It’s actually quite complicated, and I might get some details wrong here, but here’s a short version off the top of my head:
The band started out not just wanting to make extreme music, but projecting an extreme image. Then things kinda went out of whack and the vocalist, Death, killed himself. Euronymous, the guitarst and main figure, took photos of the scene and made it into a cover, then sent out pieces of Death’s skull to friends and acquaintances. The other members, especially Necrobutcher (I’m not sure, but I think he might be the only original member left), were pretty horrified by this, but nonetheless continued in the band. At some point Varg Vikernes joined the band, with some pretty crazy ideas about music and life in general. He and Euronymous played off each other and created the nucleus of the first wave black metal scene in Norway. This milieu was introvert, exclusive and very unhealthy and basically imploded after Varg stabbed Euronymous to death, ushering in the second wave of Norwegian black metal, characterized by a much more satirical, over-the-top approach to the genre.
Edit: There were also many different scenes all around in Norway, both competing and collaborating with each other. I think the main one were in Oslo, and the runner-up somewhere on the west coast. Probably Stavanger or Bergen.
Those church burnings you always hear about in connection with Norwegian black metal were mostly mentally unstable fans wanting to impress the core figures in the scene. Not to downplay the craziness of some of the main musicians at the time: Varg and Euronymous for example, were planning to blow up the Nidaros dome, Norways most famous church and the first one made in stone (I think). One guy has been convicted of torture and violent assault not once, but several times. And so on and so on.
But I want to stress that while some were and still are crazy assholes, not everyone involved were. Hope that helps.
Ok, so Mayhem = probably actually insane for the most part*, everyone else = not so much except for some fans but that can’t really be helped.
More or less?
*so the thing about the skull necklace and stuff after the lead singer killed himself is *not *made up. That’s disturbing in a way that surprises me.
I’m digging the other stuff you linked. High on Fire in particular really caught my ear, but that might be because it was the first one I listened to after Mayhem which, like I said, I’ll come back to.
Varg Vikernes = Crazy, dangerous, violent and a neo-nazi to boot. Was convicted for murder and spent 15 years in prison.
Euronymous = Crazy, did some fucked up stuff and was instrumental in creating a pretty scary environment.
Death = Had mental issues and was a death-fetishist, which prompted him to kill himself. I don’t think he did anyone else any harm, apart from that.
Mayhem has had A LOT of member over the years… It is kinda unfair to call the band crazy for the actions of a few crazy members. Necrobutcher for example, is not a crazy guy. He’s a pretty normal dude who loves to play extreme metal.
Then you have various other crazy people in various bands. One guy in Emperor promoted arson. The vocalist in Gorgoroth (a bit later I think) was convicted for torture and violent assault.
Then you have the church-burners, who were for the most part fans unaffiliated with bands, at least well known ones, as far as I know. Their motivation was for the most part to impress the inner circle in the scene to gain admission, which they didn’t.
The rest are relatively normal people, as far as I know!
Glad you like High On Fire! Great band, really good live.
*Yeah, the skull stuff is true. I actually think the album cover thing is even more disturbing. Using the suicide of a supposed friend only for trying to achieve controversy and notoriety… Pretty chilling, to be honest.
Last harp on Mayhem… If you feel you have an album’s worth of undivided attention to spend, put this on: Mayhem - A Grand Declaration Of War. You might not like it, it’s not an easy album, but IMO it’s worth the time.
You have me convinced that they are work my time. I will check them out. I am making a Spotify playlist that is sorta chronological to listen to while I drive around. Right now its 90% stuff from the 80s, but I figure that’s to be expected.
I also watched the movie Snowboarded Bo suggested today. It’s really interesting. More about the culture of Metal than the music itself, but it gives a nice history lesson too and focuses a lot on Black Metal. Probably more than any other genre which is interesting since it seems to be less popular as a whole than Death Metal, but that may just be my perception as an outsider. Mayhem was interviewed! It was pretty funny. They also talked to some of the church burners and, those guys really do seem serious, but the movie points out its more a Norwegian thing and less a Metal thing. The Metal part is mostly coincidence it seems.
