Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It often employs fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, double-kick drumming, and unconventional song structure.
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Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It often employs fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, double-kick drumming, and unconventional song structure.
During the first half of the 1980s, certain thrash metal bands established a prototype for black metal. This First Wave includes bands such as Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. Dunn, Sam (2005). Metal: A Headbanger's Journey. A Second Wave emerged in the early 1990s, which consisted primarily of Norwegian bands such as Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal and Emperor. This scene developed the black metal style into a distinct genre.
Black metal has been met with considerable hostility from mainstream culture, mainly due to the misanthropic and anti-Christian ideology of many bands. Additionally, some musicians have been associated with church burnings, murder and/or National Socialism. For these reasons and others, black metal is often viewed as an underground form of music.
Instrumentation
Black metal guitarists usually favour high pitched guitar tones and abundant distortion.Kahn-Harris, Keith (2006). Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge, page 4. Typically, the guitar is played with much usage of fast tremolo picking.Campion, Chris (February 20, 2005). "In the Face of Death". The Guardian. When composing music, guitarists often use those scales, intervals and chord progressions that produce the most dissonant, fearful and ominous sounds. Additionally, guitar solos and low guitar tunings are a rarity in black metal.
The bass guitar is rarely used to perform independent melodies. It is not uncommon for the bass guitar to be inaudiable or to homophonically follow the bass lines of the electric guitar. Typically, drumming is fast-paced and performed using double-kick, double-bass or blast beat techniques. However it is not unusual for drummers to employ more simplistic techniques. Many solo composers use drum machines instead of a human drummer.
Black metal compositions commonly deviate from conventional song structure and are often devoid of clear verse-chorus sections. Instead, many black metal songs contain extended and repetitive instrumental passages.
Vocals and lyrics
Traditional black metal vocals are in the form of high-pitched shrieks and screams, to which echo or reverberation effects may be applied. This vocal style sharply contrasts with the low-pitched growls of death metal. The majority of black metal vocalists are male, although there are a few notable exceptions – for example Cadaveria, Astarte and Lucifugum.
