De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

Mayhem’s 1994 studio debut blasted through the gates of hell with a grim, arctic mood that made black metal somehow blacker. If you can endure Attila Csihar’s gnomic grumbling in “Funeral Fog” to experience Euronymous’ stomach-churning solo in “Freezing Moon”, you’ll be confronted with some of the most nihilistic, misanthropic metal ever exhumed. It often thrashes in the nastiest manner (“Cursed in Eternity”, “Life Eternal”), but at other times it simmers excruciatingly. Hellhammer’s drum rampage on “Buried by Time and Dust” is to die for.