This article is a brief survey of the audio-visual development of black metal from its beginnings to the end of the so-called second wave. Citations are included, but further research is encouraged.

The First Wave of Black Metal

Venom

Venom are typically considered the first black metal project. Influenced by the likes of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Motörhead, the band has said that they wanted to contribute to “pushing boundaries” of the day, which they did by using their lyrics, stage presence, and album art/other imagery to get people to believe that in contrast to all those other groups, they were genuinely “…in league with Satan”.[1]

Naturally, this contributes to the ‘tradition’ in art and entertainment of trying to be more daring, shocking, or offensive than what came before. There are many reasons for this, but in Venom’s case, it seems solely to challenge the primarily Christian culture of 70s/80s England. It is from Venom’s 1982 release, Black Metal and the track of the same name that we get the name for the sub-genre. Venom’s frontman Cronos stated in a 2008 interview with The Guardian that he has

“… always been interested in Satanism, but we’re entertainers, and we used subjects like Satanism and paganism to entertain people, like horror movies do.”[2]

Blues makes an appearance in their music as well. Specifically in the track “Teacher’s Pet” from their 1982 release. There is an instant of the connection between blues and black metal. Though this connection seems tenuous stylistically speaking, this track reminds the listener of the origins of rock and metal.

King Diamond // Mercyful Fate

The same year as the release of Venom’s first record saw the founding of Denmark’s Mercyful Fate, whose own debut offering, Melissa, would hit shelves in late October of 1983. Two of the biggest additions Mercyful Fate brought to the subgenre’s traditional stylistic repertoire were the higher-pitched vocals and “corpse paint” of vocalist King Diamond. By this point in time, face paint in this musical context– that is: the intent to shock– had only really been employed by Arthur Brown, Alice Cooper, and Kiss.

The continued use of lyrics featuring the occult and Satanism brought a more sinister meaning to these theatrics. In regards to how his signature vocal style was developed, King Diamond told BangerTV that while looking for a band to play in after his previous one broke up, he saw an ad for a Deep Purple cover band who was looking for a guitarist and vocalist. He attended the audition having never sung before or taking lessons. The discovery of his “falsetto” style would eventually prompt a fan to encourage him to refine it.[3] This opened the doors to harsher vocal styles in black metal to come.

Hellhammer // Celtic Frost

Hellhammer and Celtic Frost both continued to influence the early development of the black metal subgenre than had been seen hitherto.

The members of Hellhammer would later found Celtic Frost. Their first album, Morbid Tales, was released in 1984 and remains a popular cornerstone release in the history of black metal. Claims have been made that they were not a black metal band, yet they continue to be cited as important to the genre.

Celtic Frost would go on, releasing To Mega Therion in 1985 and Into the Pandemonium in 1987. Both expanded the possibilities for black metal, adding symphonic sections and “doom-y” sections to various tracks. The most notable example of these elements would be the tracks “Necromantical Screams” and “Dawn of Meggido.” Thomas Fischer et al. would go on to found Tryptikon following the final disbanding of Celtic Frost on September 9, 2008.[4] [5]

The 2005 artist profile from Century Media Records had this to say on the band’s musical experimentation and the far reach of their stylistic influence:

“Co-founders and co-writers Tom Gabriel Fischer (a.k.a. Tom Gabriel Warrior, voice and guitars) and Martin Eric Ain (bass and vocals) saw their uncompromising conceptual framework and intricate instrumental orchestration influence bands such as Pantera, Marilyn Manson, Emperor, Nirvana, Paradise Lost, Cradle Of Filth, Foo Fighters, Darkthrone, Sepultura, Dimmu Borgir, Obituary, Nile, and countless others. … Their influence has manifested itself in Goth/New Wave vocals, sampling/EBM fusions, melodic metal, and bombastic orchestral pieces, establishing Fischer and Ain as the “elder statesmen” of innovative metal.” [6]

Bathory

Bathory’s first album would come in 1984. Both this release and the follow-up The Return… would serve as the prime stylistic basis for the “second wave” of black metal across the border in Norway in following years. It has been alleged numerous times by numerous writers, journalists, and fans that Bathory was influenced by Venom. Quorthon once said to deathmetal.org:

“I think it is very easy for people to be making that kind of connotation, simply because those two acts in particular are perhaps among the first ones that comes to mind when the roots of extreme metal is being discussed. But actually, I have never owned a Venom or Slayer album. … I have of course heard Slayer … and I have heard a handful of tracks by Venom.”[7]

swedishmetal.nu writes:

“He only heard Venom for the first time after the release of the ‘Bathory’ self-titled album. He received a promotional package from Neat Records one day in early December 1984 which contained some Raven records, but also the first and second Venom albums.”[8]

The lo-fi production was a major part of the second wave’s “philosophy/ideology”. This may not have been a stylistic decision, however, as the band had a budget of “…around $600-700 back then.”

