Black Metal

Black metal is the cold, atmospheric extreme of metal: thin, trebly guitars playing long tremolo-picked lines, relentless blast beats, shrieked vocals, and a deliberately raw recording aesthetic that treats hi-fi polish as a betrayal. More than any other metal genre, it is defined as much by atmosphere and ideology as by riffs.

This guide covers what black metal is, the first and second waves that created it, how to recognise the sound, why it is recorded the way it is, its many subgenres, and the albums that matter. Not sure whether a track is black metal, death metal, or something else entirely? Feed a few seconds to our free AI music genre detector and it will read the tone, tempo, and vocal register for you.

Black metal is an extreme metal genre built on high-pitched, rasping vocals, fast tremolo-picked guitar riffs that function as texture rather than as hooks, blast beat drumming, and minor-key harmony that emphasises dissonance and melancholy. Songs are typically long, repetitive, and hypnotic — the goal is immersion in a mood rather than a sequence of memorable parts.

The other defining trait is production. Where death metal chases power and definition, classic black metal chases coldness: thin guitars, distant drums, and tape hiss, often recorded on cheap four-track equipment on purpose. That "necro" aesthetic began as necessity in early-1990s Norway and became an aesthetic rule that bands still follow — or deliberately break — three decades later. Lyrically the genre draws on Satanism, paganism, Norse mythology, nature, and misanthropy.

The first wave ran through the 1980s and was less a scene than a set of precursors: Venom, whose 1982 album Black Metal gave the genre its name; Bathory, whose Swedish records introduced the shrieked vocal and raw sound; Switzerland's Hellhammer and Celtic Frost; and Denmark's Mercyful Fate.

The genre as it is understood today came from the Norwegian second wave of the early 1990s, centred on Oslo and the record shop Helvete, run by Mayhem's Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth. Mayhem, Darkthrone (whose A Blaze in the Northern Sky, 1992, marked a hard turn from death metal to black metal), Burzum, Immortal, Emperor, and Satyricon defined the sound within about four years.

The scene also became notorious beyond music: a series of church arsons in 1992–1993 and the killing of Euronymous in 1993 brought international press coverage that has shadowed the genre ever since. Musically the 1990s then split it wide open — Emperor and Dimmu Borgir added orchestration, Ulver and Burzum pushed into ambient, and later bands such as Wolves in the Throne Room, Deafheaven, and Alcest merged it with post-rock and shoegaze, creating the strand known as blackgaze.

Black metal's markers are unusually consistent:

• Vocals: a high, rasping shriek or scream — thin and piercing, the opposite of the death growl.
• Guitars: thin, treble-heavy distortion with little low end; sustained tremolo picking across full chords rather than palm-muted chugs.
• Tempo: commonly 150–250 BPM with blast beats, but atmospheric and depressive strands often sit far slower.
• Drums: blast beats and fast double-kick, frequently mixed low and dry so they blur into the guitars.
• Harmony: minor keys, dissonant intervals, and long unresolved progressions.
• Structure: long, repetitive, trance-inducing songs — six to ten minutes is normal.
• Production: intentionally raw and lo-fi in the traditional strand; clean and huge in the symphonic one.

Those variables move a long way between subgenres:

The instrumentation is standard metal, but the treatment is not:

• Guitars: often in standard or only slightly lowered tuning — unlike death metal, black metal does not rely on down-tuning for weight.
• EQ philosophy: mids and highs kept, lows cut, producing the characteristic cold and brittle tone.
• Drums: recorded dry and often mixed behind the guitars; the classic records were tracked quickly and cheaply.
• Bass: frequently near-inaudible in traditional black metal, on purpose.
• Keyboards: central in symphonic and atmospheric strands — strings, choirs, and pads carrying the melody the guitars imply.
• Recording: four-track and rehearsal-room recordings are treated as legitimate final masters, not demos.

This is the genre where "bad" production is an artistic choice. Darkthrone's Transilvanian Hunger (1994) is the canonical example: a deliberately murky, monochrome record whose sound is inseparable from its identity.

Black metal has branched in almost every direction:

• Symphonic black metal — orchestral keyboards and choirs (Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth).
• Atmospheric black metal — long, immersive, nature-oriented (Wolves in the Throne Room, Paysage d'Hiver).
• Depressive suicidal black metal (DSBM) — slow, sparse, despairing (Xasthur, Shining).
• Blackgaze / post-black metal — shoegaze and post-rock textures (Alcest, Deafheaven).
• Blackened death metal — the density of death metal with black metal atmosphere (Behemoth, Belphegor).
• War metal / bestial black metal — chaotic and intentionally unlistenable (Blasphemy, Revenge).
• Pagan / Viking black metal — folk melodies and mythological themes (Bathory's later work, Enslaved).
• Black 'n' roll — rock and punk swagger over black metal tone (Kvelertak, later Darkthrone).

The essential records, roughly in order of influence:

• Venom — Black Metal (1982), the album that named the genre.
• Bathory — Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987).
• Darkthrone — A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992), Transilvanian Hunger (1994).
• Mayhem — De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994).
• Emperor — In the Nightside Eclipse (1994).
• Burzum — Filosofem (1996).
• Immortal — At the Heart of Winter (1999).
• Dimmu Borgir — Enthrone Darkness Triumphant (1997).
• Wolves in the Throne Room — Two Hunters (2007).
• Deafheaven — Sunbather (2013), the genre's biggest crossover.

Start with Transilvanian Hunger, In the Nightside Eclipse, and Sunbather to hear raw, symphonic, and post-black approaches in sequence.

The two are constantly confused by newcomers, but almost every parameter differs:

Black metal gives a classifier an unusual spectral fingerprint: energy concentrated in the mid and high range, weak or absent low-end from guitars and bass, extremely high onset density from blast beats, and a vocal with high-frequency noise but almost no pitch. The genre's lo-fi mastering — narrow dynamic range, audible hiss — is itself a usable cue.

Ambiguity comes from the modern strands: a blackgaze track with warm, wide production sits between black metal and post-rock, and symphonic black metal shares spectral traits with orchestral classical recordings. Try your own examples in the Genre AI music genre detector and read how AI music genre detection works to see why several labels can score at once.

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