Lost Gems Of '90s Black Metal Unearthed

A comprehensive list of '90s black metal that is virtually unknown to this day despite high quality and integrity. Besides the obvious criteria of quality to make this list, all albums were required to have fewer than 100 ratings on rateyourmusic.com.

The Abyss - The Other Side

An unknown side '90s side project of the now-commercialized melodic Swedish death metal band Hypocrisy. This album is essentially a memorable Swedish interpretation of Pentagram-era Gorgoroth.
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Aeternus - Dark Sorcery

Imagine a shortened demo version of the underground legend Beyond The Wandering Moon, basically. Thick, droning guitars with more of a low-end presence than those of traditional Norwegian black metal, playing folk-tinged grandiose melodies under a gutteral roar from the abyss.
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Avzhia - Dark Emperors

Somehow this piece of pagan '90s Graveland-style black metal came out of Mexico of all places yet still managed to capture that mystical eastern European atmosphere of Thousand Swords.

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Belial - Wisdom Of Darkness

Belial is a tough band to pin down. They play a kind of "ambient death" along the lines of Beherit, Blasphemy, and Profanatica, but Belial's overtly melodic tendencies allow them to sound entirely unique from their blasphemous brethren.

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Fallen Christ - Abduction Ritual

Up until 1996, the only music classified as death/black/grind was merely primitive black metal with a severe death metal aesthetic and grindcore-esque drumming, but here we have Fallen Christ combining Blasphemy's aesthetic, Immolation's dark riffcraft, and a more traditional grindcore album structure.

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Mystifier - Goetia

Mystifier is another band that doesn't quite sound like any other. They obviously draw from the vicious and bestial Brazilian bands of the '80s and from the occult chaos of Beherit's debut full-length, but the occult elements are taken a step further in their more subdued, eerie, and doom-laden songs.

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Niden Div. 187 - Impergium

Niden Div. 187 is a side project of the Swedish melodic black metal band Dawn that still sounds distinctly Swedish in melody but strays from the saccharine Gothenburg sound in favor of a more thick, grinding sound.

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Order From Chaos - An Ending In Fire

An early project of underground legends Pete Helmkamp and Chuck Keller, Order From Chaos knows how to use repetition correctly by the classical standard, building on simple themes with slight variations to craft what is actually an album of three long and filthy songs.

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Sacramentary Abolishment - River Of Corticone

Later called Axis Of Advance, Sacramentary Abolishment were one of the first and finest bands to expand the war metal sound of Blasphemy beyond its primitive and minimalist nature, constructing grandiose songs from primitive origins.

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Sorcier Des Glaces - Snowland

Sorcier Des Glaces demonstrates that Canadian black metallers are every bit as enchanted by their own glacial forest landscapes as the Norwegian scene before them. Great band that defies tradition to create a refreshing and inventive "winter" album.

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Throne Of Ahaz - Nifelheim

While it wouldn't be farfetched to call this another extremely well-done Swedish take on Gorgoroth, make no mistake, it's nothing like The Abyss' ballsy Pentagram worship, but rather a cold, melodic, Norwegian-sounding album with a more ambient nature, possibly closer to the Antichrist EP.

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Xibalba - Ah Dzam Poop Ek

Ok class, let's get it out. Poop. Anywho, Xibalba basically play a thick, hypnotic style of black metal in the vein of Darkthrone's Panzerfaust (the more ambient portions of that album, that is). However, a distinct mystical undertone throughout the album makes it apparent that Xibalba is neither Norwegian or another petty Darkthrone rip-off.