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BLACK METAL
Black metal is dark and fast music using melodic development to express its themes. Of all the metals, this is
the most communicative with the modern listener, expressing nihilism and a heroic anti-social assertion of
the self. Evolving simultaneously with death metal, this genre includes all of the technique and rhythmic intensity of the former with more
emotive and comprehensible poetic communication within the music.

House recommendations: Averse Sefira, Burzum, Emperor, Ildjarn,Antaeus, Graveland, and Sacramentum.

Abruptum Emperor NME BEST EVER

Absu Enslaved Ophthalamia 1. Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss

Absurd Eucharist Pentagram 2. Immortal - Pure Holocaust
3. Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
Abyss, the Frozen Shadows Pervertum 4. Darkthrone - Transylvanian Hunger
5. Graveland - The Celtic Winter
Ancient Gehenna Profanatica 6. Bathory - Blood, Fire, Death
Angelcorpse Gorgoroth Resuscitator 7. Ildjarn - Det Frysende Nordariket
8. Summoning - Dol Guldur
Antaeus Gotmoor Rotting Christ 9. Gorgoroth - Antichrist
10. Beherit - Electric Doom Synthesis
Arcturus Graveland Sacramentum 11. Enslaved - Vikinglgr Veldi
12. Havohej - Dethrone the Son of God
Auzhia Grotesque Samael 13. Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom
Sathanas
Avenger Havohej Sammath 14. Sacramentum - Far Away From the
Averse Sefira Hades Sarcofago Sun
15. Mutiilation - Remains of a Dead,
Axis of Advance Hellhammer Septic Flesh Ruined, Cursed Soul

Bathory Ildjarn Setherial

Behemoth Immortal Sodom
Beherit Impaled Nazarene Sorcier des Glaces
Belial Infernum Sort Vokter
Black Goat Inquisition Summon
Blasphemy Katatonia Summoning Compilations
Blazemth Krieg Swordmaster Under the Pagan Moon
(Cyclonic Productions)
Blood Kvist Tha-norr Nordic Metal Compilation
Burzum Lord Wind Thorns (Necropolis)
Celtic Frost Manes Tartaros Firestarter Compilation (Century
Media)
Conqueror Marduk Throne of Ahaz
Cultus Sanguine Mayhem Ulver Reviews have mp3 sound
samples for each album,
Dark Funeral Merciless Ungod coverscan, tracklist and label
DarkThrone Mortiis Urgrund contact information.
Dark Tranquility Mütiilation Usurper
Dawn Mysticum Varathron
Deinonychius Necromantia Vilkates
Demonic Niden Div 187 Von
Demoncy Watain
Dimmu Borgir Xibalba
Dissection Yamatu
 Zyklon-B

Over the generations of metal a great evolution has occurred from the primitive
origins of the sound in alienated mainstream music to its emergence into a
neoclassical revival in underground death and black metal. Navigate the genres menu
by selecting a type of music on the left based on its corresponding description, or use
the methods at the bottom of the page to select a new way of viewing our review
listings.
In a time when a neurotic obsession with moral conflict
Death Metal against communism gripped the West, this music
preached total nihilism, or lack of preconceptions of
belief, and a knowledge that death is more real than
Demigod - Dead Soul
human political mechanations. Arguably for the most
part rhythm music, this genre uses muffled picking and
tremelo strumming of power chords or single-string
playing to hammer out a machine code of intricate riff
textures and the geometries of convergent sound. Its
structuralism matches its grim but self-empowering
worldview. Distinguished by bass-end tuning and
guttural chanting vocals, death metal exists
underground by deliberately disrupting consonant
aesthetic and programming the human mind at the
lowest levels with natural, intuitive rhythms.
In the time after the Cold War, an involution of
Black Metal "progressive" values caused the West to lose sight of
natural values in a desire to outperform each other in a
Darkthrone - En Ås I Dype Skogen
competition of egalitarian morals. Black metal rose
above this normative impulse by aspiring to the highest
realms of human conception and behavior, embracing
intellectual elitism and the honorable warrior mentality of
the medieval era. Where death metal broke music into
raw rhythm and structure, black metal built upon that
foundation in technique by exploring the use of melody
as the central principle of songwriting. Long phrases
harmonize internally and resolve in resounding tremelo,
often creating from broken apart sound an organic
torrent of tones that wrapped around each other and
create a single, clear, evolving melodic line which forms
the structure of each composition.
Made from the remnants of thrash and other crossover
Grindcore attempts, grindcore fused the death metal vocal style
with high energy hardcore riffing using chromatic and
Napalm Death - The World Keeps
counterpoint compositional techniques to create
Turning
streams of tonal motion, or divisions of sound into
abrupt striking strum, which "grind" against one another
with a primal direction in phrasing based on the rhythm
of a central pair of themes.
When hardcore and metal collided thrash emerged as a
Thrash fusion of punk song stylings and musical ethos with
metal riff styles and topics. Apocalyptic and
Cryptic Slaughter - Nuclear Future
confrontational songs of often under a minute in
duration battered the listener with one- and two-riff
creations which slammed home a central idea in verse
and chorus. Politics entered metal forever through this
avenue, as did the desire to make simpler and more
alarmingly basic music. Vocals were shouted in a high-
speed diatribe resembling that of an auctioneer closing a
bid. While musicianship was mostly of the lowest caliber,
 the speed and abrupt percussive guitar techniques of the
genre required innovation of custom technique which is
the foundation of death metal playing.
In the early days of the cold war, speed metal arose to
Speed reflect the apocalyptic consciousness gripping heavy
metal after fusion with antisocial and anarchistic
Metal hardcore punk. Bands influenced by the progressive
styles of the 1970s and the abrupt, droning, explosive
style of hardcore began making a fast type of metal
Nuclear Assault - Nuclear War which used palm muting as a strumming technique to
produce bursts of alternating rhythmic emphasis. Topics
like war, pollution, nuclear weapons and corporate
domination were sung of in either a male bass vocal or
shouted in a riot style chorusing similar to that of Oi
bands. While this music was highly complex and often
inventive in structure, it remained roughly within the
confines of rock-based mainstream music and passed its
technique on to the underground death metal, thrash and
grindcore to follow.
Low-fi neo-progressive rock from the late 1960s started
Heavy Metal this genre, in the form of Black Sabbath, who used
power chord riffing and dark modalities to express the
Candlemass - A Sorcerer's Pledge
paranoid nihilism which was a sublimated counterpoint
to the dominant impulse toward simplistic absolutism
("peace" and "love") of the time. Originally a blues/rock
band, Black Sabbath became a proto-metal band with
morbid and yet poetic songs, evoking for many a return
to European Romanticism of several centuries before.
Cataclysmic and industrial in its use of gritty organic
textures, heavy metal went through several stages
including excesses of commercial stadium rock before
returning to its roots in alienated and rough but majestic
music.

