AT A GLANCE
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It often uses fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure.
During the 1980s, a few thrash metal bands formed a prototype for black metal. This so-called "first wave" included bands such as Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer, Celtic Frost and Sarcófago.[1] A "second wave" arose in the early 1990s, spearheaded by Norwegian bands such as Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal and Emperor. This scene developed the black metal style into a distinct genre.
Black metal has often been met with hostility from mainstream culture, mainly due to the misanthropic, anti-Christian, and pro-Satan stances of many artists. Moreover, a few of the genre's pioneer bands have been linked with church burnings, murder, or National Socialism. For these, as well as other, reasons black metal is usually seen as an underground form of music.
Characteristics
Instrumentation
Black metal guitarists usually favor high-pitched guitar tones and a great deal of distortion.[2] Typically, the guitar is played with much use of fast tremolo picking.[2][3][4] When writing music, guitarists often use scales, intervals and chord progressions that yield the most dissonant and ominous sounds. Guitar solos and low guitar tunings are rare in black metal.[4]The bass guitar is rarely used to perform stand-alone melodies. It is not uncommon for the bass guitar to be inaudible[4] or to homophonically follow the bass lines of the electric guitar. Typically, drumming is fast-paced and uses double-bass and/or blast beat techniques.
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 black metal vocals take the form of high-pitched shrieks, screams and snarls.[2][4] This is in stark contrast to the low-pitched growls of death metal.The most common and founding lyrical theme is opposition to Christianity[4] and other organized religions. As part of this, many artists write lyrics that could be seen to promote atheism, antitheism, paganism and Satanism.[5] The hostility of many secular or pagan black metal artists is in some way linked to the Christianization of their countries. Other oft-explored themes are depression, nihilism, misanthropy,[5] death and other dark topics. However, over time, many black metal artists have begun to focus more on topics like the seasons (particularly winter), nature, mythology, folklore, philosophy and fantasy.
Production
Low-cost production quality was a must for early black metal artists with low budgets, where recordings would often take place in the home or in basements; a notable example of such is the band Mayhem, whose record label Deathlike Silence Productions would record artists in the basement of the shop Helvete.[2] However, even when they were able to raise their production quality, many artists chose to keep making low fidelity (lo-fi) recordings.[4][5] The reason for this was to stay true to the genre's underground roots and to make the music sound more "raw" and "cold".[5] One of the better-known examples of this is the album Transilvanian Hunger by Darkthrone – a band that has been said to "represent the DIY aspect of black metal" by Johnathan Selzer of Terrorizer magazine.[5] Many have claimed that, originally, black metal was not meant to attract a big audience.[5] Vocalist Gaahl said that during its early years, "black metal was never meant to reach an audience, it was purely for our own satisfaction".[3]Imagery and performances
Unlike artists of other genres, many black metal artists do not perform concerts. Bands that choose to perform concerts often make use of stage props and theatrics. Mayhem and Gorgoroth among other bands are noted for their controversial shows; which have featured impaled animal heads, mock crucifixions, medieval weaponry, and band members doused in animal blood.[6]
Black metal artists often appear dressed in black with combat boots, bullet belts, spiked wristbands,[5] and inverted crosses/pentagrams to reinforce their anti-Christian or anti-religious stance.[1] However, the most stand-out trait is their use of corpse paint – black and white makeup (sometimes mixed with real or fake blood), which is used to create a corpse-like appearance.
In the early 1990s, most pioneering black metal artists used simple black-and-white pictures or writing on their record covers.[7] This could have been meant as a reaction against death metal bands, who at that time had begun to use brightly-colored album artwork.[7] 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 fantasy 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 and Dimmu Borgir's In Sorte Diaboli).
No comments:
Post a Comment