Black Metal

Black metal is a sub genre of death metal and has the great symphonic sound as an integral and trade mark part of its identifiable sound. Also integral to the genre are high-pitched shrieking vocals, fast-paced rhythms and melodies, and unconventional song structures, along side very heavily distorted guitar riffs played at a fast pace.

There have been two identifiable wave of Black Metal bands. The first wave was formed by bands like Bathory, named after the famous Elizabeth Bathory of the medieval ages in Hungary where she was a serial killer of some repute, and Venom. These bands were to lay the foundations for more expansive sounding bands like Mayhem and Burzum who were to form the second wave of black metal. The black metal scene today is not very well defined but is progressing fast as the modern bands have incorporated their lyrical and musical styles.

Black metal can contain a variety of characteristics, depending on the band in question. The sound of the guitars is such that there is a metallic ring to it, and the vocals are generally high pitched with guttural rasps. The black metal bands differ from death metals bands starkly here as those bands prefer to emply a lower pitched growl more reminiscent of thrash metal bands.

Lyrical content in black metal songs relate to a ballad form of poetry with vivid imagery describing blood, gore and suffering. A lot of bands also derive their lyrics and content from popular culture fiction titles especially the J R R Tolkien legendarium, involving The Lord Of the Rings.