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Black metal started in the early 1980s with bands such as Venom, Bathory, Celtic Frost, Mercyful Fate, and Hellhammer. The second wave of black metal, an essentially Scandinavian movement, started in the late 1980s and early 1990s, primarily in Norway. Black metal has gathered intense criticism from many sectors of society, for its brutal aesthetic, its misanthropic spirit, and the extreme right wing ideologies displayed by some musicians working in the National Socialist Black Metal subgenre. However, at the same time it experienced a meteoric rise in popularity among metal fans during the 1990s. Characteristics Black metal can display, but is not limited to, the following characteristics: Guitars Drums Lyrics and vocals Atmospheric and structural elements Aesthetics The First Wave The seeds of black metal were planted in the early 1980s, known as the "First Wave", the earliest inspiration being that of the British band Venom. Their debut full-length album, Welcome To Hell was released in 1981, and is a huge inspiration for the future black metal scene (not to emerge for around a decade later), along with their 1982 follow-up, aptly titled Black Metal (then a pun on the phrase Black Magic). The music was in many ways similar to the future black metal music; the under-production, harsh music, and the vocals were relatively growly, similar to the future rasp of black metal vocalists, though Venom took on a more NWOBHM/thrash metal style, rather than the future sound. Venom's clothing style was also similar to that of the future black metal bands; leather trousers, spiked wrist accessories etc. Venom's members also adopted pseudonyms, the original lineup being Cronos, Mantas and Abaddon. Though a more direct insipiration would be that of the Swedish one-man band Bathory, lead by Quorthon (real name Thomas Forsberg). Early Bathory was pure black metal, with under-production, fast tempos, sketchy playing and a rasped vocal style. Bathory seemingly performed this completely out of the blue, the debut self-titled album and the second album The Return are perfect examples. Though Bathory later evolved into a very artistic black metal band round the late-1980s, with black metal music scattered with acoustic parts and Norse melodies, with Norse mythology-based lyrics. At this time, such classic songs as A Fine Day To Die were recorded, a song later to be covered by the symphonic black metal band, Emperor. Quorthon suffered from heart problems all his life, and died from heart failure at the age of 38 on June 7, 2004. Other big influences include the Danish band Mercyful Fate and Swiss band Celtic Frost, both of which featured heavily occult themes, a huge factor of future black metal. King Diamond, Mercyful Fate's vocalist, however, provided the first corpsepaint-esque look, which would be used by many future black metal bands. Mercyful Fate also provided a blasphemous image, which was also a largely influential factor for future black metal. The Second Wave
History One of the major influences, if not very musically similar, on the first black metal bands were the English band Venom. Although Venom cannot be credited as the sole founders or even as the first true black metal band they were a major influence and one of the first bands in to use Satanist and very dark lyrical themes in their music. So whilst Venom's musical style had more in common with thrash metal or NWOBHM it must be shown that they had a great influence on the first black metal bands of the late 80's/early 90's. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, one of the most prominent figures of the Norwegian scene was Øystein Aarseth, better known as Euronymous, the guitarist in Mayhem. Bands such as the previously mentioned Venom became more into the Satanic vibes of the genre. The scene was deeply anti-Christian: it had a stated goal of removing the influence of Christianity and other non-Scandinavian religions from Norwegian culture and effecting a return to the nation's Norse roots. Viking metal, an offshoot of black metal that began with Bathory's album Blood Fire Death, is still heavily influenced by this philosophy and theme while most modern subgenres of black metal have substanially drifted from this mindset. One minority current with black metal at this time, associated with NSBM, included an element of unashamed anti-Semitism. The movement was largely directed by an 'Inner Circle', made up of Aarseth and a few close friends, from the basement of Aarseth's record store, Helvete (Hell). That location also housed a recording studio, where records were made by Mayhem and a number of other bands that were signed to Aarseth's independent label, Deathlike Silence Productions. Deathlike Silence's stated goal was to release records by bands "that incarnated evil in its most pure state." Also around this time, there was a rash of arsons directed at Christian churches in Norway—many of the buildings were hundreds of years old, and widely regarded as important historical landmarks—that Aarseth's circle claimed responsibility for inspiring, if not necessarily perpetrating. The most notable church was Norway's Fantoft stave church, which the police believed was burned by a member of Euronymous's inner circle; the man behind the one-man band Burzum, Varg Vikernes, aka "Count Grishnackh", but he was acquitted by the court. Vikernes also played bass guitar for Mayhem. Black metal enthusiasts also started to terrorize other notable "death metal" bands that were touring their country or in neighboring countries, on the basis of their lack of apparent "evilness". Many recall a strong Swedish death metal and Norwegian black metal rivalry. The black metal scene gained some unsought mass media attention in 1991 when Mayhem's frontman Dead committed suicide by a shotgun blast to his head. His note simply read "Excuse all the blood". The ammunition was supplied by Varg Vikernes. His body was discovered by Aarseth who, instead of calling the police, ran to a nearby convenience store and bought a disposable camera which he used to photograph the corpse for a future Mayhem album cover (Dawn of the Black Hearts). Apocryphal reports also claim that he then took some pieces of Dead's splattered brains and made a stew out of them and/or members of the band took bone fragments from their friend's skull and made necklaces out of them. The 'Inner Circle' received even more exposure in 1993, when Vikernes killed Aarseth in Aarseth's home. Vikernes claims that Aarseth plotted to torture and kill him out of jealousy (Vikernes got more attention than Aarseth), and the murder was purely out of self-defence. The circumstances surrounding the reason for the murder are not entirely clear, but have mainly been attributed to ideological differences and a power struggle between Vikernes and Aarseth. Vikernes also claimed that there was a financial dispute over the profits from Burzum's first two full-length records (Burzum and Det Som Engang Var) as well as the first Burzum EP (Aske) that were released through Aarseth's record label, Deathlike Silence Records. Some