Hellig Usvart is the debut studio album by Australian unblack metal band Horde, released on Nuclear Blast Records in 1994.

[1][2] As a result of the strong lyrical contradiction, the album was thought to be a parody of the Norwegian black metal movement by magazines such as Morgenbladet in 1995.

[3] The sole member of the band, Jayson Sherlock (who used the pseudonym Anonymous), later stated in interviews that the album was intended to bring "some hope, some light to the bleak black metal subculture.

[4] He decided to record similar music but with a Christian message, with the intent to bring hope to the bleak black metal subculture.

In 1994, Sherlock's solo project, Beheadoth, recorded the song "Mine Heart Doth Beseech Thee (O Master)" for the Godspeed: Australian Metal Compilation album by Rowe Productions, going under the pseudonym Unpaganuth Necronomoccultociduth.

Sherlock made use of his former band Mortification's relationship with Nuclear Blast Records and talked to the label owner, Markus Staiger, about releasing Horde's album.

[6] Lyrically, Hellig Usvart features direct and indirect praise for God, and is known for its anti-satanic approach, as implied by the song titles.

In May 2008, the Polish label Metal Mind Productions remastered the album in a digipak format and included three live bonus tracks.

"Blasphemous Abomination of the Satanic Pentagram" is the shortest track, being less than one minute in length, and is lyrically about both the Lord's displeasure for the symbol and the act of destroying it.

[9][13] "Silence the Blasphemous Chanting" is about an individual who sees a group attempt to call forth Satan and successfully puts a stop to it, with the lyrics drawing parallels to Ephesians 4:29.

[9][15] "An Abandoned Grave Bathes Softly in the Falling Moonlight" describes a graveyard and an individual in it who passed away after the end-times, drawing parallels to 1 Corinthians 15:52.

[17] "Mine Heart Doth Beseech Thee (O Master)," a bonus track on several later releases of Hellig Usvart, describes a person under the threat of Satan and demons from Hell, who calls upon the power of God both for self-protection and to defeat the unholy forces; the song's lyrics contain a reference to Deuteronomy 31:6.

[18][19] Upon the initial release of Hellig Usvart in 1994, a publicity campaign was launched throughout the black metal community, revolving around Sherlock being credited as "Anonymous".

"[4] Due to the intense, furious anti-satanic themes of "horn crushing" and "goat violence," the album was widely thought to be a parody of the black metal scene.

"[3] The same article says of Hellig Usvart that "all the obligatory Spinal Tap references are here: [the liner notes of the album says that] Anonymous plays 'Total Apocalyptic Lead Guitar' and 'Cataclysmic Bass Rumblings'.

"[3] In an interview, Sherlock cleared up the parody controversy: Within the black metal scene, watching all the way across the world, all I could see was a bleak, dark, hopeless, lifeless and negative void.

This was the only light hearted element of the entire project.Hellig Usvart was a seminal, highly influential album for the Christian black metal movement.

I'm sure that if another Horde album was written today, the themes would be quite different and much more mature, to counteract the poetic and intelligent (albeit misguided) lyrics of modern BM."

It made that point loud and clear, and it also kicked the door wide open and paved the way for many Christian black metal bands in the future to bring the light of Christ to an extremely dark music scene.