''Black Metal'' is an album by British musician

Dean Blunt Roy Nnawuchi, better known by his pseudonym Dean Blunt, is a British singer-songwriter, musician and contemporary artist. He is best known for his current solo work as well as his previous work as part of avant-garde duo Hype Williams (along wi ...

, released by Rough Trade Records on 3 November 2014. The album features vocals from Blunt and frequent collaborator Joanne Robertson. Musically, ''Black Metal'' features more traditional pop song structures than Blunt's previous work, but is diverse in instrumentation and genre. The album includes elements of

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and su ...

folk pop Folk-pop is a musical style that may be 1) contemporary folk songs with large, sweeping pop arrangements, or 2) pop songs with intimate, acoustic-based folk arrangements. Recording production values created a unblemished style that appealed to ...

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, dub, ambient,

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, and dancehall. Critics have also noted the prose of Blunt's lyrics as being similar to contemporary hip hop lyrics, which often reflect that of dark subjects like

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and

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomi ...

. Blunt has stated that the album was inspired by what he sees as

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

artistic liberation away from the appropriation of 'existing/old white images' (a la names like Black

Elvis Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the " King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His ener ...

, Black

Cobain Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American musician who served as the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter of the rock band Nirvana. Through his angst-fueled songwriting and anti-establishment persona ...

) toward 'something that is undefined and is new'. The lead-out grooves of each side of the vinyl version feature the first four letters of the Supreme Alphabet of the

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. In June 2021, Blunt released a sequel album, '' Black Metal 2''.

Critical reception

''Black Metal'' currently has a score of 79 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Critics praised Blunt's emotional range and directness on the album. In a review for ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'', Killian Fox wrote that Blunt had created "some of the most achingly beautiful music recorded this year." Writing for ''

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'', Colin Joyce called the album "disjointed" but praised the album for its sound and for Blunt's clearer, more pop-oriented style compared to his previous work. However,

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

's Andy Kellman criticised the album for being "quantity-over-quality" and for what Kellman saw as a derivative sound. Michael Hann characterised the album in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' as a needlessly difficult listen that was sometimes repetitive, but nonetheless praised it as "extraordinary."

Accolades

''Black Metal'' placed first on ''

Tiny Mix Tapes ''Tiny Mix Tapes'' (also ''TMT'' or ''tinymixtapes'') is an online music and film webzine that focuses primarily on new music and related news. In addition to its reviews, it is noted for its subversive, political, and sometimes surreal news, ...

'' and '' Crack Magazine''s lists of best albums from 2014. The latter publication also named it the best album of the 2010s.

Track listing

Notes * All tracks are stylized in all caps. For example, "Lush" is stylized as "LUSH". Sample credits * "Lush" contains a sample of "For You", written by Stephens and performed by

Big Star Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton (vocals, guiar), Chris Bell (vocals, guitar), Jody Stephens (drums), and Andy Hummel (bass). The group broke up in early 1975, and reorganized with a ne ...

. * "100" contains a sample of "Over My Shoulder", written by McRobbie and performed by

The Pastels The Pastels are an indie rock group from Glasgow formed in 1981. They were a key act of the Scottish and British independent music scenes of the 1980s, and are specifically credited for the development of an independent and confident music scen ...

References

{{Authority control 2014 albums Rough Trade Records albums Art pop albums