Quote:
Originally Posted by The Batlord
From the NWOBHM to thrash to death metal, combined with even grindcore and early black metal, it was basically all an easily recognizable tree of influence.
Norwegian black metal was the no wave of metal. It saw what was going on, wanted nothing to do with it, wanted to be as unlistenable as possible, and wanted to make whatever the **** sounds they wanted to make. Probably why Norwegian black metal got so big. It was almost the entirety of metal's post-punk phase.
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That's sort of the draw to it. It sounds otherworldly. Haunting, at times.
Also, the **** was never supposed to become
a thing. Mayhem's rehearsal place where dead killed himself they literally rented super discounted or got for free because it was condemned and had a giant hole in the floor. So basically, it was actually more akin to crust punk in attitude approach. A lot of the stuff that influenced the earlier beginnings of Black Metal stylization was also very akin to Scandinavian and Norwegian society and culture at the time. Television censorship, changing political aspects, general repression of people at that time, Then later it became a cultural thing with historical and folklore influences (vikings from Scandinavia with what Enslaved and Immortal were doing, Sigh on DSP eventually started doing Shinto-influenced material, and so on). That's why I say that America, kind of can't pull it off. Because we lack those sorts of influences. Our cultural influence is business. And I'm not even touching the Satanism thing, because that's a whole different splinter of its own and trails off. Even most professional black metal bands in the U.S. underground have trouble wrapping their heads around this one. Either that or they like the music, but don't really understand it. Especially these days, shy of religious and political repression in different areas of the country, the U.S. just doesn't have any sort of a fuel for that kind of a rebellious movement. Now that being said, I've heard and seen many great U.S. black metal bands, it's just that the context is different. The context is different because it has to be.