Genres Heavy Metal Black Metal (First Wave) War Metal / Black-Death
War Metal / Black-Death
Black and death metal smashed together until neither is distinguishable — one sustained roar with artillery imagery over the top.
- Active years
- 1988 – present
- Origin
- Canada / Brazil
- Family
- Black Metal
- Bands here
- 27
Before you press play
Blasphemy, who started this, were a multi-racial Vancouver band and are nobody's idea of a fascist project. But the wider bestial scene has never made much effort to police its edges, and several of the bands filed here hold views they publish freely.
Start here
Four records in order of how easy they are to get into — which is not the same as best first.
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Fallen Angel of Doom Blasphemy, 1990 The landmark
The founding record, and the only one here with anything you could call a riff. Recorded in Vancouver by a multi-racial band who called themselves the Ross Bay Cult, which is worth knowing before assuming what this scene is.
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War Cult Supremacy Conqueror, 1999
Recorded in 1996 and stranded for three years when the label went bankrupt. The most extreme thing on this site by some distance — the guitars do not play notes so much as directions.
-
Whore of Bethlehem Archgoat, 2006
Finnish, slower, and almost tuneful by the standards of the genre. Blasphemous rather than political, and the closest thing to an entry point war metal has.
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Triumph.Genocide.Antichrist Revenge, 2003
The deep end. James Read plays everything and the drums are mixed louder than the guitars, which turns out to be the point. Forty minutes of undifferentiated violence, on purpose.
What it sounds like
One sustained roar with artillery imagery over the top. Black metal and death metal are mashed together until neither is distinguishable: the guitars are a formless blast, the drums are a continuous barrage, and the vocal is somewhere underneath bellowing. Riffs exist but they are almost impossible to follow, and that is the intention. Production is deliberately terrible. Compared with either parent genre it has abandoned structure entirely — there is no craft on display and no interest in any. It is the most extreme thing on this site by some distance, and it works on a listener as pure sustained pressure rather than as music with parts you could describe.
- Heaviness 5 out of 5
- Speed 4 out of 5
- Aggression 5 out of 5
- Technicality 1 out of 5
- Darkness 5 out of 5
- Melody 1 out of 5
Where the name came from
A descriptor emphasising militaristic imagery and sonic chaos. Also called 'bestial black metal.' The 'war' tag traces to Blasphemy's extreme visual and lyrical themes; Conqueror and Revenge continued the tradition. The label gained traction in online extreme metal communities through the 2000s.
The bands
Hear these first
- Blasphemy Canada
- Conqueror Canada
- Revenge Canada
- Archgoat Finland
- Proclamation Spain
And 22 more
- Impiety Singapore
- Sarcófago Brazil
- Teratism USA
- God Dethroned Netherlands
- Sinister Netherlands
- Thanatos Netherlands
- Krisiun Brazil
- Rebaelliun Brazil
- Abhorrence Brazil
- Diabolical Messiah Chile
- Procreation Chile
- Dominus Xul Chile
- Force of Darkness Chile
- Behemoth Poland
- Bölzer Switzerland
- Belphegor Austria
- Diocletian New Zealand
- Witchrist New Zealand
- Deiphago Philippines
- Anal Vomit Peru
- Goat Semen Peru
- Kolac Serbia
Where it happened
Counting this genre and everything descended from it.
- Brazil Brazilian Thrash & Extreme Metal 4 bands
- Chile Chilean Extreme Metal 4 bands
- Netherlands Dutch Symphonic, Gothic & Death Metal 3 bands
If you liked this
Closest in sound outside this family, leaning towards the similar or the gentler rather than straight into the deep end.
- Brazilian Extreme Metal Thrash Metal
- Death Metal Death Metal
- Goregrind Death Metal