Metal Styles and Technique

Rhythm Melody Aesthetic Structure Vocals
  Consonant  Classical  Narrative  Sung
Syncopation  Dissonant  Jazz  Cyclic  Shouted
  Atonal  Rock   Distorted,
Polyrhythm  Layered Architected Guttural
  Distorted,
Percussion Rasp
 Texture

"Sounds" and Local Styles in Metal

"Sounds" are aesthetic
variants of a subgenre.
Heavy Death Metal
Just as "doom metal" Metal "Fast" death
means music that is NWOBHM metal
either heavy metal or Doom Metal "Percussive"
death metal played Narrative death/speed
slowly with
morbid/gothic surfacing,
Stadium New York Death
"sounds" are divisions of Hardcore Metal (NYDM)
subgenre that associate Punk Florida Death
releases that are similar Oi Metal
in approach to the Melodic Swedish Death
listener. The evolution of Metal
"sounds" can be viewed
Grinding
Progressive
as a hierarchy of Speed Deathgrind
specialized technique
within a genre.
Metal "Death Thrash"
Percussive Göthenburg
Trance metal
Epic Doom metal
Progressive Black Metal
"Thrash Deconstructivis
Metal" t
"Power Metal" Melodic
Thrash Melodic, heavy
Thrash, punk metal
Thrash, metal Blasting
Grindcore Epic
Rigid Trance/Ritual
Disassociativ Ambient
e Technopop/IDM
Crustcore, EBM/Industrial
melodic Ritual
Crustcore, Neoclassical
rhythm

Without resorting to technicality we describe the structures behind death metal, black
metal, heavy metal and crossover metal style and compositional media. We recognize
that genres are "containers" for stylistic and compositional tendencies which reveal
the interpretative structures in the music evoking the larger meta-perception or "life
philosophy" beneath.

Aesthetic -- or styles, arrangement, and production decisions -- "works" where it

supports the internal compositional structures of whatever music it encloses. With
metal the question is of accepting the reaction of despair to the violence and paranoia
and insanity of human world living in denial of fear/death, and turning it into a living,
willful, and distinctive nihilism that affirms nothingness as a gateway into more
profound realms of thought.

 Rhythm
Syncopation
 By playing off of internal rhythms, metal bands achieve syncopation -- the
inversion of stress in a passage. Normally strong beats are weak and the weak
are strong; this effect is often achieved through polyrhythmic overlay by
double-bass in death metal bands or by the chaotic, threshing blast beat of
blackmetal drummers.

The variation enables an excited internal sub-rhythm to drive the song, as

many bands do with double bass drums, letting snare and high hat/cymbal
disassociate for key structural textures.

Slayer
      "Hell Awaits" and beyond featured the granddaddy of double-bass
technique.
Deicide
      "Deicide" featured songs with anti-synchronized pump-beat percussion a la
"Jaws" theme.
Suffocation
      The master planners of moving syncopated air and bass drum integration.
Unleashed
      "Shadows in the Deep" used this technique to warlike effect via guitar
player forearm.
Polyrhythm
Using multiple rhythms to enhance layering effects bands create multiple
dimensions of rhythmic space, using a normally linear framework in new
shapes and often long or indeterminate phrases. This can occur in the
dominant rhythmic instrument (guitars) or the background rhythm
(drums/bass).

Some bands have taken this to extremes of chaos piling into itself, revealing an
inner consistency and beauty, where others have interpreted this in the way of
more contemporary ambient composers and have layered counterpoint or
complementary rhythms in complex neo-electronic compositions.

Immortal
      "Pure Holocaust" features raging chaotic polyrhythm and ambient melody.
Burzum
      "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" layered repetition to create epic meta-structures.
Morbid Angel
      "Altars of Madness" began with an inverted polyrhythmic beat.
Mayhem
      "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" used high-speed polyrhythms under ambient
guitar.
Percussion
Explosive or definitive notes in a phrase are accentuated by percussion in
drums or stringed instrument. Most often in guitars this occurs in the bands
who muffle chords and strum staccato or interplay phrasing for conclusive
effect, more than open-ended styles.
Metallica
      "Master of Puppets" used emphatic muffled chords for percussive
centering in riffs.
Suffocation
      "Effigy of the Forgotten" used intricate polyrhythmic progressions to center
complex songs.
Sepultura
      "Beneath the Remains" combined speed metal percussive strumming and
death metal speeds.
Texture
Often bands give texture to rhythms by playing multiple levels of rhythm. For
example, a guitar changing chords has a dominant rhythm in the beats on
 which the change occurs, but the chords themselves have a layer of rhythm in
the speed with which they are strummed, or in death metal technique, at which
their two most essential notes are varied through strumming or hammering.
Even further, often the strumming itself has an independent texture which
moves with the composition as a whole.
Slayer
      "Haunting the Chapel" invented the flying wrist technique of achieving
hummingbird tremelo strumming.
Unleashed
      "Shadows in the Deep" featured slow masterpieces of micromotion and
precision.
Morbid Angel
      After their monumental "Altars of Madness" which used this technique to
create ambient melody and rhythm, Morbid Angel used it for prog-rock
precision in the details of their epic "Blessed Are the Sick."
Mayhem
      "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" features ambient strumming over Bathory-
style rigid percussion matrix.
Rigor Mortis
      "Rigor Mortis" and more significantly "Freaks" built this technique into
classical melody and structure.
Cadaver
      These Norwegians made rhythmic expectancy a part of their half-sliding,
half-paused progressive metal.
 Melody
Consonance
"Normal" melodies are used by older styles of heavy metal and sometimes by
progressive bands integrating a jazz or rock influence. They are built around
the scales used by these forms of music historically and in present essence,
and as such are more easily recognized by listeners familiar with more
mainstream music.
Atheist
      "Unquestionable Presence" built jazz harmony into a style of melodic
progressive death metal.
Metallica
      "Kill 'Em All" brought metal's separate blues legacy into focus with new
styles and heavy metal essence.
At the Gates
      "Slaughter of the Soul," this band's final work, made use of
mainstreamification in the death sound.
Dissonance
Using dissonant alignment of notes in melodies produces a mournful yet
technical sound, so many bands use this technique in both melodic and
harmonic construction.
Voivod
      From "Dimension Hatross" onward Voivod have built songs around
dissonant melodic tension.
Obliveon
      "From This Day Forward" established the ability of dissonance and
atonality to build complex jazzlike compositions.
Immortal
      "Pure Holocaust" and "Blizzard Beasts" feature dissonant melody and use
of inversion contra rhythm.
Atonality
Atonal arrangements of notes produce bizarre and perverse melodies, causing
instigation of uprising in the mentality of the listener. The "not tonal" nature of
this etymology comes from the lack of a fixed scale, or use of an cycling scale
of arbitrary tones.
 Most metal musicians use this style of composition in conjunction with
chromatic scales, dynamically acquiring tone centers through counterpoint and
experimenting with classical music theory in key-less anti-melodic
architectures.

Morbid Angel
      "Altars of Madness" through "Covenant" used atonal solos to great effect
over dissonant compositions.
Deicide
      "Legion" used atonal lead guitar to emphasize the nihilism of chromatic
composition.
Layered
In the style of classical composers from years past augmented with an focus
geared more toward an attention span "in the now," metal bands often use
modal layers to create songs.

These layers, each forming a portion of the main melody in the song which
changes over time to narrate song development, create a resonant harmony
which the composer can change to develop the complex matrix of emotions
required to manipulate atmospheric mood.

This style easily succumbs to being only technique, but is useful for
developing a language of melody in which harmony serves a subordinate role.

