It was in the early 1980s that death metal bands began using satanic imagery in their music, primarily for shock value. This inspired a group of metal bands in Oslo to create a more extreme version of metal, totally devoted to darkness and despair, ultimately becoming a satanic form of music. This was black metal.

The band Mayhem can be credited with developing the look and sound of Black Metal in the late 1980s. The sound is raw and cold, purposefully recorded with the worst equipment available. It was Mayhem who first used corpsepaint, which would later be adopted by most black metal bands — it wasn’t that the band members wanted to emulate Alice Cooper or KISS, it was because they wanted to look like corpses. Famously, their troubled lead singer, Per “Dead” Ohlin, buried his clothes so they were partly decomposed and carried a dead bird around with him so that he could inhale the smell of death before performing and self-harming on stage. Sadly, in 1991 Dead had committed suicide by cutting his wrists and then pulling a shotgun upon himself. His brief suicide note included the line, “Excuse all the blood.” It was bandmate Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth who found the body but, instead of calling the police, he took photographs, one of which would be the front cover of a later live album, and even took pieces of the skull and sent it to fellow musicians whom he felt were worthy of it.

Mayhem – Freezing Moon. An example of the cold and raw sound black metal strives to achieve. It also showcases the high-pitched shriek that singers employ in this genre.

Around this time, Euronymous started up the record shop Helvete (Hell). This was a place where fellow musicians and fans of the early scene could come together; it was more of home and meeting-spot for the musicians than a record shop. Many of the early artists were nationalistic, nihilistic, anti-religious and misanthropic, and held pagan beliefs. These ideologies made their way into the early music.

Beginning in 1992, a large number of church burnings (spearheaded by Varg “Count Grishnackh” Vikernes) occurred in the Oslo area. Many of the churches were nearly 1000 years old. However, it wasn’t initially a Satanist act, but rather in rebellion against Christianity for destroying Norse culture.The groups were only mistakenly referred to as satanists when the media got wind of the burnings, but this would only generate more interest and popularity in the movement. Before long there were numerous copycat church burnings were being committed by people inspired by the movement (though this time with Satanist intentions).

Burzum – Hvis Lyset Tar Oss. Roughly translated as If the Light Takes Us, it is the one man project of Varg Vikernes. This is considered the pinnacle of the genre, along with the rest of his early work. He has never performed live as Burzum.

This period was also marked by numerous murders, including Euronymous being stabbed to death by Varg Vikernes. Vikernes’ trial was the biggest story in Norway in the early 1990s and it raised awareness internationally about the extreme black metal being played in Oslo.

Nowadays black metal is still going strong, but many see the early 1990s as the finest period of style. It has since branched off into many different sub-genres, including “unblack metal”, or Christian black metal. Though considered by some black metal fans and musicians as a joke, to others Christian black metal is the most black metal of them all.

Horde – Invert the Inverted Cross. An example of “unblack metal”. Horde received many death threats from Euronymous before his murder in 1993.