Sunday Q&A: Most Overrated Death and Black Metal Bands

[@mvo_81]

Hey man don't forget Aorlhac and Ungfell for black metal with a medieval feeling! Thanks for the recommendations, I'm trying to get deeper into black metal

[@jamesriley72281]

Love the Véhémence shout! Such an amazing band. I'm still waiting patiently for the Ordalies vinyl release.

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

Me too, man, me too. Fucking love that band

[@MrLando0]

I listen to metal to fall asleep at night, or nap. I fall asleep after three songs. The next night I start where I left off, so it takes awhile to get through albums. I listen to podcasts throughout the day.

[@peterock4210]

U.S Black Metal band with a great new release this year- Uada. Also, Tomarum, Inexorum, Skeleton witch, Tons of really good Black out of U.S. lately.

[@Oldy-Sepulchre]

Some great mentions here but Tómarúm album from last year was outstanding

[@BillArrand]

honestly the us black metal scene has always been great: masochist, gbk, profanatica, von, leviathan, order from chaos, black witchery etc. and nowadays many of my favourite modern black metal acts are all us based. underrated as hell

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

Oh for sure, the slander that it got was harsh. There are gems in there, but as a scene that’s what it was stamped with. Nowadays it’s harder to tar the US scene with that brush

[@bluewinter6660]

Great video and I agree absolutely on Mayhem and Blood Incantation.

[@MessOfTheVoid]

Loved the video Matt! I have another question for you, what is a genre of music that you've been wanting to get into for some time now but haven't gotten to it yet?

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

Cheers! And thank you very much for the questions. Another great one. Noted for next time 🤘🏼

[@Rafael-kr6zv]

Too add to the "how many albums a day" question, mine is: how do you decide or manage your time around listening to new releases or old stuff you're already familiar with? Also, do you have any "rituals" when listening something for the first time? Like, listening to it alone, in the dark, in the car, while reading or playing a game, while exercising, etc

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

Excellent questions. I’ll cover this in my next Q&A. (Hopefully next Sunday)

[@VacuousDepths]

Adramelech is outstandingly strong amongst the Finns and WILDLY underrated in terms of the biggies. They hold all the twists and turns of Demilich while having the power and brutality and gnarly nature the Demigod sound had. They're everything that you really need. I need all of those, but I am so glad to see you bring them up as a strongly under appreciated band from that killer era. Also of note, never become a god damn Grunge band.

[@charredremains7475]

Really enjoyed this one mate. Who's the band on your t-shirt?

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

Glad you enjoyed it! Cheers for watching. The band on my shirt is Musmahhu. Super dark and brooding Death Metal out of Sweden.

[@davidcwk01]

Great video, can i suggest you put up the bands name and album name on screen when you talk about them? Some of their names are legit unintelligible😂.

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

Cheers, mate. With vids like this where I’m near constantly mentioning bands, it’s not really feasible, as the screen would be covered with words the entire time. I always try to include anything that I’m talking about (on physical format) in the description however, so check there for anything I actually show. Hope that’s at least somewhat helpful 😄

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

That said, I could try to add the ones I mention in their own section in the description if that would work?

[@davidcwk01]

@@Altars_of_Mattness absolutely! That would help us find out some of the bands you mention as KZbin’s auto captions are not very reliable these days (misthyrming being corrected to miss therming) another thing i wanna point out is that i appreciate you replying to as many comments as usual, as your channel grows it might be difficult to keep up with them i understand but at the mean time, appreciate your work and enthusiasm on creating discussion in the comments.

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

@@davidcwk01 I shall try and keep on top of that in that case. Cheers for the suggestion! Don’t worry, mate I just do what I can in terms of replies. There aren’t thousands of them per vid or anything daft like that, so I can manage quite stress-free. As soon as it isn’t manageable, or even fun I won’t feel compelled to, but I do love interacting with you lot, so it’s all good 😁👊🏼

[@Oldy-Sepulchre]

Greece, Portugal, Netherlands and Ukraine all have a decent black metal scene

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

They certainly do. Pretty much every country does these days. I was just naming a few 😄

[@Oldy-Sepulchre]

@Altars_of_Mattness oh I know lol. I wasn't being twatty. Just thought these were a few that deserve a mention because I'm just personally into bands from these countries.

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

@@Oldy-Sepulchre You’ll have to try harder than that if you want to come across like a twat, mate! Don’t worry. However, they definitely weren’t forgotten about. Killer scenes existing in all of those mentioned! 😄🤘🏼

[@nickcovington8005]

Epic Musmahhu shirt

[@U.K.death-and-black-metal]

Totally agree with all those Maggot stomp bands being overrated, they come across as faddy and cash in. I also like M&M, the peanut ones are my favourite 😋 seriously though, my introduction into metal actually came through the Beastie boys first album back in 1987, when I heard “no sleep til Brooklyn” and I heard that riff and Kerry King’s solo, I was just blown away, so thank you Beastie boys but not for getting me a good telling off for stealing VW badges.

