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Black metal
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Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It often employs fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, double-kick drumming, and unconventional song structure.
During the 1980s, certain thrash metal bands established a prototype for black metal. This so-called First Wave included bands such as Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. A Second Wave emerged in the early 1990s, which consisted primarily of Norwegian bands such as Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal and Emperor.
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Encyclopedia
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It often employs fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, double-kick drumming, and unconventional song structure.
During the 1980s, certain thrash metal bands established a prototype for black metal. This so-called First Wave included bands such as Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. A Second Wave emerged in the early 1990s, which consisted primarily of Norwegian bands such as Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal and Emperor. This scene developed the black metal style into a distinct genre.
Black metal has been met with considerable hostility from mainstream culture, mainly due to the misanthropic and anti-Christian ideology of many artists. Additionally, some musicians have been associated with church burnings, murder and/or National Socialism. For these reasons and others, black metal is often viewed as an underground form of music.
Characteristics
Instrumentation
Black metal guitarists usually favour high-treble guitar tones and abundant distortion. Typically, the guitar is played with much usage of fast tremolo picking. When composing music, guitarists often use those scales, intervals and chord progressions that produce the most dissonant, fearful and ominous sounds. Additionally, guitar solos and low guitar tunings are a rarity in black metal.
The bass guitar is rarely used to perform independent melodies. It is not uncommon for the bass guitar to be inaudible or to homophonically follow the bass lines of the electric guitar. Typically, drumming is fast-paced and performed using double-bass and/or blast beat techniques. However it is not unusual for drummers to employ more simplistic techniques. Many solo composers use drum machines instead of a human drummer.
Black metal compositions commonly deviate from conventional song structure and are often devoid of clear verse-chorus sections. Instead, many black metal songs contain extended and repetitive instrumental passages.
Vocals and lyrics
Traditional black metal vocals are in the form of high-pitched shrieks, screams and snarls. This vocal style sharply contrasts with the low-pitched growls of death metal. The majority of black metal vocalists are male, although there are a few notable exceptions – for example Cadaveria, Astarte and Lucifugum.
The most common and founding lyrical theme is opposition to Christianity and other organized religions (described by some as Right-Hand Path religions). As part of this, many artists write lyrics that could be seen to promote atheism, antitheism, paganism and Satanism. Other themes that are commonly explored include depression, nihilism, misanthropy and death. Additionally, some black metal artists write lyrics that are inspired by winter, forests, nature, mythology, folklore and fantasy narratives.
Production
Low-cost production quality began as a must for pioneering black metal artists with low budgets. However, even when they were able to increase their production quality, many artists intentionally recorded in a low fidelity style. The reason for this was to remain true to the genre's underground roots and to make the music sound more "cold". One of the better-known examples of this production is the album Transilvanian Hunger by Darkthrone, a band who "represent the DIY aspect of black metal" according to Johnathan Selzer of Terrorizer magazine. Many have noted that, originally, black metal was not designed to attract listeners. Vocalist Gaahl claimed that during its early years, "black metal was never meant to reach an audience, it was purely for our own satisfaction".
Imagery and performances
Unlike artists of other genres, many black metal artists do not perform concerts. Many consist of just one member and thus performing live is impractical; although some recruit extra musicians specifically for concerts. Bands that choose to perform concerts often make use of stage props and theatrics. Mayhem and Gorgoroth are noted for their controversial stage performances; which have featured impaled animal heads, mock crucifixions, medieval weaponry, and the band members doused in animal blood.
Black metal artists typically appear dressed in black with combat boots, bullet belts, spiked wristbands, and inverted crosses/inverted pentagrams to reinforce their anti-Christian or anti-religious stance. However, they are most often identified by their usage of corpse paint – black and white makeup (sometimes detailed with real or fake blood), which is used to simulate a corpse-like appearance.
In the early 1990s, most pioneering black metal artists used very simplistic black-and-white imagery on their record covers. Some believe this was a reaction against death metal bands, who at that time had begun to use brightly coloured album artwork. Most underground black metal artists have continued this style. Bands that do not use this style usually have album covers that are either atmospheric or provocative; some feature natural or fantastical landscapes (for example Burzum's Filosofem and Emperor's In The Nightside Eclipse) while others are violent, perverted and iconoclastic (for example Marduk's Fuck Me Jesus).
The First Wave
The First Wave of black metal refers to those bands during the 1980s who pioneered the black metal sound and formed a prototype for the genre. They were often speed metal or thrash metal bands.
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