Burzum
      Simple in outcome but complex in how far it varies from predictable in
conception, the music of Burzum unfolds longer narrative by manipulating
environmental depth to melody.
Ildjarn
      Short deranged pieces create atmosphere through two or three melodies
sequenced in different orders to form narrative, with layers of two-note modal
complements influencing direction in mood.
 Harmonic
Classical
Classical harmonic formations stay within the same key and manipulate
different registers of mode or tone. The chromatic scales and intricate arpeggio
formations of death and black metal lay their ancestry here and develop into a
more direct sense of musical motion.
Morbid Angel
      "Altars of Madness" evolved this technique into fast-picking and ambient
relationship to beat, accentuating it with atonal lead guitars.
Deicide
      "Feasting the Beast" demonstrated this technique in an ambient but violent
setting.
Burzum
      "Det Som Engang Var" built simple classical music out of power chord
arpeggios.
Jazz
The freedom and complexity of jazz harmonics attracted many metal
composers, who have worked in that area to create bizarre and startling freaks
of brutality.
Atheist
      "Unquestionable Presence" built jazz harmony into a style of melodic
progressive death metal.
Metallica
      "Kill 'Em All" brought metal's separate blues legacy into focus with new
styles and heavy metal essence.
 Demilich
      "Nespithe" built bizarre harmonies from rudimentary fusionesque
randomness
Rock
Oftentimes rock-n-roll influences creep into metal bands and are easily
identified by their influence on the dominant rhythms, and by the more
mainstream tonal ideas of the pieces. Since rock is essentially blues filtered
through the cowboy hobo country music eyepiece, these bands often bear a lot
in common with jazz-influence acts.
Metallica
      "Kill 'Em All" brought metal's separate blues legacy into focus with new
styles and heavy metal essence.
 Structure
Cyclic
Most rock songs come of the verse-chorus tradition and consequently so does
unstudied death and black metal, as well as most grindcore. The tedium of this
technique is sometimes temporarily alleviated by adding another structure or
riff pattern on top of the double elements of cycle but even this is transparent.
Venom
Hypocrisy
Narrative
When many riffs are joined to form a progression of ideas not as much
concerned with creating a piece but a sequence of moods a narrative
composition occurs; others call this "riff salad" or "grab-bag metal."
Malevolent Creation
Massacra
Architected
Music created with massive conceptions in mind often builds entirely
unconventional structures to serve the individualized needs of each song. At
this level of composition, nothing is as fits the norm as each piece has an
entirely custom use in unique and intricate compositions where details matter.
Emperor
      "In the Nightside Eclipse" featured drifting and meandering songs built
around central melodies.
Burzum
      "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" used bafflingly simple and distinctive riffs in layers to
create epic compositions.
Morbid Angel
      "Altars of Madness" often sequenced seemingly jarring changes in the
smoothness of compositional integration.
Metallica
      "Orion" from Master of Puppets introduced this technique to the metal
community at large.
 Vocals
Sung
Like rock and blues before it, people sing these. With melodic voices and
enunciation of words. Though sometimes it seems bizarre now, most people
like ALL of their entertainment to sound this way.
Helstar
      A mid-eighties hybrid of Slayer metal and Iron Maiden rock, their album
Nosferatu used sung vocals to pragmatic effect.
Shouted
Hardcore punk brought us angry shouting for vocals and it re-appears from
time to time in death and black metal but is limited by the clarity and monotone
of vocal it produces through uniform emphasis.
DRI
Distorted, Guttural
The majority of modern metal works utilize this style, yet it arose from
crossover music like grindcore after being inspired by the grand old growler of
 metal, Lemmy Kilmeister of Motorhead, whose membership in both heavy metal
and punk communities affirms his historical importance.

Metal originally adopted the gravely cigarette-burnt and alcohol-eroded voice of

punk rock's more deested vocalists, favoring its obscurity and the difficulty of
marketing such an indistinct image in the world of concrete images concealing
nebulous actualities and negligible rewards.

By reducing timbre from absolute tone to gritty, naturalistic, distortion and

shearing melody to textural variance only, this style de-emphasizes vocals
while making their presence fit into the texture of the music, allowing more
dynamic variation in composition.

Napalm Death
      "Scum" revealed extremes of this technique for their potential in disturbing
the aesthetic sensibilities of listeners.
Possessed
      "Seven Churches" brought the voice forth in primal form.
The Exploited
      With a sequence of groundbreaking hardcore albums the Exploited let the
voice get growlier each time.
Morbid Angel
      Death metal cofounders Morbid Angel implemented this technique to great
effect on "Altars of Madness" and beyond.
Distorted, Rasp
Emperor
      Used vocals to accentuate melody in majestic pieces of speedy production
and demonic drive.
Darkthrone
      Fragments of melody in vocals harmonized with miminalist riffing to expand
mood.
Antaeus
      The master of searing growls with both texture and punctuation in rhythm,
MkM paces each piece with violence and depth.
Mütiilation
      Droning melodic vocals within distorted chaos frame the structural changes
in this music.

