10 Best Metal Bands Of The Last 10 Years

The black metal continues to fly high in this list’s number five slot. And what better way is there to craft a reinvigorating midpoint for an article than to bring up one of the most headline-snatching metal acts of this decade?

Myrkur is a sublime example of a black metal act that evolved not out of allegiance to a subgenre or a desire to perfectly slot into a gap in the heavy music scene, but through sheer, original creativity. The one-woman project exists as the alter ego of Amalie Bruun, who – as the proverbial Clark Kent to Myrkur’s Superman – spends her day-to-day life as a mild-mannered indie/pop princess in her native Denmark.

Once Myrkur hit the European black metal scene in 2014, however, the chains came off: not only have the project’s two albums both channelled the raw darkness of original black metal, but they also shine through ambient, neo-folk tendencies and an uncompromising allegiance to Bruun’s roots. Both M and Mareridt are heavily rooted in European wildernesses and the tranquillity of the natural world. The latter is especially ethereal and experimental: as a result, it has gone on to be hailed as one of the best black metal albums of the 21st century, joining the constantly acclaimed likes of Behemoth’s The Satanist and Alcest’s Les Voyages de l’Âme.