Black Metal Essentials

Metal bands have been drawn to the relentless bleakness and corpse-paint aesthetics of black metal ever since England's Venom first coined the term in 1982. Norwegian bands like Mayhem and Emperor solidified the genre's “kvlt” template in the early '90s, hammering together buzzsaw guitars, demonic screams, and pummeling blast beats evoking pagan rituals in the Scandinavian cold. Many diehards remain dedicated to this unholy scripture, but other bands have re-energized the genre in the new millennium: Blut aus Nord fuse blackened riffs with post-punk/industrial elements, while Deafheaven deliver dreamlike, shoegaze-infused intensity.