son_goten wrote:blackmetal?you mean like black ppl that sing metal?
not quite....
Black metal is a deliberately obscure and unlistenable form of Supreme Evil Musical Art developed in the forests of Sweden and Norway between about 1984 and 1994. It is currently being whored out by commercial opportunists who like taking money from insecure goths, but make no mistake, Treu Balck Metall is about three things:
* bad production
* opposition to christinsanity
* being TRUE
* and not knowing when to shut up with the ideological blandishments
Black metal advocates a wide range of anti-social activities, ranging from grave desecration, vandalism, and arson of religious structures to racial-nationalist activism and murder, the actualization of which have been driving law enforcement in northeast Europe berserk since about 1990. Black metal fans and musicians are currently in prison in Norway, Poland, Germany, Sweden, and the UK (at least) for murder, arson, and abuse of corpses (you don't want to know).
--- <removes tongue from cheek> ---
Laying all that aside, there has been some excellent music made in the form; three essential records would probably be:
Emperor,
Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Immortal,
At the Heart of Winter
Nokturnal Mortum,
Goat Horns
An acquired taste is required to appreciate Burzum's
Filosofem, Sigh's
Imaginary Sonicscape, and Ulver's
Nattens Madrigal, but they're also quite worthy.
As for metal made by black people, there unfortunately isn't as much of this as there used to be. God Forbid is probably the most prominent act, though Body Count is supposed to be making a comeback this year and Suffocation (where the main songwriters are both black) has recently re-formed.
Answering son_goten's earlier question: I haven't heard much Israeli music; Salem doesn't sing in Hebrew, and I don't have any of their tracks lying around currently, so they wouldn't have played into the languages-used list. With more bands playing Near Eastern dates (I thought I saw Opeth listed somewhere as doing a couple dates in Jordan), maybe more decent music will arise from this area and change that.
And I'm not impressed by anyone into rap who defines "good stuff" without including Ice-T, Public Enemy or the Roots. I know you can't get much but mainstream stuff in Israeli stores, but there does exist this wonderful thing called "the Internet" which helps people, no matter where they are, get into new, better music.
--K