[@black_pig_iron]

EHM ❤️❤️❤️

[@xtransxcorex]

i wish there was more black metal influenced by American folk and bluegrass in vain of Panopticon. theyre so good and also all the hardcore influenced "cavemen" death metal is basically the only death metal I like, minus the huge OSDM Florida bands like Death, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, etc.

[@zachdoubleu2286]

At least one song to check out is the acoustic version of "Nattestid ser porten vid I" on Taake's Avvik comp has some serious bluegrass vibes

[@mazeoftorment805]

A good chunk of the modern melodic French black metal bands besides cenotaphe and vehemance seam to get not as much attention for some reason. How you feel about mayhem I feel about burzum.

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

Yeah man, for sure, and even those two are somewhat overlooked in the grand scheme of things. It’s one of my favourite scenes if I’m honest. Some absolute bangers dwelling within. Yeah, that’s understandable, though I’d definitely say I enjoy more of Burzum’s work on the whole.

[@vladimpaler2047]

The US was producing some of the best black metal back in the 90’s. The Scandinavian scene was dominating in the 90’s and overshadowing what the US scene had to offer. You had GBK, Profanatica, Demoncy, Absu, Judas Iscariot, Goatlord, the list goes on. Some of the best of the best. In regards to the nowadays black metal from the US, from what I’ve seen, it’s all the same shit. Vampire bedroom -raw- nonsense that has nothing to do with what the 90’s had to offer. No personality or charm whatsoever. Just my take.

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

Fair enough, mate. I agree with those early US bands being immense (still to this day for some). However, I absolutely love some of the modern shit coming out too. There are some pretty unique gems hidden amongst them. I can just happily appreciate both for sure!

[@vladimpaler2047]

@@Altars_of_Mattness I’d like to think of the nowadays stuff as few and far between, for my ears. I mean I really like the new Diabolical Fullmoon album. That is definitely on a heavy rotation for this year, but nothing really has grabbed me, besides the classic bands who are still putting out material. Mortuary Drape, GBK, etc have released really killer albums this year. All the stuff on Medieval Prophecy tends to be pretty good, I don’t want to leave them out. I just usually gravitate to the older stuff, the ones who did it the best.

[@metalpropaganda666]

Quality video..

[@Oldy-Sepulchre]

Are you a fan of Sworn or Non Est Deus? Both released 2 of my favourite albums of the year

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

Is this a question for the next Q&A or just curious? 😄

[@Oldy-Sepulchre]

@Altars_of_Mattness I was just curious but if you wanna save it for the next Q&A that's fine too haha

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

@@Oldy-Sepulchre No no, I just didn’t want to spoil it by answering here if you intended it to be 😄 Erm, I’m not super familiar with Sworn, but I’ve heard bits and bobs off the new record and it sounds pretty good. Non Est Deus is alright, though I feel like they’re a bit too caught up in sounding like other bands at present. They sounded like Marduk on the sophomore and Mgła on this one. It’s good, but not something I’ll return to very often at all.

[@tommygreen2573]

How do you pick an album to listen to when there's so much choice?

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

Noted. Great question! Cheers 🤘🏼

[@LePopPathetique]

opinion on female fronted bm bands? like Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult, Hulder etc?

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

Noted for the next Q&A! Thank you 🤘🏼

[@simonriley4131]

How is it any different from the usual "male fronted" black metal? "Female fronted" is not a genre signifier in any single way

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

@@simonriley4131 I’ll cover this in the next Q&A, don’t fret. Regardless of how the question was intended, I’ll cover both interpretations of it 😁

[@LePopPathetique]

@@simonriley4131 it's not a genre signifier no, but BM is primarily male dominated (not to mention everything else that comes with it) and not much attention is given to female artists in the scene, something that I consider it to be highly problematic. I certainly believe there are so many talented queens outthere worthy of a shoutout ;)

[@simonriley4131]

@@LePopPathetique now there we completely agree

[@frogge8495]

Behemoth is my pick for the most overrated BM band. I understand why people like them, but I am really not a fan of how they treat the genre. It feels insincere and attention *seeking* rather than attention grabbing, which isn't helped by the fact that the lead vocalist supposedly does collabs with Polish pop stars.

[@bluewinter6660]

In my opinion, Behemoth where the best in their Death metal era (Zos kia cultus, Demigod, Apostasy) but their debut and Grom are great though

[@danmoth5126]

I have to agree on Behemoth.

[@dantredogborsa7048]

If Behemoth and "The Satanist" album weren’t "mainstream", if it where a fairly underground thing, I guarantee you would consider it a great album

[@frogge8495]

@@dantredogborsa7048 I don't think so, mainly because I only like a couple of Behemoth's tracks. It's not about their popularity, because I wouldn't care if they acted like clowns in a niche or in mainstream.

