Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording and unconventional song structures.
During the 1980s, several thrash metal bands formed a prototype for black metal. This so-called "first wave" included bands such as Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. A "second wave" arose in the early 1990s, spearheaded by Norwegian bands such as Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal and Emperor. The early Norwegian black metal scene developed the style of their forebears into a distinct genre. Norwegian-inspired black metal scenes emerged throughout Europe and North America, although some other scenes developed their own styles with no connection to the Norwegian one.
Initially a synonym for "Satanic metal", black metal has often been met with hostility from mainstream culture, mainly due to the misanthropic and anti-Christian views of many artists. Moreover, several of the genre's pioneers have been linked with church burnings and murder. Some artists have also been linked to neo-Nazism, although most black metal fans and most prominent black metal artists shun Nazism and oppose its influence on the black metal subculture. Much like punk, the black metal community generally condemns the seeking of mainstream success or attention, preferring the genre to remain underground.
Read more about Black Metal: Stylistic Divisions, Ideology
Other articles related to "metal, black metal":
... With Carpathian Wolves, the band drew the attention of several bigger metal labels and was eventually signed by the Austrian Lethal Records label, which released Thousand Swords ... considered to be the band's best release by many fans and a classic in the black metal scene ... The album's booklet contains statements against Lethal Records and two other bigger metal labels, Osmose and Nuclear Blast ...
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... Sear Bliss is a black metal band from Szombathely, Hungary, formed in 1993 by bassist, vocalist and now also keyboardist András Nagy ... Apart from the usual heavy metal instruments they adopted synthesizer and wind instruments (like trumpet and trombone sometimes flute) in their songs ... The Netherlands' leading metal magazine, Aardschok awarded Sear Bliss debut album Phantoms the title of "CD Of The Month" ...
... Initially, the band played death metal, until Alexander left the bass guitar for Jonathan Jansson and began playing keyboards, taking the sound more towards black metal ... a demo tape titled In the Bleak Midwinter, which presented Scandinavian black metal and was released in early 1998 ... The band's sound changed from atmospheric black metal to chaotic black metal ...
... A black metal mockumentary Legalize Murder was released in 2006 ... show Metalocalypse is about an extreme metal band called Dethklok, with many references to leading black metal artists on the names of various businesses, such as Fintroll's convenience store, Dimmu Burger ... visit Toki's dying father and the original black metal record store, much to the dismay of the band members when they find out the store does not sell any of their music, described by the owner as being "too ...
Famous quotes containing the words metal and/or black:
“We are supposed to be the children of Seth; but Seth is too much of an effete nonentity to deserve ancestral regard. No, we are the sons of Cain, and with violence can be associated the attacks on sound, stone, wood and metal that produced civilisation.”
—Anthony Burgess (b. 1917)
“All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven
‘Tis gone.
Arise, black vengeance, from the hollow hell!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)