Black metal is a sub genre of metal that is
associated with, most prominantley, Norwegian and other Scandinavian countries. This type of music includes blasting drum beats from
double bass drums and heavy guitar picking, known as tremelo picking. The singing is usually growling and somewhat
high pitched. Bands such as Darkthrone, Mayhem, Emperor and Immortal made Black metal into what it is known as today although Venom sort of started it. Now, bands like Satyricon, Carpathian Forest, Gorgoroth, Burzum, Borknagar, Finntroll, Dimmu Borgir, Tulus and 1349 are well known amongst the fans of this music. The history of black metal dates back to the early to mid 80's. But the shit really
hit the fan in the early 90's when church burnings and killings became a friday ritual over in Norway. One of the members of Burzum, the singer Varg, was locked up after brutally murduring another musician. Burzum's last album before his inconvinient sentence was Filosofem which in my opinion is a great album. Another violent metal occurence is when the singer from Mayhem took his own life. "Death", as he was called, blew out his brains with a shotgun. The members of the band decided to make the picture of him dead, the next cd cover. Although the cover defines the meaning of black metal, it was banned and they were forced to change it. Some other
interesting facts: Drummer from Mayhem, Hellhammer, plays for Dimmu Borgir. Drummer for Satyricon, Frost, also plays for 1349. The world of Black metal is fasinating and violent but the music speaks for itself. I have a countless # of black metal albums and I love them all. Buy a couple and give it a good listen or two.
