Black Metal

As we learned from watching Oprah, Metal leads to the devil. Its funny, because the statement is just not true and grossly over stated, creating a gigantic unneeded hype and fear in parents. Metallica has no-where near the Satanic influence that its ancestors did, like the Rolling Stones, and never once proclaimed to be more popular than Jesus like the Beatles (well, not publicly).
But Black Metal gets a little different, a little more hardcore. Black Metal frequently includes pagan or occult like lyrics. There's some fighting between whether Thor or Ra are more awesome, but there's a pretty unanimous vote that the Christian God is just not worthy of worship. Some of these bands may focus on factual pantheons, like the frequent use of Norse mythology in their music, while there are many bands that also focus on the creative works of writers like H.P. Lovecraft or J.R.R Tolkien. Their music also has a frequent focus on suicide, mass murder, violence, war, and everything associated with those things. The band names were often colorful to the same effect, like Dimmu-Borgir, Mayhem, and Gorgoroth. And to put on a good show, many of the members of the bands had great stage names like Faust, Necrobutcher, and Fenriz (allusion to Fenrir for those who don't know). Over-all, Black Metal shouts out its pagan / occult / anti-Christian nature to the world.
So I wanted to focus some time on some of the great Black Metal Bands out there, or at least some of the ones I have listened to with an appreciatory smile. First, a Norwegian Black Metal band, Mayhem. If you've ever heard a joke about Norwegian Black Metal, or maybe just Black Metal in its entirety, its probably because of Mayhem. Formed in Norway, in 1984, this band wasn't anything special. Minimum of Double bass pedals: Check. Satanic Lyrics: Check. Lead Singer blowing his head off with a shotgun: Check. Yes, after Mayhem had just removed two members of their band for suicidal tendencies, they brought in a new lead singer, Per Yngve Ohlin, better known simply as "Dead" (thats not a pun). Dead was apparently an interesting character who may have believed that he was actually a demon (some band members claiming he was other-worldly). At the age of 22 (in 1991), Dead slit his wrists and then turned a shotgun to his face and bit down. Before this though, he did write a well felt message on the wall, "Sorry for all the blood." Thanks Dead, your remains will hang from your band members neck. Yes, it did just get creepier. Rumor has it that when his fellow band mates found him dead, there first response was to make a stew out of his brains, and use his skull fragments to adorn their necks, and other bits were shipped to other people they felt worthy of owning valuable fragments, mostly other Norwegian Black Metal people. While some of these rumors were later denied, at the time the band soaked in the publicity. This later got another band member, Euronymos, murdered by another Norwegian Black Metal artist, Varg Vikernes (who strangely sold Dead his ammo).
Yes, Norwegian Black Metal is that hardcore.

For a slightly better band, we now look at Emperor (Black Metal bands love their flash page intros, but apparently don't build the rest of their website) If your ears can withstand the brutal beating it will take by listening to black metal, than it will know that Emperor is actually a talented band. With three members, Samoth, Faust, and one of the few amazing drummers who is also a vocalist, Isahn, this band put out more intellectual albums that dealt on retelling mythology, like "Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire and Demise." Beyond just being better musicians, the band was actually more respectable as humans. While some Black Metal bands were eating the brains of their fellow band mates, burning down Norway's churches, and being convicted of murder, Emperor stood away from it all, and actually condemned some of it. They actually stopped wearing 'corpsepaint,' and giving an over-all feel that Black Metal was simply trying too hard to be noticed. Emperor let their music speak for itself, and when your next door neighbor is listening to Emperor, you'll hear them too.

Another great band is Nile, formed in 1993 in South Carolina. As the name (and webpage if you actually click the links) may insinuate, these guys have an obsession with Egypt. Their lead member, Karl Sanders, is actually an Egyptologist, and this reflects heavily in the music. Much of the lyrical aspect of the music has to do with the Egyptian mythos. There are also many allusions to our good friend, H.P. Lovecraft. If that doesn't hook you, than you'd be well to learn that many of the members of this band are said to be some of the best musicians in their field (well, Death Metal field). The raw talent that it takes to place something 4times faster than every other musician is incredible.

By now though, you may have noticed a slight trend. While these bands all had at a minimum of pagan reference, and at most a band full of incredibly disturbed people...most of these events occurred after the Oprah show. Black Metal, while starting in 1982, was really confined to Scandinavia and parts of the UK. Its not until the beginning of the 1990's that Death Metal (as far as I'm aware of, Death Metal is America's version of Black Metal) shows its face in America. Not even the most gruesome things of Black Metal really show up until the 1990's, such as a series of Church Burnings. America's "Metal" movement at the time was no-where near as dangerous, nor violent, as other going ons in the world.