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.
"War Pigs" is a song by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath. It is the opening track from their 1970 album Paranoid.
Black Sabbath is the debut studio album by the English rock band Black Sabbath. It was released on 13 February 1970 in the United Kingdom by Vertigo Records and on 1 June 1970 in the United States by Warner Bros. Records. The album is widely regarded as the first album in the heavy metal genre. Additionally, the opening track, the self-titled "Black Sabbath", has been referred to as the first doom metal song.
Stephen Percy Harris is an English musician who is the bassist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, primary songwriter and founder/leader of heavy metal band Iron Maiden. He has been the band's only constant member since their inception in 1975 and one of only two to have appeared on all of their albums, the other being guitarist Dave Murray.
Slaughter of the Soul is the fourth studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band At the Gates, released on November 14, 1995. It was their last album before their eleven-year breakup from 1996 to 2007. Slaughter of the Soul is considered a landmark in melodic death metal and played a major role in popularizing the Gothenburg scene, alongside The Jester Race by In Flames and The Gallery by Dark Tranquillity. The album was recorded and mixed in Studio Fredman, early 1995.
In the Nightside Eclipse is the first studio album and fourth official release by Norwegian black metal band Emperor, released in 1994 through Candlelight Records. It was their only album to feature drummer Faust and one-time bassist Tchort. Considered a landmark in the black metal scene, the album has been ranked by critics as one of the most influential albums of the genre. It also contains some of Emperor's best known tracks, "I Am the Black Wizards" and "Inno a Satana".
Methods of Mayhem is an American rock band formed in 1999 by Tommy Lee, who had temporarily quit his position as Mötley Crüe's drummer.
Nazxul are an Australian black metal band which formed in 1993. They have issued two studio albums, Totem and Iconoclast. In October 2020, the long awaited studio album titled "Irkalla" has been completed with the lineup being Adrian Henderson on guitar, Lachlan Mitchell on keyboards and guitar, John McLaughlin on drums and Dalibor Backovic on vocals and bass guitar.
De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is the first studio album by the Norwegian black metal band Mayhem. Songwriting began in 1987, but due to the suicide of vocalist Per "Dead" Ohlin and the murder of guitarist Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth, the album's release was delayed until May 1994. De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is widely considered one of the most influential black metal albums of all time. It is the band's only studio album to feature Aarseth and Varg "Count Grishnackh" Vikernes.
Nagelfar were a German black metal band.
Srontgorrth: Die Macht erfaßte das meine wie die Angst das Blut der anderen is the second studio album by German black metal band Nagelfar, released in 1999.
Virus West is German black metal band Nagelfar's third and last album before they broke up. The album was recorded in June 2000 in Andy Classen's Stage-One-Studio. The track "Hellebarn" contains a sample from the 1982 film The Thing.
Visions is the sixth studio album by power metal band Stratovarius, released on 28 April 1997 through Noise Records. The album reached No. 4 on the Finnish albums chart and remained on that chart for 23 weeks. It is a concept album about Nostradamus.
Ritual. is the debut album by Czech black metal band Master's Hammer, initially released through independent label Monitor in 1991. It was later distributed elsewhere and re-released in CD format by Osmose Productions in 1994; Osmose's version contains two bonus tracks. Many tracks of the album were re-recorded from their 1990 demo tape The Fall of Idol.
Watain is a Swedish black metal band from Uppsala, formed in 1998. The band's name is taken from an early recording by the American black metal group Von. The band have become infamous 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 six full-length albums, as well as three live albums and a number of demos and EPs. Their most recent album Trident Wolf Eclipse was released on 5 January 2018 through Century Media Records. 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, his live duties now being covered by Emil Svensson of fellow Uppsala Death metal band Degial.
Hell Symphony is the second full-length album by Czech black metal band Root. It was originally released in 1991.
Rabid Death's Curse is the first studio album by the black metal band Watain. It was released in 2000 on Drakkar Productions. It is notable as being the first and only album for which the band had two guitarists; from Rabid Death's Curse onwards, the band would be a trio. The song "Rabid Death's Curse" contains an audio sample from the film Friday the 13th. The album is considered a classic and was featured on German Rock Hard magazine's list 250 Black-Metal-Alben, die man kennen sollte.
Tha-Norr were a German black metal band from Lower Saxony.
Katharsis are a German black metal band.
"God Is Dead?" is a song by heavy metal band Black Sabbath featured on the album 13. It is the first single from the album, and the first with Ozzy Osbourne since 1998's "Psycho Man" and "Selling My Soul" from Reunion. The song was released via an MP3 download on Amazon. It was also available as a free download to those who pre-ordered the full album on iTunes. The song in its entirety was posted on the official YouTube channel in promotion of this. Both the song title and figure on the single's cover, by Heather Cassils, are a reference to Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher who is famous for saying that "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?". It is one of their longer original compositions, second to "Megalomania" off their 1975 album, Sabotage.
