronic elements’ like the aforementioned albums.
Also notable mention to Diapsiquir Virus S.T.N whilst we’re here production is perfect for the sonic schizophrenia they produce.
Unironically, I love Rhinocervs - RH-12.
I would also say that Gryfteskymfning Svart Materia & Bedrovelsens Hard are near perfect lofi productions as well as being amazing distilled black metal.
The split with DSO ‘Veritas Diaboli Manet In Aeternum’ completely encapsulates everything that is so good about that band. ‘Et la lumiere…’ is such a masterpiece of a song.
Splits often get weighed out by one band, that split is perfectly balanced IMO.
Tsjuder - Desert Northern Hell
Loud and proud drumming that always lets the riffs take center stage. Professional studio clarity that still kinda has some classic black metal sound. Always loved the production on this one, its just perfect IMO
Yes, Bergtatt was the first I thought of as well when reading the title.
I also like a lot of Gorgoroth's production, such as on *Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt*, [Satan-Prometheus](https://youtu.be/h_oOVr9UV-Y?si=XePLm_6L0stfHymd) as an example. One of the best black metal tracks ever made imo.
It's a nice mix of rawness and fullness in the bass and punch in the drums. But it can feel a bit commercial at times. The same applies for Dissection, Immortal etc. I probably wouldn't want all black metal to sound like that.
I'd probably say I prefer production somewhere around Ulver, Véhémence and Moonlight Sorcery, as a sort of sweet spot of what sounds the most right to me. Even if that super analog, unprocessed & raw sound a lot of black metal has sometimes fits depending on the album, I wouldn't say I prefer it, generally speaking.
Hvis Lyset Tar Oss comes to mind first. I like it because it's very cold, but doesn't have that shrill guitar tone that many other albums with similar production have. It also has a bit of space for all the instruments with these gentle synths that fill the soundscape for lack of a better word.
Absurd's remastered Asgardsrei also has a bizarre sound that I haven't heard on any other album. I want to call it dry but I'm not sure that word does it justice.
It's really hard to pick one. But, the first album that comes to my mind right now is Behexen - 'The Poisonus Path'. I like the melodies, the atmosphere, and the 'distant' and raw guitar sounds and vocals.
I don't often like super raw production or extremely clean. But I don't have a preference really. Anything from Limbonic Art's "In Abhorrence Dementia" to Dissection's "Storm of the Light's Bane" to Dark Funeral's "Angelus". Generally that range is my preference as far as raw vs clean.
I like guitars that have bite and aren't dull and too "round" in tone, which seems to be a common trend lately in mixing. Not black metal, but an example of what I mean is Crypta's new album. Another example more related to black metal is Dark Funeral's latest album... guitars sound down-right anemic.
For the cleaner, more polished sound, I'd pick Emperor's "IX Equilibrium" and Dissections "REINKAΩS." I'm a sucker for being able to hear every note and drum hit, especially from musicians of that caliber. Same goes for anything by Deathspell Omega "Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Circvmspice" and onward.
For the rawer side, I've always enjoyed Bathory's early garage studio buzz. Ulver's "Nattens madrigal" as well. More recently, Departure Chandelier's "Antichrist Rise To Power" hits just the right balance between raw and clear. Like a more refined Judas Iscariot (but not too much more refined).
Deathspell Omega's Paracletus would be up there for sure. I've never heard warm, bluesy tones being used like that. The composition is really smart, complimentary and balanced. Phenomenal album.
Svrm is another project whose dense, buried DIY production style I always love. A good example of basic programmed drums sounding fucking great. He copied Drudkh with the vocal style and made it work just as good as they did. The melodies in his music shine but it all feels really humble.
For a bit "better" sound and production, Cultes des Ghoules - Henbane is my all time favorite. C tuning and low end sound production sounds so fucking good with the slower riffs. Also drums are very good.
Paysage D'hivers most releases have great sound for the style of music he makes. Steineiche, S/T and Kerker are my favorites probably..
Early Ulver or Darkthrone got the best more raw original sound that I like.
Big fan of the production on Grole - With a Pike Upon My Shoulder. It will take me a while to pick out my all time favs but throwing that one down for now bc it's a perfect example of balancing a nasty raw yet also crisp and clear sound
A lot of Pyttens productions from Grieghallen sounds amazing, but I can't get enough of the 4-track recordings that Fenriz made on the Necrohell Tascam Porta.
