Black Metal: Transcending the genre

“I reject the gift of life”, MkM (Antaeus)

This article aims to present a few thoughts on the ‘black metal’ mindscape from a more ideological perspective thus hopefully conferring a more cerebral understanding of the genre’s aesthetics. A brief recap of its history and chronology is also necessary to highlight a few key landmark events that shaped black metal as we know it today. 

Since the dawn of time, man has strived to express himself in a spiritual and artistic manner. But alas the human psyche is certainly not of a uniform nature. It is multipartite and comprising of many facets, which could even be interpreted as bipolar in nature. Throughout the human epoch there has always been that primal strive for survival from which musical _expression stemmed forth. From man’s joyous ecstasies of rejoicing in his well-being to the negativistic apprehension of his ultimate fate: death, all the spectrum of human emotion has burrowed itself through artistic outlet. Be it positive or negative, ALL sentiments and emotions have a place within the human soul and as such can become the creative fodder from which artistic inspiration can be ignited. Through the ages we have observed a multitude of musical artistry, from Beethoven’s compositional genius to the more ritualistic and simple ceremonial music which accompany pagan ceremonies since antiquity. When Black Metal hit the world, almost 25 years ago an astute observer could have seen it as a validation of one simple saying: “The human soul is an abyss.” 

When Venom started back in 1981, releasing the single "In League with Satan/Live Like an Angel, Die Like A Devil" they would have never guessed what their image and their music would inspire. After a year they released the now monumental "Black Metal" album from which the aforementioned metal genre would derive its name. Further North, Bathory (Quorthon, R.I.P.) put forth the musical standard of what we today call Black Metal with the release of the self-titled "Bathory" album in 1984. After that, Bathory released a further number of albums from which the "Blood Fire Death" was to be the cornerstone indeed of what we might call today Epic Black Metal. It is important to note the truly sensational Celtic Frost, a true living legend since 1984, when they released their "Apocalyptic Raids" album (as Hellhammer). Celtic Frost's "Morbid Tales", "To Mega Therion" and "Into The Pandemonium" albums are to this day considered as classics, cementing themselves as true masters in the scene. Of course this incipient underground movement couldn't have missed America, from the US scene sprouted bands such as Absu, Blasphemy, Profanatica which were true to the spirit that gave birth to their musical _expression. 

But this is not a question of technical originality (or lack thereof…); it is a matter of musical evolution. What these early bands managed to show was that Black Metal could be a means of expressing the negative aspect of the psyche in a more pure and almost exclusive manner. There was always music which drew from a more pessimistic and negative attitude but never before had a musical genre attained such a monumental apotheosis of all that is dark and macabre. The initial shock-value was indeed more than considerable. Actually its reverberations can still be heard today. Now what exactly is it that makes Black Metal, well… black? A re-visiting of the genre’s roots is in order. 

Black metal may be considered as the spiritual bastard child of death metal. When death metal reared its ugly head back in the 80’s the media initially saw it as a jumbled concoction of musical cacophony played by disgruntled testosterone-crazed teenagers, a poor offshoot of speed metal threaded with punk rock attitude. What the media failed to see at the time was that death metal had a firm rooting in social malcontent which delved deeper than superficial adolescent rebellion but as such it imposed a limit on itself, both ideologically and resourcefully in the long run. At the same time black metal was open-ended, anyone who was playing fast, incorporated satanic lyrics and had the appropriate uncompromising image could be dubbed either death or black metal or essentially extreme metal. And then suddenly came Mayhem… 

Mayhem can be regarded as the archetype of black metal anti-conformism. The quartet that comprised it back in 1986 (Manheim, Necrobutcher, Euronymous, Messiah) taken aback by Celtic Frost’s monumental records, Slayer’s unrelenting musicianship and of course Venom, set out to play as raw and extreme as possible. Cacophonous, harsh and at times inaudible, ‘Pure Fucking Armageddon’ was the fruit of this early endeavor. Actually the sound quality on their following demo ‘Voice Of A Tortured Skull‘ is so bad, there are still speculations as to whether vocals were featured on the demo or not. Nonetheless, a small group of listeners gathered around the band and a small but dedicated following was slowly taking shape. The central figure of this early ‘movement’ so to speak was Oystien Åarseth (a.k.a. Euronymous). A good number of bands (including Immortal and the then Black Death, Darkthrone’s previous moniker) influenced by his imposing figure switched camps from straight-out US-influenced Death Metal to the newly-shaped Black Metal camp. Starting with Euronymous' Black Metal Mafia, which tried to bring together bands sharing a common ideology, a strong bond was being cultivated which still encircles bands and individuals to this day, something which differentiated black metal from otherwise lowbrow genres. The power of black metal began to spurt through the ideas it conveyed. Where death metal's lyrics dealt with the idea of death (murder, torture, portrayals of hellish places) almost exclusively, black metal went more deep with its lyrical content, brushing with spiritual and esoteric matters. Unfortunately the events (i.e. church burnings, murders, vandalisms) that followed would eclipse much of the seriousness that the genre intrinsically might’ve intended. Nonetheless in 1991, with Darkthrone’s seminal ‘A Blaze In the northern sky’, black metal was at last reaping what it had sowed with the early albums of Bathory, Venom and Celtic Frost. 