sources say that Aarseth intentionally delayed the release of Burzum's records, because Burzum was getting more attention than Mayhem. Vikernes was sentenced to 21 years in prison and has since distanced himself from the black metal movement and has allegedly been involved in racist movements (many claim Vikernes is a Neo-Nazi - he claims not to be as his beliefs are different, especially his admiration of Slavic people - Burzum's site is also in Russian as well as English. *) Vikernes has released two albums of a much more ambient and electronic kind of music, Dauði Baldrs in 1997 and Hliðskjálf in 1999, although he implied in a recent interview that he would write material similar to his older works upon his release from prison. By the last few years of the 1990s, the black metal scene had lost much of the violence that seemed to be attached to it in the early days of the scene. Also, bands begun to make records with higher production-quality. However, since the mid-1990s, an Eastern European black metal scene has been developing. Bands from the former Communist Bloc are recording material more in keeping with the primitive nature of the early Norwegian artists. Many of these bands' lyrics glorify the pagan roots of their home countries, occasionally injecting elements of indigenous folk music into their arrangements. The Latvian band Skyforger is a prime example of this new aesthetic. The black metal scene in Russia and Ukraine has produced many bands more in keeping with the carefully arranged sounds coming from Scandinavia, but with more appreciation for the low fidelity aesthetic of early black metal. The Czech band Trollech are a perfect example of the "old-school" Pagan black metal band. The Ukrainian neo-Nazi Nokturnal Mortum has achieved very large recognition in the west; their earlier albums relied heavily on synthesizers, but their current work has a grimmer, more abrasive feel flavored with Slavic folk instruments. Poland's neo-Nazi band Graveland has, in recent albums, striven for a 'medieval' feel, resembling a more developed version of later 'viking' Bathory albums, but in the past made much rawer music which still held a certain intangible folk flavor. From Romania, Negură Bunget is a prime example of traditional black metal, injecting their own indigenous mix of Dacian and Latin elements creating something original, along with a Scandinavian sound. Also notable are Serbian bands The Stone and May Result. There is also a growing number of American bands playing black metal (sometimes called USBM bands). This movement has not taken a particularly clear form, but notable groups are Judas Iscariot, Absu, Averse Sefira and the death metal-influenced Acheron. Bands such as Dark Funeral and extreme metal magazines such as Terrorizer believe that a third wave of influential black metal bands is emerging, this time from France and Sweden. These include Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord, Arkhon Infaustus, Anorexia Nervosa, Antaeus and Ofermod. These bands all claim to be much more interested in Satanism and/or Occultism than previous artists and generally play a very raw extreme style. However, just as with the earlier second wave Norwegian bands they have started to experiment, Deathspell Omega are influenced by Gregorian chant and Blut Aus Nord now incorporate elements of ambient industrial. Ideology Any attempt to lay out the ideology of a musical genre is bound to generalise to the extent that some traits are unfairly played up with respect to certain artists, while others are laid out which do not apply to all. Nonetheless, there is a clear ideological thrust which can be sketched out which captures the essence of the thought behind black metal music. Black metal is generally held to embraced anti-christian sentiment, misanthropy, nihilism, as well as in some cases racism and nationalism. In actuality most black metal musicians view their craft as a natural result of their inherent misanthropy and anti-establishment Weltanschauung. More generally, most black metal musicians are strongly anti-collectivist, critics of religion and are advocates of individualism and rational egoism, but Nationalist Socialist black metal is an exception to this case. The philosophy of Nietzsche is perhaps that which has had the most profound influence on black metal ideology, with strong ties between the production of art as an expression of living, the hatred for 'the bungled and the botched', and the doctrine of the übermensch as seen by Nietzsche and as expressed in black metal aesthetics. The attitude taken to art in black metal is complex. To a large extent, aesthetics are ideology. It carries over from death metal the notion that death and similarly macabre 'taboos' are in actuality essential aspects of life which grant it meaning and direction. To ignore these things is to ignore an important and fulfilling facet of what it is to be alive. Similarly, there is often a deep link to nature which is emphasised, being a type of naturalism. The majority of those involved in the scene are not outspoken with regard to either nationalism or xenophobia (these values are almost exclusive to the sub-genre of National Socialist black metal), perhaps because standard black metal ideology is influenced by anti-idealist philosophers who often regarded racism as a form of idealism or philanthropy. Nonetheless, many black metal bands espouse a weak form of nationalism that is not racism: they are merely proud of their nation, but do not deny the right of other people of other nations to be proud of theirs. This is part of the anti-collectivist mindset which is sometimes held. It follows logically that homogenisation between cultures (irrespective of race) is something to be avoided, and the way to avoid this is to take pride in being a representative of one's own culture, and produce art that is distinct to it. This weak form of nationalism is manifested musically by the incorporation of folk elements to some black metal bands' work. This often occurs well outside of the National Socialist subgenre. National Socialist black metal A black metal movement that deals with Neo-Nazi ideologies, often mixed in with topics pertaining to European pagan religions, National Socialist black metal (NSBM) is more interpreted as an ideology than a sub-genre as there is not any developed "style" to play black metal in a National Socialist way, however NSBM bands actually often tend to have crystal clear production, something very unlike the regular bands. However, the term has stuck around not only because there are traceable movements and labels that sell NSBM exclusively, but also because it is such a hotly debated topic; giving rise to questions like whether it does or does not coincide with traditional black metal characteristics, or whether it should even be considered a subform as most black metal bands do not adhere to the ideology. Some black metal bands have been wrongly labelled NSBM, as there is little to no evidence in the bands lyrics to prove their ideologies. See also Literature | |||||||||
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