1994 is a special year to me. It was the year of Soundgarden’s Superunknown, The Lion King and Pulp Fiction, to name a few personal cultural landmarks (plus I was born). In the burgeoning world of black metal, to say 1994 was a massive year would be a bit of an understatement. De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, In the Nightside Eclipse, and Transilvanian Hunger were all released within just three months of each other… hell of a time to be an underground metal fan, if you were lucky enough to know about them. I love the ease of access to incredible music from around the world that the internet provides, but the thought of getting to be one of the first people outside of the local scenes in Scandinavia to hear such bands as Emperor and Enslaved must’ve felt like a whole new chapter in music history opening up. Putting myself in the shoes of a California metal fan 30 years ago, I guess there would’ve been no other way to hear about any of it without finding some dedicated zines with mail-order abilities. What a simple time, huh?
I had a fun time (re-)visiting nine black metal albums that celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2023, so I’m happy to do it once again this year. Whereas last year I tried to expand out to the black metal scene globally — with bands from Greece, Brazil, and Japan to complement the Scandinavian classics — this time Norwegian black metal reigns supreme, taking up two-thirds of the complete list. Once I got started writing this, it became very clear that I had a bit too much to say that would appropriately fit in one article (in hindsight, I probably should’ve split up the inaugural edition)… so this Nine Circles ov… will be three parts!
Departing a bit from what I listened to in 2023, I’m avoiding some of the more obvious picks (such as the aforementioned De Mysteriis and Nightside) in favor of some B-tier albums. Of course there’s no way I wasn’t gonna throw Enslaved in here, especially as I get not one but two chances to wax poetic about my favorite band. Let’s take a chronological* look at the world of black metal in 1994.
*Despite some of these albums being major releases in the black metal canon, I straight-up couldn’t find official release dates for a few that were chosen. I just guessed when they might have come out based on available information on when they were recorded. Again, a simpler time before the internet and the existence of Encyclopedia Metallum!
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There’s no better way to start off this trek back three decades than perhaps my favorite album on the entire list. Released on Deathlike Silence Productions in February of 1994, Enslaved‘s debut full-length Vikingligr veldi might very well have come out in 1993 if it weren’t for the murder of label founder Euronymous (an event you just might have heard about if you know anything about black metal history). Guitarist and composer Ivar Bjørnson was only 16 years old when this album was released, an achievement that still wows me to this day.
While Vikingligr is a raw and repetitive affair like many of its contemporaries in Norway at the time, there is a distinctly archaic and pagan atmosphere at play, with horn-like keyboards and not-uncommon layering of acoustic guitars just two of the techniques that give off this vibe (“Miðgarðs eldar”); Ivar and Grutle Kjellson have always said that “black metal” in ’90s Norway was a specific time and place, and since they touched on themes of Norse mythology instead of Satan and darkness they didn’t really fit that mold (instead preferring their music to be referred to as “extreme metal.”)
Produced by the legendary Pytten at Grieghallen — a concert hall in Enslaved’s own Bergen where they have returned each year since 2022 to play Vikingligr, Eld, and Frost (respectively) in full at the Beyond the Gates festival — this album has probably my personal favorite sound of all the early Norwegian black metal scene. Sure the guitars are raw, but they aren’t too trebly as to be a complete wall of noise like others might have done at the time. The drums courtesy of future Emperor member Trym Torson are appropriately thunderous, and most importantly Kjellson’s bass is very audible, weaving around the icy guitar lines with distinct warmness.
All five tracks are fantastic in their own ways, but “Vetrarnótt” has to be my top pick; repetitive yes, but following the mantra of “if a riff is that good, there’s no limit to how many times you can play it” works wonders here. The descending line that occupies a great share of the runtime has always reminded me of a hail of arrows, truly fitting as the lyrics translate to “From above rains the golden arrows of Thor.” I talked more about the track a while ago here, but I can’t not mention “Norvegr” once again; a beautiful closer that was just a taste of what was to come. I could go on forever about this album, it’s just that good. A true masterpiece of early Norwegian black metal, and an incredible debut in a band whose saga is still being written 30 years later.