Metal Sounds and Local Styles

Heavy Metal
NWOBHM
Taking over from Black Sabbath when too much Led Zeppelin clonage
invaded the airwaves, NWOBHM bands used more punkish riffing with more
precise, technological structures in phrasing. The imagination ran wild and
fantasy/mideval concepts in lyrics developed here.
Doom Metal
As Sabbath was slow, the doom metal genre demanded slower and more
dramatically manic depressive songwriting. These bands bridge power chords
across glacial rhythm for atmospheric impact. Often accompanied by drugs,
esp. marijuana.
Narrative
Probed right after NWOBHM made its appearance, narrative bands strung
together collages of riff and transition to make unfolding retellings of
experience. This style is eternal and re-emerges every generation.
Stadium
Viewed by many as the nadir of metal, stadium metal is influenced by post-
progressive rock atmospheric bands who used instrumentalism and pure pop
hook to make sentimental but explosive songs. In metal this translates to an
epic ballad flavor to everything. Once again, an eternal style which recurs with
each new cycle of metal.
Hardcore
Punk
Punk is simplified 1950s rock voiced in power chords and sequenced to a
pulsing basic rhythm. Vocals and aesthetic emphasized dirt and
unsteadiness, and disregard of musicality freed bands from the form and
compositional dynamic of rock music. Often bouncy or humorous, punk
music moves with a friendly but simple motion.
Oi
Anthemic workingclass punk with often abrasive sounds mixed with guitar
work reminiscent of surf bands from the generation before, Oi came into its
own as its own influence in the next generation of hardcore.
Melodic
Building tension through emphasis on melodic notes within otherwise rigid
progressions, a subset of the hardcore community made music with constant
unchanging percussion and fluidly shifting riffs.
Grinding
The earliest hardcore to secede from normalcy became truly a handful of
power chords grinding against one another in conflicted progressions and
interrupted rhythm. This music is essentially similar to grindcore after the first
generation.
Speed Metal
Percussive
The major innovation of speed metal was the muffled, explosive strumming of
power chords to produce a sound of impact and resurrect the power of
rhythm guitar in rock music.
Trance
Bands like Prong produced the first hypnotic rhythm "mellow" metal which
while violent in methods of creation produced an atmosphere of calm and
allowed emotional aspects of the art within to emerge.
Epic
Some bands aspired to the fantasy- and progressive-inspired works of
NWOBHM and toward that aim produced neoclassical and often lengthy
works. The most commonly known example of this is Metallica's "Orion."
Progressive
From the 1970s progressive bands metalheads began making larger
structures and wider gains in technique in the rendering of intricate but
impact-oriented music. While power chord riffing remains predominant, many
progressive metal bands moved beyond the accepted "progressive" sound
and created theoretically literate avantgarde works.
"Thrash Metal"
Misnamed speed/death metal hybrid bands were called "thrash metal"
because of their violent and self-conflicted music, aggressive attitudes and
thrash-based ideological assertions.
"Power Metal"
A style that emerged as the speed metal genre was dying, power metal is
speed metal riffing played either in an epic heavy metal or tuffguy pseudo-
death metal style.
Helstar
Thrash
Thrash, punk
One branch of thrash reveals more of its punk influence, and in bands like
MDC or COC expressed itself with loosely hardcore songs played quickly with
a metal influence in phrasing.
Thrash, metal
The other half of the thrash tree demonstrates a more metallic approach and
is a proto-death-metal hybrid subgenre, found most clearly in the early works
of Cryptic Slaughter and the later works of DRI.
Cryptic Slaughter
Dirty Rotten Imbeciles
Grindcore
Rigid
Open intervals and precise furiously fast structures distinguish this variant.
Bands like Repulsion and Terrorizer defined this style.
Repulsion
Blood
Nyctophobic
Disassociative
The schizophrenic out of time rhythms and blurry, organic, lavaging rush of
this style produced disorientation and loss of individual characteristics in the
rising phenomena of chaos.
Napalm Death
Carcass
Agathocles
Hemdale/Exhumed
Crustcore, melodic
Loosely derived from Discharge, this genre worked melodic hardcore into a
blurring ripple of speed and fury that unleashed itself in short bursts of anger.
Crustcore, rhythm
In the style of the mighty Assück, these bands created pounding furious
rhythms from even intervals of the fretboard, roaring forth in some complexity
but mostly disassociative, violent, random, disorienting music.
Death Metal
"Fast" death metal
From the pure origins of death metal, the faster styles took after bands like
Slayer, early Sepultura and Massacra in making architectures of intricate
rhythm and melodic construction.
Massacra
Vader
Morbid Angel
Hypocrisy
Percussive death metal
Derived from the slamming, explosive street-level speed metal of Exodus or
Exhorder, percussive death metal evolved from the New York Death Metal and
Tampa Death Metal sounds to become a generic style of impact-oriented,
explosive muffled strum death metal.
Suffocation
Acerbus
Cryptopsy
Deeds of Flesh
Gutted
Kataklysm
Pyrexia
 Sinister - "Hate" is mastery of this style.
New York Death Metal (NYDM)
Explosively percussive and equal parts speed metal and angst-ridden New
York Hardcore (NYHC), this music flew from the depths with guttural vocals,
edgy rhythm riffing and essaylike song structures. In two styles, one of which
is more percussive than its longer phrased variant.
Morpheus Descends
Baphomet
Incantation
Suffocation
Immolation
Florida Death Metal
Some of the most "heavy metal" of the death metal movement, the Florida
bands mated bold rhythm to the pulsing rhythm of early percussive death
metal and created the most defiant, monstrously simple and direct metal of
the era.
Death
Monstrosity
Massacre
Deicide
Swedish Death Metal
The first major evolution of theory occurred within the Swedish Death Metal
movement, where Sunlight Studios/Thomas Skogsberg(tm) fuzztone
production and longer phrases contributed to a melodicity fully evolving with
At the Gates.
Entomed
Dismember
Unleashed
Therion
At the Gates
Progressive
Continuing the progressive tradition in metal, the progressive death bands
adhered to a style which was part rock with jazz and classical influences, and
part the wily fingered "technical" death metal of a previous generation.
Atheist - jazz/death metal hybrid.
Pestilence - later albums: jazz/metal.
Demilich - harmonically rich.
Death - became highly technical.
Morbid Angel - innovators/technicalists.
Atrocity - technicalists and romantic artists.
At the Gates - used violin and lead guitar work.
Deathgrind
A stylistic hybrid, deathgrind is death metal using the simpler song structures
and rhythmic expectancy riffing of grindgore. So far, nothing of stature has
emerged from this style.
"Death Thrash"
This term is marketing slang for retro bands making faster speed metal music
using death metal picking technique and vocals.
Göthenburg metal
From Göthenberg, Sweden, came a series of bands emulating At the Gates by
making technical, jazz-and-rock influenced death metal. This only became a
problem after "Slaughter of the Soul," when At the Gates sent out the word to
become commercial rock music hidden within death metal stylings.
Grotesque - pre-At the Gates.
The Abyss - template for this style.
Dissection - black metal that is heavy metal derived from this death metal
style.
Doom metal
The moribund, self-pitying and sentimental style of doom metal has emerged
in both heavy metal and death metal genres, where it is essentially the same
music played with an emphasis on slow chord changes and resonant,
recursive resolutions.
Ceremonium
Skepticism
Cathedral
Black Metal
Deconstructivist
Chaotic and nihilistic blasts of short information in three-note riffs founded
this style, which through reduction of assumed musicality focused on the
information of its communication.
Havohej
Burzum
Belial
Ildjarn
Krieg
Beherit
Melodic
Early experiments in structuralism allowed melody to serve as a fundamental
principle and therefore emphasized use of the melodic sound in riff
construction and chord voicing.
Darkthrone
Summoning
Impaled Nazarene
Melodic, heavy metal
Some relapsed to a former style and made melodic stadium metal of
NWOBHM era with black metal vocals and technique.
Dimmu Borgir
Blasting
For the few who sought more extremity a style of grinding metal with nihilistic
clipped emanations of information in abrupt explosions of riff was created,
with variants moving closer to grindcore or pure unleashed melodicity.
Zyklon-B
Kult ov Azazel
Epic
Descended from the devotees of Bathory "Blood, Fire, Death," this genre
works folk song nationalism and epic narrative of multi-generational
movements on the level of a people, creating symbolic black metal with
lengthy melodies.
Bathory
Graveland
Emperor
Trance/Ritual
Minimalism taken to the furthest extreme hybridized with metal produced an
electronic music influenced genre which favored unchanging simple beats
(similar to Discharge) under shifting melodic context- and lexically-sensitive
phrase evolution.
Darkthrone - "Transylvanian Hunger" is the best of this style.
Von - ultra-minimalist.
Immortal - "Pure Holocaust" is a related idea.
Ambient
Technopop/IDM
The music of Kraftwerk and its descendants, this is long melody evolving over
 a complex beat structure, often without human vocals.
EBM/Industrial
Emphatic and pulsating dance music that was a fundamental influence on
developing techno and industrial genres, EBM sounds like what Nine Inch
Nails would be if executed by Godflesh or Beherit.
Ritual
Influenced by throwbacks to mideval and music from before recorded history,
ritual ambient uses simple melodic patterns in evolution and a primal sense of
rhythm to emphasize its constructs.
Neoclassical
Somewhat of a summary of the genre as a whole excluding most popular
music influences from EBM, neoclassical ambient/industrial uses
technological instrumentation and song structure to emphasize classical
influences in melodic construction.

Black metal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This page is about the musical genre black metal. If you meant the 1982 Venom
album, click here

Black metal

Stylistic origins: Classical music,

Thrash metal

Cultural origins: Late 1980s Europe,

especially Norway

Typical Guitar – Bass guitar –

instruments: Drums – Keyboards

Mainstream underground
popularity:

Subgenres

National Socialist black metal – Viking metal – Melodic

black metal

Fusion genres
 Blackened death metal – Folk metal – Symphonic black
metal

Regional scenes

United States – Eastern Europe

Other topics

Anti-Semitism - Bands

Black metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal, which properly started in the early 1980's,
though its inspirations were formed in the early 1980's.

There are two views on the genre. One views black metal as a very specific form of
music that must adhere to a particular 'style' in order for it to be a part of the genre;
while the second considers the lyrical and philosophical/political ideology of the
music to take more precedence in defining the genre itself, rather than 'style,'.

