Black metal's complex and controversial reputation has made it highly influential in counterculture music circles around the world since the early 1980s. It has also drawn significant attention in the mainstream media, inspiring many films, books and news stories. According to filmmakers Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen and Jessica Joy Wise in their documentary "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey," black metal has become Norway's "biggest cultural export," making it one of the most significant subcultures in Western music today.
Black metal first emerged in the early 1980s, when European thrash and speed metal bands such as Bathory, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost began experimenting with more extreme musical elements in their genres. The term black metal itself was first introduced by British thrash band Venom with the 1982 release of their album by the same name. As a musical style, however, black metal's elements remained muddled and vague until its second wave in the early 1990s, when it exploded onto the underground Norwegian music scene. Norwegian bands such as Mayhem, Burzum and Emperor then integrated their own cultural influences, giving birth to the distinct and controversial characteristics that still define the genre today.
Musically, black metal is known for its intensely fast guitar- and drum-driven rhythms. Most songs feature high-pitched guitar melodies, shrieking vocals and irregular, unconventional structures.
The lyrics are dark, frequently integrating anti-religious sentiments or focusing on general themes of nihilism, misanthropy and anguish. Black metal lyrics are commonly associated with violent Satanism and paganism, but many bands use traditional Scandinavian cultural themes in their songwriting.
The black metal aesthetic is characterized by shocking theatrical performances and visuals, usually involving corpse paint--intimidating, deathlike black and white makeup--black clothing with heavy, spiked accessories and menacing props such as inverted crucifixes, fake blood, medieval weaponry and occasionally even slaughtered animals carcasses.
The first wave of black metal consisted of thrash and speed metal bands from all over Europe, including Bathory (Sweden), Hellhammer (Switzerland) and Venom (the United Kingdom). The second wave took place in Norway during the early 1990s, when bands such as Darkthrone, Thorns and Satyricon began building huge cult followings with their startling reinterpretations of the genre. Their frequent involvement in violent crimes from murders to church burnings has attracted worldwide media attention. According to Torstein Grude's 1998 documentary "Satan Rides the Media," at least 50 church burnings were carried out by members of the Norwegian black metal scene between 1992 and 1996 alone.
Black metal's international cult success has changed the face of metal cultures all over the world, paving the way for several other genres of metal music to take root, and drawing unprecedented attention to underground metal artists everywhere. It remains a cornerstone of Norwegian music culture, and continues to generate worldwide interest in the form of film and television documentaries, books, news stories and movies.