Black Metal
Black metal is characterized by a dark, often raw sound, featuring tremolo-picked guitars, blast beats, and high-pitched shrieks, creating a cold and aggressive atmosphere. Emerging from Europe in the mid-1980s, particularly developing in Scandinavia in the early 1990s, it drew influences from punk hardcore, crust punk, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and shock rock. Iconic early representatives include Venom, Bathory, and Hellhammer. Its cultural impact extends to various subgenres like atmospheric black metal, known for its emphasis on immersive soundscapes.
More about Black Metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal, instantly recognisable by its rapid tremolo-picked guitars, relentless blast beats, shrieked vocals and deliberately raw production that reinforces the genre's cold, nihilistic atmosphere. The term itself was coined by the British band Venom, whose seminal album Black Metal (1982) launched the genre's first wave. Swedish act Bathory and Swiss band Hellhammer — later reborn as Celtic Frost — then laid down the aesthetic and ideological foundations that would inspire an entire generation of musicians.
The Norwegian second wave, emerging around 1990–1993, radically redefined the genre. Bands including Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal and Satyricon imposed an even rawer sound, extreme satanic and anti-Christian imagery and a visual identity built around corpse paint. This era — marked by church arsons and high-profile tragedies — gave black metal its notorious underground mystique. Mayhem guitarist Euronymous is widely credited with codifying the genre's signature tremolo-picking style, while Dead's use of corpse paint became an enduring hallmark of the scene.
Since the 2000s, black metal has branched into a wealth of subgenres. Atmospheric black metal — championed by Alcest, Deafheaven and Gaerea — merges walls of sound with shoegaze textures to create deeply immersive sonic landscapes. Blackgaze, depressive suicidal black metal and blackened thrash metal illustrate the extraordinary creative breadth of a genre in constant evolution. Artists such as Uada, Hellripper and Hulder embody this diversity on festival stages today.
Despite — or perhaps because of — its provocative image, black metal commands a passionate global community and an ever-growing presence on the metal festival circuit. With over 170 festivals featuring the genre in our database, it stands as one of the cornerstones of contemporary extreme metal. Its striking visual aesthetic, philosophy of absolute darkness and uncompromising musicianship continue to attract new generations of listeners, particularly through the lens of atmospheric metal and boundary-defying acts like Alcest and Deafheaven.