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.
Green Carnation is a Norwegian progressive metal band from Kristiansand, formed in 1990. Green Carnation's trend of music has continuously changed on every release one by one; from straight forward death metal in their demo, to death-doom, then a progressive doom metal sound, to an atmospheric gothic metal sound, to a melancholic hard rock sound and in 2006, went as far as to releasing an entirely acoustic album Acoustic Verses. The band released its first album in 14 years titled Leaves of Yesteryear on May 8, 2020, which marked a return to their earlier gothic progressive metal roots. A new single was composed, arranged, rehearsed and they were went on to record “The World Without a View” during the COVID-19 pandemic, "The World Without a View" was released digitally on December 18, 2020.
Mayhem is a Norwegian black metal band formed in Oslo in 1984. They were one of the pioneers of the Norwegian black metal scene, and their music has profoundly influenced the black metal genre. Mayhem's early career was marked by controversy, primarily due to their notorious live performances, the 1991 suicide of vocalist Per Yngve Ohlin ("Dead"), and the 1993 murder of guitarist Øystein Aarseth ("Euronymous") by former member Varg Vikernes of Burzum.
Saint Vitus is an American doom metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. They are considered to be one of the first doom metal bands, and have been labeled as one of the "big four" of that genre, along with Candlemass, Pentagram and Trouble. Having released nine studio albums to date, Saint Vitus never achieved a popular breakthrough, but have exerted great influence on the development of doom metal, sludge metal, and stoner rock.
Beherit is a Finnish black metal band from Rovaniemi. The band was formed in 1989 by Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance, Demonic Fornication and Sodomatic Slaughter, with the purpose of performing "the most primitive, savage, hell-obsessed black metal imaginable". "Beherit" is claimed to be the Syriac word for Satan, but this word does not exist in the language and the claim is falsehood. Through the uncommercial nature of their music, visuals, and live performances, the band quickly attracted a cult following. Besides the "raw" sound, the band's music is noted for its avant-garde side and emphasis on atmosphere. Beherit are now regarded as a pioneer in their genre.
Deathspell Omega is a French black metal band formed in 1998 in Poitiers. The group is an anonymous collective that has never confirmed the identity of any of its members.
Rotten Sound is a Finnish grindcore band from Vaasa, formed in 1993. The band comprises vocalist Keijo Niinimaa, guitarist Mika Aalto, bassist Matti Raappana, and drummer Sami Latva. The band has released eight studio albums and "earned a reputation for being one of the most intense bands on the Scandinavian death metal/grindcore scene".
Spinefarm Records is an international record label. Founded in Finland in 1990, Spinefarm was acquired by Universal Music Group in 2002.
Septicflesh are a Greek death metal band from Athens, founded in 1990.
Candlelight Records is a British record label based in London, founded by former Extreme Noise Terror bass guitarist Lee Barrett in 1993. The record label originally specialized in black metal, but quickly expanded to various other forms of heavy metal, extreme metal and hard rock, including death metal and melodic death metal, thrash metal, symphonic metal, metalcore, gothic rock, post-rock and post-metal.
Rune Eriksen, also known by his stage name Blasphemer, is a Norwegian musician best known as the former guitarist and songwriter of black metal band Mayhem. He took his stage name from a Sodom song and joined Mayhem in October 1994, before departing the band in late 2008. Eriksen founded his solo project RUÏM in 2020 and is currently a member of Aura Noir, Earth Electric, and the multinational bands Twilight Of The Gods and Vltimas, the former initially being a Bathory tribute band and the latter being a supergroup with former Morbid Angel vocalist David Vincent and drummer Flo Mounier of Cryptopsy. Eriksen and Mounier has previously been a part of death metal artist Nader Sadek's band along with Steve Tucker of Morbid Angel. Eriksen has also been a live member of Gaahls Wyrd and made guest appearances on recordings by Absu, Negură Bunget and Root. His former bands and projects include Mezzerschmitt and the Portuguese gothic doom band Ava Inferi. Eriksen has resided in Portugal since 2004.
Endstille is a black metal band from Germany. It was founded in 2000 by L. Wachtfels (guitar), Mayhemic Destructor (drums), Iblis (vocals) and Cruor (bass) in Kiel. L. Wachtfels and Mayhemic Destructor had previously played in the band Tauthr, while Iblis and Cruor came from the band Octoria. They describe their music as "ugliest aggressive black metal with the fire-speed of an MG42 and the power of heavy ship-artillery". The lyrics refer, to a large extent, to the personal experiences and opinions of the band members. In its self-manifestation, the group refers to well-known German weapons from the time of World War II. This, in addition to the band's lyrics, is sometimes seen an indication of a right-wing extremist affinity within the band. Endstille clearly dissociates itself from such labels, explains to have no sympathies for right-wing ideas and says black metal "is in its principle unpolitical".
Nightfall is a Greek extreme metal band from Athens. Formed by vocalist/bassist/keyboardist Efthimis Karadimas in 1991, the group is currently signed to Season of Mist. They are widely considered the forerunners to a "mediterranean way to black metal" together with Inchiuvatu and Moonspell.
Hellhound Records was a German record label during the late 1980s and 1990s, self-described as "the heaviest label on earth". They became known for putting out doom metal, with artists such as Saint Vitus and The Obsessed. In the early 1990s Hellhound signed a number of Maryland doom bands such as Internal Void, Iron Man, Revelation, Wretched and Unorthodox. They quickly became a prominent label in the doom metal genre. Some of the Hellhound releases were distributed in the US by Noise Records and Noise began pressing some of the later releases after Hellhound's demise. Noise released a compilation entitled Pure Noise which featured a number of Hellhound bands along with many Noise bands as well. Only a few Hellhound releases were re-released by current labels, such as Southern Lord Records and Japan's Leaf Hound Records.
Sólstafir is an Icelandic post-metal band formed in 1995 and currently signed to Century Media. Originally a black metal band, they transitioned to a post-metal-influenced style with slight traces of their earlier black metal.
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.
The Noctis Valkyries Metal Festival was a Canadian music festival started in Calgary, Alberta. Held annually from 2007 until 2013, the metal festival was organized by Scarab Metal Productions.
Naer Mataron is a Greek black metal band which draws on imagery from Greek mythology. The band was formed in 1994 after splitting from Nar Mataron, and was soon signed to Black Lotus Records, with whom they released four studio albums. Moving through numerous line-ups, the band has seen influences from other genres of music, including a traditional black metal release and songs featuring elements of melodic black metal and industrial music.
Revenge is a Canadian war metal band formed in 2000 by James Read following the collapse of his previous outfit Conqueror. Revenge's chaotic black metal sound represents a direct continuation of Read's previous band's direction. Although sometimes referred to as war metal the band has never referred to themselves as war metal and has always called themselves black metal, chaotic black metal or black death metal. They have released six full-length albums to date. The band's lyrics explore among other things various militant themes of anti religion, anti humanity, self ascension and the collapse and rebuilding of mankind.
Esoteric Warfare is the fifth full-length studio album by Norwegian black metal band Mayhem. It was released by Season of Mist on 6 June 2014 in Europe and Asia, and on 10 June 2014 in North America. It is the band's first album with Teloch on guitar since Blasphemer's departure from the band in 2008.
