Black metal
Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emphasis on atmosphere.
This wave developed other scenes at the same time in Finland (Beherit, Archgoat, Impaled Nazarene); Sweden (Dissection, Abruptum, Marduk, Nifelheim); the United States (Profanatica, Demoncy, Grand Belial's Key, Judas Iscariot); France (Mütiilation, Vlad Tepes); as well as leading to the formation of influential bands in other countries including Sigh and Cradle of Filth.
These fast tempos require great skill and physical stamina, typified by black metal drummers Frost (Kjetil-Vidar Haraldstad) and Hellhammer (Jan Axel Blomberg).
[21][22] Black metal lyrics typically attack Christianity and the other institutional religions,[14] often using apocalyptic language and evoking anti-authoritarianism and anti-establishment messages against religious governments and societies.
[24] Another topic often found in black metal lyrics is that of the wild and extreme aspects and phenomena of the natural world, particularly the wilderness, forests, mountains, winter, storms, and blizzards.
[24] 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.
[35][38] The band introduced many tropes that became ubiquitous in the genre, such as blasphemous lyrics and imagery, as well as stage names, costumes and face paint meant to strike fear.
[53] However, black metal continued in the underground, with scenes developing in Brazil with Sepultura, Vulcano,[54] Holocausto[55] and Sarcófago,[56] Czechoslovakia with Root, Törr and Master's Hammer,[57] and Sweden with Grotesque,[58][59] Merciless, Mefisto,[60] Tiamat[58][61] and Morbid.
"[66] Furthermore, during this time other influential records in the genre were released by Von (from the United States),[67] Rotting Christ (from Greece),[68] Tormentor (from Hungary),[54] Mortuary Drape (from Italy),[69] Kat (from Poland),[54] Samael (from Switzerland)[70] and Blasphemy (from Canada).
[73] During 1990–1993, 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.
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.
[95] To coincide with the release of Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Vikernes and Euronymous had also allegedly plotted to bomb the Nidaros Cathedral, which appears on the album cover.
[122] 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".
[123] 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".
By the late 1990s, the underground concluded that several of the Norwegian pioneers—like Emperor,[64][132] Immortal,[64][132] Dimmu Borgir,[132] Ancient,[64][132] Covenant/The Kovenant,[132] and Satyricon[64]—had commercialized[64][132] or sold out to the mainstream and "big bastard labels.
"[132] Dayal Patterson states that successful acts like Dimmu Borgir "provoked and even greater extremity [of negative opinion] from the underground" regarding the view that these bands had "sold out.
Members of French band Funeral desecrated a grave in Toulon in June 1996, and a 19-year-old black metal fan stabbed a priest to death in Mulhouse on Christmas Eve 1996.
[161] Also, some bands like Agalloch started to incorporate "doom and folk elements into the traditional blast-beat and tremolo-picking of the Scandinavian incarnation", a style that later became known as Cascadian black metal, in reference to the region where it emerged.
[174] 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.
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.
[182] Examples of black-doom bands include Barathrum,[183] Forgotten Tomb,[181] Woods of Ypres,[184] Deinonychus,[185] Shining,[186] Nortt,[187] Bethlehem,[188] early Katatonia,[189] Tiamat,[182] Dolorian,[182] and October Tide.
[212] Examples of blackened death-doom bands include Morast,[212] Faustcoven,[212] The Ruins of Beverast,[212] Bölzer,[212] Necros Christos,[212] Harvest Gulgaltha,[213] Dragged into Sunlight,[214] Hands of Thieves,[215] and Soulburn.
[216][217] Kim Kelly, journalist from Vice, has called Faustcoven as "one of the finest bands to ever successfully meld black, death, and doom metal into a cohesive, legible whole.
[64] Important influences include early black and death metal bands, such as Sodom,[63][64] Possessed,[64] Autopsy,[64] Sarcófago,[63][64][65][116] and the first two Sepultura releases,[64][116] as well as seminal grindcore acts like Repulsion.
This may include the usage of instruments found in symphony orchestras (piano, violin, cello, flute and keyboards), "clean" or operatic vocals and guitars with less distortion.
However, it is argued that followers of Euronymous were anti-individualistic,[299] and that "Black Metal is characterized by a conflict between radical individualism and group identity and by an attempt to accept both polarities simultaneously".
An article in Metalion's Slayer fanzine attacked musicians that "care more about their guitars than the actual essence onto which the whole concept was and is based upon", and insisted that "the music itself doesn't come as the first priority".
[151] NSBM has been criticized by some prominent and influential black metal artists—including Jon Nödtveidt,[136] Gorgoroth,[350][351][352] Dark Funeral,[5][353] Richard Lederer,[354] Michael Ford,[355] and Arkhon Infaustus.
[356] Partly in reaction to NSBM, a small number of artists began promoting left-wing politics such as anarchism or Marxism,[357][358][359][360] creating a movement known as "Red and anarchist black metal" (RABM).
