History of Black Metal
..."Varg" Vikernes, aka "Count Grishnakh". 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". The black metal scene gained some unasked-for mass media attention in 1990 when Mayhem's frontman Dead committed suicide by a shotgun blast to his head. His note simply read "Excuse all the blood". 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. 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' got even more exposure in 1993, when Vikernes murdered Aarseth in his home over some sort of interpersonal feud, stabbing him 23 times in the head and back. Vikernes was sentenced to 21 years in prison and has since distanced himself from the black metal movement, becoming involved in the Neo-Nazi movement and writing extensively on the subject. By the last few years of the 1990s, the black metal scene had lost much of its appeal to the underground, when recordings from commercially oriented bands such as Dimmu Borgir, using classical-sounding arrangements and prominent keyboards, began to get regular play on European airwaves. Far from the rough, DIY sounds of the early Norwegian bands, this latest wave employed polished sounds more accessible to a mass audience. However, since the mid-90s, an Eastern European black metal scene has been developing. Bands from these former Iron Curtain lands are recording albums 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 Ukrainian band Nokturnal Mortum has achieved some 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, strived for a 'medieval' feel, much like a much more developed version of later 'viking' Bathory albums, but in the past made much rawer music which still held a certain intangible folk flavor. There are a relatively small number of American bands playing black metal (sometimes called USBM bands). This movement has not taken a particularly clear form, but better-known groups are Judas Iscariot and the death metal-influenced Averse Sefira. Sub-genres There are many smaller genres related to, or sub-genres of Black Metal. The main ones are listed below: - Folk metal (Skyclad, Cruachan, Waylander, Finntroll) - National Socialist black metal or NSBM (Thor's Hammer, Kataxu, Temnozor) - Symphonic black metal (Emperor) - Unblack metal (Horde, Admonish, Parameaecium, Necromanicide) - Viking metal (Bathory, Vintersorg, Enslaved, Moonsorrow) Although some of those above are relatively widely-recognised sub-genres, with a number of bands in each, there are an extremely large amount of "sub-subgenres" like "forest metal," "mass murder metal," "dragon metal" and others distinct to very small regions or specific bands. Literature Michael Moynihan, Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground (Feral House) ISBN 0922915482 chk this links .... http://www.anus.com/metal/about/blackmetal.html http://www.barbarianwrath.org/ http://www.darksymphonies.com/ http://www.theorderofthedragon.com/ http://www.fmp666.com/ http://www.arkana.de.vu/ http://www.geocities.com/james_montague/ed4.htm http://www.cymophane.com/ http://www.blackmetal.com/ http://www.demonichorde.com/ http://musica.mustdie.ru/ http://www.nsbm.com/ - about National Socialist Black Metal (see above) Back to top Chaos_Arcanum Moderator Joined: 09 May 2004 Posts: 3398 Location: between ur hate and my pain..! Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2004 2:38 pm Post subject: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Over the generations of metal a great evolution has occurred from the primitive origins of the sound in alienated mainstream music to its emergence into a neoclassical revival in underground death and black metal. Navigate the genres menu by selecting a type of music on the left based on its corresponding description, or use the methods at the bottom of the page to select a new way of viewing our review listings. In the time after the Cold War, an involution of "progressive" values caused the West to lose sight of natural values in a desire to outperform each other in a competition of egalitarian morals. Black metal rose above this normative impulse by aspiring to the highest realms of human conception and behavior, embracing intellectual elitism and the honorable warrior mentality of the medieval era. Where death metal broke music into raw rhythm and structure, black metal built upon that foundation in technique by exploring the use of melody as the central principle of songwriting. Long phrases harmonize internally and resolve in resounding tremelo, often creating from broken apart sound an organic torrent of tones that wrapped around each other and create a single, clear, evolving melodic line which forms the structure of each composition. Black Metal is, as these genre labels almost always are, something of a misnomer. Most rockers have always worn black, and more than one outsider has seriously wondered whether the term refers to some kind of afro-Caribbean rock sub-genre (a little ironic considering the genre's reputation for fascist overtones). The other alternative to using the term.however, where special pleading by bands leaves you with as many genres as acts - vampire metal, occult metal, hate metal, and whatever the hell else - is an even more confusing situation. I guess Black Metal as a term is then, appropriately, something of a necessary evil. And if you think about it, even the term Heavy Metal itself is hardly descriptive of the genre,but it's stuck for want of anything else. Eighties boozy Satanic thrash pioneers Venom have the best claim to having coined the Black Metal moniker, and even they have distanced themselves from it to an extent. Thankfully, subsequent bands have appeared who have taken the term - and ironically Venom's back catalogue - more seriously than Venom ever did. Most serious fans...