Azaras wrote:HELLHAMMER and VENOM are the absolute epitome of "black metal", or "death metal", or whatever you want to call it. They are much of the deathtone of all these '80s bands with gruesome demo-covers and harsh rehearsals. The screechy vocals and razor-sharp guitar of all these '90s Norwegian bands was taken from HELLHAMMER!
The screechy vocals and the razor-sharp quitars of the Norwegians came from Bathory. Hellhammer was the next step for them.
Venom and Hellhammer are not the epitome of black or death metal, they stand on their own for what they are. They may have hugely influenced an entire generation of bands but I wouldn't call them BM. Venom were a faster-and-punkier-Motorhead who were having loads of stupid fun putting pentacles and goats on its covers when basically all they ever were about is getting drunk and "scoring fat chicks".This is not Black Metal, this is rock 'n roll. And I am really confident that they were not serious at all about their image (how can you be?). They were always outspoken of the fact that it was just a gimmick and you can read that in pretty much every interview they did from 1985-6 and on.
Hellhammer are DEATH, the sound of an animated corpse being pulled out of the grave just to be killed again while it shrills and curses.But they are not BM. They are more thrashers than they are anything else.
Black Metal is not just razor-sharp guitars, screechy vocals and a goat and a pentacle on the cover. Black Metal is about being dead serious. It is not just about the style (corpse paint, spread your legs when you pose etc) but the aesthetics that run through the music, why it should sound THIS way, the image of the band, the album covers, the lyrics etc. No "teacher caught me masturbating underneath the desk" is allowed. "the next 1000 years is ours" is more like it.The difference lies that there is no rock 'n' roll fun hidden anywhere. "All is black and black is all" seriousness is what BM is. Stupid? Yeap, most of the time. Autistic? Yeap, sure. Fun? NO sir.
As much as I love BS they will never be a doom band. Black Sabbath are Black Sabbath. They created the whole thing, influenced almost everybody and are hugely responsible for how HM turned to be. But they are not a doom metal band. Black Sabbath were the original HM band, you can say that. But Doom metal is another thing. Doom is Candlemass and Pentagram, St Vitus and early Trouble. Black Sabbath were dark hippies while doom is about taking that larger-than-life riff and basing your heavy metal on it.Azaras wrote:BLACK SABBATH IS *THE* DOOM METAL BAND. BLACK SABBATH IS THE SOUND OF YOUR DOOM ITSELF.
Black Sabbath= dark hippies. Doom Metal= Heavy Metal.
Venom= NWoBHM version of a punkier Motorhead with a pentacle on the cover.
Black Metal= the autistic negation of fun