Now Darkthrone deserves a line or two. ‘ABITNS’ was black metal taken to a whole new level, incorporating syncopated rhythms, tremolo riffing and consistently repeated patterns with short punk-inspired up-tempo spurts. Fenriz successfully experimented with the then musical conventions, dismantling them through deconstructive minimalism and presenting them as such in their bare essentials. At the time it was a middle-finger raised against all musical conformism. The betrayed metal fan who saw his idols being sold out into opportunistic commercialisms on the front covers of mainstream magazines had somewhere to turn to. If rock and punk were against social conformity then black and death metal at the time, were a fist against any conformity, a reaction against a reaction, a revolution against a revolution. Although Norway could be regarded as the epicenter of black metal in the early 90’s, a flurry of bands followed, each contributing its own riveting blend of black metal to the now fervent scene. Bands and individuals, each assimilating the black metal aesthetic in their own manner, sprouted all over the globe; Rotting Christ, Varathron and Necromantia hailing from Greece, Beherit and Impaled Nazarene from Finland, Tormentor from Hungary, Samael from Switzerland and across the Atlantic, Sarcophago from Brazil as well as Blasphemy from Canada and Thornspawn, Profanatica and Havohej from the US. All part of a musical scene which back then was seething with creative innovation. To this day the underground recesses of black metal that initially spawned the genre are at a constant state of unrest but alas, it would be wishful thinking to believe that any band born of ostentatious self-indulgence was or is worthy of bearing the moniker. 

After adopting the black metal aesthetic, a rather unusual teenager at the time, Varg Vikernes, decided to form his own band, the now legendary Burzum. By the age of 19 he already had 3 demos and 1 album under his belt. Although he would later estrange his black metal roots, the exemplary coldness of Burzum’s early catalogue still reverberates throughout the majority of current releases which pride themselves with the black metal label. Indeed very few bands manage to capture in such an unadulterated manner, the very quintessence of black metal. Vikernes in effect conceptualizes the BM musician – illicit activities aside – that is, a human being striving to express his alienation with his environment, an alienation which delves deeper than societal anti-conformity; it is essentially a soul in discordance with its own existence. It is ironic really that the man responsible for such a well endowed and influential musical output would later be responsible for the murder of Euronymous, the ideological purveyor of his musical forte. 

Captivating and amazingly inspirational to a certain group of listeners, black metal can be partly seen as the audible _expression of Nietzsche’s Dionysian restless spirituality of Man. A black metal musician can be regarded as essentially being under a spiritual spell. The music becomes an external medium for his internal perturbations to be expressed. The essential constituent of black metal has never been neither the guitar riffing, the blast beats nor the discordant tremolo pickings, it has always stemmed from the deepest recesses of the human psyche; the fundamental substratum of black metal music is sentiment and as such it can attain a considerable number of musical shades, from the raw and minimalistic to the relentless onslaught of black/thrash. With this in mind, I disregard the flamboyant exhibitionisms of bands such as Dark Funeral, Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir as mere manifestations of otherwise ‘extreme’ musicianship; they do not pertain to the spiritual essence of black metal from a purist perspective that initially spawned the genre. And on the other extreme, bands which traditionally were not put under the black metal banner could be termed as black metal from the aspect that they do carry that essential substratum. Bands or individual units, which may have not necessarily made any usage of the aforementioned musical elements and have even gone as far as to abolish the traditional instruments completely from their music but however could be termed as black metal, since they do manage to convey the fundamental nature of the genre, that permeating primordial feeling of apprehension. T.O.M.B, the French Maldoror, Black Pentecost or even Haron are a few good but obscure examples that come to mind. Nevertheless this is not a vindication of any sort of sub-par outfits which use low-fidelity instrumentations to cover their compositional incompetence. 

Throughout the article’s course, I tried to portray black metal as nothing more than an audial medium resonating with mind and spirit and as such when certain BM bands are praising the ultimate destruction of mankind they are essentially extenuating the actual human torment of self-realization of an individual as a mere speck in the enormity of the cosmos. Consequently, what the BM musician in question is trying to achieve through his music is not necessarily limited to conveying his deep-rooted loathing for mankind but also to exorcise his own inner demons that manifest in his hatred. BM is definitely not of a humanly alien nature nor it is a secular and disorganized _expression; it is much more indigenous to the human nature than one might think. Ludwig Feuerbach once wrote that “music is a monologue of emotion” and correspondingly Black Metal can be ultimately interpreted as an emotional outcry, a pure musical manifestation of Man’s perennial angst. 

(originally written for Tartarean Desire - November 2005)