Early Black Metal - what were the bands?
Early Black Metal - what were the bands?
I'd like to ask you guys' opinions on what bands up until, say, 1986, might be called Black Metal without stretching the designation too much, and also taking into consideration that by then these labels were far less defined and rigid than they are now.
A first approach as to a possible list is the following. Which names do you think are missing? Which names wouldn't you agree with? I'm very much looking forward to your input.
1980
Venom (UK)
1981
Death SS (Ita)
Mercyful Fate (Den)
1982
Future Tense (Hol)
Sodom (Ger)
1983
666 / Törr (Cze)
Bulldozer (Ita)
Evil Blood (Cro)
Hellhammer (Swi)
Satan's Pharynx (Ger)
Slayer (USA)
1984
Bathory (Swe)
Celtic Frost (Swi)
Dark Satan (Ger)
Death Angel's (Bra)
Destruction (Ger)
Ghostrider (pre-Necrodeath) (Ita)
Iron Angel (Ger)
Kat (Pol)
Poison (Ger)
Possessed (USA)
Running Wild (Ger)
Semen of Satan (Ger)
Vulcano (Bra)
1985
Black Shepherd (Bel)
Flames (Gre)
Hell (Ger)
Holocausto (Bra)
Mayhem (Ger)
NME (USA)
Occult (USA)
Renegade (Aus)
Sabbat (Jap)
Samhain (Den)
Savage Death (USA)
Schizo (Ita)
Sepultura (Bra)
Voor (Can)
White Hell (Jap)
1986
Angel Reaper (Hun)
Antichrist (Ger)
Black Cross (Por)
Black Mass (Nor)
Cerbero (Arg)
Hadez (Peru)
Hellpreacher (USA)
Infernäl Mäjesty (Can)
Mayhem (Nor)
Mefisto (Swe)
Obscurity (Swe)
Pentagram (Chi)
Requiem (Ita)
Retrosatan (Arg)
Sacrifice (Jap)
Sarcófago (Bra)
Slaughter Lord (Aus)
Zadkiel (Jap)
By 1987 I think the scene was already growing too much and becoming too mixed with more conventional Thrash and Death. Still, a few names were still very oldschool Black Metal that year, like Aamonhammer, Fantom, Flames of Hell, Master's Hammer, Morbid, Mortuary Drape, Necrovore, Nekromantie, Parabellum, Reencarnación, Sadistik Exekution, Samael, Tormentor, and the list goes on...
A first approach as to a possible list is the following. Which names do you think are missing? Which names wouldn't you agree with? I'm very much looking forward to your input.
1980
Venom (UK)
1981
Death SS (Ita)
Mercyful Fate (Den)
1982
Future Tense (Hol)
Sodom (Ger)
1983
666 / Törr (Cze)
Bulldozer (Ita)
Evil Blood (Cro)
Hellhammer (Swi)
Satan's Pharynx (Ger)
Slayer (USA)
1984
Bathory (Swe)
Celtic Frost (Swi)
Dark Satan (Ger)
Death Angel's (Bra)
Destruction (Ger)
Ghostrider (pre-Necrodeath) (Ita)
Iron Angel (Ger)
Kat (Pol)
Poison (Ger)
Possessed (USA)
Running Wild (Ger)
Semen of Satan (Ger)
Vulcano (Bra)
1985
Black Shepherd (Bel)
Flames (Gre)
Hell (Ger)
Holocausto (Bra)
Mayhem (Ger)
NME (USA)
Occult (USA)
Renegade (Aus)
Sabbat (Jap)
Samhain (Den)
Savage Death (USA)
Schizo (Ita)
Sepultura (Bra)
Voor (Can)
White Hell (Jap)
1986
Angel Reaper (Hun)
Antichrist (Ger)
Black Cross (Por)
Black Mass (Nor)
Cerbero (Arg)
Hadez (Peru)
Hellpreacher (USA)
Infernäl Mäjesty (Can)
Mayhem (Nor)
Mefisto (Swe)
Obscurity (Swe)
Pentagram (Chi)
Requiem (Ita)
Retrosatan (Arg)
Sacrifice (Jap)
Sarcófago (Bra)
Slaughter Lord (Aus)
Zadkiel (Jap)
By 1987 I think the scene was already growing too much and becoming too mixed with more conventional Thrash and Death. Still, a few names were still very oldschool Black Metal that year, like Aamonhammer, Fantom, Flames of Hell, Master's Hammer, Morbid, Mortuary Drape, Necrovore, Nekromantie, Parabellum, Reencarnación, Sadistik Exekution, Samael, Tormentor, and the list goes on...
