The First Wave of Black Metal

Black Metal GIF

Tightly united around some pints of beer, in a pub, somewhere in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, three musketeers gathered under the conspiracy pseudonyms of ; Cronos, Mantas and Abaddon, decided that heavy metal sounds kind of weak and not enough satisfying and it should be upgraded to a more aggressive, speedy, dirty- sounding and at a new level of vicious delivery.

In this regard, they took action and baptized their new unholy trinity under the name of VENOM, then started to write songs where they manage to merge heavy metal riffs with some punk-wise infused attitude.

Their first album "Welcome to Hell" released in 1981 showed a fresh and uncompromising energy, blowing up the entire metal scene and becoming a very important piece within the whole N.W.O.B.H.M. movement.

Their second output from 1982 is the album that gave a name and a new genre for the Heavy Metal audience : "Black Metal"!

A chainsaw teeth were destroyed while recording the intro for the, now famous "Black Metal" song.

The third effort was titled with the "At War with Satan" name and it was issued as of 1983 representing the band's peak of their carrier, creativity and inspiration.

It is a great album and worth to get into, but somehow they were musically out-taken by the emerging and competed bands like METALLICA, ANTHRAX or SLAYER and it became more obvious when the follow-up disc has been released, baptized "Possessed" and issued as of 1985.

A videoclip was, also made for the "Nightmare" song, being their one and only official video, aslo the band published a VHS tape with one of their live appearance named "The 7th Date of Hell - Live", captured at Hammersmith Odeon back in 1984.

At some point, Cronos got annoyed that bands dressed only in jeans and t-shits, somehow were responsible for shrinking their audience and was calling them in a direct live confrontation, stating that then peolpe will understand why VENOM is way greater and stronger.

VENOM are known for being one of the first bands who used a lot of pyrotechnics during their live performances.

On the other hand, later on, upon hearing about what happened in the Norwegian Black Metal scene, back in the early 90's with all the escalation, crimes, church burnings, threats and the so called Black Metal mafia, VENOM stated that their lyrics should not be taken literally, as their music stands only for rock'n'roll and entertainment, and the lyrics are written in order to fit with their wild music.

The same reaction they had when asked about satanism, saying that they are not advising fans to follow Satan, as guys from MERCYFUL FATE did, they only ask their fans to follow VENOM!

MERCYFUL FATE is a traditional heavy metal band who is, as well, credited as being part of the first black metal wave with their dark, satanic lyrics and fronted by one of the greatest artists heavy metal had spawn, KING DIAMOND!

Wearing a ghoul-like make up and with a very impressive vocal range, this band was hard to pass unnoticed, at that time.

KING DIAMOND was member of the LaVeyan The Curch of Satan in those early years, but he left it later on.

The aforementioned climax can be saw and heard on their two, brilliant official videos : "A Corpse without A Soul" taken from the "Mercyful Fate" EP and "Evil" from their first album "Melissa".

MERCYFUL FATE provided two albums and one EP before their first split-up.

"Mercyful Fate" EP was published in 1982"; "Melissa" as of 1983 and "Don't Break the Oath" is dated back in 1984.

BATHORY from Sweden!

Black Metal and extreme metal of the 80' in general, received a lot of bad reviews in the media of that time. Journalists and reviewers, at that time, were not prepared for such musical ferocity, or they were too much into the melodic rock and, somehow, being unable to deal with, or to truly understand this hot, explosive, new metal endeavor.

Also, back in 1986 some of them were truly convinced that this genre will disappear at some point, just because they perceived it as nothing but senseless noise, as MORBID ANGEL's vocalist David Vincent recalls in some of his interviews taken later on.

That was the case with the Swedish band BATHORY.

Quorthon, the vocalist, guitarist and main songwrighter was so annoyed by the above mentioned attitude, that he started to lie, misguide or just to piss off on these kinds of interviews.

BATHORY was formed in 1983 and is one of the main and the most important pioneer for the Black Metal scene, as they created the specific vocal style and the sonic identity known up to this day.

Back in those incipient days Quorthon was struggling hard to find a drum and a bass player for the band, without much success, just because many of the metal or rock musicians, in his area, were mostly into the melodic hard rock bands.

However, he managed to record two songs for a compilation called "Scandinavian Metal Attack" back in 1983 : "Sacrifice" and "The Return of Darkness and Evil" issued by his father's label Black Mark Production.

The result was astonishing and overwhelming as they received sacks full with letters from around the world.

Their fans were literally fascinated by the songs, and especially for the icy vocal delivery and they begged for a full album.

The first "Bathory" album dated back in 1984 saw a heavier version of VENOM and it was greatly received by the fans worldwide.

With "The Return..." from 1985 creativity took off and the band managed to create their own, original sound. 

The American band SLAYER indirectly contributed to this situation, just because Quorthon listened and liked SLAYER, but he wanted BATHORY to sound more evil and minimalistic than SLAYER, in order to save his band from becoming just another regular Thrash Metal act.

There is a photo circulating on the internet with Quorthon among SLAYER guys.

In his interviews he was describing the music present on this LP as being Death Metal. 

It isn't Death Metal, actually, but definitely is a very extreme form of Black Metal for those times. 

The follower output "Under the Sign of Black Mark" from 1986 created the standard scandinavian sound we know up to this day, with all the ingredients, so to speak : melodicity, speed, vocal delivery and most important, the typical atmosphere black metal shoud have in order to be at its highest quality.

Starting with "Blood, Fire, Death" released in 1988 BATHORY's music started to incorporate more and more choruses , acoustic and symphonic elements, at the fans' request, transforming their music in what is called Viking Metal today.