I’ve never been able to appreciate any death metal, speed metal, or black metal. It is not going to happen. Someone whose Platonic ideal of music is Brian Wilson, Harry Nilsson, and Jerry Garcia is just not going to dig that sound, it’s not happening. That doesn’t mean I think it’s bad music. I defintely acknowledge that it takes extreme skill to pull it off. I admire guys who can shred with insanely intricate articulation and drummers who are capable of playing that hard-hitting style without dropping the beat - I do admire it. But I just don’t dig it. Nobody’s gonna “teach me” or teach you to appreciate music that you don’t appreciate…you don’t appreciate it because you don’t appreciate it, full stop.
I think you and I are using different definitions of appreciate. I am wanting something akin to a music appreciation class experience (mostly self taught I don’t really expect anyone in this thread to ACTUALLY teach me like I’m in a class).
For example. I do not like free jazz. But I appreciate what they are doing because I understand it. I am not putting on a free jazz album any time soon, but if I go to a Jazz club and a free jazz quintet comes on to do a set, or if I am listening to the Jazz station and Ornete Colman comes on I can listen to it and understand it, it isn’t just noise. I may not like it, I may chose to change the channel, but I might not and I can have a meaningful conversation with someone about it if it comes up (and it does sometimes in the strangest situations.) Same deal with Opera. I can’t get past the singing style. It just doesn’t work for me. But I get it. I like the music even if the singing style doesn’t work and I can follow an aria and understand what coloratura is and all that stuff. Again, it’s not noise.
Right now if I flip to the metal station on my satellite radio it’s just noise. I might as well be listening to radio static. I may never like it, but I feel like I want to understand it. And I might like it. I was listening to Motorhead earlier and, that’s good stuff (though I guess not everyone thinks it’s metal??) Sometimes it’s just lack of familiarity.
First, I totally commend you on wanting to appreciate metal. I am a fan of music, more than I can describe accurately. I hear music all the time and I love the vast majority of it. And even the stuff I don’t like, I’ve listened to shitloads of. If people are finding meaning and joy in it, and I’m not, I wanna know what they see/hear/etc. that I’m not.
And especially with music, it seems, educating your ear is a real thing. Becoming familiar with the rhythms, cadences and nuances of new types of music, for me, can eventually help me find songs within that genre that I do like by normalizing what was formerly unknown. And almost every form of music has something that I can latch onto to start: a good drum sound, a good beat in general, a killer noise that the guitar makes that it doesn’t make in other music, etc. For instance, I’m not a fan of reggae, but I can appreciate a good reggae bass line as much as anyone, and I do find old dancehall and pre-Marley reggae to be vastly different and more enjoyable than most modern reggae. I’ve seen Peter Tosh, Eddie Grant, King Sunny Ade, every Marley other than Bob, etc. live. Why? Because millions of people love reggae, and I’m curious about what they hear that I don’t (and why I don’t). And yeah, there’s a handful of reggae songs that I like. Delroy Wilson’s Feel Good All Over (ETA: WARNING! HOT AUDIO! TURN DOWN FIRST!), for instance, gets turned up whenever it comes on; I freaking love that song.
In general, I hate reggae. But I did teach myself to appreciate it enough that I understand what people like and found that it can appeal to me, even if most of it does not.
So good on you for doing something I like to do too.
Oh, and it’s not that lots of people don’t think Motörhead is metal, it’s that Lemmy himself said repeatedly that they were a rock band and they played rock and roll. He was adamant that they were not a metal band.
I’ve been confronted with my own dislike for certain genres so many times I’ve realized there might just be something in any and every genre I’ll like. It’s just arrangements of sounds anyway. We all evolve our tastes whether we like it or not. Embracing that also has the potential of radically expanding your music library.