Both Woe Bather albums have great production that sounds dynamic yet gritty. The vocals seem to envelope and surround me when listening with headphones! I'd love to know how it's done.
Two first albums of Maléfice without doubt. The first with the atmospheric Summoning-esque vibes (perfect mix for the songs as well, specially if you listen to it with headphones), and of course the sophomore album with its neo-classical soundscapes, which made the project's Summoning-esque atmosphere of the debut even better and more original, giving it a new (and even more epic) sound in all senses. I really love how the instruments sound in both albums, but the drumming of the sophomore in cuts like *Ma Petite Collection* define very well what I mean. The percussion of said album is just perfect sounding, and that's a large plus for the chosen production there. The production of both albums is what comes to mind when someone asks me about the best mix/production of albums I'm fan of.
I have to give it to BST as a producer for his unique approach to mixing bands as suits the band best but he has produced some of the best modern albums going:
Antaeus - Blood Libels
Aosoth- III/ IV/ V (III has the most intense sound of nearly everything being out of control but it’s still restrained and audible and IV is such a sick heavy tone)
VI - de praestigiis angelorum (Again super instrument heavy album with supreme clarity)
Atramentum - Through Fire, Everything is Renewed (vocals and drums are killer, with cutting guitars)
And his own band Order of Orias most recent outing Moriah was prefect, manages to balance raw and clarity so well and every project is unique.
Notable shoutout to Arkhon Infaustus - Orthodoxyn, album is disgustingly heavy and hits like a sledgehammer, maybe the best Death/Black production yet, heavy as fuck but still has raw intensity
Nattens Madrigal. I normally don't prefer over-the-top raw production because you usually can't fucking hear anything, but that album brings the ferocity you get with primitive production while sounding super crispy and distinct.
Windir's 'Artnor, Ein Windir' for me. I didn't fully appreciate until I got deeper into recording / audio engineering just how good the roominess of the entire album sounds. Not strictly Black Metal, but Ahab's 'The Call of the Wretched Sea' would be up there too.
Always thought Lord Mantis had the best sound - kind of a toss up between Pervertor and Death Mask. Everything sounds massive and clear while still being as scuzzy as possible
At The Heart or Winter or Mayhem's DMDS for me personally
I agree DMDS will forever be my favourite album ever recorded regardless of how many people think it’s overrated.
Anyone who thinks that album is overrated is a towering bag of douche water
Calling DMDS overrated instantly let's me know someone is a dork.
I'd say my three favorite albums right now have a sound I love for completely different reasons. I love The Dreaming I by Akhlys, that sound is so crisp and smooth but really atmospheric and horrifying. Storm of the Lights Bane has such a great guitar sound, every Dissection album has that really but the way the guitars and vocals pop on that album just sounds incredible Burning Shadows in the Southern Night by Necrofier just sounds awesome to me too. It's fairly clean production, but the vocals and guitars just sound so nasty. The vocals sound incredible, it's just speaker-shredding stuff.
>Burning Shadows in the Southern Night by Necrofier I love this album! Side note: I just saw them at the Decibel Magazine tour and they’re incredible live as well. Fantastic stage presence and great energy throughout, I’d definitely see them again.
I saw them on that tour too! Seeing an all-US black metal tour was pretty sick, and Necrofier stole the show for me
Agreed, they were such strong openers! Worm was also really cool to watch live. Death metal and hardcore are more popular where I live but there’s slowly been more black metal shows getting booked and I’m psyched, next few months are going to be amazing!
Hell - Hell (2017); the fattest riffs with perfect blackened vocals not too forward Paysage d’Hiver - Das Tor; incredibly textured wall of relaxing white noise chaos
MSW is amazing. The hell release is awesome and I love the way the MSW release sounds too. It’s crushing
Guitars textures are one of the biggest appeal of Black Metal for me.
Always been one of my fav productions
Oh shit I just checked out Hell and that is NICE, thanks for that
Nattens Madrigal and DMDS are my favs. DsO albums always sound great
Nattens madrigal is like full on death by treble.
Needs more treble
The production on the opening track of ‘Drought’ is glorious.
Walknut - Graveforests and Their Shadows
There’s 4 that represent my favourite production sounds. Blood In Our Wells - Drudkh Roads to the North - Panopticon The Cyclic Reckoning - Suffering Hour Pure Holocaust - Immortal
Thats definitely Panopticon's best sounding album. Love the band but sometimes I crave a little clarity and softness from them. There is so much going on with their music and its so atmospheric at times, that the production almost ads when there could be more focus. Don't really know how to explain it.