[@dantredogborsa7048]

@@frogge8495 by what you said now I can say for sure you would like it 😂... oh metal fans...

[@MexicanradioDJ]

Overrated is an odd term in music. However also one commonly used. Rather than debating the term, I will go straight to 3 DM bands I think are overrated. Cynic Goreguts Later Death Overrated BM I agree about Mayhem Gaerea - far too shiny and I was told they’re great live went and saw them and was unimpressed

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

It’s a very odd term if it’s looked at objectively. Subjectively I just look at it to mean ‘albums/bands/music that got a tonne of hype and praise, that I personally don’t see as being particularly amazing’ 😄 Three very brave picks for the Death Metal bands. I appreciate the honesty! I really enjoy Cynic’s ‘Focus’, however I haven’t felt compelled to check out anything they did outside of that. Big fan of Gorguts’s first two albums, and then they lost me a little with the more experimental stuff. I don’t think Death has a bad album, but yeah I much prefer their first two albums over anything from ‘Spiritual Healing’ onwards. You’re a little like me in the sense that you see lots of the really hyped Proggy and Experimental Death Metal as being a bit overhyped. I personally prefer Atheist’s first two to anything Death did later on. Gaerea are okay. They kinda remind me a bit of Mgła, just not as gripping. They really need to trim fat off their albums, too. The length of the latest ones seems over-indulgent and unnecessary.

[@MexicanradioDJ]

As for the US scene it’s a big country with multiple sub genres of BM Without a unifying scene as such Like a lot of countries this being down to how music can be consumed and the stupidly large number one man projects. Quality counts though and for me, Wolves in the throne room first trilogy is top level BM I’d put Twice Woven in my Top 5 BM albums of all the times. In many ways the only true scene were the young men in Oslo centred around Helvete There’s not been a creative sharing ideas in a BM scene before or since. Musicians who played with multiple bands and lived in Helvete cellar, contributing to Burzum, Satyricon, Gorogoth, Emperor, Thou shalt suffer, Mayhem and Arcturus. Nocturno Culto was in Satyricon There is so much cross over Not to mention their flawed shared world views. Which includes members of Enslaved.

[@spencergrady5501]

@@MexicanradioDJ I love Cynic. Agree with Gaerea. Mayhem and Marduk also overrated.

[@jewel_throne2950]

Gorguts is great

[@CoffinReaper666]

Do you have a discogs link?

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

I have Discogs, yeah. However, I just have that there for personal use, just to file my shit and store what I own, so I don’t follow anyone or anything. All of the albums I buy go on my Instagram page if you’re interested in seeing what I’ve gotten recently along with reviews etc. hope this helps 👍🏼

[@patrickbertlein4626]

Mayhem do put on a great show and I was sorry to miss it, but truthfully the only great releases they have are with Dead. De Mysteris or whatever is just the finalized version of those songs that should have had Dead on them but instead…Grand Declaration of War is a pretty solid album though especially if you’re hip to the experimentation that’s been a constant within the genre for years. The whole Norwegian scene is pretty overrated in how it’s seen as the pinnacle of BM, and I love me some early Dimmu//Satyr/Emp. But literally hundreds of bands existed at the same time and even some of the best albums from that region from Manes to Fleurety tonForgotten Woods to Fleurety are overlooked due to the big four and all that ridiculous drama. Kinda wished the whole thing never happened sometimes and the genre was able to flourish in the underground instead of this ridiculous circus of tourists it’s become.

[@multiplesorganversagen5155]

Are there any bands you just can't get into, no matter how much you want to like them?

[@mightyturkeyneck3498]

Death.

[@ronadleta1541]

Wow you came a very long way from m+m

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

Tell me about it! I can still get down to Eminem every now and then for sure as well!

[@paulwhite1109]

Load is a good album. Was just listening to it earlier. Its underrated because its different. If you like your hi fi's sound that's all that matters.

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

Ah man, I just find it far too long. It’s not different in a clever nor challenging way, it’s just easily digestible Rock, but the amount of filler is inexcusable. Reload has the exact same problem. The length makes the good parts seem so few and far between. Well exactly, I’m no expert, I just dig my setup 🤷🏻‍♂️😁

[@patrickbertlein4626]

Load and Reload together would be a half decent album with some filler. There’s about 3-4 really good songs and 3-4 decent ones between both.

[@jameshuseby9931]

Quebec has great black metal

[@jewel_throne2950]

Prog Era Death, Cannibal Corpse, and Bolt Thrower are very overrated death metal to me. Good bands but are overhyped.

[@CBT5777]

The chrome booger in your nose is overrated.

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

I can almost smell your mom’s basement from where you typed this pitiful troll attempt. Fucking chrome, man 🤣

[@DavidGorgoroth]

Yeah, it looks pretty stupid.

[@Altars_of_Mattness]

@@DavidGorgorothThank you for your input hahaha. Fucks sake 🤣