Black metal

Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording,

Characteristics#

Although black metal now typically refers to the Norwegian style with shrieking vocals, the term has been applied to bands with widely differing sounds, such as the Greek and Finnish bands that emerged around the same time as the Norwegian scene.

Instrumentation and song structure#

Manish Agarwal of Time Out describes black metal as “a cult strain of ultra-thrash” characterized by “icy noise”. Norwegian-inspired black metal guitarists usually favor high-pitched or trebly guitar tones and heavy distortion. The guitar is usually played with fast, un-muted tremolo picking and power chords. Guitarists often use dissonance—along with specific scales, intervals and chord progressions—to create a sense of dread. The tritone, or flat-fifth, is often used. Guitar solos and low guitar tunings are rare in black metal. Even still, authenticity is still prioritized over technique. “This professionalism has to go,” insists well-respected drummer Fenriz (Gylve Fenris Nagell) of Darkthrone. “I want to de-learn playing drums, I want to play primitive and simple, I don’t want to play like a drum solo all the time and make these complicated riffs”. Black metal songs often stray from conventional song structure and often lack clear verse-chorus sections. Instead, many black metal songs contain lengthy and repetitive instrumental sections. The Greek style—established by Rotting Christ, Necromantia and Varathron —has more death metal traits than Norwegian black metal.

Vocals and lyrics#

Traditional black metal vocals are raspy and high-pitched, and include shrieking, screaming, and snarling. Loudwire states that there is a distinct type of growl used in black metal known as “croaking”, which the publication described as “a long, droning, deathly vocal that sounds as though it’s coming from a reanimated corpse.” Manish Agarwal of Time Out describes the lyrical content of black metal as “sacrilegious bile”. Typically, lyrics are against Christianity and other institutional religions, Satanic lyrics are common, and many see them as essential to black metal. For Satanist black metal artists, “Black metal songs are meant to be like Calvinist sermons; deadly serious attempts to unite the true believers”. Misanthropy, global catastrophe, war, death and rebirth are also common themes. Black metal also has a fascination with the distant past. Many bands write about the mythology and folklore of their homelands and some promote a revival of pre-Christian, pagan traditions. A significant number of bands write lyrics only in their native language and a few (e.g. Arckanum and early Ulver) have lyrics in archaic languages. Some doom metal-influenced artists’ lyrics focus on depression, nihilism, introspection, self-harm and suicide.

Imagery and performances#

Many bands choose not to play live. Many of those who do play live maintain that their performances “are not for entertainment or spectacle. Sincerity, authenticity and extremity are valued above all else”. Some bands consider their concerts to be rituals and often make use of stage props and theatrics. Bands such as Mayhem, Gorgoroth, and Watain are noted for their controversial shows, which have featured impaled animal heads, mock crucifixions, medieval weaponry and band members doused in animal blood. A few vocalists, such as Dead, Maniac and Kvarforth, are known for cutting themselves while singing onstage. Black metal artists often appear dressed in black with combat boots, bullet belts, spiked wristbands However, the “definitive visual element” of black metal is the use of corpse paint—black and white face paint sometimes mixed with real or fake blood, which is used to create a “monstrous or ghoulish” appearance. Black metal has a distinct imagery. In the early 1990s, most pioneering black metal artists had minimalist album covers featuring xeroxed black-and-white pictures and logos. This was partly a reaction against death metal bands, who at that time had begun to use brightly colored album artwork. Many purist black metal artists have continued this style. Black metal album covers are typically dark and tend to be atmospheric or provocative; some feature natural or fantasy landscapes (for example Burzum’s Filosofem and Emperor’s In the Nightside Eclipse) while others are violent, sexually transgressive, sacrilegious, or iconoclastic (for example Marduk’s Fuck Me Jesus and Dimmu Borgir’s In Sorte Diaboli).

