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Norwegian Black Metal

This is a paper I wrote for school. As the title suggests it is an overview of Norwegian Black Metal. Enjoy!

Heavy metal music is one of the most popular genres of music in the world. Its influence has reached every corner of the globe and boasts some of the most famous bands of all time. Bands like Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Metallica all are Metal bands and if not, have had metal signatures. Since bands like these are so pervasive around the world, metal has reached communities in the remotest corners of the earth. South America for instance has its own strand of heavy metal boasting a band like Seplatura and Japan is another breeding ground for the music. There are many reasons why the genre is popular but one of the most important aspects is its darkness. Due to its somber nature, heavy metal tends to deal with dark subjects. Many metal songs deal with death and the devil. Normally this is just done for fun. For many teenagers, listening to songs about Satan will piss off their religious parents. Songs about death can help people cope with feelings of depression. But what if some people took typical heavy metal themes to their literal conclusion? Some kids in Norway did this. The Norwegian Black Metal scene is one of the most infamous scenes in the history of music. It ended up in the burning of over 40 churches and the murders of two people.

(Darkthrone - Blaze in the Northern Sky album cover)

Since black metal is a subgenre of metal, here’s a primer for the uninitiated. Sorry, I can’t cover all the metal subgenre since there are too many subgenres. Also, I will be drawing from Sam Dunn’s Metal Evolution documentary and Last Podcast on the Left’s subcategories for there is no official list of what genre these bands belong to. Metal itself is a subset of rock and roll music, defined by being driven by guitar, bass, and drums. It harbors some the most popular performers of all time like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix. This influenced early UK metal, which includes the two bands who pretty much defined early Heavy Metal: Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Metal music was slower, darker, louder, heavier and more complex than its father Rock and Roll. The general atmosphere of the music encouraged darker lyrical themes about depression, sadness, and sometimes, the devil. A cousin of early UK Metal was shock rock. This genre included bands who would often dress up in make-up and give theatrical performances. One the most notable bands of shock rock, The Alice Cooper Band, often has a part of the concert where they simulate a decapitation of the lead singer. Out of the ashes of shock rock and early UK Metal came the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. This sub-genre was more refined and tighter than its forefathers and included bands like Iron Maiden and Motörhead. (Metal Evolution) Influenced by these genres, elements of Progressive Rock, and the speed of punk music, emerged what is possibly the most popular subgenre of metal, Thrash Metal. It includes bands like Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth. (Norwegian Black Metal part 1)

(Metal Evolution Family Tree)

The band Venom, is one of the first bands to overtly use Satanic imagery. It is key to note that they used it in jest. They also used extreme theatrics, which would contribute to the aesthetics of Norwegian Black Metal. King Diamond took this further by donning the black and white face paint in which most of the Norwegian bands would use. Then the Swedish band, Bathory would introduce the lo-fi sound that dominates Black Metal. In 1988, the band would move away from Satanic imagery into Norse mythology. They would also dip their toe into Nazi imagery. It is important to note that this was meant to shock and offend, but some of the members of the scene took some of this ideology literally. This would end up being the roots of the crimes that the scene would become infamous for. (Norwegian Black Metal Part 1)

What does Black Metal actually mean? Ross Hagen in his journal article, “Musical Style, Ideology, and Mythology in Norwegian Black Metal” defined the term as follows: “The term “black metal: initially referred simply to any extreme metal that was explicitly “satanic” in nature, but by the late 1980’s a scene had begun to emerge that self-consciously used the term as both a description of the music and essential identity.” (Hagen) Before we discuss all the wonderful activities that some of these bands engaged in, it is important to discuss what the music sounds like.

(Bathory - Bathory Album Cover)

Black metal actually deviates from many of the signature sounds that define heavy metal. For instance, some bands use keyboards to promote atmosphere. One of the trademarks of black metal is the high-pitched, banshee like vocals. Many bands choose to use this and clean vocals instead of the guttural growls that permeate many metal acts today. Full chords are used to produce a fuller, denser sound as opposed to the short blasts of power chords, which is commonly used in metal music. A technique called “buzz-picking” is often employed and allows to play more guitar strings at once, producing a fast and muddled sound. Black metal also eschews propulsive rhythmic drive, instead favoring a swirling and indistinct atmosphere. They do employ blast-beats though, which makes the drums make machine gun fire like beats, upping the tempo. Finally, black metal guitarists tend to disregard palm muting, because this technique muffles the guitar, making it more percussive, and was commonly used by Metallica in the 80’s (Hagen)

(Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Album Cover)

The final piece of the black metal sound is its lo-fi sound. This genre does use the highly distorted guitars that most metal bands have used. The difference though is they use low quality production techniques. This was not only an aesthetic choice but also a by-product of all these bands being broke and unable to afford good recording equipment. (Hagen) Most bands leaned into this sound though. The leader of Burzum, Varg Vikernes (he plays a big part later), in the documentary, Until the Light Takes Us, talked about how he would purposely seek out the worst amplifiers he could find to achieve a raw sound. (Aites & Eweel) The result is a hissing sound from the guitars and the vocals. Many regard these production techniques to be cornerstones of the sub-genre. (Hagen)

Not unlike many other musical genres, the image of black metal is just as instrumental as the sound. Starting with the band logos…

(From thetruemayhem.com)

This is a logo from one of the premier bands of the Norwegian Black Metal scene, Mayhem. Notice the truly intricate and almost illegible design. This is a visual example of the music’s exclusivity. Also included, is anti-Christian imagery, such as the inverted crosses. This logo is typical of the average black metal band logo. The bands tend to dress up in medieval armor with spikes and chains attached. They accessorize this look by posing with weapons such as swords and pikes. The most iconic part of the look is the black and white face paint that all the bands don. This is to simulate a corpse like aesthetic. The photos often mirror the music’s poor production quality, making it look raw and unfriendly. Finally, almost all black metal musicians use stage names. The names often derive from Germanic or Norse myth like Fenriz of Darkthrone. Others are inspired by the writings of Tolkien. For instance, Varg Vikernes’ stage first stage name, Count Grishnackh, and band name, Burzum. (Hagen)

(Burzum - Filosofem Album Cover)

Black metal is a genre. This means any part of the world can take part in it. What makes Norwegian black metal special, is the infamous church burnings, and murders. What is necessary to know are the major players; the band Mayhem, especially the guitarist, Øystein Aarseth, better known as Euronymous; Varg Vikernes of Burzum.

