10 Greatest Black Metal Albums Of The 21st Century

Pure black metal is about being subversive and dangerous above all else, and no band embodies that spirit more than Melechesh, who bring the most unhallowed of tunes straight from the holiest land on Earth.

Mixing oriental folk into their heavy music, these four Jerusalem-based stalwarts specialise in a style that they call “Mesopotamian metal”. After their incendiary debut As Jerusalem Burns… Al’Intisar in 1996, Melechesh burst into the 21st century with one of their finest discs to date: the raw yet grand Djinn. Named after the Romanised Arabic term that translates to “genie”, this album is one that balances chainsaw-like vocals and quick, discordant guitar riffs with Middle Eastern imagery and instruments, most notably the sitar.

For black metal, Djinn represents the genesis of the subgenre’s recognition of folk as a viable source of inspiration, predating such traditionally-inclined, blackened masterpieces as Agalloch’s The Mantle and Wolves in the Throne Room’s Thrice Woven. However, its rawness, incessant speed and screaming yells also keep it a close relative of early black metal, making it a quintessential entry into modern extreme music history. Djinn was one of the very first indicators that black metal could expand beyond its anti-theistic, Scandinavian roots, marking a shift that would continue throughout the mid-to-late 2000s.