DSBM, from the outside in. Each step is a genre and the single record this encyclopedia would put on first. Play them in this order and the last one should sound like a next step rather than a wall.
- 1 The way in
Heavy metal 1970
It split off from hard rock and blues rock when Black Sabbath tuned down and wrote riffs on the tritone. Volume, riff and a code of its own - every branch below starts here.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Black Sabbath - the song Black Sabbath. The first thirty seconds are the genre's birth certificate.
Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath (1970) - 2 Then
Black metal 1982
Tremolo picking, blast beats, shrieked vocals and deliberately cold production. More an aesthetic than a technique - atmosphere matters more than clean sound.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky. The production is intentional, not a flaw.
Darkthrone, A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992) - 3 What you asked about
DSBM 1994
Depressive suicidal black metal: slower tempos, wailing guitars and desperate vocals. The subject matter is heavy, and the genre is debated inside the scene itself.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
- 4 Where to go next
Avant-garde metal 1993
Metal that imports anything - jazz, cabaret, electronics - and refuses to settle into a shape.
Sung and screamed. Clean singing and harsh vocals trade off, often chorus against verse.
Put on
Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernale. Black metal, cabaret and opera on one album.
Arcturus, La Masquerade Infernale (1997)
Assembled from the tree: every genre DSBM descends from, in order. DSBM has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.