So, I started in on my Spotify playlist today. Listened to some more Motorhead Ace of Spades and all of Judas Priest 's British Steel. I like both these guys, but I don’t honestly see a ton of distinction between them and, say, the Who or Steppenwolf or…less technical Rush, or any other just very hard rock bands. They are riffy, and bluesey and fun. Absolutely going to hang on to these albums and listen again. So far this is still firmly inside my comfort zone though.
Quick breakdown of thoughts on the albums:
I already knew three tracks off British Steel, but actually liked them less than the tracks I didn’t know. "Grinder "stood out on that album as just an awesome rocker, as did “Red White and Blue” because it was so different. I also appreciate the bass and general riffiness on “Rage” which was the only track I felt really felt like what I think of as stereotypical metal in the sense that it has a very operatic feel, but even then not a ton more than maybe Led Zeppelin or Rush (who I guess is actually metal based on the movie, but I would not have considered them to be). I really like this album though it bogged down as a little samey. I could have stood for it to have dropped a couple of tracks in the middle, though I would be hard pressed to tell you which right now. Rob Halford has a hell of a voice too.
Motorhead:
I have heard the track Ace of Spades about 50,000 times, because I am alive in the world, but the rest of the album was new to me. Probably more bluesy than Judas Priest. Also solidly riffy and with a great rhythm section. Very propulsive feeling. **Motorhead **plays guitar solos that feel right to me as a blues rock guitar player. They don’t feel showy for the sake of showy, they feel connected and organic and growing out of the main riffs. Again, feels like the child of **Steppenwolf **with Love Me Like a Reptile even quoting some riffs from Born to be Wild. I got tired of this album more easily than I did with the Judas Priest. While I can see myself intentionally coming back to listen to British Steel again, I feel like Ace of Spades is something that will live in a playlist and I will be pleasantly surprised when it shows up on shuffle. Still, genuinely enjoyed everything on it, but nothing in particular stood out and grabbed me the way the stuff on the Judas Priest album did. Looking back over the track listing, I did really like “Fast and Loose”. Lemmys voice on that one is amazing and the main riff is really fun. In a lot of ways it feels like a more musically proficient and apolitical Sex Pistols and I sort of feel about this album the way I feel about Never Mind the Bollocks. I like it, but listening to the whole thing in one go sort of bores me. They also seem like they killed live.
If you find a song you like, go to Spotify radio, do a search, and Spotify will pull up a couple dozen songs in that same vein. I’ve gotten many good leads This way.
Holy cow guys. I might be an Iron Maiden fan and I just didn’t know it. I am about halfway through *Killers *and I like it so much I felt compelled to stop and post this.
I am surprised because I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like it going into it. But, yeah, dynamics, tempo shifts, key variation, not nearly as crazy over the top theatrical as I was expecting. (Some of it reminds me a little of Jethro Tull, and again prog bands). But none of the samey feeling I got from Judas Priest and Motorhead. I’m through Prodigal Son and I have not been bored or disliked any of it yet.
IM are the epitome of the NWOBHM, IMO. I’m not a huge fan, but it’s hard to deny their overall proficiency as far as presentation, performance, lyrics, etc.
My thing is, I don’t particularly care for the operatic/classical aspect of it at all. But even I think they have a handful of killer tunes; Run To The Hills and Two Minutes To Midnight, for example, are both fucking awesome.
I’m gonna go advanced here and based on your reaction to Iron Maiden, I’m gonna recommend something that you may not be ready for. This is a progressive death metal band from Melbourne: Ne Obliviscaris - And Plague Flowers The Kaleidoscope.
Yeah based purely on what I heard in Metal:a headbangers journey I really expected to not like them. I was expecting far more power metal I suppose? This wasn’t that. Maybe they get more theatrical as they go on. I think this is a pretty early album.