Production#

The earliest black metal artists had very limited resources, which meant that recordings were often made in homes or basements, giving their recordings a distinctive “lo-fi” quality. However, even when success allowed access to professional studios, many artists instead chose to continue making lo-fi recordings. Artists believed that by doing so, they would both stay true to the genre’s underground roots as well as make the music sound more “raw” or “cold”. A well-known example of this approach is on the album Transilvanian Hunger by Darkthrone, a band who Johnathan Selzer of Terrorizer magazine considers to “represent the DIY aspect of black metal.” In addition, lo-fi production was used to keep black metal inaccessible or unappealing to mainstream music fans and those who are not committed. Many have claimed that black metal was originally intended only for those who were part of the scene and not for a wider audience. Former Gorgoroth vocalist Gaahl said that during the genre’s infancy, black metal “was never meant to reach a wide audience,” and that creating it was “purely for the members of the scene’s own satisfaction.”

Roots#

Occult and Satanic themes were present in the music of heavy metal and rock bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s, such as Black Sabbath and Coven. In the late 1970s, the rough and aggressive heavy metal played by the British band Motörhead gained popularity. Many first-wave black metal bands cited Motörhead as an influence. Also popular in the late 1970s, punk rock came to influence the birth of black metal. Tom G. Warrior of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost credited English punk group Discharge as “a revolution, much like Venom”, saying, “When I heard the first two Discharge records, I was blown away. I was just starting to play an instrument and I had no idea you could go so far.” The use of corpse paint in black metal was mainly influenced by the American 1970s rock band Kiss.

First wave (1982–1990)#

The term “black metal” was coined by the English band Venom with their second album Black Metal (1982). The band introduced many metaphors that became rampant in the genre, such as blasphemous lyrics and imagery, as well as stage names, costumes and face paint. During this “first wave” of bands, black metal and other extreme metal styles like death metal were not well-defined genres. Swiss band Hellhammer made “truly raw and brutal music” with Satanic lyrics, and became an important influence on black metal. They recorded three demos in 1983 and released an EP in April 1984. Hellhammer then transformed into Celtic Frost and released their first album, Morbid Tales, later that year. With their second album, To Mega Therion (1985), the band began to explore “more orchestral and experimental territories.” In these first years, Celtic Frost was considered one of the world’s most extreme and original metal bands, significantly influencing the black metal genre. Swedish band Bathory created “the blueprint for Scandinavian black metal” and have been described as “the biggest inspiration for the Norwegian black metal movement of the early nineties”. Their songs first appeared on the compilation Scandinavian Metal Attack in March 1984, which drew much attention to the band, and they released their first album that October. Bathory’s music was dark, raw, exceptionally fast, heavily distorted, and anti-Christian, and frontman Quorthon pioneered the shrieked vocals that later came to define black metal. Their third album Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987) was described by journalist Dayal Patterson as creating “the black metal sound as we know it”. The Danish band Mercyful Fate influenced the Norwegian scene with their imagery and lyrics. Frontman King Diamond, who wore ghoulish black-and-white facepaint on stage, may be one of the inspirators of what became known as ‘corpse paint’. Other artists that were a part of this wave included Germany’s Sodom, Kreator and Destruction, Italy’s Bulldozer and Death SS, In 1987, in the fifth issue of his Slayer fanzine, Jon ‘Metalion’ Kristiansen wrote that “the latest fad of black/Satanic bands seems to be over”, citing United States bands Incubus and Morbid Angel, as well as Sabbat from Great Britain as some of the few continuing the genre. However, black metal continued in the underground, with scenes developing in Brazil with Sepultura, Vulcano, Holocausto and Sarcófago; in Czechoslovakia with Root, Törr and Master’s Hammer; and Sweden with Grotesque, Merciless, Mefisto, Tiamat Sarcófago’s debut album I.N.R.I. (1987), was widely influential on subsequent acts in the genre, especially the second wave Norwegian scene BrooklynVegan writer Kim Kelly calling it “a gigantic influence on black metal’s sound, aesthetics, and attitude.” Furthermore, during this time other influential records in the genre were released by Tormentor (from Hungary), Von (from the United States), Rotting Christ (from Greece), Mortuary Drape (from Italy), Kat (from Poland), and Blasphemy (from Canada). It was only during this post–1987 era of bands that the various extreme metal styles began to become more distinct from one another, and the borders were drawn of what is now understood as black metal.

