Explaining USBM (United States Black Metal)

Another example of the United States making a response to a European scene with a more angry attitude is punk. I am of the belief that punk belongs to the UK. But the United States can lay claim to hardcore. Stripped down. More angry. No studs and leather. Just sweatshirts and jeans but much faster and stripped down. Punk is European originally, but the United States' response was hardcore.

Now explain USPS

USBM excels when it goes beyond boundaries of what is considered "Black Metal" while remaining true to its spirit. The best example of this in my opinion is Agalloch, which might not have much black metal instrumentation, but is definitely black metal in its soul and atmosphere.

Jef Whitehead was indeed inspired by Weakling as he said so in interviews. He also cited Andrew Harris' guitar work in Judas Iscariot as one of the biggest influences on Leviathan riffs.

It’s nice to see a video where someone talking about USBM isn’t just gushing over Leviathan and Jef Whitehead the whole time.

Hugely underrated usbm is masochist. They only released demos but there’s a compilation of all that material called history and it’s so killer. Brutal aggressive black metal that I see no one ever talk about

I'm 45 and just recently dipped my toe into the black metal pool about 2 months ago. I knew nothing about it besides it sounded like death metal with a banshee singing over it when I first heard it in the mid 90s. And of course the sensational stuff that you learn in the first 5 minutes of looking into this genre. Digging a bit more I liked enough of what I heard of Burzum to look deeper and ended up at blackgaze and dark ambient stuff, stopping along the way to look into USBM like Weakling, Leviathan and Xasthur. Your videos have helped me quite a bit Just wanted to say thanks for helping an old dude whose musical curiosity got the best of him one day.

Loving these videos just because I find it's a great resource for getting people into more extreme versions of metal (as well as metal in general).

VON is definitely the 1st real USBM band & very influential on the Norwegian scene. Weakling’s Dead As Dreams is a masterpiece!!

I use videos like these videos as gateways to find new albums, I have so much fun getting nerdy and in the weeds about niche corners of scenes like this. I’d love to hear you deep dive like this about other genres/regions. Keep up the great work!

Easily your best video. Big fan of deep dives on scenes and genres and this was really well done. Also, as a Profanatica fanboy I particularly enjoyed the segment regarding them. Good stuff, dude.

Immediately appreciated you playing Wanderings in the background. One of the first USBM albums that sucked me in and it's still one of my favorites.

This is an amazing video. I just found your channel a couple of days ago when I was looking for some background info and bands in the Death Metal and Black Metal Genres. I love music and have always listened to a lot of deathcore, metalcore, some more melodic death metal and more "mainstream" sounding or "palatable" metal acts but I have been getting more into experimental music and really crunchy, ambient, dissonant types of music not just in metal but in electronic and hip hop music as well. I have no background really when it comes to black metal so when I searched I found your channel. I was hooked immediately because of the down to earth vibe and the lack of any kind of condescending tone or anything like that in your videos. I can tell you are just a dude who loves all different kinds of music and knows a lot about these genres and that is that kind of channel I have been looking for. You got my subscription and I cant wait to see what content you come up with in the future.

really interesting, thanks! thanks 2 for links in description of video!

I’ve always thought Judas Iscariot was totally its own thing. Their songs are unbelievably catchy, almost pop hooks, and great changes. I think they are a good band in general and not just BM or definitely just not a sub-genre. Same w Xasthur. It’s just good music.

My favourite USBM band is Inquisition. Their last album is perfection to me.

Xasthur in my opinion is a pinnacle of usbm because he did something no other did lyrically. He covered the hate and pain in making the music better and less cliche than many other bands in my opinion. He was really depressed where as others went for more shock value especially when Satan is brought up, these days it kind of makes my eyes roll because it's not shocking to me

AWESOME video, looking forward to more!!

Von, profantica, manticore, and demoncy are a great starting point

Can you make this a full on series? I.E do another video about UKBM, AUBM (Australian BM) etc etc? that'd be fucking awesome Edit: those were examples, I hope he covers many many other scenes.