Contents
[hide]
 1 The First Wave
 2 The Second Wave
 3 Characteristics
 4 History
 5 Subforms
o 5.1 National Socialist black metal
o 5.2 War metal

 6 Literature
[edit]

The First Wave

The seeds of black metal were planted in the early 1980s, known as the "First Wave",
the earliest inspiration being that of the British band Venom. Their debut full-length
album, "Welcome To Hell" was released in 1981, and is a huge inspiration for the
future black metal scene (not to emerge for around a decade later), along with their
1982 follow-up, aptly titled Black Metal (then a pun on the phrase Black Magic). The
music was in many ways similar to the future black metal music; the under-
production, harsh music, and the vocals were relatively growly, similar to the future
rasp of black metal vocalists, though it must be stated that Venom were not actually
black metal, they took on a NWOBHM/Thrash metal style. Venom's clothing style
was also similar to that of the future black metal bands; leather trousers, spiked wrist
accessories etc. Venom's members also adopted pseudonyms, the original lineup
being Cronos, Mantas and Abaddon.

Though a more direct insipiration would be that of the Swedish one-man band
Bathory, lead by Quorthon (real name Thomas Forsberg). Early Bathory was pure
black metal, with under-production, fast tempos, sketchy playing and a rasped vocal
style. Bathory seemingly performed this completely out of the blue, the debut self-
titled album and the second album The Return are perfect examples. Though Bathory
later evolved into a very artistic black metal band round the late-1980's, with black
metal music scattered with acoustic parts and Norse melodies, with Norse mythology-
based lyrics. At this time, such classic songs as A Fine Day To Die were recorded, a
song later to be covered by symphonic black metal legends Emperor. Quorthon's fine
day to die was June 7, 2004. He is sorely missed by legions of longtime fans and
supporters.

Other big influences include the Danish band Mercyful Fate and Swiss band Celtic
Frost, the latter of which featured heavily occult themes, a huge factor of future black
metal. King Diamond, Mercyful Fate's vocalist, however, provided the first
corpsepaint-esque look, which would be used by nearly every single future black
metal band. Mercyful Fate also provided a blasphemous image, with such album titles
as Nuns Have No Fun, which was also a very huge factor of future black metal.

[edit]

The Second Wave

Black metal congealed in its current form (known as the second wave of black metal,
which is rooted much more heavily in classical musical theory) through the influence
of Norwegian bands such as Darkthrone, Enslaved, Burzum, Satyricon, Mayhem,
Immortal, and Emperor, who began with the earlier style and introduced elements
from mainstream heavy metal, classical music and popularised the style to a growing
underground audience. Their influence is most apparent in the Satanic or pagan
imagery, anti-Christian lyrics and occult themes.

[edit]

Characteristics
Black metal may, but is not obligated to, have the following characteristics:

 Fast guitars with tremolo picking

 Lyrics that take the form of pessimistic, Satanic, Pagan, or occult themes
which blaspheme Christianity. Bands such as Slayer, Venom, Deicide, and
Immolation overlap lyrically with black metal somewhat but are musically
defined as death metal (Deicide, Immolation) or thrash metal (Slayer, Venom),
however, Venom coined the term "Black Metal" and laid the foundations for
later Black Metal alongsides Bathory and Celtic Frost.
  Relatively thin guitar sound or relatively thick guitar sound, usually not in the
middle.
 Limited production used intentionally as a statement against mainstream
music and/or to reflect the mood of the music, to create atmosphere. This
'underproduced' effect is often achieved by cutting out low and high
frequencies, leaving just the mid frequency range. Very few of the black metal
pioneers still do this, since their original limited production only was due to a
minimal budget. This production style is often considered an essential element
of "true" Black Metal.
 Fast, repetitive, aggressive drums, often with blast beats. At other times, the
drums can take a slower role usually accompanied by a very dry and empty
tone —especially for the effect of the atmosphere of the music.
 Occasional electronic keyboard use. The harpsichord, violin, organ, and choir
settings are most common, which gives the music an orchestral feel or a
cathedral-like setting. Some bands tend to use keyboards very frequently,
whether it be as an instrument or even as the basis of their entire sound. They
are generally placed under the symphonic black metal label.
 High-pitched/distorted screeching vocals (One of the most well-known high
pitched screechers in Black Metal being Dani Filth from Cradle Of Filth).
Contrary to popular belief, these are not essential as there have been many
black metal bands old and new employing different vocal styles.
 Swift percussion.
 Cold, dark, sad, melancholy, or gloomy atmosphere.
 Less focus on dynamic rhythm than death metal. Very few black metal bands
exhibit the rhythmic complexity inherent in death metal, and even if they do,
they usually exhibit at least a few of the above-listed criteria if they are still
generally classified as black metal.

Cover of "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" by Mayhem

An abraded, very low fidelity recording style is common in most black metal. Modern
evolution of many of the older 'genre leading' bands have had a vast change in sound,
and by many - and most of the times, even the band - are no longer considered black
metal. Such examples include Mayhem's career that began mostly in the death/black
roots, moved to almost pure black, then towards death again in their later career. Also,
Satyricon who started off as black metal but now play a very industrial heavy hybrid
of the music. Modern offshoots of this original black metal sound have incorporated
atmospheric elements using ambient guitar and keyboard passages such as organ
sounds or other miscellaneous instruments.
A distinct (but not intrinsic) feature of the black metal is the use of corpse paint, a
special kind of black and white make-up which was used to make the wearer look like
a decomposing corpse or plague victim. It should be noted that Immortal referred to
their make-up as "war paint", not carrying the same connotation as corpse paint.
Another distinct feature of black metal is the use of dark, Nordic or Satanic monikers
pioneered by Venom (the original line up being Cronos, Mantas & Abbadon).
Examples of this include Quorthon (Bathory), Euronymous (Mayhem) and Samoth
(Emperor), to name a few.

Earlier bands tended to dwell on themes of fantasy, mythology, and folklore in their
songs, as well as Satanism, darkness, evil, and so on as many of their direct musical
and cultural roots included these topics.

[edit]

History
One of the major influences, if not very musically similar, on the first black metal
bands were the English band Venom. Although Venom cannot be credited as the sole
founders or even as the first true black metal band they were a major influence and
one of the first bands in to use Satanist and very dark lyrical themes in their music. So
whilst Venom's musical style had more in common with thrash metal or NWOBHM it
must be shown that they had a great influence on the first black metal bands of the
late 80's/early 90's.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, one of the most prominent figures of the Norwegian
scene was Øystein Aarseth, better known as Euronymous, the guitarist in Mayhem.
Bands such as the previously mentioned Venom and Nyscene 911 became more into
the Satanic vibes of the genre.

The scene was deeply anti-Christian: it had a stated goal of removing the influence of
Christianity and other non-Scandinavian religions from Norwegian culture and
effecting a return to the nation's Norse roots. One minority current, associated with
NSBM, included an element of unashamed anti-Semitism. The movement was largely
directed by an 'Inner Circle', made up of Aarseth and a few close friends, from the
basement of Aarseth's record store, Helvete (Hell). That location also housed a
recording studio, where records were made by Mayhem and a number of other bands
that were signed to Aarseth's independent label, Deathlike Silence Productions.
Deathlike Silence's stated goal was to release records by bands "that incarnated evil in
its most pure state."

Also around this time, there was a rash of arsons directed at Christian churches in
Norway—many of the buildings were hundreds of years old, and widely regarded as
important historical landmarks—that Aarseth's circle claimed responsibility for
inspiring, if not necessarily perpetrating. The most notable church was Norway's
Fantoft stave church, which the police believed was burned by a member of
Euronymous's inner circle; the man behind the one-man band Burzum, Varg
Vikernes, aka "Count Grishnackh", but he was abstained by the jury. Vikernes also
played bass guitar for Mayhem. Black metal enthusiasts also started to terrorize other
notable "death metal" bands that were touring their country or in neighboring
countries, on the basis of their lack of apparent "evilness". Many recall a strong
Swedish death metal and Norwegian black metal rivalry.