Second wave (1991–1997)#

The second wave of black metal began in the early 1990s. It is generally deemed to have begun with the early Norwegian black metal scene, although Rock Hard magazine credits Samael’s Worship Him (1 April 1991) as its beginning.

Norwegian scene#

During , a number of Norwegian artists began performing and releasing a new kind of black metal music; this included Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Emperor, Satyricon, Enslaved, Thorns, and Gorgoroth. They crystallized the styles of the “first wave” bands into a distinct genre, popularizing a style of guitar playing developed by Snorre ‘Blackthorn’ Ruch and Øystein ‘Euronymous’ Aarseth. and noted that “those kinds of riffs became the new order for a lot of bands in the ’90s”. The wearing of corpse paint became standard, and was a way for many black metal artists to distinguish themselves from other metal bands of the era. The scene also had an ideology and ethos. Artists were bitterly opposed to Christianity and presented themselves as misanthropic Devil worshippers who wanted to spread terror, hatred and evil. They professed to be serious in their views and vowed to act on them. Ihsahn of Emperor said that they sought to “create fear among people” and “be in opposition to society”. The scene was exclusive and created boundaries around itself, incorporating only those who were “true” and attempting to expel all “poseurs”. Some members of the scene were responsible for a spate of church burnings and murder, which eventually drew attention to it and led to a number of artists being imprisoned.

Dead’s suicide#

On 8 April 1991, Mayhem vocalist Per “Dead” Ohlin committed suicide while left alone in a house shared by the band. Fellow musicians described Dead as odd, introverted and depressed. Mayhem’s drummer, Hellhammer, said that Dead was the first to wear the distinctive corpse paint that became widespread in the scene. He was found with slit wrists and a shotgun wound to the head. Dead’s suicide note began with “Excuse all the blood”, and apologized for firing the weapon indoors. Metal Hammer writer Enrico Ahlig suggests that the notoriety surrounding the suicide marked the beginning of the second wave of black metal.

Helvete and Deathlike Silence#

During May–June 1991, Euronymous of Mayhem opened an independent record shop named “Helvete” (Norwegian for “Hell”) in Oslo. It quickly became the focal point of Norway’s emerging black metal scene and a meeting place for many of its musicians; especially the members of Mayhem, Burzum, Emperor and Thorns. Jon ‘Metalion’ Kristiansen, writer of the fanzine Slayer, said that the opening of Helvete was “the creation of the whole Norwegian black metal scene”. In its basement, Euronymous founded an independent record label named Deathlike Silence Productions. With the rising popularity of his band and others like it, the underground success of Euronymous’s label is often credited for encouraging other record labels, who had previously shunned black metal acts, to then reconsider and release their material.

Church burnings#

In 1992, members of the Norwegian black metal scene began a wave of arson attacks on Christian churches. By 1996, there had been at least 50 such attacks in Norway.

Murder of Euronymous#

In early 1993, animosity arose between Euronymous and Vikernes. On the night of 10 August 1993, Varg Vikernes (of Burzum) and Snorre ‘Blackthorn’ Ruch (of Thorns) drove from Bergen to Euronymous’s apartment in Oslo. When they arrived a confrontation began and Vikernes stabbed Euronymous to death. His body was found outside the apartment with 23 cut wounds—two to the head, five to the neck, and sixteen to the back. It has been speculated that the murder was the result of either a power struggle, a financial dispute over Burzum records or an attempt at outdoing a stabbing in Lillehammer the year before by Faust. Vikernes denies all of these, claiming that he attacked Euronymous in self-defense. He says that Euronymous had plotted to stun him with an electroshock weapon, tie him up and torture him to death while videotaping the event. Vikernes claims he intended to hand Euronymous the signed contract that night and “tell him to fuck off”, but that Euronymous panicked and attacked him first. Vikernes was released on parole in 2009.

