Black Metal is an album by British musician Dean Blunt, released by Rough Trade Records on 3 November 2014.[2] The album features vocals from Blunt and frequent collaborator Joanne Robertson.[3] Musically, the album is structured more conventionally than Blunt's previous work, but is diverse in instrumentation and genre.
Blunt has stated that the album was inspired by what he saw as a personal artistic liberation away from the appropriation of "existing old white images" toward "something that is undefined and is new".[3][6][7]
Black Metal currently has a score of 79 on Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[10] Critics praised Blunt's emotional range and directness on the album.[2][3] In a review for The Observer, Killian Fox wrote that Blunt had created "some of the most achingly beautiful music recorded this year."[4] Writing for Pitchfork, Colin Joyce called the album "disjointed" but praised the album for its sound and for Blunt's clearer, more pop-oriented style compared to his previous work.[1] However, AllMusic's Andy Kellman criticised the album for being "quantity-over-quality" and for what Kellman saw as a derivative sound.[5] Michael Hann characterised the album in The Guardian as a needlessly difficult listen that was sometimes repetitive, but nonetheless praised it as "extraordinary."[12]
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