Black Metal

Blasphemic metal for the big kahuna in the boiler room downstairs. Yep, these are Satan's house bands and Hell is abuzz with buzz-saw basses and evil blast beats. The original black metal band was Venom (Welcome To Hell and Black Metal), but Celtic Frost (To Mega Therion) was around spewing their own blackened version too! At first Black Metal was a Satanic offshoot of speed metal going fast, faster than your soul on Beelzebubba's pitchfork at an all-you-can-eat soul banquet then it progressed into a maelstrom of speedy metal with symphonic, folk or Viking overtones. For the guitar-oriented black metallers, it still is fast and guitar driven with bunches of blast-beats, screeching growled vocals and just a touch of industrial. Others have found new avenues for their blasphemies. The one unifying factor here is a love of Satan. This genre may not be for everyone. Those with a strong sensitivity to evil may not want to partake. The dress code sports plenty of black leather, satanic tattoos and spikes. Malevolent glares seem to only enhance the chalky corpsepaint covering their faces. These musicians could stare down Manson and make him piss in his pants. They are as bad as they want to be and some are very, very bad. Many of the more die-hard Norwegian bands have been involved in everything from murder to church burnings. They are not to be taken lightly. For a really complete history you must Lords of Chaos by Michael Moynihan. The book isn't easy to find, but is fascinating and a must-read for metal fans or fans of the occult. Best of all, Lords of Chaos gives a long accurate history of black metal, Emperor, Count Grishnackh's of Euronymous, Satyricon and the Odinism movements in Norway. For the art-oriented, this group abuses the concept of a readable logo more than any other metal genre.

The best (or most popular) of the guitar-oriented black metal world are Emperor, Mayhem (De Mysteriis dom. Sathanas is their highwater mark), Marduk (Panzer Division Marduk may be the fastest black metal disc ever), Darkthrone, Bathory (Under the Sign of the Black Mark although middle-era works leaned toward Viking metal, e.g. Hammerheart, and then they returned to their roots on later efforts) and Immortal. Satyricon have been involved in black metal since the early days, but add the elements of artsiness and intelligence that are sadly lacking in the legions of wannabes. Satyricon's best disc is Nemesis Divina or Dark Medieval Times.

Essentially the same as guitar-oriented black metal, but refers to a particular geographical area of Norway where (I guess) a hyper-fast, blasting, guitar and keyboard black metal was began. The most frequently mentioned bands are Darkthrone and Emperor. Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse or Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk are terrific starting points for the genre.

Holocaust or Ice Metal

The band Immortal has been connected with either version. Immortal play guitar-oriented black metal that is supremely Scandinavian and very speedy. Battles in the North and Blizzard Beasts are their best efforts and will blow the doors off of small vehicles. Much of their music centers around a fantasy world called Blashyrkh that is located beyond the North.

Symphonic Black Metal

The battle for the ultimate supremacy in the symphonic underworld is between Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth. Others may try, but they still haven't come close to the dark lords. Cradle of Filth is probably the front runner with albums such as Dusk and Her Embrace and Beauty and the Beast. Dimmu Borgir's best work is Spiritual Black Dimensions which steers a bit more towards guitar-oriented black metal than their earlier releases. They mix large amounts of guitar-oriented metal with classical symphonic pieces and/or operatic singers and toss in the feel of a horror movie soundtrack. I am amazed at the talent level of most of the symphonic black metal singers, some could be performing opera, many have been operatically trained (Kimberley Goss when she was with Dimmu Borgir and most if not all of the supporting singers for Cradle of Filth). Dani Filth (lead singer of Cradle of Filth) has an amazing, albeit sometimes irritating, range. There are hundreds of bands performing symphonic metal: Hecate Enthroned, early Negura Bunget (now transformed by the addition of Romanian folk) and Arcturus (Aspera Hiems Symfonia, an underproduced classic).

Dark Metal

Same as guitar-oriented black metal but not totally Satanic, just slightly less evil or not committed enough to any religious group. Allegedly begun by Bethlehem on the disc Dark Metal. It is every bit as heavy and dark as black metal just not committed to evil.

Troll Metal

The lone breeding ground of Mortiis whose shining star is his new Stargate cd from Earache. This sick Norwegian troll has begat troll metal based on a fantasy world created by Mortiis and loosely based on a personal obsession with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Personally this isn't far from Gothic with touches of industrial and ambient atmosphere. His unique outift consists of a skull-shaped codpiece, black PVC uniform and rubber nose and ears with tons of make-up to give the total troll appearance augmented by lots and lots of spikes 'cause that's cool. The music is not really metal, but gets the nod because when he was younger he was in Emperor.

Viking Metal

Originally begun by a number of parties all claiming to be first: Burzum, the name taken from the Tolkien word meaning "darkness" [could have been hedging in on Mortiis' turf] (one man group--"Count Grishnackh" or Varg Vikernes--the murderer of Euronymous [Mayhem]--mixed black metal with Nazi Odinism claiming that "Jews killed his father Odin" hence Viking) or Bathory (claiming to mix the folk music of Norway with Viking philosophy and metal culminating in the Hammerheart release). Today a number of bands follow the Bathory route and charge traditional Viking or Norwegian folk melodies with stories of Viking days or other pagan philosophies with an unplugged kind of metal like Enslaved (check out Eld or Blodhemn). Borknagar (their The Olden Domain is a superior Viking metal disc), Odhinn, Einherjer, Thyrfing and Vintersorg are some of the newer bands that are playing an aggressive, guitar-oriented Viking metal. You can check out Varg Vikernes philosophical Vargsmal Manifesto.

Cyber Black Metal

Mix healthy portions of techno-cyber-industrial with black metal and Satanism and you will find Impaled Nazarene, the project of the bald and slightly unstable Mikka Luttinen. If you enjoy black metal and get into the more technology-based musics, then check out Impaled Nazarene's Latex Cult, Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz, or Dodheimsgard's 666 International which I have been told is in the same vein.

Websites, magazines and mail order

Nordic Vision is an excellent black metal magazine, contact them at Nordic Vision, PO Box 285, 1451 Nesoddtangen, Norway. Subscriptions are available even to the U.S.
If you prefer monthly copies, they are orderable along with a huge amount of black metal from Repulse.
Metal Maniacs covers a tremendous amount of black and extreme metals and subscriptions are available online.
The Pit Magazine is available as well and covers a good number of extreme and black metal bands and offers a free compilation CD in each issue and also offers the Mosh Pit Music.
Ill-Literature Magazine also offers a CD in each issue as well as a full complement of articles, news and interviews (it seems a bit biased towards Century media acts, though).
The British publication Terrorizer is a fantastic and expensive (if you're American) resource; if you're British you get an occassional free CD.
On-line webzines The Laminated Ca and Metal World are real interesting reads and great review sources, plus Lamcat has great fonts for free.
Check out The Black Metal.
The BNR Metal pages covers a lot of metal territory.
Relapse Mail Order and Blackmetal.com also carries a good supply of black metal.

The sheer number of black metal labels is staggering. A partial list follows:
Avant Garde Music
Cacophonous Records
Candlelight Records
Century Media Records
Displeased Records
Full Moon Productions
Hammerheart
Mayhem
Metal Blade
Moonfog
Morbid Records
Napalm Records
Necropolis Records
Nuclear Blast America
Olympic Records
Osmose Productions
Pavement Music
Red Stream Records
Roadrunner Records
Southern Lord Records
Spinefarm

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