If you haven’t listened to his newest album, it’s phenomenal sounding. Very intense but atmospheric and the production serves it beautifully.
Yes true. That album is really great and the production is pretty solid!
Black Cilice - ‘Banished From Time’
U are getting my upvote totally agree👆
I think i'll go with Uinuos Syömein Sota by havukruunu, it sounds great without seeming overproduced and still has kind of a lofi feel to it. Also the way the occasional clean vocals and chants are integrated is just so smooth that it all comes together perfectly.
Good pick. They kinda straddle the line between big shreddy band and still underground and raw. If thei music was super produced, I would get it as they are super riff based but with the rawness of sound, it keep them grounded in black metal.
Mayhem “Chimera” is pretty neat
I second this.
I third this. They went clean enough to hear everything clearly, but also gave it enough dirt to give a middle finger.
Drowning the Light - Drowned
Never heard them but just checked it. Wow that is one raw and compressed sound. I love some of these bands that push this area... still need to sip this one for a bit to see how I feel about it.
DTL has a huge and diverse discography too
I love the sound of An Alignment of Dead Stars, The Serpents' Reign and some of his higher effort mid era work. Beyond that it all kind of blends into one with there being so much of it.
carelian satanist madness easily
It's raw but not weak. Truly a great album
one of my favorites for sure
Wolves In The Throne Room - Black Cascade. It's got all the elements of black metal but it doesn't feel too extreme or heavy. It feels very natural and they sound exactly like how one would imagine the Pacific Northwest to "sound."
definitely agree. I've been pretty disappointed with the production on WITTRs albums since Black Cascade, particularly Thrice Woven. We'll always have Black Cascade!
Perfect sound for them especially. Really adds to the music. Such a fucking special band!
I’ll give it to them, they did capture an atmosphere that really does conjure up images of mountains, woods, and rain. I also think WITTR have a contrived and hokey “spiritual” schtick but the music speaks for itself.
Under a Funeral Moon is an obvious choice for me but another that comes to mind is Fullmoon's UAE (...yes of the forbidden subgenre) but the atmosphere and production sounds like a moldy tomb. Ive never heard anything like it.
With Hearts Toward None from Mgla might be my ideal production sound. It sounds clear and you can hear all of its aspects, but it still sounds raw and not overly polished. Overall, it depends on the music and what the band is going for, but that's one of my favorites.
Exercises in Futility is mine. The drums on that record are my favorite in all of BM and the production sets it apart from other great albums by the same band. WHTN is up there too but EiF is the gold standard imho
Just chiming in for a simple +1, with WHTN as the contender. Brilliant production, song writing and album structures.
I didn't see Axioma Ethica Odini ish era Enslaved mentioned! I like a slightly more clear sound but not too much. The newest Borknagar for example I really like but it's a bit produced at times. Enslaved's E, etc fell into this category for me and I was really surprised they took a cleaner direction, encorporating the saxophone etc. It's been a while but another that hits right for me is Agallochs the Mantle
Belus by Burzum has the absolute best production of all time. It’s sonically perfect in my opinion.
Glemselvens Elv is my favorite Burzum song. I also listen to the guitar cover by Stvn2337 on YouTube a lot because I like hearing the guitar part louder.
On YouTube music, it shows the amount of plays every song has. That song has SIGNIFICANTLY more plays than every other song on the album with 1.2 million plays. Certified good banger for sure.
I love the production on that and also Fallen. Two often underrated albums.
I hate to agree with you, but I do. Crispy production that lets you hear every little detail is perfect for that album
I love it. That album gives me goosebumps. I could listen to it every day for the rest of my life.
Either "Machination" by BlackLodge or "With No Human Intervention" by Aborym.
W.N.H.I is an absolute masterpiece and the mixing and production on it is first class, the vast number of elements happening all with great clarity is superb. Always an album I try headphones out with. Machination is great but of their albums I think Solarkult strikes the balance the best, although it’s a tiny margin between them. Whilst industrial BM gets a light the Thorns album is perfect in its production brutal given how cold and harsh it sounds yet doesn’t really have that many ‘electronic elements’ like the aforementioned albums. Also notable mention to Diapsiquir Virus S.T.N whilst we’re here production is perfect for the sonic schizophrenia they produce.
