The black-backed butcherbird was first described by Italian explorers and naturalists Tommaso Salvadori and Luigi D'Albertis in 1876. Although its scientific name translates as "mental noisy bird", the species epithet "mentalis" refers to its chin not its mind. It is one of six (or seven) members of the genus "Cracticus" known as butcherbirds. Within the genus, it is most closely related to the grey and silver-backed butcherbirds. The three form a monophyletic group—the subgenus "Bulestes"—within the genus, having diverged from ancestors of the pied butcherbird around five million years ago.