Øystein Aarseth (Euronymous)
Oysten played at first on a band called Checker patrol, and then was the guitar player from Mayhem , a Norwegian black metal band located mainly in oslo,he was one of the co-founders of the band.
But the question is, what does all of this theatrical approach leagued with the music? well, in the early 80's the extreme metal scene was mainly influenced by death metal, which with the time it shined in the mainstream.
Taking the classical song structures from rock and roll/ heavy rock, Euronymous way of composing explored faster tempos and challenging time signatures.like compound 7/8 .In order to create an atmosphere, riffs became more repetitive and longer, separating it from what was known at the time, were in Heavy rock we could hear the classical 4/4 rime signature, the 12 bar blues structure where the the 1st,4th,and 5th notes would be played in every other composition.
The tremolo guitar picking became really common in the compositions too, which is a faster way of playing the guitar by using alternate picking ( down,up.down up or shuffle picking depending on what is being played )
DEAD
Per Yngve Ohlin ( Dead was his artistic name ) was the singer that gave birth to a new style of singing,style used by almost 90% of black metal bands.
His lyric content was very crucial in the development of the genre, he wrote about the obscurest topics, death, afterlife, melancholy ... all of this topics were leagued to his persona,as he was a very depressed guy, and was obsessed with death and afterlife, he even used to have dead animals in plastic bags under his bed so he could smell death all the time.Self mutilation was present on stage, and his vocals was disturbing.
The mixture of all the lyric content, the anger, and all the rotten minds of this artist brought inspiration to many artist in the time line of black metal.
Freezing moon for example is one of the most recognized song within the scene ,with a wide exploration of tempo,even thought this is a rehearsal ,this is my personal favourite version of the song, as it sounds raw and pure . It reflects Euronymous style of playing, with slow/fast passages full of repetition , but the band agreed the their sound had a lot to do with ambience, so in pretty much all of their songs the target is to create an obscure atmosphere followed by some strong lyrics.
This technique asks a lot from your respiratory system and the body in total, as it consists in pushing air out of your lungs wih diafragma and making it hit the back of both throat and mouth, making in it sound distorted,also it is a very loud technique.
“Everything Here Is So ColdEverything Here Is So Dark
Lyrics like this inspired many Norse bands, creating a Black Metal
movement , movement that gave birth to a second wave of Black Metal, and
now days it is stronger than ever, bands like :
Enslaved,one of Viking metal pioneers ,next to Bathory
Burzum ,very influential and crucial for the development of the genre and NSMB
Emperor ,one of the first bands to introduce the heavy use of keyboards on songs within BM
******************************************************************************
BLACK SABBATH
At the begging, the metal sound was created by one of the greatest bands that the world has seen , Black Sabbath, band that started up back in 1968 in the UK,birmingham to be precise , but their first album release would be in 1970 with Paranoid, an album that had a lot of influence in blues and rock and roll. Using Blues structures and techniques like the famous and unmistakable "Call and response", also on many of the solos where played using blues scales.But this guys brought a faster drums and catchy guitar riffs in to the listeners ears, the guitars with what for that era was heavy distortion gave it an unique sound,something never heard of before , and if i am not wrong... the guitarist Tony Lomy used Seymour Duncan guitar pick ups to achieve the desired distortion.
They also started with creating a dark atmosphere, with the introduction of sound effects before the beginning of a song,despite some bright parts on songs,on their first album, they showed a lot of very dark passages within it, by playing minor key dominated compositions mixed with dark/occult lyrics. Occultism,Satanism,Black magic were the main lyric topics used by the band in their early days, and still can be found on the generation.These topic are still heavily celebrated today, but back then few bands like Led Zeppelin, Black widow and Coven were celebrating this topics by bringing them into their music.
Al thought Sabbath's influence was strong , bands like Coven were walking a step ahead them, when they released "Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls" in 1969, with the use of inverted crosses and the "horns" hand gesture ,having the pride to be the first band to be recorded doing so, and then used by the next next generations up to date.
The sound was something new to the world, it was a heavy, fat and distorted sound, but this had to go further into darkness with the appearance of Satanic lyrics in the genre, thing that would bring the attention of the youths that later on would become a new generation for the genre and would impact the entire world.
*********************************************************************************
BOB DYLAN
Oysten played at first on a band called Checker patrol, and then was the guitar player from Mayhem , a Norwegian black metal band located mainly in oslo,he was one of the co-founders of the band.
At the early 80's , after the NWOBHM ( new wave of british heavy metal)
the world saw how new bands were coming into stage with a different
total approach, bringing into metal lyrics and images focused into
satan's worshipping , this were bands like Venom from UK , Celtic frost
, or Bathory from Sweden. Venom's album called Black metal was the one
that gave the name to the genre.
few years later Euronymous co-founded a band called Mayhem, which
started a new wave of Black metal in Norway, with faster blasts and
faster guitar riffs, creating an devilish atmosphere. Also, Mayhem's
lyrics were very extreme and Satanic , thing that called the attention
from many you g people at the time.
This are the words from Euronymous himself on an interview given to a Swedish radio station
"Black metal is satanic,heavy on way...it can be just ordinary heavy metal or just noise,what is important is that it is satanic, that is what makes it black metal.
"Black metal is satanic,heavy on way...it can be just ordinary heavy metal or just noise,what is important is that it is satanic, that is what makes it black metal.
Euronymous became the God father of black metal in Norway , soon
Scandinavia , He was involved in the majority of the church burnings
that were taking in place with his friend Varg Vikerness from Burzum.