Last edited by Rick on Sat Mar 27, 2010 4:06 pm, edited 3 times in total.
- The Erlking
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Future Tense is indeed a justified addition I think. I always wondered about adding Running Wild to such a list. Perhaps other opinions clear out how pertinent it is. I'm adding Kat and Flames to the list. What do you think? Destruction in too.
I always saw them as a total Venom/Motörhead worship.The Knell wrote:zadkiel are not black and were hardly satanic
- ION BRITTON
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Can't see the black metal thing in BLACK EVIL except from some lyrics maybe, there's no satanic atmosphere on their demo or on the comp track, dark music definitely, but more like dark epic to my ears. Haven't heard CREEPING DEATH tho'.
RUNNING WILD were twice as evil musically and since BLACK EVIL or RETROSATAN were included you shouldn't have doubted one single second to include the german gods.
Not to mention SATANS HOST...
RUNNING WILD were twice as evil musically and since BLACK EVIL or RETROSATAN were included you shouldn't have doubted one single second to include the german gods.
Not to mention SATANS HOST...
Good against Evil, Evil sure to win
"It really didn't matter if they liked it or not, i was going to give it to them straight down their throats" -John Stewart
"It really didn't matter if they liked it or not, i was going to give it to them straight down their throats" -John Stewart
- ION BRITTON
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1984 - Death metal comp, Victim of states power EP & Gates to purgatoryRick wrote:Ok then. I'm enjoying the feedback.
Truth is I don't really know the earlier material by Running Wild. What year do you guys think I should add them to the list?
Good against Evil, Evil sure to win
"It really didn't matter if they liked it or not, i was going to give it to them straight down their throats" -John Stewart
"It really didn't matter if they liked it or not, i was going to give it to them straight down their throats" -John Stewart
- ION BRITTON
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I think it was a bit later that they became really 'black', see my post above.Black Axe wrote: Running Wild should be 1981, they released a demo called Rock From Hell that year. Says it all, really.
Good against Evil, Evil sure to win
"It really didn't matter if they liked it or not, i was going to give it to them straight down their throats" -John Stewart
"It really didn't matter if they liked it or not, i was going to give it to them straight down their throats" -John Stewart
Yeah, but then you'd need to move up bands like Mercyful Fate too. Their first EP wasn't until 1982. And Death SS would be 1983 instead of 1981 as well.ION BRITTON wrote:1984 - Death metal comp, Victim of states power EP & Gates to purgatoryRick wrote:Ok then. I'm enjoying the feedback.
Truth is I don't really know the earlier material by Running Wild. What year do you guys think I should add them to the list?
- ION BRITTON
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And according to M-A, the lyrics to Hallow The Hell (1981 demo) are:
"'Cause they all know, that heaven had to go
You can be so low, in our show
They all know, that heaven had to go,
In our show
Hallow the hell, that's all we want to tell
Hallow the hell, that's all we want to tell"
Sounds pretty Black to me.
"'Cause they all know, that heaven had to go
You can be so low, in our show
They all know, that heaven had to go,
In our show
Hallow the hell, that's all we want to tell
Hallow the hell, that's all we want to tell"
Sounds pretty Black to me.
- ION BRITTON
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- Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2006 3:07 pm
There were surely hints of blackness in the pre-1984 material, but the '84 materal is exactly what this thread is about, sound-, lyric- and imagewise
Good against Evil, Evil sure to win
"It really didn't matter if they liked it or not, i was going to give it to them straight down their throats" -John Stewart
"It really didn't matter if they liked it or not, i was going to give it to them straight down their throats" -John Stewart
I don't see how lyrical subject can create a separate subgenre, I don't think any of those bands are black metal. The '2nd wave' of BM is the only music I count as BM. Musically Venom, Running Wild and Mercyful Fate have nothing in common, neither does the 2nd wave of BM have anything in common with those bands musically.
Are you the tyrant, who cast them to the sea?
One day you'll be among the dead.
One day you'll be among the dead.