Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Having some fun with an album vs. album showdown in the style of March Madness!
I took an aggregate list of common Top 50 Black Metal Albums, and threw in a handful of modern favorites to come up with a bracket of 64 black metal albums to go head to head in a showdown to crown one winner.
This video is round 1, and the concluding rounds will follow later this week.
For reference, here are the 64 albums that are on this list if you want to play along at home:
Abigor - Nachthymnen
Afsky - Om undred ar
Agalloch - The mantle
Alcest - Ecailles des lune
Bathory - Blood Fire Death
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II
Borknagar - the Olden Domain
Burzum - Hvus Lyset Tar Oss
Caladan Brood - Echoes of Battle
Can Bardd - The Last Rain
Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky
Dawn - Slaughtersun
Deathspell Omega - Paracletus
Diabolical Masquerade - Ravendusk in my Heart
Dimmu Borgir - Enthrone Darkness triumphant
Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane
Drudkh - Autumn Aurora
Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
Enslaved - Vikingligr Veldi
Evilfeast - Elegies of the Stellar Wind
Forefather - Steadfast
Forteresse - les hivers de notre epoque
Gallowbraid - Ashen Eidolon
Gris - Il Etatit une foret
Havukruunu - Kelle Surut Soi
Horn - Naturkraft
Immortal - At the heart of Winter
Inquisition - Ominious Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm
Kvist - For kunsten maa vi evig vike
Liminal Shroud - Visions of Collapse
Lord Belial - Enter the Moonlight Gate
Mare Cognitum - Solar Paroxysm
Mayhem - de mysteriis dom sathanas
Mgla - Exercises in Futility
Moonsorrow - Verisakeet
Mork Gryning - Tusen ar har gatt
Nargaroth - Jahreszeiten
Nokturnal Mortum - The Voice of Steel
Obsequiae - Aria of vernal Tombs
Obtained Enslavement - Witchcraft
Panopticon - Autumn Eternal
Primordial - The Gathering Wilderness
Rotting Christ - Non Serviam
Sacramentum - Far Away from the Sun
Saor - Aura
Satyricon - The Shadowthrone
Setherial - Nord
Shining - V Halmstad
Sorcier des glaces - self titled
Spectral Lore - III
Stormkeep - Tales of Othertime
Stormruler - Sacred Rites and Black Magick
Summoning - Stronghold
Taake - Hordlands Doedskvad
Ulver - bergtatt
Valdrin - Throne of the Lunar Soul
Ved Buens Ende - Written in Waters
Vehemence - Par le sang verse
Vinterland - Welcome My Last Chapter
Weakling - Dead as Dreams
Windir - Arntor
Winterfylleth - the Mercian Sphere
Wodensthrone - Loss
Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters
Having some fun with an album vs. album showdown in the style of March Madness!
I took an aggregate list of common Top 50 Black Metal Albums, and threw in a handful of modern favorites to come up with a bracket of 64 black metal albums to go head to head in a showdown to crown one winner.
This video is round 1, and the concluding rounds will follow later this week.
For reference, here are the 64 albums that are on this list if you want to play along at home:
Abigor - Nachthymnen
Afsky - Om undred ar
Agalloch - The mantle
Alcest - Ecailles des lune
Bathory - Blood Fire Death
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II
Borknagar - the Olden Domain
Burzum - Hvus Lyset Tar Oss
Caladan Brood - Echoes of Battle
Can Bardd - The Last Rain
Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky
Dawn - Slaughtersun
Deathspell Omega - Paracletus
Diabolical Masquerade - Ravendusk in my Heart
Dimmu Borgir - Enthrone Darkness triumphant
Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane
Drudkh - Autumn Aurora
Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
Enslaved - Vikingligr Veldi
Evilfeast - Elegies of the Stellar Wind
Forefather - Steadfast
Forteresse - les hivers de notre epoque
Gallowbraid - Ashen Eidolon
Gris - Il Etatit une foret
Havukruunu - Kelle Surut Soi
Horn - Naturkraft
Immortal - At the heart of Winter
Inquisition - Ominious Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm
Kvist - For kunsten maa vi evig vike
Liminal Shroud - Visions of Collapse
Lord Belial - Enter the Moonlight Gate
Mare Cognitum - Solar Paroxysm
Mayhem - de mysteriis dom sathanas
Mgla - Exercises in Futility
Moonsorrow - Verisakeet
Mork Gryning - Tusen ar har gatt
Nargaroth - Jahreszeiten
Nokturnal Mortum - The Voice of Steel
Obsequiae - Aria of vernal Tombs
Obtained Enslavement - Witchcraft
Panopticon - Autumn Eternal
Primordial - The Gathering Wilderness
Rotting Christ - Non Serviam
Sacramentum - Far Away from the Sun
Saor - Aura
Satyricon - The Shadowthrone
Setherial - Nord
Shining - V Halmstad
Sorcier des glaces - self titled
Spectral Lore - III
Stormkeep - Tales of Othertime
Stormruler - Sacred Rites and Black Magick
Summoning - Stronghold
Taake - Hordlands Doedskvad
Ulver - bergtatt
Valdrin - Throne of the Lunar Soul
Ved Buens Ende - Written in Waters
Vehemence - Par le sang verse
Vinterland - Welcome My Last Chapter
Weakling - Dead as Dreams
Windir - Arntor
Winterfylleth - the Mercian Sphere
Wodensthrone - Loss
Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters
