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Heavy Metal Thunder Symphonic Black Metal

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

Symphonic Black Metal

Put a full orchestra behind black metal and this is what happens. Grandiose, cinematic, and either magnificent or ridiculous depending on the day.

Active years
1994 โ€“ present
Origin
UK / Norway
Family
Black Metal
Bands here
19

Before you press play

Explicit content

Graphic lyrics and artwork are a defining feature of this genre rather than an occasional accident โ€” which of violence, gore or sex depends on the band. Worth knowing before you put it on in a room with other people in it.

Start here

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

  1. Dusk... and Her Embrace Cradle of Filth, 1996

    Gothic horror played entirely straight, which is why it works. Dani Filth shrieks like a stuck gate and the arrangements underneath him are genuinely lush โ€” the most enjoyable way into the genre.

    Listen to Dusk... and Her Embrace

  2. Death Cult Armageddon Dimmu Borgir, 2003

    Recorded with the Prague Philharmonic and mixed so the orchestra wins. The most expensive-sounding black metal ever made and completely shameless about it.

    Listen to Death Cult Armageddon

  3. Where the Corpses Sink Forever Carach Angren, 2012

    A ghost story per song, scored like a film. The modern reference point, and proof the genre did not stop being interesting in 2003.

    Listen to Where the Corpses Sink Forever

  4. In the Nightside Eclipse Emperor, 1994 The landmark

    The best record in the genre and the fourth rung rather than the first, because the keyboards are buried in a wall of hiss and it takes some acclimatising. Ihsahn was seventeen. Once it opens up, nothing else here compares.

    Listen to In the Nightside Eclipse

What it sounds like

Keyboards doing the work an orchestra would, and sometimes an actual orchestra. The tremolo guitars and shrieked vocals of the second wave stay in place, but underneath them sit strings, choirs and horns, arranged for scale rather than atmosphere. Production is clean and loud where the Norwegian records were murky. Female or operatic vocals often answer the shriek. The result is grandiose and cinematic, and the gap between the bands who make that work and the ones who sound like a video game soundtrack is wide. When it lands it is the most immediately impressive thing in black metal. Compared with the second wave it has traded atmosphere for spectacle, and whether that is a gain or a loss is the argument the genre has been having with itself since 1996.

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

Where the name came from

A descriptive compound coined by music press in the mid-1990s as Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth added orchestral keyboards and choral arrangements. 'Symphonic' (from the Greek symphonia, meaning 'sounding together') indicated the grandiose, multi-layered production values separating them from raw lo-fi BM.

The bands

Hear these first

  • Emperor Norway
  • Dimmu Borgir Norway
  • Cradle of Filth UK
  • Carach Angren Netherlands
  • Septic Flesh Greece

And 14 more

  • Limbonic Art Norway
  • Bal-Sagoth UK
  • Kovenant Norway
  • Old Man's Child Norway
  • Hecate Enthroned UK
  • Theatres des Vampires Italy
  • Stormlord Italy
  • Samael Switzerland
  • Abigor Austria
  • Syn Ze ศ˜ase Tri Romania
  • Sear Bliss Hungary
  • Dark Mirror ov Tragedy South Korea
  • Demonic Resurrection India
  • Antim Grahan Nepal

If you liked this

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