I've spent a week listening to the new Ghost and it is lyrically weak and dumbed down for mass consumption. I won't be listening to this one as much as the other two -- which I dearly love... The music, however, is great.
Meh, I'm hit or miss with Dark Funeral -- they have a few great songs and the rest are "typical" black metal trash. Mostly bands rip Darkthrone, so yea... just listen to Darkthrone.
There is some down right ****ty black metal around and I'm a musician so I reserve the right to make the call. I don't care what the cult kids and fanboys are into... Dark Funeral and Marduk remain the worst two bands live that I've seen... They were technically great players, but the stage show - I've seen better from garage bands. Watch their stuff on Youtube or buy cds..
Slayer... Are they even a band anymore? They lost half the band, and Tom and Kerry don't write the guitar parts or the drums or even the lyrics.
Burzum stinks, and sounds like a bad rip off of Bathory at times.... you know a band that could actually play.