“For Your Vulgar Delectation” is prime latter-day COF, bringing a rock ‘n’ roll sensibility that sets them far apart from more “true” black metal recordings.
Want your artwork to overshadow your band’s musical accomplishments? Feature two bloody naked chicks making out while hooded, skull-faced phantoms watch.
Dark Ages was a supremely confident slice of sludge metal. Perhaps emboldened by the praise it received, the band gets little adventurous on Lovelessness.
Metalcore stalwarts As I Lay Dying make good, sometimes not great, melodic metal. Their catalog feels a little clogged with solid rather than stellar material.
Done right (and, crucially, if you’re a fan of the band), odds and ends collections offer an interesting new perspective on a band’s musical evolution.