Black Metal ideologies

Regardless of who you speak to or listen to, I have deciphered (from documentaries and interviews) something behind the Black Metal ideology. My discovery is two-fold, covering the artists and the fans. It'd be easy to say "well, yeah, of course that's the case." However, there's a difference between saying that and actually finding evidence that suggests something. What I have found is that a minority of artists and fans either take the music too seriously or treat it as a joke. However, most tend to be somewhere in the middle, merely appreciating the music for the art that it is. So, despite what Norwegian newspapers have said in the past, there is no true Satanic conspiracy. Although, wouldn't it be fun if there was?

Genealogy of Extreme Metal

As many people know, heavy metal was started by Black Sabbath. They are, quite literally, the grandfather of modern heavy metal (though I still maintain that Steppenwolf coined the term "heavy metal"). Through a fusion of punk and heavy metal, thrash came into being. From thrash came black and death metal. It's an over-simplified breakdown of events, but that is the general order of things. The Big Four of thrash were all from the US and they were influenced by bands like Diamond Head and Motorhead. The band Venom is credited with starting black metal, or at least coining the phrase, with their second LP Metal Black. Afterwards, black metal exploded in Norway and, to a lesser extent, in Sweden. Florida and Sweden were the strongholds of early Death Metal.

Death Metal

Death Metal came out of thrash. It is the Romulus to Black Metal's Remus. DM involves, often, fast tremolo picked guitar riffs, the use of minor or diminished keys, a hefty amount of atonality, growled vocals (traditionally, but not really a must. This is actually a legitimate technique known as glottal fry!), blast beats in drumming, all merged with tempo and time signature changes. Black metal is often stripped down and raw whereas death metal contains a bit more musicianship, to say the least.

Death metal contains lyrical themes that revolve around violence, destruction and death (as the name obviously implies). Some bands within this sub-genre write very specific lyrics about gore and violence, other exult in war and the destruction that it causes and some earlier bands (such as Death) didn't feel the need to stick to these tropes and ideas, as the genre was still in its infancy. Other lyrical themes are still present, as the above mentioned are not a must. Such themes may include Satanism, the occult or social commentary.

Black Metal

The band credited with starting this genre, or at least coming up with the title "black metal," is a British metal band called Venom. The second wave of black metal, which took off in Norway, is often referred to as "True Norwegian Black Metal." These are the bands who burned churches (some of them, anyways).

Black metal often contains heavy use of tremolo picked melody lines, fast strumming rhythm guitar, less palm muting and chunking than is present in thrash and non-conventional song structure. While there are plenty of black metal bands that subscribe to a standard verse, chorus, verse, etc. formula for their songs, it is by no means mandatory. Keys used are often, if not always, minor or some variation thereof and many bands utilize minor arpeggios that are moved around chromatically.

Lyrically, black metal is innately dark, covering topics such as Satan worship, National Socialism, misanthropy, anti-religion and suicide. Other sub-sub-genres of BM include pagan black metal (which is non-Satanic) and blackened folk or blackened death, blending the musical imagery of black metal with folk or death metal sounds and styles.

Thrash

Thrash metal is the sub-genre that sparked the birth of extreme metal. It's origins are steeped in the late 70s and early 80s. It combined fast, percussive guitar riffs and shredding with the aggressive attitude of punk rock. Lyrical content usually spans social issues such as politics, religion and war with a focus on the negative. Seminal thrash bands include Great Britain's Diamond Head and Motorhead The "Big Four" of thrash (or, as I like to call them, the Four Horsemen) are Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica and Slayer and they all formed in the United States of America. As far as musical traits go, chromaticism plays a major role in much of thrash metal, as well as "chunking" (which is basically an excessive use of palm muting). This is, of course, in addition to having a huge focus on various lead guitar techniques that emphasize speed.

New Incarnation

This blog is now about the history of Extreme Metal and how it coincides with the media. Enjoy.

Starless Aeon

This is the final segment of a 4-part interview with Erik from Watain. Listen to his words, especially on the nature of Black Metal. Anyone who fancies themselves a black metal musician should heed his words.