Black Metal
Also known as BM
A foundational extreme-metal style that began as a rough, shocking UK prototype and was sharpened into its best-known form by the Norwegian second wave.
Origins and context
The genre grew out of early-1980s extreme metal in the UK and was later consolidated into a more distinct aesthetic and scene in Norway in the early 1990s.
History
The label’s roots are usually traced to the early 1980s, when Venom’s 1982 album Black Metal gave the style its name and helped define an early, proto-black-metal template. Bathory and Hellhammer also fed that first wave, while the second-wave scene in Norway, especially Mayhem, pushed black metal into the form most listeners now recognize. Venom’s own artist page still frames the band as a seminal influence on extreme metal and notes that Black Metal was the release that lent the genre its name.
Notable artists
- VVenom
- BBathory
- HHellhammer
- MMayhem
- DDarkthrone
- BBurzum
Essential listening
- 1
- 2
- 3
Venom
Explore connected genres
Sources and further reading
- Venom artist page
- Venom — Black Metal album page
- metal-archives.com
The Norwegian scene is central to black metal’s second wave.
- Mayhem artist page