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Heavy Metal Thunder Atmospheric Black Metal

Genres Heavy Metal Black Metal (First Wave) Second Wave (Norwegian) Atmospheric Black Metal

Atmospheric Black Metal

Black metal that stopped attacking and started drifting. Long, patient, and more concerned with forests than with Satan.

Active years
2003 – present
Origin
USA / Europe
Family
Black Metal
Bands here
28

Before you press play

Black metal has an NSBM fringe and this corner of it gets asked about a lot, so: Wolves in the Throne Room are environmentalists and Panopticon is explicitly, loudly antifascist. Drudkh are the contested name, and the argument about them is genuinely unresolved.

Start here

Four records in order of how easy they are to get into — which is not the same as best first.

  1. Two Hunters Wolves in the Throne Room, 2007 The landmark

    The record that defined the American strain. Two long pieces built to be sat inside rather than listened through, made by brothers who ran a farm and meant the nature imagery literally.

    Listen to Two Hunters

  2. Kentucky Panopticon, 2012

    Black metal and Appalachian bluegrass in the same record, about the coal industry and the miners' unions. Austin Lunn plays everything and there are banjos. It should be a disaster and it is superb.

    Listen to Kentucky

  3. Ashes Against the Grain Agalloch, 2006

    The most beautifully recorded thing in the genre. Barely metal in places — clean guitars, restraint, and a sense of scale that comes from the arrangements rather than the volume.

    Listen to Ashes Against the Grain

  4. Oath Bound Summoning, 2006

    Two Austrians, a drum machine and forty years of Tolkien. The programmed drums are usually a mark against a record and here they are why it sounds like a procession rather than a band.

    Listen to Oath Bound

What it sounds like

Long, and in no hurry to arrive anywhere. The tremolo picking and the shriek are still there, but the tempo drops, the songs stretch past ten minutes, and the guitars are mixed as a wash of texture rather than as riffs to follow. Acoustic passages, field recordings and ambient sections are common. Subject matter is nature and landscape rather than Satan. Compared with the second wave it is far gentler and much less hostile — this is music to disappear into rather than to be attacked by, and it is the strand of black metal that listeners from outside metal find most approachable.

  • Heaviness 2 out of 5
  • Speed 2 out of 5
  • Aggression 3 out of 5
  • Technicality 3 out of 5
  • Darkness 4 out of 5
  • Melody 3 out of 5

Where the name came from

A descriptive term prioritising mood and 'atmosphere' over ferocity. Associated with the post-2000 USBM (US Black Metal) scene centred on bands like Wolves in the Throne Room and Agalloch, who foregrounded ambient texture and natural imagery rather than Satanic themes.

The bands

Hear these first

  • Wolves in the Throne Room USA
  • Agalloch USA
  • Panopticon USA
  • Summoning Austria
  • Fen UK

And 23 more

  • Lantlôs France
  • Drudkh Ukraine
  • Austere Australia
  • Skagos Canada
  • Midnight Odyssey Australia
  • Alda USA
  • Sólstafir Iceland
  • Haar UK
  • Falloch UK
  • Celestial North UK
  • Dornenreich Austria
  • Altar of Plagues Ireland
  • Wiegedood Belgium
  • Hate Forest Ukraine
  • Khors Ukraine
  • Gaerea Portugal
  • Dordeduh Romania
  • Saor UK
  • Winterfylleth UK
  • Zuriaake China
  • Tharaphita Estonia
  • Anubi Lithuania
  • May Result Serbia

Where it happened

Counting this genre and everything descended from it.

  • France French Extreme & Atmospheric Metal 5 bands
  • Scotland Scottish Metal 5 bands
  • Ukraine Ukrainian Black Metal 4 bands
  • Austria Austrian Black & Symphonic Metal 3 bands

What it led to

If you liked this

Closest in sound outside this family, leaning towards the similar or the gentler rather than straight into the deep end.