The black metal scene gained some unsought mass media attention in 1991 when
Mayhem's frontman Dead committed suicide by a shotgun blast to his head. His note
simply read "Excuse all the blood". The ammunition was supplied by Varg Vikernes.

His body was discovered by Aarseth who, instead of calling the police, ran to a
nearby convenience store and bought a disposable camera which he used to
photograph the corpse for a future Mayhem album cover (Dawn of the Black Hearts).
Apocryphal reports also claim that he then took some pieces of Dead's splattered
brains and made a stew out of them and/or members of the band took bone fragments
from their friend's skull and made necklaces out of them.

The 'Inner Circle' received even more exposure in 1993, when Vikernes killed Aarseth
in Aarseth's home, stabbing him 23 times, although Vikernes claims that Aarseth fell
on broken glass while running from him and that he really stabbed him only 4 or 5
times. The circumstances surrounding the reason for the murder are not entirely clear,
but have mainly been attributed to ideological differences and a power struggle
between Vikernes and Aarseth. Vikernes claimed that Aarseth had plotted to kill him
and that the killing was committed in partial self-defence. Vikernes also claimed that
there was a financial dispute over the profits from Burzum's first two full-length
records (Burzum and Det Som Engang Var) as well as the first Burzum EP (Aske)
that were released through Aarseth's record label, Deathlike Silence Records. Some
sources say that Aarseth intentionally delayed the release of Burzum's records,
because Burzum was getting more attention than Mayhem. Vikernes was sentenced to
21 years in prison and has since distanced himself from the black metal movement,
becoming involved in the Neo-Nazi movement and writing extensively on the subject.
Many credit Vikernes' professed beliefs as contributing to the rise of National
Socialist black metal, a variant that employs the genre's typically Nordic, Pagan, and
anti-Christian themes as an expression of White Power ideology. While in prison,
Vikernes has released two albums of a much more ambient and electronic kind of
music, Dauði Baldrs in 1997 and Hliðskjálf in 1999, although he implied in a recent
interview that he would write material similar to his older works upon his release
from prison.

By the last few years of the 1990s, the black metal scene had lost much of the
violence that seemed to be attached to it in the early days of the scene. Also, bands
begun to make records with higher production-quality.

However, since the mid-1990s, an Eastern European black metal scene has been
developing. Bands from the former Communist Bloc are recording material more in
keeping with the primitive nature of the early Norwegian artists. Many of these bands'
lyrics glorify the pagan roots of their home countries, occasionally injecting elements
of indigenous folk music into their arrangements. The Latvian band Skyforger is a
prime example of this new aesthetic. The black metal scene in Russia and Ukraine has
produced many bands more in keeping with the carefully arranged sounds coming
from Scandinavia, but with more appreciation for the low fidelity aesthetic of early
black metal. The Czech band Trollech are a perfect example of the "old-school"
Pagan black metal band. The Ukrainian neo-Nazi Nokturnal Mortum has achieved
very large recognition in the west; their earlier albums relied heavily on synthesizers,
but their current work has a grimmer, more abrasive feel flavored with Slavic folk
instruments. Poland's neo-Nazi band Graveland has, in recent albums, striven for a
'medieval' feel, resembling a more developed version of later 'viking' Bathory albums,
but in the past made much rawer music which still held a certain intangible folk
flavor. From Romania, Negură Bunget is a prime example of traditional black metal,
injecting their own indigenous mix of Dacian and Latin elements, along with a
Scandinavian sound. Also notable are Serbian bands The Stone and May Result.

There is also a growing number of American bands playing black metal (sometimes
called USBM bands). This movement has not taken a particularly clear form, but
notable groups are Black Funeral, Judas Iscariot, Absu, Krieg, Grand Belial's Key,
Goatwhore, Kult ov Azazel, Unchrist, Choronzon (Music project), Xasthur,
Leviathan, Blackheart Destruction, and the death metal-influenced Acheron and
Averse Sefira.

Bands such as Dark Funeral and extreme metal magazines such as Terrorizer believe
that a third wave of influential black metal bands is emerging, this time from France
and Sweden. These include Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord, Arkhon Infaustus,
Antaeus, Funeral Mist,Ofermod,Ondskapt and Watain. These bands all claim to be
much more interested in Satanism and/or Occultism than previous artists and
generally play a very raw extreme style. However, just as with the earlier second
wave Norwegian bands they have started to experiment, Deathspell Omega are
influenced by Gregorian chant and Blut Aus Nord now incorporate elements of
ambient techno.

Coming into the 21st century, some Black Metal bands have actually been able to stay
in the "well-known" status. Two of the most well-known Black Metal bands today
being Cradle Of Filth and Dimmu Borgir. Cradle Of Filth is the most well-known,
having been signed to a major label.

[edit]

Subforms
[edit]

National Socialist black metal

Black metal movement that deals with Neo-Nazi ideologies, often mixed in with
topics pertaining to European pagan religions. NSBM is more interpreted as an
ideology than a sub-genre as there is not any developed "style" to play black metal in
a National Socialist way, however NSBM bands actually often tend to have crystal
clear production, something very unlike the regular bands. However, the term has
stuck around not only because there are traceable movements and labels that sell
NSBM exclusively, but also because it is such a hotly debated topic; giving rise to
questions like whether it does or does not coincide with traditional black metal
characteristics, or whether it should even be a subform as most black metal bands do
not adhere to the ideology. It should be noted also that some bands have been wrongly
labelled NSBM, as there is little to no evidence in the bands lyrics to prove their
idealologies.

[edit]

War metal

The factual accuracy of this section is disputed.

Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.

This section does not cite its references or sources.

You can help Wikipedia by introducing appropriate citations.

It is generally accepted[weasel  words] that Blasphemy were the first "War Metal" band.
Their style was more of an extreme form of Black/Thrash. Though Blasphemy are
commonly referred to as the first War Metal band, the style was portrayed in the mid-
to-later 1980s by bands such as sarcofago and the first albums by Sepultura and
Holocausto. Blasphemy's 1990 debut album Fallen Angel of Doom is considered the
starting point of this sub-genre and has been expanded on and changed quite
dramtically by bands such as The Meads of Asphodel, Bestial Warlust, Conqueror and
Axis of Advance/Sacramentary Abolishment.

Lyrically, war metal bands almost always leans towards Satanic or anti-Christian
ideals, and usually refer to war; with topics including genocide, nuclear warfare,
holocaust (though not necessarily pro), death, ending humanity and/or life, tanks, and
related topics. The visual aesthetics are similar.

Some prefer not to use the genre name because they consider it superfluous; some war
metal bands can be considered blackened death metal. Moreover, it is contended that
it is a very minimalistic and non-expansive style, and given the small amount of bands
that play it, it therefore ought not have its own distinct genre-name. However, more
and more bands are playing and developing this style.

War metal is often associated with Canada because of native bands Blasphemy and
Conqueror as well as many newer bands that have experimented with the genre and
taken it away from its musical origins such as Axis of Advance, Rites of thy
Degringolade and Lust.

[edit]

Literature
  Michael Moynihan, Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal
Underground (Feral House) ISBN 0922915482

David Wood: Founder of Neat Records.

