The pinnacle of Varg Vikernes' iconic ambient-oriented take on the Norweigian black metal scene started by bands like Mayhem and Darkthrone. While black metal has always been a more minimalistic subgenre of metal, Burzum takes these elements such as pounding steady drums and tremolo picking and expands on them with ethereal icy synths and harsh walls of noise to create a truly unique and otherworldly experience. Vargs' tortured howls are pretty impressive on here too, they come together with ... read more
Death has one of (if not the) most consistently exceptional discographies in the entirety of metal, so picking any one of their seven albums as their best seems like it would be challenging. Or at least that would be so if their sixth album, Symbolic, wasn't my personal pick for best metal album of all time.
Upon listening to the album opener, "Symbolic", Death immediately demonstrates the compositional expertise that frontman Chuck Schuldinger had honed after Death's classic first ... read more