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Cradle of Filth is a band that I’ve only had much familiarity with through the derision directed at them by both the underground metal and the mainstream rock/metal communities at large; too commercial for the former, too corny for the latter I guess. Watching some music videos from their 2000s material, I can’t really blame either camps… I could definitely see the band capturing the hearts and minds of anyone who thought Repo! The Genetic Opera was the greatest thing ever made.
Image isn’t the most important thing though, we’re here for music. Not long after Enslaved’s debut, the UK band released their own, The Principle of Evil Made Flesh. A far cry from the blackened gothic metal that would characterize later material, this album is a hodge-podge of keyboard interludes, buzzsaw black metal, and hints of the symphonic/gothic tinge (“The Black Goddess Rises”) that would be seen in later releases. A lot of the black metal riffing has an ebb and flow reminiscent of early death metal, sort of the opposite of Fenriz’s description for A Blaze in the Northern Sky as “death metal riffs played in a black metal style”; the drumming especially accentuates the death metal influence.
Dani Filth’s vocal performance is, to be blunt, pretty bad. Ridiculous banshee shrieks, goofy spoken word (if you’re gonna implement this technique, you better go full Bal-Sagoth or go home), and all other vocal stylings coming off as a pretty bad Varg Vikernes impression; this all only serves to bring the rest of the music down. Closer “Summer Dying Fast” is pretty well-written and brings in the symphonic elements in more of a classical fashion at least, but it’s too little, too late by the end of the album. Something interesting could have been put together here — some sort of symphonic black/death metal hybrid that brought together the best of both worlds — but that certainly wasn’t the actual case. Not the worst black metal I’ve ever heard, but Cradle of Filth didn’t quite stick the landing on their debut as well as pretty much every other band I’ll be featuring in this series.
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Melodic black metal has been my obsessive focus over the past few years, spurred on by more recent releases such as Stormkeep’s Tales of Othertime and Moonlight Sorcery’s Piercing through the Frozen Eternity. But in terms of the classics, there’s one band that stands above all others in my book: Sacramentum. While they’re respected as a staple of the subgenre, they tend to get overshadowed by that other Swedish melodic black band. Around two years before their undoubted masterpiece of a debut full-length Far Away from the Sun was released, a similar command ever-shifting melodic riffs would see the light of day on Finis Malorum.
This 5-track EP would serve as the blueprint for what was to come on their debut, albeit with a rawer sound and more of a jagged melodic death metal influence, especially on the track “Pagan Fire.” I’m throwing around the term melodic a lot, yet Sacramentum absolutely do not play black metal with some flashy classic heavy metal or folk-inspired leads like some bands in this subgenre do (no shade directed at them, lots of bands falling under those descriptors rock); this is taking the darkness of black metal and making that melodic, but by no means making something catchy and upbeat in the process (see the leads on “Devide et Impera”). It’s a tough thing to put to words, but there’s something truly magical at play on Finis Malorum and more importantly Far Away from the Sun that I’ve yet to hear another band come close to replicating. Just listen to opener “Moonfog” and the sheer number of riffs it goes through in just the first couple minutes!
Sacramentum are definitely not a prog metal band, but there’s an undeniably forward-thinking nature to the songwriting of guitarist Anders Brolycke; each riff flows into one another effortlessly, as if the next one is already being anticipated. In combination with the oft-polyphonic nature of the rhythm and lead guitars, guiding one another through each new chord progression, the end result is greatness. The only downsides to Finis Malorum would be the occasionally awkward drum performance — almost sounding like it’s lagging behind the guitars at times — and some abrupt song endings, but these would be rectified in spades on Far Away from the Sun. Despite some rough edges, this was a fantastic portent of what was to follow in 1996.
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Part one down! One of these might have been a clunker, but the other two more than make up for it. If anything, I hope this article encourages more people to check out Sacramentum, truly one of the most underappreciated acts of ’90s black metal. I got to see them live for the first time back in July — performing all of Far Away from the Sun front to back, of course — and they were fantastic. Check back for the next installment soon! I can guarantee that at least one album will take us outside of Norway…
— Colin
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