Black metal ambient (Part II)

What does the metalhead do on their day off and why is it ambient? I listened to all the “black ambient” releases from the 90s to find out. Black metal ambient (Part I) In Part I we ranged through Central Europe, taking in the Austrian syndicate, on to the bonkers peripheries of France’s already bonkers Les Légions Noires, and pockets of life in the surrounding Fauna of Northern European and South American black metal. For Part II we take on perhaps the biggest names in black metal adjacent ambient in Norway and the US, but also some of the most obscure, hiding in tiny alcoves across Southern Europe and Poland. Barring some anomalies, in stepping so far outside of metal, it’s remarkable that regional differences are still very discernible here. With Norway favouring more bombastic and melodic statements, Poland and Southern Europe oscillating between folk and pre-revival dungeon synth, and the US diving headfirst into experimental ambient/noise and darkwave. As with the material in…