“In 1984 that was actually a lot of money, but today that amount both sounds and feels amazingly ridiculous, if not laughable. We knew about this place that was originally a garage or a private car workshop turned into a demo studio. It was situated at the end of a private house in Huddinge, a southern suburb to Stockholm. It had some rather primitive recording equipment, a home made 8-track table, two small recording machines in one room, plus this switchboard thing on the wall with miles of stereo cords hanging plugged into eight times eight rows of holes.”[9]

This lo-fi production may not have been intentional, but it would come to be an important element of black metal. Bathory would further influence Scandinavian black metal if not metal in general by switching their lyrical themes to Norse mythology and Viking culture on their 1988 release Blood Fire Death. They would later return to their thematic roots before Quorthon’s untimely death in 2004.

The Norwegian Second Wave of Black Metal

Mayhem

Arguably one of the most important contributions to black metal as we know it today was what could be referred to as the “half up, half down” guitar method allegedly created by Euronymus. The player goes a half step up or half step down, then creating the eerie atmosphere emblematic of black metal.[10] Mayhem also increased the harshness of the vocals. Though their other vocalists have no less of a role in this, it is Dead who typically receives much recognition. Though this is likely not as much for his musicianship as his theatricality and eventual passing.

While looking for a new vocalist, a musician named Per Yngve “Dead” Ohlin from Sweden would become their follow-up frontman after Necrobutcher (1984-1986), Messiah (1986), Maniac (1986-1987), and Kittil Kittilsen (1987-1988). Alongside his vocal style, Dead also introduced both theatricality and further use of what we now refer to as “corpse paint”. Facepaint had been used previously in a musical context, but Ohlin didn’t do it “..to look cool, like Kiss … or King Diamond…”[11] He had the idea to throw pig’s heads on their audience, and he cut himself on-stage, then spraying his blood over the onlookers during their first show.[12]

Euronymous started what was known as the “Black Inner Circle” which included band members from the Norwegian scene, but largely Mayhem and eventually Varg Vikernes of one-man project Burzum. Euronymous aspired to have his own “black metal mafia”.[10] Between what he, Dead, and Varg brought to the genre in terms of ideas, these would lay the groundwork for the genre’s continued development.

Dead would die of suicide on April 8th, 1991. Euronymous would later be murdered by Varg.[14] [15] Mayhem is still going today, with Necrobutcher the only remaining founding member.

Immortal

Perhaps partly inspired by Bathory’s “Viking era”, Immortal’s lyrics often tended to diverge from the Satanic theme largely adhered to by other groups of the time, aiming instead to be about the fictional realm “Blashyrkh”, whose climates were inspired by Scandinavian winter. Writes allmusic.com:

“Inspired by the robust Norwegian forests and bitter cold climate, Abbath and Demonaz conceived the fictional, demon-and-battle-filled realm Blashyrkh, a foundation upon which Immortal’s lyrical journeys would rest on future releases. “[16]

Immortal hearkened back to the earlier days of metal. A time when lyrics were usually about fantastical settings and imagery. They did this with a cold extreme metal “mask”. In a scholarly paper by Vittorio Marone of University of Texas at San Antonio, Marone states about the band’s lyrical style:

“The specificity and uniqueness of Immortal’s lyrics is embodied by the fusion of gothic, Nordic, and heroic themes, which is achieved through haunting descriptions of the imaginary realm of Blashyrkh and the invention of closed compound words that merge such themes in unitary and liminal figures.”[17]

Immortal increased black metal’s familiarity with more fantastical themes, and added both literary parallels and lyrical verbosity. Though not directly inspired by Immortal, this tradition would be perpetuated by English band Cradle of Filth.

