Metal is a sector of rock music that many find repulsive, and for good reason. Most of it is purposefully made to keep wishy-washy, half-dedicated folks away, either by speeding up music to breakneck paces, or slowing it down to a syrupy crawl. Or perhaps by adding elaborate, shrieking vocals with unintelligible lyrics. Or maybe having the vocals so low and growling, reciting subject matter regarding aliens, vikings, Lovecraftian beings, diseases, zombies, skeletons, death, space, deities, hell, and various forms of nature; that the average listener would get bored of the subject matter that doesn’t directly apply to them. I’m going on a limb here and reducing a whole swath of music with a myriad of individual incarnations into basic assumptions with all of these examples, but I’m calling it how the public sees it.

Over the years, I’ve found a few metal bands that I like a lot. I wouldn’t say that I could commit to the style as a whole, letting it define a large chunk of my musical DNA, but I can definitely appreciate it; doom metal and some forms of black metal especially. I had a thought that I since don’t normally feature metal bands that I enjoy on the blog or in playlists enough, I should put them all here in a style-spanning playlist for people to digest. In my opinion this collection is also a great starter-kit for potential metal fans. Lots of super basic + classic additions here.

This is an ordered playlist that takes the listener through, usually focusing on one style or sound per group of songs. It starts off more on the hard rock / lite doom side of things with Baroness, Pallbearer and Electric Wizard. It quickly dips into some shades of black metal, but then gets right into the thick, sludgy goodness of doom classics like Black Sabbath and YOB. Then it heads into some more progressive territory with Swans and Neurosis, then touching on a bit of lite thrash & death metal, finally settling on a rather consistent set of black metal. In full honesty I can tell purists to F off and that music is fun no matter what. If someone wants to rail me on not including enough classic CVLT-ASS-DUDES, you can go to another playlist.

Hope you enjoy + find something you like that you’ve never heard before.

MY BLACK T-SHIRT – THE SPOTIFY PLAYLIST

• Baroness – “O’er Hell and Hide”
• Kylesa – “Distance Closing In”
• Pallbearer – “Watcher In The Dark”
• King Woman – “King Of Swords”
• Green Druid – “Pale Blood Sky”
• Electric Wizard – “Funeralopolis”
• Boris – “Blackout”
• Melvins – “If I Had An Exorcism”
• Wayfarer – “Animal Crown”
• Agalloch – “I Am The Wooden Doors”
• Panopticon – “Into The North Woods”
• Myrkur – “Ulvinde”
• MØL – “Penumbra”
• Sannhet – “Atrium”
• YOB – “Nothing To Win”
• Black Sabbath – “Lord Of This World”
• Sleep – “Holy Mountain”
• Torche – “Reverse Inverted”
• Harvey Milk – “Barnburner”
• Swans – “Half Life”
• Neurosis – “Eye”
• White Suns – “Priest In The Laboratory”
• Altar Of Plagues – “A Body Shrouded”
• Wreck and Reference – “Corpse Museum”
• Godflesh – “Pulp”
• ISIS – “False Light”
• Kvelertak – “Offernatt”
• Death Evocation – “Relentless”
• Iron Maiden – “Invaders”
• Mastodon – “Crystal Skull”
• High On Fire – “Fire Flood & Plague”
• KEN Mode – “No; I’m In Control”
• Converge – “Aimless Arrow”
• Loma Prieta – “Worn Path”
• Krallice – “Inhume”
• Vektor – “Destroying The Cosmos”
• Liturgy – “Glory Bronze”
• Yellow Eyes – “Shrillness In The Heated Grass”
• Blut Aus Nord – “Epitome II”
• Deafheaven – “Dream House”