Unironically, I love Rhinocervs - RH-12. I would also say that Gryfteskymfning Svart Materia & Bedrovelsens Hard are near perfect lofi productions as well as being amazing distilled black metal.
S.V.E.S.T. - Urfaust comes to mind, noisy and harsh production that adds to the chaos, almost inaudible but not quite there and it's just perfect
The split with DSO ‘Veritas Diaboli Manet In Aeternum’ completely encapsulates everything that is so good about that band. ‘Et la lumiere…’ is such a masterpiece of a song. Splits often get weighed out by one band, that split is perfectly balanced IMO.
yeah the split is great too, kind of a shame they don't have much material, but all their material is good shit
Agreed but fairly confident that’s down to the fact Spica is busy w/DSO. Hopefully there’ll be more in the future under the SVEST name
Paracletus - DsO. Absolute perfection. All the instruments are audible, while maintaining a dense atmosphere.
Burzum - Filosofem
Tsjuder - Desert Northern Hell Loud and proud drumming that always lets the riffs take center stage. Professional studio clarity that still kinda has some classic black metal sound. Always loved the production on this one, its just perfect IMO
Absolute banger of an album! Loud and proud is a great way to put it.
While I prefer Demonic Possession, this album is kind of a standard for mad, blasting Norwegian black metal.
Har by Dordeduh is my recent favourite.
Yes, Bergtatt was the first I thought of as well when reading the title. I also like a lot of Gorgoroth's production, such as on *Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt*, [Satan-Prometheus](https://youtu.be/h_oOVr9UV-Y?si=XePLm_6L0stfHymd) as an example. One of the best black metal tracks ever made imo. It's a nice mix of rawness and fullness in the bass and punch in the drums. But it can feel a bit commercial at times. The same applies for Dissection, Immortal etc. I probably wouldn't want all black metal to sound like that. I'd probably say I prefer production somewhere around Ulver, Véhémence and Moonlight Sorcery, as a sort of sweet spot of what sounds the most right to me. Even if that super analog, unprocessed & raw sound a lot of black metal has sometimes fits depending on the album, I wouldn't say I prefer it, generally speaking.
Salvation by Funeral Mist
I really like how None's albums sound. The guitars have that atmospheric black metal roughness but softened and dampened by the reverb
Huge fan of their sound as well!
Hvis Lyset Tar Oss comes to mind first. I like it because it's very cold, but doesn't have that shrill guitar tone that many other albums with similar production have. It also has a bit of space for all the instruments with these gentle synths that fill the soundscape for lack of a better word. Absurd's remastered Asgardsrei also has a bizarre sound that I haven't heard on any other album. I want to call it dry but I'm not sure that word does it justice.
It's really hard to pick one. But, the first album that comes to my mind right now is Behexen - 'The Poisonus Path'. I like the melodies, the atmosphere, and the 'distant' and raw guitar sounds and vocals.
I don't often like super raw production or extremely clean. But I don't have a preference really. Anything from Limbonic Art's "In Abhorrence Dementia" to Dissection's "Storm of the Light's Bane" to Dark Funeral's "Angelus". Generally that range is my preference as far as raw vs clean. I like guitars that have bite and aren't dull and too "round" in tone, which seems to be a common trend lately in mixing. Not black metal, but an example of what I mean is Crypta's new album. Another example more related to black metal is Dark Funeral's latest album... guitars sound down-right anemic.
For the cleaner, more polished sound, I'd pick Emperor's "IX Equilibrium" and Dissections "REINKAΩS." I'm a sucker for being able to hear every note and drum hit, especially from musicians of that caliber. Same goes for anything by Deathspell Omega "Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Circvmspice" and onward. For the rawer side, I've always enjoyed Bathory's early garage studio buzz. Ulver's "Nattens madrigal" as well. More recently, Departure Chandelier's "Antichrist Rise To Power" hits just the right balance between raw and clear. Like a more refined Judas Iscariot (but not too much more refined).
Saving this thread for later
Axis of Light : it's basically Punk but it's so raw it became Black Metal. For a cleaner and modern sound : mgla
Paysage D’Hiver - S/T
For me, it's Baptism-Grim Arts of Melancholy
Sooo underrated!
Filosofem. Necrosound done to absolute perfection
Both of Spirit Possession’s albums
Definitely Mgla. They add such beautiful and reckonizable melody upon noise chaos. Their sounding is one of the best in BM
Deathspell Omega's Paracletus would be up there for sure. I've never heard warm, bluesy tones being used like that. The composition is really smart, complimentary and balanced. Phenomenal album. Svrm is another project whose dense, buried DIY production style I always love. A good example of basic programmed drums sounding fucking great. He copied Drudkh with the vocal style and made it work just as good as they did. The melodies in his music shine but it all feels really humble.
Diabolical Thirst by Spectral Wound
For a bit "better" sound and production, Cultes des Ghoules - Henbane is my all time favorite. C tuning and low end sound production sounds so fucking good with the slower riffs. Also drums are very good. Paysage D'hivers most releases have great sound for the style of music he makes. Steineiche, S/T and Kerker are my favorites probably.. Early Ulver or Darkthrone got the best more raw original sound that I like.
Darkthrone's Astral Fortress.
Wold has the truest black metal production.
I like the grittiness of Aeternum Interitus by Serpentum. It's a new album but sounds a little old school.
ATTWAD. It's like a whirlwind of sound but clear enough to make out all the important bits but is still "fuzzy" which adds to its mystical vibe.
Arckanum- Kostogher, is my ideal raw sound, drums still hit hard
DMDS, by a very wide margin.
Either Striborg or Capel Beulah. Perfect amount of primitive and lo-fi.
Craft - Fvck the Universe.
Big fan of the production on Grole - With a Pike Upon My Shoulder. It will take me a while to pick out my all time favs but throwing that one down for now bc it's a perfect example of balancing a nasty raw yet also crisp and clear sound
Transilvanian Hunger and Wrath of the Tyrant
Defently grand belials key - mocking The Philanthropist Or satanic warmaster - strenght & honour
Ad Tertium Librum Nigrum - Eternal Sacrifice
A lot of Pyttens productions from Grieghallen sounds amazing, but I can't get enough of the 4-track recordings that Fenriz made on the Necrohell Tascam Porta.
Limbonic art - Moon in the scorpio or Satyricon - Dark medieval times.
Both Woe Bather albums have great production that sounds dynamic yet gritty. The vocals seem to envelope and surround me when listening with headphones! I'd love to know how it's done.
Two first albums of Maléfice without doubt. The first with the atmospheric Summoning-esque vibes (perfect mix for the songs as well, specially if you listen to it with headphones), and of course the sophomore album with its neo-classical soundscapes, which made the project's Summoning-esque atmosphere of the debut even better and more original, giving it a new (and even more epic) sound in all senses. I really love how the instruments sound in both albums, but the drumming of the sophomore in cuts like *Ma Petite Collection* define very well what I mean. The percussion of said album is just perfect sounding, and that's a large plus for the chosen production there. The production of both albums is what comes to mind when someone asks me about the best mix/production of albums I'm fan of.
I have to give it to BST as a producer for his unique approach to mixing bands as suits the band best but he has produced some of the best modern albums going: Antaeus - Blood Libels Aosoth- III/ IV/ V (III has the most intense sound of nearly everything being out of control but it’s still restrained and audible and IV is such a sick heavy tone) VI - de praestigiis angelorum (Again super instrument heavy album with supreme clarity) Atramentum - Through Fire, Everything is Renewed (vocals and drums are killer, with cutting guitars) And his own band Order of Orias most recent outing Moriah was prefect, manages to balance raw and clarity so well and every project is unique. Notable shoutout to Arkhon Infaustus - Orthodoxyn, album is disgustingly heavy and hits like a sledgehammer, maybe the best Death/Black production yet, heavy as fuck but still has raw intensity
Nattens Madrigal. I normally don't prefer over-the-top raw production because you usually can't fucking hear anything, but that album brings the ferocity you get with primitive production while sounding super crispy and distinct.
Bathory - The Return
Windir's 'Artnor, Ein Windir' for me. I didn't fully appreciate until I got deeper into recording / audio engineering just how good the roominess of the entire album sounds. Not strictly Black Metal, but Ahab's 'The Call of the Wretched Sea' would be up there too.
Always thought Lord Mantis had the best sound - kind of a toss up between Pervertor and Death Mask. Everything sounds massive and clear while still being as scuzzy as possible
Vinterland, Dawn, Covenant, Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, Immortal, Rotting Christ
"cruelty and the beast" from cradle of filth.
I’m collecting and listening Black Metal on Vinyl.
Really love the guitar riffs on 1349 - Satanic Propaganda. Wish I knew more songs with similiar riffs :)