Originally Posted by The Batlord

Dude, it's a ****ing bitch trying to do justice to a genre with only ten albums. Certain bands were just mandatory (even if some of them weren't necessarily to my taste, or their most acclaimed albums wouldn't have been my first choice), like Darkthrone, Mayhem, Emperor, Burzum, and Bathory, which left me with only five spots left. Couldn't leave out the third wave bands, and Deathspell and Blut Aus Nord were the obvious choices. Defining Hellhammer as black metal might be using a slightly obsolete definition, but they still deserved a spot (Celtic Frost already have two spots in two other battles, so I didn't feel the need to give them another). Leaving only two more spots to play with. I went back and forth, but felt that Dissection and Ulver were as relevant as anything else, so here they are.

I'm sure I must have forgotten something that I'll be hitting myself in the head for forgetting, but the battle's underway and it is what it is. Wouldn't have minded replacing Ulver with Sarcofago or Immortal though, but I figured that general consensus gave the former the edge.