black metal
An extreme subgenre of heavy metal characterized by shrieked vocals, tremolo-picked guitars, blast beats, and an emphasis on atmosphere and anti-establishment themes.
In Depth
Black metal emerged in the early 1980s with bands like Venom, Bathory, and Celtic Frost, but reached its defining form in early 1990s Norway with the "second wave" led by Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, and Emperor. The genre's signature sound features high-pitched shrieked or screamed vocals, rapid tremolo-picked guitar creating a wall of icy dissonance, blast beat drumming, and deliberately lo-fi production that emphasizes rawness over clarity.
The Norwegian scene became notorious for a spate of church burnings and violence, but musically, second-wave black metal introduced a paradoxical beauty — beneath the abrasive surface lay sophisticated harmonic progressions and atmospheric passages that drew on Romantic classical music. Later developments include symphonic black metal (Dimmu Borgir, Emperor), atmospheric/post-black metal (Wolves in the Throne Room, Deafheaven), and blackgaze, which blends black metal with shoegaze aesthetics.
Darkthrone's album A Blaze in the Northern Sky was originally submitted to their label as a death metal album; the label was shocked when they heard the raw black metal sound instead.