Outside of Norway#

Japanese band Sigh formed in 1990 and was in regular contact with key members of the Norwegian scene. Their debut album, Scorn Defeat, became “a cult classic in the black metal world”. In 1990 and 1991, Northern European metal acts began to release music influenced by these bands or the older ones from the first wave. In Sweden, this included Dissection, Abruptum, Marduk, and Nifelheim. In Finland, there emerged a scene that mixed the first-wave black metal style with elements of death metal and grindcore; this included Beherit, Archgoat and Impaled Nazarene, whose debut album Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz Rock Hard journalist Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann considers a part of war metal’s roots. Bands such as Demoncy and Profanatica emerged during this time in the United States, when death metal was more popular among extreme metal fans. The Norwegian band Mayhem’s concert in Leipzig with Eminenz and Manos in 1990, later released as Live in Leipzig, was said to have had a strong influence on the East German scene and is even called the unofficial beginning of German black metal. Black metal scenes also emerged on the European mainland during the early 1990s, inspired by the Norwegian scene or the older bands, or both. In Poland, a scene was spearheaded by Graveland and Behemoth. In France, a close-knit group of musicians known as Les Légions Noires emerged; this included artists such as Mütiilation, Vlad Tepes, Belketre and Torgeist. In Belgium, there were acts such as Ancient Rites and Enthroned. Bands such as Black Funeral, Grand Belial’s Key and Judas Iscariot emerged during this time in the United States. The main member of Black Funeral, Michael W. Ford, has been associated with a variety of esoteric groups and written numerous books on esoteric topics. becoming one of the most successful extreme metal bands to date. John Serba of AllMusic commented that their first album “made waves in the early black metal scene, putting Cradle of Filth on the tips of metalheads’ tongues, whether in praise of the band’s brazen attempts to break the black metal mold or in derision for its ‘commercialization’ of an underground phenomenon that was proud of its grimy heritage”. Some black metal fans did not consider Cradle of Filth to be black metal. When asked if he considers Cradle of Filth a black metal band, vocalist Dani Filth said he considers them black metal in terms of philosophy and atmosphere, but not in other ways. Another English band called Necropolis never released any music, but “began a desecratory assault against churches and cemeteries in their area” and “almost caused Black Metal to be banned in Britain as a result”. Dayal Patterson says successful acts like Cradle of Filth “provoked an even greater extremity of negative opinion from the underground” scene due to concerns about “selling out”. The controversy surrounding the Thuringian band Absurd drew attention to the German black metal scene. In 1993, the members murdered a boy from their school, Sandro Beyer. A photo of Beyer’s gravestone is on the cover of one of their demos, Thuringian Pagan Madness, along with pro-Nazi statements. It was recorded in prison and released in Poland by Graveland drummer Capricornus. The band’s early music was more influenced by Oi! and Rock Against Communism (RAC) than by black metal, and described as being “more akin to ’60s garage punk than some of the … Black Metal of their contemporaries”. Alexander von Meilenwald from German band Nagelfar considers Ungod’s 1993 debut Circle of the Seven Infernal Pacts, Desaster’s 1994 demo Lost in the Ages, Tha-Norr’s 1995 album Wolfenzeitalter, Lunar Aurora’s 1996 debut Weltengänger and Katharsis’s 2000 debut 666 to be the most important recordings for the German scene. He said they were “not necessarily the best German releases, but they all kicked off something”.

