Black metal

Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emphasis on atmosphere. Artists often appear in corpse paint and adopt pseudonyms.

Venom initiated the "first wave" of black metal, with their 1982 album Black Metal giving it its name. In the following years, the style was developed by Bathory, Mercyful Fate, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. By 1987, this wave had declined, but influential works were released by Tormentor, Sarcófago, Parabellum, Blasphemy, Samael and Rotting Christ. A "second wave" arose in the early 1990s, spearheaded by bands in the early Norwegian black metal scene, such as Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Emperor, Satyricon and Gorgoroth. This Norwegian scene did much to define black metal as a distinct genre, and inspired other scenes in Finland (Beherit, Archgoat, Impaled Nazarene); Sweden (Dissection, Marduk, Abruptum, Nifelheim); the United States (Profanatica, Demoncy, Judas Iscariot, Grand Belial's Key); France (Mütiilation, Vlad Tepes); as well as leading to the founding of influential bands in other countries, including Sigh and Cradle of Filth.

Black metal has often sparked controversy. Common themes in the genre are misanthropy, anti-Christianity, Satanism, and ethnic paganism. In the 1990s, members of the scene were responsible for a spate of church burnings and murders. There is also a small neo-Nazi movement within black metal, although it has been shunned by many prominent artists. Generally, black metal strives to remain an underground phenomenon.