BLACK METAL HISTORY
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 structure.
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 music of the early Norwegian black metal scene became a distinct genre.
Black metal has often been met with hostility from mainstream culture, mainly due to the misanthropic and anti-Christian standpoint of many artists. Moreover, several of the genre's pioneers have been linked with church burnings and murder. For these reasons and others, black metal is usually seen as an underground form of music. Additionally some have been linked to neo-Nazism, however many black metal fans and most prominent black metal musicians reject Nazi ideology and oppose its influence on the black metal subculture.
Characteristics
Instrumentation
Black metal guitarists usually favour high-pitched guitar tones and a great deal of distortion. The guitar is usually played with much use of fast tremolo picking and dissonance. Guitarists often use specific scales, intervals and chord progressions designed to yield what they consider the most fear-inducing and foreboding sounds. The tritone or flat-fifth is often used for example. Guitar solos and low guitar tunings are rare in black metal.
The bass guitar is seldom used to play stand-alone melodies. It is not uncommon for the bass guitar to be minimal or difficult to hear, or to homophonically follow the bass lines of the guitar. Typically, drumming is fast-paced and uses double-bass and/or blast beats.
Black metal songs often stray from conventional song structure and often lack clear verse-chorus sections. Instead, many black metal songs contain lengthy and repetitive instrumental sections.
Vocals and lyrics
Traditional or "purist" black metal bands usually use high-pitched and raspy vocals which include shrieking, screaming and snarling. This vocal style was influenced by Quorthon of Bathory, and is one of the traits that distinguishes traditional black metal vocals from those of death metal, which usually uses low-pitched growls.
Black metal was originally used as a term for extreme metal bands with Satanic lyrics; today, the most common and founding lyrical theme is opposition to Christianity and other organized religions. As part of this, many artists write lyrics that could be seen to promote atheism, antitheism, paganism or Satanism. The hostility of many secular or pagan artists is in some way linked to the Christianization of their countries. Other oft-explored themes are depression, nihilism, misanthropy, death and other dark topics. However, over time, many artists have begun to focus more on topics like the seasons (particularly winter), nature, mythology, folklore, philosophy and fantasy. One of the more notable sources of inspiration is The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.
For more information about black metal lyrics, see the ideology section below.