The band HELLHAMMER are known for a much "greasier", doomier sound than the other bands within the style. Same goes for CELTIC FROST who was formed few days later after HELLHAMMER was disbanded.

This happened in Switzerland back in A.D. 1983. HELLHAMMER released one legendary EP called "Apocalyptic Raids" as of 1984 , besides three demos, before the frontman Thomas "Ugh" Gabriel Warrior decided to switch the band's name to CELTIC FROST. 

He stated that he wished to experience more with the music and at the general sound side, being the main reason for the upsaid change.

After two EP's : "Emperor's Return" issued as of 1984 ; "Morbid Tales" and a legendary album "To Mega Therion" both issued by 1985, the band released "Into the Pandemonium" back in 1987. A quite avantgardistic attempt mixing industrial sonorities, gothic-like atmospheres, female vocalists were, also invited, and somehow a poetic touch created on some of their songs, such as "Mesmerized" Featuring Claudia-Maria Mokri as guest vocalist or "Sorrows of the Moon" Featuring Manü Moan as guest vocalist.

The album received a mixed reaction from the audience. 

Some part of the fan-base were not very much "mesmerized" by the output and looked in suspicion and overall disappointment, regarding the album.

Sadly, their worst intuitions came truth when the band decided to publish the "Cold Lake" disc in 1988, but that's another story. 

A very unfortunate move, for sure, as the band took a turn to...Glam-Rock.

The German band SODOM plays, also an important role in the first Black Metal wave, before they became a pivotal name for the European Thrash Metal scene. Formed by three gentleman, one of them being a mine worker, they gathered under the pseudonyms of "Angelripper";  Witchhunter" and "Grave Violator" and promoting their band with a photo among some antique ruins, besides other typical 80's metalhead postures.

Their EP from 1985 named "In the Sign of Evil" and the fist LP "Obsessed by Cruelty" issued as of 1986 are the most appeciated contributions, here , before switching more and more towards a Thrash Metal take starting with their second album "Persecution Mania" issued back in 1987.

However, their musical quality and ferocity remained kind on the same coordinates , establishing the band among the most harsh Thrash Metal deliverers of the scene.

The Italian band BULLDOZER is worth to get into even though they sound a lot like VENOM or BATHORY.

Their first three albums became cult-like pieces and they were pointed out and being recommended for a listen in an interview by Fenriz of DARKTHRONE.

"Day of Wrath" published in 1985 ; "The Final Separation" back in 1986 and "IX" as of 1987 should be mentioned here, being part of the first Black Metal wave.

Perhaps, SEPULTURA's first two releases fits the category, here, judging through the whole artistic presentation ; Antichristian/demonic album covers and lyrics, high speed riffs and the wild vocal delivery.

All of the above checked and there we have it! Demo#1 ; "Bestial Devastation" EP both dated back in 1985 and "Morbid Visions" from 1986 should be considered closer to the first wave of black metal side, musically and conceptually speaking, than the average Thrash Metal usually practiced in the mid of the 80's.

Also, we have Max Cavalera describing in an interview, how they were struggling to hand-made their own bullet-belts in order to catch-up with the overall look in the most black metal fashion for the band's first promotional photos, at that time.

Con-national SARCÓFAGO was formed by "Wagner" Antichrist Lamounier back in 1985, as he left SEPULTURA after his contribution as vocalist on their demo, and had a huge impact on the black metal development, especially for the musicians from the Norwegian scene. 

Many of them looked up to this band and it was considered highly inspirational music-wise and had the proper attitude extreme metal demands.

SARCÓFAGO released the milestone "I.N.R.I." album in 1987 followed by the "Rotting" EP as of 1989 and the "Laws of the Scourge" LP back in 1991.

From the last one it was made an official video-clip "Screeches from the Silence".

PARABELLUM from Columbia should be in this article, again. 

The band had a comet lifespan, so to speak, from 1983 up to 1988, but still important for the history of Black Metal. They published a compilation on which we can find their both EP's : Sacrilegio - 1987 and "Mutación por Radiación" - 1988 who were gathered under the name of "Tempus Mortis" released back in 2005.

Even that MAYHEM might be credited for creating the second (Norwegian) wave of black metal, they truly are part of the first one as they are active since 1984 and their first demo "Pure Fucking Armageddon" saw the light of the day (or the dark of the night) back in 1986.

Euromynous created the scene by influencing his fellow band members from the Norwegian scene he got into contact with, to drop their Death Metal approach in their music and fully embrace the Black Metal style, stating that Death Metal became dull, repetitive and the musicians left their right attitude extreme metal should have, in general.

This is the reason why he is credited for being the Godfather and the mentor for the second Black Metal wave.

As for the infamous open chord Norwegian sonic identity, he is credited for, it is unclear if this guitar technique truly belongs to him...or to MAYHEM's second guitar player.

That above mentioned specific sound appears, for the first time, only on the "Live in Leipzig" and "De Mysteriis Dom Satanas" for the first time in MAYHEM's discography and kind of lacks on their aforementioned demo or the "Deathcrush" EP and it might be created by their second guitarist, at that time, which is Snorre "Blackthorn" Ruch originally from the avantgardistic band THORNS...

However, in an interview, Fenriz of DARKTHRONE told that the original Norwegian sonic take has been created by both of them.

Along with the Black Metal style, the extreme metal scene of the '80's was active with Death Metal and Grindcore subgenres, as well, practiced by bands such as : MASTER, DEATH, MASSACRE, POSSESSED, NECROPHAGIA, REPULSION, NAPALM DEATH, CARCASS and TERRORIZER.

...to be continued, edited and completed with more details about the topic...