Recordings are often left rough and thin on purpose, and the mood is bleak, with themes of darkness, winter, nature and opposition to religion. A first wave of bands in the 1980s, including Venom and Bathory, set the template. A second wave in Norway in the early 1990s defined the sound most people mean today. It is higher-pitched and more atmospheric than death metal.
Artists it is known for: Bathory, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Emperor.
About 1,600 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have black metal among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Black Metal artists
Cannibal Corpse
Bathory
Lifelover
Dissection
Deafheaven
Mayhem
Burzum
Venom
Darkthrone
DecaliusThe black metal artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.