" Black Metal is like Black Magic without the chocolate"

Vincent Crowley: Vocalist with cult Black Metal band Acheron

"Venom, the true gods of Black Metal started this whole thing. So to me, it is a music that you can take to an unholy
extreme. Songs about Satanism, The Occult, Myths, Blasphemy, and Hell, takes the listener on a journey to the Dark
side. Satan always is the center of attention in Black Metal. And band members always have a dark aesthetic. But
the main thing is Black Metal has to be the most demonic music ever!"

Malcolm Dome : Rock journalist

Black metal is whatever you want it to be...just think of a number, double it and hey, presto, it's black and inventive.
That's the beauty of the bestial side. Anything's possible. Everything's probable.

Gavin Baddeley [ author of Lucifer Rising]

Black Metal is, as these genre labels almost always are, something of a misnomer. Most rockers have always worn
black, and more than one outsider has seriously wondered whether the term refers to some kind of afro-Caribbean
rock sub-genre (a little ironic considering the genre's reputation for fascist overtones). The other alternative to using
the term
however, where special pleading by bands leaves you with as many genres as acts - vampire metal, occult metal,
hate metal, and whatever the hell else - is an even more confusing situation. I guess Black Metal as a term is then,
appropriately, something of a necessary evil. And if you think about it, even the term Heavy Metal itself is hardly
descriptive of the genre,
but it's stuck for want of anything else.

Eighties boozy Satanic thrash pioneers Venom have the best claim to having coined the Black Metal moniker, and
even they have distanced themselves from it to an extent. Thankfully, subsequent bands have appeared who have
taken the term - and ironically Venom's back catalogue - more seriously than Venom ever did. Most serious fans
also concede that Black Metal
predates Venom by decades. Indeed many contend that Black Sabbath's eponymous 1970 debut was the first Black
Metal album, and in my opinion the first true Heavy Metal recording. But rock act Black Widow predated Sabbath's
Satanic imagery by some months - so are they Black Metal?

I'd say yes, inasmuch as the lyrical content was better researched than Sabbath's, though they never pioneered an
ominous new sound in the way Ozzie's outfit did. This perhaps is significant. I think one component to Black Metal
is demonic imagery and lyrics, but the other is a musical approach as daring or innovative as the visuals and ideas.
These tend to go
together organically. People attracted to the extreme concepts and aesthetics of the Devil tend to enjoy and express
themselves in a similarly outrageous and passionate fashion. That this has been almost exclusively in rather
monotone terms of anger and aggression among Metal musicians has alienated many Satanists, who also perceive
subtlety and seduction in their chosen archetype. Demonic music, they argue, is not just older than Venom, or
indeed Black Sabbath. It is far, far older than that, in which grand context either band represent little more than
fascinating ripples in a profoundly dark ocean. 

Ultimately, this has driven something of a wedge between the established Satanic community, who dismiss Metal as
adolescent angst, and Black Metal fans who see such Satanists as tedious old bores. This is a shame - but I'm
optimistic that the best of both groups are finding some common ground. More authentic Satanists (as opposed to
shock-horror poseurs) are appearing with a grounding in the darker fringes of rock, and more reputable Black Metal
musicians (as opposed to band-wagon jumping wannabes) are launching increasingly brave and interesting projects
that draw on influences which go back not just decades but centuries. While I wouldn't claim demonic musicians of
the distant past like Mussorgsky or Tartini were composing Black Metal, if they were around today they might very
well be...

CRIN: Godreah Zine/ Records

Apart from the obvious Satanic imagery, Black Metal is an institution built on the rise of extreme metal in the
eighties and solidified by the very real evil of the Norwegian Black Metal explosion of the early nineties. Like Punk,
Black Metal transformed a previously unseen select group of outcasts/ bored teenagers into a socially abhorrent
reality, sticking two fingers up at the system and to hell with the consequences.
It was an exclusive institution where kids could feed from the brutalisation of a genre through startlingly inhumane
acts of violence and an apparent disregard for the stringent laws of the land. A freak show for the masses if you like
that has been polished into a musical entity far stronger than it's punk predecessor .
Black Metal has outgrown the underground and become a marketable product much to the disdain of Black Metal
purists. The very term Black Metal is now hard to define to an actual style but I would cite the likes of Dark Throne,
Marduk, Immortal and Burzum to embrace every hideous echelon of the genre. Every evolving.. is but a new
addition of remarkable music loosely entwined within the genre as a whole but never exceeding the archetype of the
original blueprint. 
In all extreme metals sub-genre's' Black Metal is also one of thee few havens for right wing/ neo nazi purists who
are thankfully few and far between and mostly emanate from the former eastern block countries. Black Metal like
any other musical embodiment has proved itself a worthy addition to the Metal fraternity and like Death Metal is
here to stay, like it or not.

his compilation is more than just a collection of bands chanting dark and occultist themes. It is a historic
account of the development of Occult/ Black metal in Britain and ultimately the world.
Whilst it must be said Venom invented the term 'Black Metal' the realisation of Black Metal as a genre incarnate can
be credited to the well-documented Norwegian scene that exploded in the early nineties and has since dominated the
very soul of the music with exceptions being the formidable Cradle of Filth. But where do you trace the roots of
Black Metal?

usic is foremost a medium of pleasure. A spiritual conductor between the mind and the heavens. It can stir
the heart for war, calm the unruly and serve as a stimulant or sedative for every complex human emotion. Originally
tribal and evolving into numerous sounds made possible by an equal number of instruments. To the modern
perception the roots of Occult/ Dark music can be found as mere background music for ancient magical rites or
elaborate incantations practised well beyond the sight of outsiders. These roots would inevitably lead to pagan
origins.
The very origins of music rest with Rhythm. The first exhalations of pleasure, tribal dances or war chants formed the
first echoes of human musical evolution.
The natural sequence of this was to emphasise the beat. By beating with sticks on a hollow tree trunk man had his
first taste of music. 'Beat' music is therefore the most primitive of all. No doubt some half naked Neanderthal 70,000
years ago gazed at the thunderous night beating on a hollow trunk seeking favour with the murderous night.

he plucking of a string to produce a note soon followed and by the time of the Ancient Egyptians and Greeks
there was a vast array of instruments like the Lute, Flute, Pipes, Harp, Oboe and Lyre. 
The life long emphasis to which the Egyptians placed in death would certainly have created a sombre musical
shroud for the sacred rites performed by the temple priests. 
Music was very much apart of every day life as it is today. Feasts, Festivals and Funerals would be every different
without some form of musical background.
Leaping across time we owe much to the Church during the advances made during the middle ages and modern
music owes a vast dept to Bach and the other great composers. With the 20th century music has reached the masses
via the invention of radio and television. But during the brief history explained here, what of the Occult in music?

ysterious Sabbats and Voodoo hysteria designed to channel mans spiritual growth with the gods has long
been a part of mans passion to touch the dark side of his existence. With the advent of Christianity the appearance of
the Devil incarnate has given those seekers of dark mystery a more tangible platform in which to vent their lusts for
depravity and unquenchable thirst for supposedly forbidden knowledge.
The Satanic element in music has always been a sanctuary for non-conformists and their like to step out of the
conventional boundaries of society and indulge in much of the taboo activities shunned by the religious restraints of
day to day existence.
During the middle ages the primitive urges of the people were severely suppressed by the fanatical dominance of the
Church and if one were to choose between the sombre hymns of the pews to the drunken frivolity of the folk based
tales of superstition and Magic, one can at once understand the vehemence the later received from ecclesiastical
jurisdiction.
The promulgation of religious persecution during the 15th and 17th centuries created a stark picture of witch-hunts,
Devil worshipping and torture, all of which has given boundless inspiration for the modern occult/ Black metal
band.
The irony of the Christian Church inflicting such wanton brutality in its own fervour to purge the sexual
improprieties and so called heretical views of men has also added to the delusion of its own credibility. To think of
the suffering Christians have received from other establishments, the anti-Semitic policies deployed by certain
factions and countless episodes of in house cruelty [most notably by the inquisition] and the subsequent
fragmentation of the Roman Church into self governed Christian denominations, all of which has given the cause of
God a very bad smell of hypocrisy and self righteousness.

