There is a black metal topic? W00T?
As an expert in the field, I must post right away and clear things up for you noobs!
The imagery behind BM is fading away in recent times, nobody takes it seriously anymore.
And nobody's burning churches like they did in 90's Norway.
Some bands still paint their faces and spray blood on the audience at gigs, but you can't really blame them. Heavy metal was always theatrical and over-the-top, black metal just took it to the extreme. Not to mention it's fun to watch those clowns at concerts.
The genre itself is very experimental. Crossovers with ambient, folk, symphonic, avantgarde, industrial, electronic and gothic music emerged. Pagan and viking metal have their roots in black metal. Crossovers with death metal, thrash metal, crust punk and grindcore are common, too.
I listen to a lot of BM bands and I'm not ashamed to admit it, I listen to stuff I consider good and ignore the rest.
You just have to be born with a fondness for the distorted guitar, screechy vocals and uberdark posery.
Extreme music for extreme people.
Here's a few I consider good, it's rather varied -
Industrial/Grindcore/BM:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifDlckCGSBUhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUcFAA1dKPYDeath metal/BM:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nnc1XEeJcohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FfQHe3P4aMSymphonic BM:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kQE-4aOkiUhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuKSa-Wh7nwSpace ambient/BM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vaktZl848UAtmospheric epic BM
..this is quite different and much softer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lDcp_vD6HIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFbBKiSC2MY
