Mortem were amongst the first Norwegian Black Metal bands to crawl out of the primordial swamp in the late eighties. They released “Slow Death”, a highly regarded demo that persuaded many other disenfranchised Norwegian teens to don corpse paint and down-tune their guitars. Sadly that is where their impact ended, as the band fell apart pretty soon. That should have been it. However Black Metal is currently going through a period of self-reflection and nostalgia, so thirty years after they came into being, Mortem finally release their debut album. It is a nasty, raw furious record. It is full of anger and evil intent. There are lots of records on this list trying to take Black Metal overground and into the mainstream. With “Ravnsvart”, Mortem are trying to drag it back underground and towards its original organic primal self. It’s harsh, corrosive and full of malignant intent but also manages to be memorable and really quite fascinating.