Old school Black Metal Poll

[ANGEL OF DESEASE]

BATHORY







But I'm jamming a lot Celtic Frost in these days



Morbid fucking Tales

[rhino]

celtic fucking frost

[Haunty]

Bathory, without question.

[Sarcofago]

I love it





Bathory

Hellhammer

Bulldozer

Volcano

Panic

Necrodeath

Mutilator

Sarcofago

Possessed

Early Sodom

Early Slayer

Venom

Celtic Frost

Early Destruction

[Inverted Crosses And Gorebongs]

It was a hard choice but out of the three, I picked Bathory. Quorthon was the man.

[djonni greazo]

Bathory



but how the fuck is Venom even remotely (musically, that is) black metal?

[rhino]

[quote name="i am the pink lizard"]Bathory



but how the fuck is Venom even remotely (musically, that is) black metal? [/quote]





they coined the term, and was the first band to really take satanic lyrics to that extreme, and the lo fi production of the first records too of course



you got to remember, we're talking first wave of black metal here

[djonni greazo]

[quote name="rhino"]
[quote name="i am the pink lizard"]Bathory



but how the fuck is Venom even remotely (musically, that is) black metal? [/quote]





they coined the term, and was the first band to really take satanic lyrics to that extreme, and the lo fi production of the first records too of course



you got to remember, we're talking first wave of black metal here[/quote]







also, coining the term is irrelevant and absurd argument. should we, then, call some early hardcore punk journalists "thrash metal"?



lyrics? they were the first to take cheesy satanic lyrics to the extreme... is Slayer black metal, too? (they have some minor bm-ish moments here and there, but hardly enough to warrant labelling them so...)



lo fi production? should we label random demos BM, now?

[rhino]

*sighs*



2.1- Venom and the First Wave



While there are some few black metal recordings which predate it (most notably Angel Witch's self-titled debut), any history of black metal most properly begins with Venom's landmark Welcome to Hell. This album would form the blueprint for virtually all black metal to follow with its raw application of EVIL to the realm of music. Venom would release two further unquestioned masterpieces, one of which lent its name to the emerging subgenre, Black Metal. Following in the wake of Venom, the 1980's saw a flowering of what was to be the FIRST WAVE of black metal. In 1983, Tom G. Warrior released Apocalyptic Raids with his band Hellhammer before going on to more widespread notoriety with Celtic Frost. Though dismissed at the time by many who were too enamoured of Metallica, Maiden and Slayer to see its genius, the simple atavistic structures of Apocalyptic Raids would have a profound influence on later generations of black metallers. Beginning life in 1984 as something of a Venom clone, Bathory, the one man gang consisting of madman Quorthon and his instruments, would go on to become arguably the second most influential band of the first wave, right on the heels of Venom. The "lizard like" shriek he introduced has become so synonymous with black metal that many uninformed metalheads believe this vocal style to define the genre. Quorthon also was one of the primary innovators of the fast tremelostrum technique widely prevalent in black metal to this day. Bathory's 1986 masterpiece Under the Sign of the Black Mark stands as one of the landmark albums, not just of black metal, but metal in general. Other notable bands of the first wave include Sodom, Mercyful Fate, Sarcofago and the mysterious Bay Area act Von.



2.2- The Second Wave



With the dawn of the 90's, a new generation of black metal bands began to emerge, forming a SECOND WAVE of black metal (though some, such as Mayhem, had been kicking around since the mid-80's). These second wave acts looked back to the first wave masters, but added their own touches. Mayhem took the ideas pioneered by Bathory and pushed them to new extremes. The band is legendary as much for the murder of main man Euronymous at the hands of Burzum's Varg Vikernes and for their influence on the attitude and imagery of the developing second wave as for their music, which, while certainly good (at least that which was written before the death of Euronymous, the band's subsequent decline into mediocrity and ultimately artistic irrelevance is well documented) is not as groundbreaking or brilliant as that of other bands of the second wave. Burzum, like Mayhem, was heavily influenced by Bathory, but Vikernes fused this base with cold, wind swept melodies and sprawling arrangements to create a truly epic style of black metal. DarkThrone began as an epic death metal act (and one of the best ever to grace the style), but, with starting with A Blaze in the Northern Sky, they would set off upon a course destined to make them the most influential black metal since Bathory. They followed up A Blaze… with the criminally underrated Under a Funeral Moon, moving towards a style that would find its fullest expression on their next album, the monumental Transilvanian Hunger. Transilvanian Hunger was and remains the last word in minimalism, simple, stripped down structures, evil reduced to its rawest form. Finnish masters Beherit themselves more than dabbled in minimalism. Their second full length album, Drawing Down the Moon combined a raw crush derived from Hellhammer with supremely dark, epic doomy passages and the nastiest production job to date to create what is considered by many (including me, and we know how often I'm wrong [hint]) to be the finest single album to emerge from the second wave of black metal. Other notable second wave acts include Immortal, Emperor, Havohej/Profanatica, Tormentor and Blasphemy.

