Black Metal History

Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It often employs fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, double-kick drumming, and unconventional song structure.



During the 1980s, certain thrash metal bands established a prototype for black metal. This so-called "first wave" included bands such as Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. A "second wave" emerged in the early 1990s, which consisted primarily of Norwegian bands such as Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal and Emperor. This scene developed the black metal style into a distinct genre.



Black metal has been met with considerable hostility from mainstream culture, mainly due to the misanthropic and anti-Christian ideology of many artists. Additionally, some musicians have been associated with church burnings, murder or National Socialism. For these reasons and others, black metal is often viewed as an underground form of music.



FIRST WAVE



The first wave of black metal refers to those bands during the 1980s who influenced the black metal sound and formed a prototype for the genre. They were often speed metal or thrash metal bands.

Venom's album entitled Black Metal inspired the name of the genre.



The term "black metal" was coined by the British band Venom with their sophomore album Black Metal (1982). Although considered thrash rather than black metal by modern standards, the album had lyrics and imagery that focused more on anti-Christian and Satanic themes than had any released before it. Their music was unpolished in production and featured raspy grunted vocals. Venom's members adopted pseudonyms, a practise that would become widespread among black metal musicians.



Another pioneer of black metal was the Swedish band Bathory, led by Thomas Forsberg (under the pseudonym Quorthon). Not only did Bathory use low fidelity production and anti-Christian themes, but Quorthon was the first to use the "shrieked" vocals that came to define black metal. The band exhibited this style on their first four albums, beginning with Bathory (1984) and ending with Blood Fire Death (1988). At the beginning of the 1990s, Bathory pioneered the style that would become known as Viking metal.



Other artists usually considered part of this movement include Hellhammer and Celtic Frost (from Switzerland), Sodom and Destruction (from Germany),Bulldozer and Death SS (from Italy), Tormentor (from Hungary), Root (from Czech Republic) , Mercyful Fate (from Denmark),[citation needed] Sarcófago (from Brazil) and Blasphemy (from Canada). Additionally, King Diamond and the members of Sarcófago were allegedly the first musicians to sport "true" corpsepaint.



SECOND WAVE



The Second Wave of black metal emerged in the early 1990s and was largely centred on the Norwegian black metal scene. During 1990–1994 a number of Norwegian artists began performing and releasing black metal music; this included Mayhem, Burzum, Immortal, Darkthrone, Satyricon, Enslaved, Emperor, Thorns, Ildjarn, Gorgoroth, Ulver and Carpathian Forest. As seen below, some of these artists would be responsible for a rash of criminal controversy, including church burnings and murder. Musically, these artists developed the style of their 1980s precursors as a distinct genre that was separate from thrash metal. Philosophically, an aggressive anti-Christian sentiment became a must for any artists to be finalized as "black metal". Ihsahn of Emperor believes that this trend may have developed simply from "an opposition to society, a confrontation to all the normal stuff."[11] A dark, misanthropic mentality was complemented visually with the use of corpsepaint, which was also most prevalent during this period as a statement to separate black metal artists from other rock bands of the era.







A few bands in neighbouring Sweden adopted a similar sound, usually with inspiration from the Norwegian scene. This included Marduk, Dissection, Lord Belial, Dark Funeral, Arckanum, Nifelheim and Abruptum. In Finland, the late 1980s saw the emergence of black metal bands who often included traits similar to those found in death metal such as Beherit, Archgoat and Impaled Nazarene. Black metal scenes also emerged on the European mainland during the early 1990s - again inspired in large part by the Norwegian scene. In Poland, a scene was spearheaded by Graveland and Behemoth. In France, a close-knit group of musicians known as Les Légions Noires emerged; this included artists such as Mütiilation, Vlad Tepes, Belketre and Torgeist. Bands such as Von, Judas Iscariot, Demoncy and Profanatica emerged during this time in the United States, where thrash metal and death metal were more predominant among extreme metal enthusiasts.



By the mid 1990s, the musical style of the Norwegian scene was being adopted by bands across the globe. Newer black metal bands also began raising their production quality and introducing additional instrumentation such as synthesizers and full-symphony orchestras. This expansion and diversification marked the end of the Second Wave.