I agree, black metal sure isn't what it used to be. All of the great bands have either changed their style or disbanded.
The new Nokturnal Mortum album is quite good, it's not really black metal though, they've gone down the "forest dewlling pagan" route. They're not Nazis anymore by the looks of things either.
Anorexia Nervosa is a great symphonic black/death band. They put the likes of Cradle Of Filth to shame.
I downloaded some of the new Dark Funeral recently, it's solid if not spectacular. 5 years ago I would have bust a gut over it. These days I guess I just don't care anymore.
Kataklysm remains one of my favourite bands. They're definitely my favourite "still active" band. I'm quite looking foward to their new album, which I hope to pick up in Canada when I'm there next month.
I've never understood what the fuss about Akercocke is about. They've always sounded generic to me. I know that Terrorizer raves about them, but that's to be expected as they rave about all British bands (Primary Slave, anyone?).
Naglfar is one of the better Swedish black/death bands. Melodic but still intense. Their best album is from a few years ago, "Diabolical".
The last Setherial album was worthy as well. They finally learned how to write songs instead of just blasting for 5 minutes at a time. Hopefully they'll have something new out soon.
I've mainly been listening to industrial lately, Hocico in particular. I'm a poseur
