The beginnings of black metal started out in Newcastle Upon Tyne with the thrash metal band Venom. Venom were the first band to coin the phrase black metal on their 1982 debut album “Black Metal” 1 and played a vital role in influencing the first wave of Norwegian black metal bands. Bands such as Sodom, Kreator and Destruction, all German thrash metal bands, were also influential to the early creators of Norwegian black metal.
The rise of Norwegian black metal can be traced to the bands Burzum and Mayhem. An underground scene quickly developed within the city of Bergen and led to bands releasing albums and EP’s, although most were of a low quality. The self titled album “Burzum” released in 1992 on the “Deathlike Silence Productions” label2 and Mayhem’s slightly earlier album “Deathcrush” released in 1987, cited as the first ever Norwegian black metal album3, are defining examples of black metal.
(picture from http://media.photobucket.com/image/mayhem%20deathcrush/imperus/deathcrush.jpg?o=3)
Both of these bands seem to have an entwined history and events that happened between members of both mentioned bands would shape the genre and media coverage of the scene for years to come. Notably, the suicide of Mayhem’s vocalist “Dead”, which occurred on April 8th 1991. When Dead (real name:Per Yngve Ohlin) was discovered by Mayhem guitarist “Euronymous” he decided to photograph the corpse rather than contacting the authorities. There are several rumours surrounding this story about Euronymous taking pieces of Ohlin’s skull and fashioning it into jewellery, which was confirmed to be true by Mayhem’s drummer “Hellhammer” in an interview in June 1998. 4 5
Black metal is better known for it’s negative social image, for the aforementioned suicide of Dead, for black metal musicians openly criticizing religion and inciting acts of arson on culturally important “stave churches” (wooden churches which were built in the 1200’s using medieval building techniques 6) but, perhaps most famously, the brutal murder of Mayhem’s Oystein Aarseth aka Euronymous. Varg Vikerness of Burzum murdered Oystein on 10th august 1993 believing the guitarist to be planning to murder him, Vikerness claimed self defence but received a 21 year jail sentence for the murder of Euronymous and connection to arsons of churches.7
Black metal’s image is extremely striking. The bands make use of the stark contrast between white and black to make up a unique look. Many black metal bands wear leather studded with spikes, armbands with studs pressed into them, often making use of shin guards and gauntlets made from leather. Most black metal bands make use of the iconic imagery of the pentagram (the five pointed star inside a circle) sometimes displaying this on clothing. Most (although not all) bands wear what is commonly known as “corpse paint” the contrasting black and white patterned make up applied to the face in a unique design, which is often painted in a style to represent the personality or style of the individual band member. The patterning can range from quite simple stripes or shapes, to intricate designs involving complex lines.
(image from:http://media.photobucket.com/image/abbath/cannibal_corpse18/Abbath-1.jpg?o=17)
Black metal has a wide range of lyrical content and often the messages within the music are a comment on society, some musicians in the black metal community are firm believers in Satanism or paganism and believe Christianity should be demolished. This often features in the lyrics of black metal and is a social comment on how the country has become a heavily Christian country. For some it was a way of re-establishing links to the country’s Norse history. Often there are a lot of elements of Norse mythology within the lyrics of black metal, which often take influence from Scandinavian legends. Nature sometimes features in the lyrical content of black metal, with bands choosing the darker side of nature such as the cold temperature, snow, wind and darkness as subjects to base songs upon. Some black metal bands take inspiration from death metal and have songs which contain references to violence and murder.
The sound of black metal is extremely up-tempo fast and aggressive. The guitar’s sound is often heavily distorted and utilises fast tremolo picking, black metal lead guitarists often use arpeggios within solos and lead lines. A drumming technique known as blastbeats are often used, they are fast 16th note patterns between bass and snare drums. Some black metal uses contrasts and extremes highlighting parts with a very clean guitar sound, making the music sound epic and sometimes symphonic with the use of string sounds then transforming into a full blaring cacophony of tremelo picked riffs, rasping vocals and blast beats.
Black metal has gone on to influence and inspire a whole generation of musicians, and inspired a whole new wave of black metal, even some more commercially accessible black metal bands (although some black metal purists dispute the label being used). Bands such as Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth brought black metal a little more into the mainstream. Bands such as Anaal Nathrakh, Behemoth and Emperor all cite the first black metal wave as inspiration for carrying the genre forward.
1 http://www.venomslegions.com/biography/venom-biog.htm
2 http://www.burzum.com/burzum/biography/
3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathcrush
4 http://www.thetruemayhem.com/interviews/previous/hh-june1998.htm
5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_Yngve_Ohlin
6 http://www.stavechurch.org/
7 http://www.burzum.com/burzum/biography/
