Like so many genres before it, Black Metal was first delivered to the mainstream consciousness by the sensationalist tabloid headlines of the quick-buck yellow-press. But unlike punk rock and its artschool nihilism, there really was something nasty hiding behind the movement’s smudged corpsepaint and subhuman facade.
Black Metal may have been bastard born of a clutch of early 80’s thrash bands like Venom and Celtic Frost, but it wasn’t until the more defined second wave of the early 90’s broke over Scandinavia, and Norway in particular, that a scene, that was as visually challenging as it was aurally, spiralled out of control when it’s satanic pantomime stepped off the stage and in to the headlines.
With key members of the Norwegian Black Metal scene killing themselves, killing eachother, and taking the torch to the houses of the Lord, the media freakshow blasted the little regarded sub-genre from the underground in to orbit over night, unintentionally glorifying the music’s misanthropic ideals and the villainy of its wayward figureheads to a generation of bored kids.
Satan! Fire! Blood! Distortion! Sounds interesting right? Well it’s just interesting enough to warrant a kick-ass new documentary chronicling the church torching and murder of Norwegian Black Metal’s Glory Years! Check out the excellent trailer to Until The Light Takes Us below.
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