Darkthrone

Though they set out as a death metal band whose first album was 1991’s Soulside Journey, Darkthrone would become known as a prime example Norwegian black metal. The first track from their first album A Blaze In The Northern Sky (1992) along with Mayhem’s “Deathcrush” or “Sylvester Anfang”, could be considered emblematic of this era of black metal.

Darkthrone pioneered the heavily-edited photographic style of album covers that would become an instantly-recognizable hallmark of black metal aesthetics.[10] They also introduced the idea of a more straightforward drum rhythm to the black metal style.[10]

Fenriz notes that this album “… marked the beginning of the early Norwegian black metal scene.”[18] He states that they were also using the so-called “half up, half down” guitar technique[18], whose alleged invention has been attributed to Euronymus. During this same interview, Fenriz says that back in the day the scene felt

“.. black metal was the only genre of metal that hadn’t been “tampered with” by modern sound.”[18]

Gorgoroth

Building upon the theatricality and extreme stage presence of Mayhem, Gorgoroth’s primary contribution to black metal was an emphasis on melody and increased instrumental and vocal harshness. Vice’s 2011 documentary piece “True Norwegian Black Metal” sees King ov Hell discuss the importance of the “message” of Satanism in their music.[19] As such, ideology is a primary component of the band’s existence. Former frontman Gaahl has expressed support of both church burnings and the complete erasure of “Christian culture and its Semitic roots”.[20]

Speaking to the webzine Tartarean Desire, Gaahl said that

“… the word Satan is from Hebrew religions and has nothing to do with my blood. I deny everything that comes from this Semitic root. … We use the word “Satanist” because it is a Christian world and we have to speak their language.”[21]

At the end of the day, or so my research suggests, nothing was ever truly, practically “Satanic” in black metal. It was “Satanic” like D&D or horror movies are “Satanic”: an effective way to inflame the ignorami. Over the course of black metal’s now 40-plus-year-history, only far-flung political ideologies and a few acts of terror have been held or perpetrated respectively, but no immediately-evident, wide-scale, practical “black magic” Satanism. In reality, it was primarily a tortured expression of cultural trauma aimed squarely at Christianity and Catholicism because of what was done to their indigenous European pagan ancestors centuries prior. This is evident in what Gaahl said, as well as what Varg said in the Until the Light Takes Us documentary. Satanism was nothing more than a “mask” to a subset of the scene.

The band have gone through their share of lineup changes over the years, but the atmosphere and stylistic tendencies have remained largely consistent. They have had bouts of drama as well, but similarly to the “saga” around Dead, Euronymous, Varg, et al., anyone interested can look this up on their own time.

Conclusion

Though much can be said about the so-called “Third Wave” of black metal, the primary takeaway would be that the style continued to grow and develop beyond both the alleged confines the Second Wave introduced and its First Wave origins. Much to the chagrin of purists, the increasing diversity and stylistic experimentation and perspective in this niche element of culture adds to the significance and versatility of darker media overall.

Citations // Bibliography

[1] BangerTV, Metal Evolution: Extreme Metal
[2] The Guardian, This Is The Devil’s Music
[3] BangerTV, King Diamond Interview
[4] blabbermouth.net, Former Celtic Frost Frontman Launches Triptykon
[5] blabbermouth.net, Celtic Frost Laid To Rest For Good
[6] Century Media, Celtic Frost Bio
[7] deathmetal.org, Quorthon Interview
[8] swedishmetal.nu, Bathory Bio
[9] bathory.nu, Bathory Interview
[10] Aaron Aites & Audrey Ewell, Until The Light Takes Us
[11] The Guardian, In The Face of Death
[12] Loudwire, Necrobutcher Interview
[13] Stefan Rydehed, Pure F—ing Mayhem
[14] Varg On Killing Euronymus – AntichristMagazine.com
[15] The Guardian, Norwegian Black Metal’s Murderous Past
[16] allmusic.com, Immortal Band Profile
[17] Vittorio Marone, “A Winterhorde in a Ravenrealm: Immortal’s lyrics as an expression of Northeroic Gothic”
[18] Nasjonalbiblioteket, Interview with Fenriz
[19] VICE, True Norwegian Black Metal
[20] BangerTV, Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey
[21] Tartarean Desire, Gaahl Interview