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 recording, unconventional song structures, and an emphasis on atmosphere. Artists often appear in corpse paint and adopt pseudonyms.
Venom initiated the "first wave" of black metal, with their 1982 album Black Metal giving it its name. In the following years, the style was developed by Bathory, Mercyful Fate, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. By 1987, this wave had declined, but influential works were released by Tormentor, Sarcófago, Parabellum, Blasphemy, Samael and Rotting Christ. A "second wave" arose in the early 1990s, spearheaded by bands in the early Norwegian black metal scene, such as Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Emperor, Satyricon and Gorgoroth. This Norwegian scene did much to define black metal as a distinct genre, and inspired other scenes in Finland ; Sweden ; the United States ; France ; as well as leading to the founding of influential bands in other countries, including Sigh and Cradle of Filth.
Black metal has often sparked controversy. Common themes in the genre are misanthropy, anti-Christianity, Satanism, and ethnic paganism. In the 1990s, members of the scene were responsible for a spate of [|church burnings] and murders. There is also a small neo-Nazi movement within black metal, although it has been shunned by many prominent artists. Generally, black metal strives to remain an underground phenomenon.
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. The bass guitar is seldom used to play stand-alone melodies. It is common for the bass to be muted against the guitar, or for it to homophonically follow the low-pitched riffs of the guitar. While electronic keyboards are not a standard instrument, some bands, like Dimmu Borgir, use keyboards "in the background" or as "proper instruments" for creating atmosphere. Some newer black metal bands began raising their production quality and introducing additional instruments such as synthesizers and even orchestras.The drumming is usually fast and relies on double-bass and blast beats to maintain tempos that sometimes approach 300 beats per minute. These fast tempos require great skill and physical stamina, typified by black metal drummers Frost and Hellhammer. Even still, authenticity is still prioritized over technique. "This professionalism has to go," insists well-respected drummer Fenriz 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.
File:Gorgoroth I.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Members of Gorgoroth wearing typical black metal gear such as corpse paint, spikes and bullet belts. The band was formed by guitarist Infernus to express his Satanist beliefs.
Vocals and lyrics
Traditional black metal vocals are raspy and high-pitched, and include shrieking, screaming, and snarling. Death growls are sometimes used, but less often than the characteristic black metal shriek.Manish Agarwal of Time Out describes the lyrical content of black metal as "sacrilegious bile". Typically, lyrics are against Christianity and other institutional religions, often using apocalyptic language and include anti-authoritarian and anti-establishment messages against religious governments. 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. Another common theme is that of the wild and extreme aspects of the natural world, particularly the wilderness, forests, mountains, winter, storms, and blizzards. 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 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 and inverted crosses and inverted pentagrams. However, the most widely-known trait is their use of corpse paint—black and white face paint sometimes mixed with real or fake blood, which is used to create a corpse-like or demonic 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 while others are violent, sexually transgressive, sacrilegious, or iconoclastic.
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 says "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 audience," and that creating it was "purely for own satisfaction."History
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. Playing a style of speed metal or proto-thrash metal, the album initiated the "first wave of black metal". 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, 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 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, and Japan's Sabbat.
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 and Morbid. Sarcófago's debut album I.N.R.I., was widely influential on subsequent acts in the genre, especially the second wave Norwegian scene and groups in the war metal style. 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, Parabellum, Von, Rotting Christ, Mortuary Drape, Kat, Samael and Blasphemy. Blasphemy's debut album Fallen Angel of Doom is considered one of the most influential records for the war metal style. Fenriz of the Norwegian band Darkthrone called Master's Hammer's debut album Ritual "the first Norwegian black metal album, even though they are from Czechoslovakia". 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.