(Dead (left) and Euronymous (Right))

Mayhem was formed in 1984 in Oslo, Norway. The band was led by Euronymous. Around 1988, Per Yngve Ohlin, better known as Dead, joined the group. Dead was famously depressed and was one the first members of the scene to don the black and white face paint, to simulate a corpse like appearance. He would often cut himself during live performances to get blood flowing on stage. Dead once asked his band mates to bury him alive so as to achieve a more authentic, corpse like appearance. This all came to a head in 1991 when, Dead committed suicide by blowing his head off with a shotgun. Dead’s corpse lied in his and Euronymous’ apartment for hours. When Euronymous got home he didn’t do what most people did. He first took photos of the scene of the crime (which would be used for a cover on one of the band’s upcoming releases (warning link NSFW)). Then he is rumored to have used the fragments of his skull to make a necklace. (Norwegian Black Metal Part 2)

(Euronymous)

This is one of the most infamous stories from the scene. Why would any rational person do this? The thing about the Norwegian black metal scene is that these were a bunch of kids looking to rebel. Many members of these groups felt their lives were too good due to Norway’s excellent socialist economy. Since their lives were objectively good, the metal musicians found it hard to rebel like typical teenagers do. They did this by embracing Satanism and taking it literally. (That’s how you scare your parents!) This slowly became a sort of one up game of who could be more “real.” According to the “Norwegian Black Metal Part 1” by Last Podcast on the Left, this included members of these bands, who were so serious that they took pride in never smiling. (Norwegian Black Metal Part 1) This sick game of proving who could be more real was instigated by Dead’s suicide. He proved he was the most brutal by killing himself. Things grew worse when Varg Vikernes joined the scene, a man who already had problematic beliefs to begin with.

(Young Varg Vikernes)

Vikernes was born in Bergen, Norway in February of 1973. He grew up with parents who held White nationalist beliefs, which was passed down. His readings of the Lord of the Rings inspired him greatly. All though, he identified more with Sauron and the orc as opposed to the hobbits, saying that the hobbits had no personal strength. Vikernes joined the band Old Funeral in the 80’s before hooking up with Euronymous and Mayhem. From here he started the one-man group, Burzum, and it was successful. What is key to note is that Euronymous was at the heart of the Norwegian black metal scene. Alongside being in one of the central bands, Euronymous ran a record label that many of these bands used, and was quite poor at managing it. Also, he had a record shop that was the central hub of the scene. (Norwegian Black Metal Part 2)

(Modern Varg)

After the time of Dead’s death this part of scene called the inner circle started to develop, and it included Vikernes. The inner circle started going out at night and burning churches. This got extensive media coverage and Vikernes told a reporter that the scene was responsible. Euronymous stoked the flames of this to gain publicity for the scene. Most of the media got scared due to the fear that this was caused by Satanism. Vikernes maintains that it was motivated to take back the land that Christianity took. He claims that the religion had erased many cultures including Norway’s Norse mythology. (Aites & Eweel)

(Faust of Emperor)

Another key story involves, Faust, of the band Emperor. After a late night of drinking, Faust had an encounter with a homosexual man. He was so offended by this that he stabbed the gay man to death. The other murder involved Euronymous and Vikernes. The former owed the latter money for records sold. One night in August of ‘93, Vikernes decided to confront Euronymous at his apartment in the middle of the night. Vikernes ended up stabbing Euronymous over 20 times. Vikernes claimed it was in self-defense, but that is highly questionable. Vikernes ended up getting arrested and was sent to prison for 21 years (Norway’s Maximum) for committing the crime. He got out in 2009 after serving 15 and was released on probation. (Norwegian Black Metal Part 3)

(Fenriz of Darkthrone)

None of this nonsense is prevalent in the scene anymore. The look, sound, and themes of Satanism is still here, but not the church burnings or murders. Mayhem still exists, and is releasing records while touring. Vikernes still records under the title of Burzum, but now favors electronic music. Bands like Darkthrone are still releasing records but now the scene has calmed down and is strictly about the music. Black metal has artists from all around the world, but none of them are as infamous as the ones from Norway in the late 80’s and Early 90’s.

References

Aites, A., & Ewell, A. (Directors). (2008). Until the Light Takes Us [Motion picture on Amazon Prime]. American: Variance Films.

Dunn, S., & McFayden, S. (Directors). (2011). Metal Evolution [Motion picture on TV]. United States: Tricon Films.

Hagen, R. (2011). Musical Style, Ideology, and Mythology in Norwegian Black Metal. Metal Rules the Globe, 180-199.

Kissel, B., Parks, M., & Zebrowski, H. (2017, September 10). Norwegian Black Metal Part 1 [Audio blog post].

Kissel, B., Parks, M., & Zebrowski, H. (2017, September 15). Norwegian Black Metal Part 2 [Audio blog post].

Kissel, B., Parks, M., & Zebrowski, H. (2017, September 21). Norwegian Black Metal Part 3 [Audio blog post].

#black metal #norwegian #darkthrone #mayhem #norway #metal #burzum #varg

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