[shadowalk]

anus.com-ishness

[djonni greazo]

[quote name="shadowalk"]anus.com-ishness [/quote]



agreed. times infinity. and lol@those articles. how the fuck is "welcome to hell" a blueprint for black metal?! lolz to be had, as expected (just to be clear, i'm not bashing Venom, i like them every now and then, but to consider them black metal you must be delusional )

[xpocalypse]

[quote name="i am the pink lizard"]is Slayer black metal, too?[/quote]



yes it is

[rhino]

[quote name="shadowalk"]anus.com-ishness [/quote]





i dont even know what site i copied that from, but it seemed to just be the basics, i dont see how it was anus.com elitist douchebaggery really

[rhino]

[quote name="i am the pink lizard"]
[quote name="shadowalk"]anus.com-ishness [/quote]



agreed. times infinity. and lol@those articles. how the fuck is "welcome to hell" a blueprint for black metal?! lolz to be had, as expected (just to be clear, i'm not bashing Venom, i like them every now and then, but to consider them black metal you must be delusional )[/quote]





if you can't grasp the concept of the first wave of black metal then i dont know how to explain this to you much further



yes venom were thrash metal, yes they were death metal, and YES they were black metal. all of these genres did not exist back then, this was the very beginnings of all things to come, whats not to understand about that it, i mean really dude

[djonni greazo]

[quote name="rhino"]
[quote name="i am the pink lizard"]
[quote name="shadowalk"]anus.com-ishness [/quote]



agreed. times infinity. and lol@those articles. how the fuck is "welcome to hell" a blueprint for black metal?! lolz to be had, as expected (just to be clear, i'm not bashing Venom, i like them every now and then, but to consider them black metal you must be delusional )[/quote]





if you can't grasp the concept of the first wave of black metal then i dont know how to explain this to you much further



yes venom were thrash metal, yes they were death metal, and YES they were black metal. all of these genres did not exist back then, this was the very beginnings of all things to come, whats not to understand about that it, i mean really dude[/quote]



no they weren't. they most certainly weren't thrash metal (moments here and there, yes but there were plenty bands with thrashy moments back then, so..), they weren't black metal, and they most certainly weren't death metal . "all of these genres did not exist back then" and so that makes them "all of these genres"?! seriously, dude? by that logic, black sabbath predates them. i mean, they were the most extreme band "back then when all of these genres did not exist". we can go further back if you want



the first wave, as mention, were bands that had direct musical influence to the second wave, like Sodom, Bathory, Sarcofago (and the rest of the braz. scene like Vulcano and early Sepultura), Tormentor and probably plenty others, but Venom has fuck-all to do with black metal (strictly speaking about the music, of course).



and if you continue to claim otherwise, please provide some evidence/examples 'cause i can't think of any second wave band (be it norwegian (Euronymous was slightly influenced earlier on, but quickly evolved past those primitive stylings; but the rest? Darkthrone, Emperor, Immortal, Burzum (like Quorthon before him, Varg often claimed he never heard Venom back then), Enslaved just to name a few), swedish, finnish, czech, american, canadian, or whateverian) that was directly influenced by Venom.

[rhino]

yeah nevermind

[Ninny]

Celtic Frost is nice

[Teignub]

Bathory for the win.

im gonna have to go with ryan on this whole thing. Venom is definitely influential on the whole black metal "scene" if you will. Muscially as well. I dont know how you could listen to their first two albums and At War With Satan and think otherwise.

[Bathsalt Zombie]

Bathory