666sharon666 Doomed Dark Years, the first full-length Astarte album, was released in 1998. As far as I know Astarte were one of the first (maybe even the first) all female black metal bands, originally forming under the name Lloth in 1995. Some tracks from Lloth’s demo Dancing in the Dark Lakes of Evil appear as bonus tracks on certain reissues of Doomed Dark Years. The version I have is an original 1998 pressing though.

Astarte's take on black metal varied a bit in their five album career (which sadly came to an end this year due to the death of band leader Tristessa). On Doomed Dark Years it's a mix of pretty standard early black metal ideas and some symphonic black metal. The atmosphere is raw and vocalist Kinthia can be hard to follow, but that's all things I'm sure black metal listens are used to and even look for depending on their point of view on so called 'true' black metal. While not revolutionary by today's standards and perhaps not even then in 1998 (aside from them being female, session drummer aside, which is completely irrelevant from a musical point of view), being four years after albums like In the Nightside Eclipse (Emperor) or De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (Mayhem), I've always found the Astarte debut to be quite the accomplished piece of work, featuring not only the raw riffs and blast beat drums but eerie symphonic melodies, acoustic guitars and even some piano. All in all, a more accomplished debut than many of the bigger black metal acts out of Norway, including my personal favourites Immortal.

Attribution: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/astarte-doomed-dark-years-t3731.html