After the second wave (1998–present)#

In the beginning of the second wave, the different scenes developed their own styles; as Alan ‘Nemtheanga’ Averill says, “you had the Greek sound and the Finnish sound, and the Norwegian sound, and there was German bands and Swiss bands and that kind of thing.” Newer black metal bands also began raising their production quality and introducing additional instruments such as synthesizers and even full-symphony orchestras. By the late 1990s, the underground concluded that several of the Norwegian pioneers—like Emperor, Immortal, In 1997, he and another MLO member were arrested and charged with shooting dead a 37-year-old man. It was said he was killed “out of anger” because he had “harassed” the two men. Nödtveidt received a 10-year sentence. As the victim was a homosexual immigrant, Dissection was accused of being a Nazi band, but Nödtveidt denied this and dismissed racism and nationalism. The Swedish band Shining, founded in 1996, began writing music almost exclusively about depression and suicide, musically inspired by Strid and by Burzum’s albums Hvis lyset tar oss and Filosofem. Vocalist Niklas Kvarforth wanted to “force-feed” his listeners “with self-destructive and suicidal imagery and lyrics.” However, he stopped using the term in 2001 because it had begun to be used by a slew of other bands, whom he felt had misinterpreted his vision the new band of Nefandus member Belfagor, put this scene “into a new light.” Kvarforth said, “It seems like people actually got afraid again.” He started calling Dissection “the sonic propaganda unit of the MLO” and released a third full-length album, Reinkaos. The lyrics contain magical formulae from the Liber Azerate and are based on the organization’s teachings. After the album’s release and a few concerts, Nödtveidt said that he had “reached the limitations of music as a tool for expressing what I want to express, for myself and the handful of others that I care about” and disbanded Dissection A part of the underground scene adopted a Jungian interpretation of the church burnings and other acts of the early scene as the re-emergence of ancient archetypes, which Kadmon of Allerseelen and the authors of Lords of Chaos had implied in their writings. They mixed this interpretation with Paganism and Nationalism. although Vikernes had disassociated himself from black metal Many French bands, like Deathspell Omega and Aosoth, have an avantgarde approach and a disharmonic sound that is representative of that scene. The early American black metal bands remained underground. Some of them—like Grand Belial’s Key and Judas Iscariot—joined an international NSBM organization called the Pagan Front, although Judas Iscariot’s sole member Akhenaten left the organization. Other bands like Averse Sefira never had any link with Nazism. while Demoncy were accused of ripping off Gorgoroth riffs. There also emerged bands like Xasthur and Leviathan Nachtmystium, Wolves in the Throne Room and Liturgy (the style of whom frontwoman Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix describes as ’transcendental black metal’). These bands eschew black metal’s traditional lyrical content for “something more Whitman-esque” and the post-rock and shoegazing influences some of them have adopted. In Australia, a scene led by bands like Deströyer 666, Vomitor, Hobbs’ Angel of Death, Nocturnal Graves and Gospel of the Horns arose. This scene’s typical style is a mixture of old school black metal and raw thrash metal influenced by old Celtic Frost, Bathory, Venom, and Sodom but also with its own elements. Melechesh was formed in Jerusalem in 1993, “the first overtly anti-Christian band to exist in one of the holiest cities in the world”. Melechesh began as a straightforward black metal act with their first foray into folk metal occurring on their 1996 EP The Siege of Lachish. Their subsequent albums straddled black, death, and thrash metal. Another band, Arallu, was formed in the late 1990s and has relationships with Melechesh and Salem. Melechesh and Arallu perform a style they call “Mesopotamian Black Metal”, a blend of black metal and Mesopotamian folk music. released their debut EP Jihad Against Islam in 2011 through French label Legion of Death. Metal news website Metalluminati suggests that their claims of being based in Iraq are a hoax. These bands, along with Tadnees (from Saudi Arabia), Halla (from Iran), False Allah (from Bahrain), and Mosque of Satan (from Lebanon), style themselves as the “Arabic Anti-Islamic Legion”. Another Lebanese band, Ayat, drew much attention with their debut album Six Years of Dormant Hatred, released through North American label Moribund Records in 2008.

Styles and subgenres#

Regarding the sound of black metal, there are two conflicting groups within the genre: “those that stay true to the genre’s roots, and those that introduce progressive elements”. Snorre Ruch of Thorns, on the other hand, has said that modern black metal is “too narrow” and believes that this was “not the idea at the beginning”. Since the 1990s, different styles of black metal have emerged and some have melded Norwegian-style black metal with other genres:

Ambient black metal#

Ambient black metal, also known as atmospheric black metal, is a style of black metal that relies on heavy incorporation of atmospheric, sometimes dreamy textures, and is therefore less aggressive. It often features synthesizers or classical instrumentation, typically for melody or ethereal “shimmering” over the wall of sound provided by the guitars. The music is usually slow to mid paced with rare blast beat usage, without any abrupt changes and generally features slowly developing, sometimes repetitive melodies and riffs, which separate it from other black metal styles. Subject matter usually concerns nature, folklore, mythology, and personal introspection. Artists include Summoning, Agalloch, Urfaust, and Wolves in the Throne Room.

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