Black Side - Black Metal

Black metal - one of the most ferocious musical directions.
And thanks to these guys it becomes clear that.

So what is Black Metal? Is it the blazing guitars and thrashing rage of Venom or Slayer? The dismal production less dirge of Dark Throne or Burzum? Or does your Black Metal need epic keyboards like Emperor or Cradle of Filth. How about a bit of Viking blood to allow Bathory or Enslaved into the pot along with the Death Metal styles of Deicide and Morbid Angel who equally draw upon Occult/ Satanic lyrics to burst your ears apart.

Not so easy to define a genre that through its own evolution has absorbed so many other styles and maybe lost its very soul in the process. To really nail the heart of Black Metal we must drag ourselves over the eighties bands, who at the time were no more than Thrash icons and the very term Black Metal was only a loose pigeon hole for certain acts trading under the Satanic monicker and then they were far and few between.

The real powerhouse behind Black Metal is undoubtedly the Norwegians who in the early nineties exploded upon a stale extreme metal scene with dark tales of murder, church fires and infamous overblown headlines of inner circles and satanic ideology. The right wing Nazi propaganda also reared its head but withdrew just as fast when the smell of financial reward wafted in the air. Of course any logical thinking fan will know the whole sinister goings on in Norway were the juvenile antics of a few rather silly kids not altogether sane and as rebellious as the minority of likewise kids in the Punk explosion of ’76 or the drug influenced freedom seekers of the late sixties.

It was however the music, which should have been the main focus of our attentions, and thankfully the music was new, fresh and utterly mind fucking in the process. I have letters from Dimmu Borgir and Emperor before they made it big dotted with swastikas. They are probably squirming with embarrassment now but when one is young one tends to do silly things don’t you think?