Black metal is a genre of music recognized for its intense sounds, which include shrieked voices, fast tempos, blast beat drumming, unconventional song structures, highly distorted guitar sounds and raw recording. It is considered an “extreme” sub genre of heavy metal. The roots of black metal stretch back to the 1980s, when the first prototype examples of the genre appeared.
During the 1980s, speed and thrash metal bands grew in popularity. The actual phrase “black metal” was created by Venom, an English thrash metal band that formed in 1979. The term was actually the name of their second album, which released in 1982. At the time, the music was labeled as thrash metal. However today, it is often regarded as the first of the black metal albums. Much of the album’s focus remained on themes that were Satanic and anti-Christian in nature. The sound was very fast paced, unpolished and utilized raspy grunt like vocals. The band also chose stage names for themselves, something that would become very popular among later black metal bands.
Venom wasn’t the only band to lend its influence to black metal. A Swedish heavy metal band called Bathory also played a strong role. Much like Venom, Bathory utilized anti-Christian themes in their lyrics and implemented fast paced sounds. This style held out for Bathory’s first albums, including 19854’s self-titled album, 1985’s The Return of Darkness and Evil, 1987’s Under the Sign of the Black Mark and 1988’s Blood Fire Death. By the early 1990s, Bathory’s sound moved on to what would later be identified as Viking metal.
A number of other musicians from all over the world were considered among the first wave of black metal bands. These included the Swiss band Celtic Frost, the German bands Destruction and Sodom, Italy’s Death SS and Bulldozer, Hungary’s Tormentor, Denmark’s Merciful Fate, Brazil’s Sarcofago, Canada’s Blasphemy and Root from the Czech Republic.
Black metal evolved again between 1990 and 1994 as Norwegian bands released a new version of the genre. The style took the original 1980s style and separated it further from thrash metal. These acts included Burzum, Thorns, Mayhem, Satyricon, Immortal, Darkthrone, Dimmu Borgir, Emperor, Enslaved, Carpathian Forest, Ulver and Gorgoroth. These bands would also adopt the practice of using corpse paint (or corpsepaint), which was black and white face paint that identified them from other genres of heavy metal.
During the mid 1990s, black metal bands began improving the quality of their sound. They added instruments, including synthesizers. Some even implemented full symphony orchestras. The fact that the genre was becoming so diversified marked what many would consider the end of the second wave of black metal music.
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