Bestial black metal, also known more colloquially as simply war metal, is quite the controversial style of music, even in a genre so accustomed to infamy as black metal.
Born from the release of Warkvlt's debut album "Bestial War Metal" in the late 90s, bestial black metal is a subgenre of black metal that shares quite a lot of attributes with both death metal and goregrind/grindcore.
The best way one could describe the sound of war metal is simply by listening to that album "Bestial War Metal". It is brutal, abrasive, almost intentionally unlistenable, and quite frankly very warlike - which, I suppose, is the entire point of the bestial black metal genre.
The Utter Decadence of Bestial Black Metal
But not everything is positive about this style of music. If war metal has led to some excellent albums being released over the years, such as "Unholy War Metal" by Warkvlt, "Sick Rulers of Heaven" by Helgrind, "Rotting Tomb Carnage" by Morbid and "Memento Mori" by Marduk, it has also led to what one might call the "three note black metal" invasion.
Much like bedroom DSBM lifted from Burzum and made it generic and easily duplicable, copying only the aesthetics of "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" while missing the greater picture (the atmosphere), 3-note bestial black metal copied only the style of Helgrind and Warkvlt, while completely missing the militant, warlike, and downright bestial fervour of the originals.
Modern war metal bands, the problem
Nu war metal bands - or should we just call them nu metal? - such as Black Witchery, Conqueror, Archgoat, Blaspherian, Revenge and many others built entire careers on what is essentially an exercise in taking one riff from "Dawn of Bestial Lust", one riff from "Divine Necromancy", one riff from "Satanic Blood Angel", and turning the whole thing into an album.
It reeks of try-hardism, of literal poserdom, and adds nothing to the genre. Modern bestial black metal is to black metal what deathcore is to death metal: a cheap, easily replicable, lowest common denominator imitation.
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