  am trying to convey the importance of Christian/ Jewish dogma without which there would be no Occult/ Black
Metal. Add to this the mass of written material penned over the last two thousand years and the seeds of Occult
music are well and truly sown. Biblical works, Apocalyptic literature, the great works of Milton and Blake. The
documents of mystics and self styled Satanists like Lavey and Crowley. The very source of which is derived from
the birth of God in man.
It is our mistrust and cynicism of Christianity that stokes the fires of the music now termed Black Metal. The anti-
Semitic undercurrents being a more recent addition to the genre as a whole.

o look back at the History of Occult/ Black metal in the UK we must look to the origins of modern music
outside that of classical or cultural themes. Jazz was considered an unwholesome form of music in its early stages
and the point to be raised here is that Occult/ Black Metal is no less a form of underground music alienated from the
masses than any other.
Early Rock music again, like all juvenile activities is a hotbed of teenage angst, adolescent high jinks and anti-social
behaviour. The fact that all this youthful exuberance is vented through music doesn't mean it wouldn't permeate
elsewhere. If it wasn't music, the unpredictable clashing hormones would compel the youth of any given generation
to act out their fantasies through self motivated violence, criminal misdemeanours and other unsavoury means.
There will always be a few unbalanced kids among the outcasts of society who will commit the crimes that condemn
a generation.The suicides associated to music are no different to the suicides occurring elsewhere, yet there will
always be some one to blame the music.
The rise of the Norwegian Black Metal scene in the early nineties was driven by violence and juvenile boredom. 
The point is underground music is the place where individuals who are maybe not what society would deem normal
congregate. It is a place where they can feel accepted and as such are the music's soul. Without the audience there
would be no music.

Black metal
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Black metal este un gen muzical care a apărut în perioada de început a anilor '80,
precedând marea expansiune a stilurilor de metal "extrem". Black metal-ul a evoluat
din thrash metal, la fel ca şi genul death metal, cu care se înrudeşte.

Există două perspective asupra acestui gen muzical. Una are în vedere black metal-ul
ca o formă foarte specifică de muzică şi care trebuie să abordeze un anumit stil pentru
a face parte din acest gen. Cealaltă consideră că versurile şi ideologia
filozofică/politică/religioasă a muzicii au o mai mare importanţă în definirea genului
decât "stilul".

Principalii fondatori ai black metal-ului sunt consideraţi Venom (care erau o trupă de
thrash metal, însă au definit conceptual genul prin lansarea albumului Black Metal în
1982), Mercyful Fate, Bathory, Hellhammer, Bulldozer, Celtic Frost şi Mayhem.
Primele albume care sunau a ceea ce este astăzi considerat black metal au fost
înregistrările Bathory de la mijlocul anilor '80 (în special Under the Sign of the Black
Mark).
Black metal a evoluat în forma actuală (cunoscută ca al doilea val black metal, care
este mult mai puternic ancorat în teoria muzicală clasică) sub influenţa trupelor
norvegiene ca Darkthrone, Enslaved, Burzum, Mayhem, Immortal, şi Emperor, care
au început în stilul clasic, primar, introducând apoi anumite elemente din metalul
mainstream şi muzica clasică, astfel popularizând tot mai mult genul în rândul unei
audienţe underground în continuă creştere. Influenţa acestora se remarcă cel mai bine
la nivelul imaginii satanice sau păgâne şi al versurilor anticreştine sau cu tentă ocultă.

[modifică]

Caracteristici
Stilul black metal poate avea următoarele trăsături, acestea nefiind obligatorii, însă
întâlnindu-se la majoritatea formaţiilor de gen:

 Riffuri rapide, cu tremolo.

 Versuri care au de obicei teme satanice, păgâne, sau care vin în contradicţie cu
principiile creştine. Aceasta nu e o caracteristică exclusiv black metal,
asemenea teme întâlnindu-se şi în death metal (Deicide, Immolation) sau
thrash metal (Slayer).
 Sunetul chitarei este fie subţire, fie gros, atingând rar zona medie.
 Producţie intenţionat de slabă calitate, ca o reacţie la comercialitatea muzicii
mainstream sau alteori ca o reflexie atmosferică a stării de spirit. Acest efect
se obţine tăind frecvenţele înalte sau joase, lăsându-le doar pe cele medii.
Foarte puţini dintre pionierii black metal mai fac acest lucru, deoarece slaba
calitate a primelor albume era cauzată în mare parte de bugetul restrâns.
 Tobe rapide, agresive, deseori se foloseşte tehnica blast beat. Câteodată rolul
lor este minimalizat, încetinirea acestora contribuind la obţinerea unui sunet
uscat, pustiu, de efect în special în ceea ce priveşte atmosfera muzicală.
 Folosirea ocazională a claviaturii electronice şi a harpei, viorii, orgii sau
ansamblurilor corale, care conferă muzicii o senzaţie orchestrală. Formaţiile
care folosesc aceste tehnici sunt etichetate de regulă ca aparţinând de black
metal melodic.
 Voce înaltă, distorsionată, ţipând sumbru. Se foloseşte uneori şi vocea groasă,
joasă, specifică stilului death metal.
 Percuţie precisă.
 Atmosferă rece, întunecată, melancolică sau tulbure.

Înregistrarea de joasă fidelitate e specifică în mare parte din black metal. Evoluţia
unora dintre vechile formaţii de black metal, adevăraţi lideri ai genului, a adus o mare
schimbare în sunetul acestora, ajungând chiar să nu mai fie catalogaţi în genul care i-a
consacrat. Un exemplu ar fi Mayhem, formaţie a cărei carieră e înrădăcinată într-un
black metal influenţat de death metal, continuând cu un black "curat", în final
revenind la death metal. De asemenea, Satyricon a debutat ca o trupă de black metal,
însă la momentul de faţă cântă un hibrid de muzică industrială. Noile trupe
incorporează în sunetul clasic elemente atmosferice, date de chitara ambientală, pasaje
de clape, orgă, precum şi alte instrumente.
O trăsătură specifică este şi folosirea aşa numitului "corpse paint", un machiaj alb-
negru special, care face purtătorul să arate ca un cadavru în descompunere sau ca o
victimă a ciumei. Totuşi, membrii formaţiei Immortal se refereau la machiajul lor ca
vopsire a feţei "în culori de război".

O altă caracteristică a black metal-ului este utilizarea pseudonimelor întunecate sau

satanice, modă introdusă de Venom (componenţa iniţială îi cuprindea pe Cronos,
Mantas şi Abbadon). Exemplele sunt numeroase: Quorthon (Bathory), Darken
(Graveland), Euronymous (Mayhem), Goat, Count Grishnackh (Burzum), Fenriz
(Darkthrone), Nergal, Inferno (Behemoth), Zephyrous (Darkthrone), Frost (1349),
Abbath, Demonaz, Horgh (Immortal), Iscariah, Hellhammer, Maniac, Necrobutcher,
Blasphemer, Dead (Mayhem), Hoest, Ihsahn, Samoth, Faust, Trym (Emperor),
Nattefrost (Carpathian Forest) şi alţii.