Black Metal Album Reviews
Every Black Metal record the editors have reviewed, scored out of ten.
26 reviews
8.0
Borknagar
The Archaic Course
A blade pulled from the quench too soon, keen everywhere except two notches.
Eirik Solvang
Oct 26, 2026
8.0
Alcest
Spiritual Instinct
The dream smashed on the floor, every shard reflecting a familiar face.
Eirik Solvang
Oct 25, 2026
8.0
Gaerea
Coma
Ten songs in black ink, with the white paper finally left showing.
Andrzej Sawicki
Oct 25, 2026
7.5
Behemoth
XXX Years ov Blasphemy
Thirty years painted in three panels, for cameras and empty fields.
Eirik Solvang
Oct 25, 2026
8.0
Blut aus Nord
MoRT
Black metal on an iron lung, breathing on schedule, never once alive.
Eirik Solvang
Oct 23, 2026
8.5
Borknagar
Empiricism
The black cathedral rebuilt as an observatory, and the telescope works.
Eirik Solvang
Oct 22, 2026
8.5
Sodom
M-16
A whole war fed through one ammunition belt, and only the mix jams.
Saint Sylveszter
Oct 22, 2026
8.0
Cradle of Filth
Existence Is Futile
The old score, played louder, in an opera house on fire.
Andrzej Sawicki
Oct 22, 2026
7.0
Darkthrone
Dark Thrones and Black Flags
Rough by choice, sharper than it pretends, and still half punk.
Eirik Solvang
Oct 19, 2026
8.0
Krallice
Scour Order
The guitars take the load again and the frame holds
Eirik Solvang
Sep 18, 2026
8.5
Archgoat
Nightbringer, Lightbringer
The citadel breached from within, the relics kept, one song in the wrong place.
Andrzej Sawicki
Sep 14, 2026
9.0
Sigh
Goh-Ka
Nine stages of decay, wired into one circuit that almost never shorts.
Curtis Vance
Sep 9, 2026
8.0
Devil Master
Bloody Dreams
Twelve minutes of trailers, then a feature worth the whole ticket
Gareth Llewellyn
Sep 8, 2026
7.5
Behemoth
I, Scvlptor
The new stone is good; there is simply not enough of it
Andrzej Sawicki
Sep 6, 2026
9.3
Mayhem
De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
The cathedral the genre still worships in, with the right priest howling
Eirik Solvang
Aug 30, 2026
9.0
Fen
Elemental (Part 1: Mourning Earth)
Forty-seven minutes of slow erosion that cut clean down to bedrock
Eirik Solvang
Aug 24, 2026
8.5
Hulder
Verbolgen
The finest hand Hulder has shown, and the ink runs thin late on
Eirik Solvang
Aug 11, 2026
8.0
Taake
En skog av nidstang
Four poles of scorn planted true, and left standing a little too long.
Eirik Solvang
Aug 6, 2026
8.0
Blackbraid
Blackbraid III
A trilogy closed with a plateau instead of a summit.
Eirik Solvang
Jul 1, 2026
7.5
Behemoth
The Shit ov God
Immaculate execution, undermined by a decision made in marketing.
Andrzej Sawicki
Jun 3, 2026
8.0
Sodom
The Arsonist
Analogue drums, four decades in, and nowhere to play it.
Declan Rourke
May 16, 2026
9.2
Emperor
In the Nightside Eclipse
The record that built the vocabulary, in a mix that half buries it.
Eirik Solvang
Apr 28, 2026
9.0
Werewolves
Die for Us
Australia's most savage death metal band, Werewolves, returns with their fifth studio album, Die For Us. Known for their...
Andrzej Sawicki
Mar 18, 2026
7.0
Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa
The Blossoming
Ætheria Conscientia’s third album, The Blossoming, is a testament to their startling creative abilities, spanning six ep...
Eirik Solvang
Jun 8, 2024