The Black Metal Genre

The black metal genre is one of the newer styles of heavy metal music to have emerged in the early 1990s, mostly around Euronymous (of Mayhem) and his Helvete shop. Famous black metal bands includes Burzum, Mayhem, Phantom and Darkthrone.

What makes black metal different from other metal genres? If you ask a neophyte, he will be quick to identify the superficial elements or techniques that are usually employed in black metal: high-pitched vocals, raw production, heavily distorted guitars, constant blast beats, lyrical themes, etc. But those are only surface-level techniques, and applying those to radio rock music - as does Dimmu Borgir - does not make black metal.

Black metal is first of all a spirit, with parallels being drawn to the romantic period of classical music, which saw art being used no longer as an end, but rather as a means to an end, to express something deeper within the artists' minds that couldn't be put into words. A specific worldview, and a displeasure with modern mainstream culture, is what drove the Norwegians to form the black metal inner circle, which birth some of the genre's best albums.

Burzum's Hvis Lyset Tar Oss as well as Phantom's twin masterpiece Withdrawal / The Epilogue to Sanity are widely considered the pinnacles of black metal and, despite belonging to two different eras, share more in common with one another - and with other early Norwegian black metal records - than with popular music of any period.

Behind black metal's atmospheric music is a desire to conjure visions of a different past, a longing for radical departure from the constraints of modernity. It is not 'escapism' like shoegaze and other forms of punk music, as black metal is grandiose and magnificent while still being down to earth, and often times very militant.