Norwegian Death Metal

From Elvis Presley shaking his hips on Ed Sullivan to Marilyn Manson's campy anti-Christ shtick, there always have been and always will be critics who say that rock and roll is the Devil's Music, a threat to good Christians everywhere. Elvis and Marilyn never claimed actual Satan worship, however, and neither one ate a bandmate's brains to prove he meant business. The real devil's music, where actions speak louder than guitar riffs, is Scandinavian Black Metal. Black metal is an odd combination. Developed in Norway in the late eighties and early nineties, it is a mix of early American thrash—Slayer, Anthrax, early Metallica—Goth rock, and Scandinavian folk music. The sound of heavy, blast-beat driven metal with unexpected orchestral and acoustic touches, its mixture of influences supposedly evoking the feeling of a harsh, seemingly unending Scandinavian winter. The lyrics are about Satan and pagan worship, advocating the elimination of Christianity. The music, while unique, is not the most interesting aspect to black metal—rather, it is the extremes that these bands go to to prove their authenticity as harbingers of evil. In the beginning of black metal in Norway, there were two bands seen as the progenitors of the style, Mayhem and Emperor. Both wore corpse paint (black and white makeup slightly similar to that of KISS) and often either simulated or actually performed animal sacrifices during concerts, the most notable of which had Mayhem toting rotting pigs heads on stakes across the stage. These bands had influence on a small but rabid cult of fans that would listen to their every word and they used this pulpit to preach their platform—the elimination of Christianity at all costs. The bands were in constant competition for who would be seen as the most evil and thus the flagship band of this movement. Mayhem was the first to make a huge step, capitalizing on a tragedy within the band. Their vocalist, whose stage name was, ironically, "Dead," killed himself with a shotgun blast to the head. His bandmate, stage-name Euronymous, then boiled pieces of his brain to eat and made necklaces for the rest of the band out of Dead's skull fragments. They quickly replaced Dead with a new vocalist and kept on playing, releasing the photos of Dead's suicide to Fanzines as publicity. Many church burnings occurred within the period between 1991 and 1993, a good number of which were linked to Burzum founder and sometime Mayhem member Varg Vikernes. One of the leaders of the black metal scene, he was the strongest advocate of violence as a means to an end within the scene. In March of 1993, Bard "Faust" Eithun, drummer of Emperor, killed a man in Lillehammer's Olympic Park whom he had never seen or made any contact with before. The man was reportedly stabbed twenty times. Faust was arrested shortly after, and the news made waves in the black metal scene. Vikernes, hearing this, decided to kill one of his own in order to top Faust. He stabbed his sometime bandmate and former friend Euronymous of Mayhem twenty-two times, making sure to stab him more times and thus gain a more "evil" reputation within the scene. Vikernes was then arrested shortly after. Found in his apartment were 150 pounds of TNT, a diagram of an old church, and plans to destroy it on Easter, the largest service of the year. He is still in jail, as is Faust from Emperor. The most popular black metal band in the world today is actually not from its home of Norway, but from the UK. England's Cradle of Filth follows the same musical patterns and lyrical Satanic imagery of its forebears,but is less concerned with evil and more concerned with theatricality, taking a more tongue-in-cheek approach to Satanism, as one might expect from a band whose members include one "Robin Graves." Cradle of Filth are seen as "false metal poseurs" by a new wave of black metal bands from Norway who wish to carry the more extreme flag of the earlier bands. Marduk, for example, are seen as a threat and were not allowed into the U.S. on their last world tour and members are suspected in new church burnings that have been taking place in the past few years. Black metal as a movement may be on its last legs, though Varg Vikernes still records with Burzum from jail. Convicted both of the murder of his former bandmate and conspiracy to destroy churches, he will not be out for a long time. On the other hand, Faust will be released from his sentence in 2003 for good behavior, which doesn't seem very evil. Emperor will then release its first album in over ten years with all original members. The black metal scene is strongly awaiting that release, but the rest of the world at large is more strongly awaiting the next slightly disturbing yet sickly funny story from the land of the real devil's music.

Comments

2 comments

Skyler New-sdn9442@yahoo.com

Mon Mar 2 2009 21:06

Black metal was devolved after the cold war There wasn't bands like Dimmu or Satriycon back then but that's what started the trend. The Norwegians where pissed, moral less and trying to prove a point, It didn't get real bad till the 80's thou.

sob

Mon Jan 19 2009 19:36

CRADLE OF FILTH IS NOT BLACK METAL!!!!!!!!!!!

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