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.
The Vision Bleak is a German gothic metal duo comprising Ulf Theodor Schwadorf and Allen B. Konstanz. The group's lyrics are noted for their horror themes and heavily allude to works of classic writers/filmmakers of the genre, such as H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, George A. Romero and John Carpenter, among others. They self-describe their musical style, which mixes gothic metal, doom metal, symphonic metal and horror punk aesthetics, as "horror metal".
Mark Hunter is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist of heavy metal band Chimaira.
Bethlehem is a German extreme metal band from Grevenbroich, formed in 1991 by Jürgen Bartsch and Klaus Matton. Before starting Bethlehem, Bartsch and Matton used to play in a German thrash metal band Morbid Vision. Many of their lyrics revolve around sickness, morbidity, suicide, death and madness, and may to some extent be personal to the band.
Alf Peter Tägtgren is a Swedish musician and record producer. He is the founder, main songwriter, lead vocalist, and guitarist of death metal band Hypocrisy as well as the industrial metal band Pain in which he is the only member. He is also the owner of The Abyss recording studio and the co-founder of Lindemann, a music project between Tägtgren and Rammstein vocalist Till Lindemann. Tägtgren left Lindemann in 2020.
Taake is a Norwegian black metal band from Bergen, formed in 1993 and originally named Thule. The band's one continuous member is Hoest, who writes all and records most of the music. Taake has released eight full-length albums and several EPs. The band describes itself as "True Norwegian black metal", and Hoest said he wants to "awaken national pride and cultural nostalgia" in Norwegian listeners as well as to remind people "that Hell is right here on Earth and that humans can be demons". All lyrics are in Hoest's native dialect and are printed in Norse runes. Taake is the old spelling of the Norwegian word tåke, meaning "fog".
Shining is a Swedish black metal band formed by Niklas Kvarforth in Halmstad in 1996. The band's music contains depressive undertones, which include personal and suicide-themed lyrics. Thought of as the pioneers of depressive suicidal black metal, they have released 11 studio albums to date, their latest being the self-titled "Shining".
Within Deep Dark Chambers is the first album by the Swedish band Shining. It was originally released by Selbstmord Services, in 2000. At first, it was a black LP limited to 500 copies.
Magenta is an industrial rock/alternative rock band from Norway formed by Vilde Lockert and Anders Odden during the summer of 1995. They released their first EP, Magenta in 1997. The song "Secret Sky" entered the charts in Norway and established their career. Co-founder Anders Odden was already known in musical circles. He has been a member of bands like Cadaver and Celtic Frost. He is currently also the bassplayer for Satyricon, and guitarplayer for ORDER.
Halmstad is the fifth album by Swedish black metal band Shining. It was released by Osmose Productions on 16 April 2007. A black LP edition was released and limited to 500 copies.
Watain is a Swedish black metal band, formed in 1998. The band's name is taken from an early recording by the American black metal group Von. The band have become famous for their Theistic Satanist views and for their live shows which involve pyrotechnics, candles, Satanic rituals, animal carcasses, and blood. At a now-notorious live performance in Brooklyn in 2014, they doused audience members in animal blood, allegedly causing some members of the audience to vomit. This was picked up and publicised by TMZ, generating controversy around the incident. To date they have released seven full-length albums, as well as three live albums and a number of demos and EPs. Their most recent album The Agony & Ecstasy of Watain was released on 29 April 2022 through Nuclear Blast. The band's core lineup has remained stable since their formation, consisting of Erik Danielsson, Pelle Forsberg, and Håkan Jonsson, though as of 2015 Jonsson no longer performs live, Emil Svensson of fellow Uppsala death metal band Degial was recruited as live drummer.
Ondskapt was a Swedish black metal band. They have previously shared members with other Swedish metal projects such as IXXI and Shining.
Klagopsalmer is the sixth album by Shining. It was released on 30 June 2009, by Osmose Productions.
Den Saakaldte is a Norwegian black metal supergroup, founded in 2006 by Mikael Sykelig, featuring members of Shining, 1349 and Dødheimsgard, among others. It takes its name from a song by Ved Buens Ende.
Niklas is a male name, most common in Sweden and the Swedish-speaking population of Finland. It is also used as a surname. Notable people with that name include:
Daniel Hans Johan Rostén is a Swedish black metal vocalist, guitarist, and bassist, known as the frontman for Funeral Mist and singer/guitarist of Triumphator under the stage name Arioch, and for having been the vocalist for renowned Swedish black metal band Marduk since 2004 under the stage name Mortuus. He is also a professional graphic designer.
Lawless Darkness is the fourth studio album by Swedish black metal band Watain, released through Season of Mist, on 7 June 2010. The cover art was made by Zbigniew M. Bielak, who also painted The Wild Hunt cover art. The album sold around 1,000 copies in the United States in the first week of its release, reaching no. 42 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart. The single "Reaping Death" was distributed in their home country of Sweden in the Sweden Rock magazine, and was certified gold in the band's home country on 21 April by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry for sales in excess of 10,000 copies. The album received positive reviews from music critics, and in 2011 the band were awarded the Swedish Grammi for 'Best Hard Rock' album for Lawless Darkness.
Malign is a Swedish black metal band from Stockholm, formed in 1994.
Redefining Darkness is the eighth studio album by the Swedish black metal band Shining. It was released through Spinefarm Records on 29 October 2012. The album is dedicated to the memory of Trond Bråthen.
Orbit Culture is a Swedish melodic death metal band from Eksjö, formed in 2013. The band includes vocalist/guitarist Niklas Karlsson, guitarist Richard Hansson, bassist Fredrik Lennartsson, and drummer Christopher Wallerstedt. Former band members are lead guitarist Maximilian Zinsmeister, bassist Christoffer Olsson and drummer Markus Bladh. The band has released four studio albums and four EPs.
