Some Lesser Known Early Norwegian Black Metal Bands

We have all heard of Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal, Emperor, as well as the also rans Satyricon, Enslaved, Gorgoroth, Ancient, Gehenna and of course, Dimmu Borgir.

I'm looking for some lesser known bands, more obscure, that were nonetheless present and active during the early days of Norwegian black metal. The notorious Inner Circle days.

Do you have any suggestions? So far I have already checked out Arcturus, Carpathian Forest, Thorns, Borknagar and Ulver, and I can't say I'm really impressed. Except for Thorns maybe.

Do you know of better bands? They must be: 1) Norwegian, 2) active in the early 90s, 3) have a certain significance and relation with the Norwegian Inner Circle, what we colloquially call "Second Wave" Norwegian BM.

Neraines "Yggdrasil". Tops anything on your list besides Burzum and early Mayhem demos.

You're welcome.

A few Norse black metal bands from the top of my head, no particular order:

• Taake
• Vermin
• Tsjuder
• Neraines
• Limbonic Art
• Old Man's Child (not recommended, Dimmu Borgir-lite)
• Antestor

Do you count bands formed by members of Mayhem, Immortal, etc...? Because then you can add Ihsahn, Zyklon-B, Abbath, and so on.

Use the search function boi.

First result: Obscure and Underrated Black Metal Bands From Norway.

Second result: A List of Norwegian Bestial Black Metal Bands.

I second the Neraines and Taake suggestions.

If I were to rank the top 5 Norwegian black metal albums:

• Burzum: Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
• Neraines: Yggdrasil or Fenrir Prowling
• Mayhem: De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
• Immortal: Pure Holocaust
• Taake: Kong Vinter

Ulver and Gorgoroth are legitimately gai poseurs, but the first Enslaved is legit good atmospheric bm.

Immortal: Pure Holocaust

Blizzard Beasts is superior to Pure Holocaust. Yes, I will die on that hill.

@Demigod: Alone, then.

Check out Phantom's Divine Necromancy and Fallen Angel if you haven't yet.

It's some raw quasi-bestial black metal that was released at the same time as the inner circle was active. Allegedly it has ties to Zephyrous the guitarist of Darkthrone on Under a Funeral Moon.

Thanks all. So essentially, you'd recommend Taake and Neraines? Any particular albums from them I should listen to?

Nattestid Ser Porten Vid and Yggdrasil respectively.

For Neraines, I don't recommend the debut because - while good - it is a very different style of black metal than that played on their subsequent releases.

TFW everyone forgets about Svartalvheim. SMH

If you mean the Ancient album, it was literally mentioned in the list of 'also rans' in the first post by OP

@Andrew: And it's not even particularly good. It's decent norwegian black metal but nothing to brag about.

Not necessarily Norwegian per say, but some other Scandinavian bands were active during the time of Mayhem/Burzum/Darkthrone/et al, and many were even in direct contact with Euronymous himself.

• Marduk (Sweden)
• Satanic Warmaster (Finland)
• David Parland from Necrophobic (Sweden), although this is disputed*
• Warkvlt (Germany)
• Goatmoon (Finland)
• and of course Bathory (Sweden)

*Parland and his clique (Lord Ahriman) were known to make up sh-t to sound more interesting, so take it with a grain of salt

Definitively Khranial from Germany. Listen to "Followers of the Eternal Skull" and "The Kvlt of Khranial" to set your ears straight on some Teuton black metal :)

Some good old school black metal: Absurd (Totenlieder in particular). I know it's not from Norway, but it has everything the Norse black metal scene has. Good sound, good music, perfect atmosphere. All around excellent band.

Some new bands and artists that contribute to the black metal genre while keeping the spirit of old alive: Leader (Mountains of Doom and Burzum Sha Ghâsh). This time it is from Norway indeed. Some call it dark metal, as it has some death elements, but it's mostly black to my ears.

For a more comprehensive history of the norwegian black metal scene, you should check out the book Black Metal Blasphemy: A History of the Black Metal Genre. You can find it pretty easily and it's very comprehensive (it has stuff about Dead, Euronymous, etc).