Before the 90's started Euronymous was very popular , although he wanted his music and his name to stay underground he said.
He on top of this , started a record label,called Deathlike Silence,he
promoted and produced his band's music too, but also mainly dealt with
Norwegian bands that were into Satanism or Anti-Christians activities
Black metal at this point was an extreme genre already, people in Norway
feared this certain people at the time due to some murders and church
burnings that had happened and rumours said that this "Black metallers"
or "Satanists" were doing all of this .
Euronymous style of playing was very consistent and fast, but it had
Brutal riffs that created such of obscure and beautiful songs.
This is Deathcrush,from the Deathcrush album,the first official album released by the band.
This is Deathcrush,from the Deathcrush album,the first official album released by the band.
But the question is, what does all of this theatrical approach leagued with the music? well, in the early 80's the extreme metal scene was mainly influenced by death metal, which with the time it shined in the mainstream.
Taking the classical song structures from rock and roll/ heavy rock, Euronymous way of composing explored faster tempos and challenging time signatures.like compound 7/8 .In order to create an atmosphere, riffs became more repetitive and longer, separating it from what was known at the time, were in Heavy rock we could hear the classical 4/4 rime signature, the 12 bar blues structure where the the 1st,4th,and 5th notes would be played in every other composition.
The tremolo guitar picking became really common in the compositions too, which is a faster way of playing the guitar by using alternate picking ( down,up.down up or shuffle picking depending on what is being played )
But Øystein wasn't the only member of the band, Hellhammer,( Jan axel ) insisted
that the drums should sound very different that the Death metal or any
other genre known , he insisted that the should sound like a machine gun
in the background. This made explore new ways of playing the drums, by
taking the main punk beats and insert more bits on it, so the snare
drum,and kick drums would be faster and repetitive. Double kick drum and
the use of many more cymbals, also compound triple time signatures (9/16) appeared in Mayhems albums and demos.
*********************************************************************************DEAD
Per Yngve Ohlin ( Dead was his artistic name ) was the singer that gave birth to a new style of singing,style used by almost 90% of black metal bands.
His lyric content was very crucial in the development of the genre, he wrote about the obscurest topics, death, afterlife, melancholy ... all of this topics were leagued to his persona,as he was a very depressed guy, and was obsessed with death and afterlife, he even used to have dead animals in plastic bags under his bed so he could smell death all the time.Self mutilation was present on stage, and his vocals was disturbing.
The mixture of all the lyric content, the anger, and all the rotten minds of this artist brought inspiration to many artist in the time line of black metal.
Freezing moon for example is one of the most recognized song within the scene ,with a wide exploration of tempo,even thought this is a rehearsal ,this is my personal favourite version of the song, as it sounds raw and pure . It reflects Euronymous style of playing, with slow/fast passages full of repetition , but the band agreed the their sound had a lot to do with ambience, so in pretty much all of their songs the target is to create an obscure atmosphere followed by some strong lyrics.
This technique asks a lot from your respiratory system and the body in total, as it consists in pushing air out of your lungs wih diafragma and making it hit the back of both throat and mouth, making in it sound distorted,also it is a very loud technique.
“Everything Here Is So ColdEverything Here Is So Dark
I Remember It As From A Dream
In The Corner Of This Time
Diabolic Shapes Float By
Out From The Dark
I Remember It Was Here I Died
By Following The Freezing Moon
It's Night Again, Night You Beautiful
I Please My Hunger, On Living Humans
Night Of Hunger Follow It's Call
Follow The Freezing Moon
Darkness Is Growing, Eternity Opens
The Cemetery Lights Up Again
As In Ancient Times
Fallen Souls Die Behind My Steps
By Following The Freezing Moon”
Enslaved,one of Viking metal pioneers ,next to Bathory
Burzum ,very influential and crucial for the development of the genre and NSMB
Emperor ,one of the first bands to introduce the heavy use of keyboards on songs within BM
******************************************************************************
BLACK SABBATH
At the begging, the metal sound was created by one of the greatest bands that the world has seen , Black Sabbath, band that started up back in 1968 in the UK,birmingham to be precise , but their first album release would be in 1970 with Paranoid, an album that had a lot of influence in blues and rock and roll. Using Blues structures and techniques like the famous and unmistakable "Call and response", also on many of the solos where played using blues scales.But this guys brought a faster drums and catchy guitar riffs in to the listeners ears, the guitars with what for that era was heavy distortion gave it an unique sound,something never heard of before , and if i am not wrong... the guitarist Tony Lomy used Seymour Duncan guitar pick ups to achieve the desired distortion.
They also started with creating a dark atmosphere, with the introduction of sound effects before the beginning of a song,despite some bright parts on songs,on their first album, they showed a lot of very dark passages within it, by playing minor key dominated compositions mixed with dark/occult lyrics. Occultism,Satanism,Black magic were the main lyric topics used by the band in their early days, and still can be found on the generation.These topic are still heavily celebrated today, but back then few bands like Led Zeppelin, Black widow and Coven were celebrating this topics by bringing them into their music.
Al thought Sabbath's influence was strong , bands like Coven were walking a step ahead them, when they released "Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls" in 1969, with the use of inverted crosses and the "horns" hand gesture ,having the pride to be the first band to be recorded doing so, and then used by the next next generations up to date.
The sound was something new to the world, it was a heavy, fat and distorted sound, but this had to go further into darkness with the appearance of Satanic lyrics in the genre, thing that would bring the attention of the youths that later on would become a new generation for the genre and would impact the entire world.
*********************************************************************************
BOB DYLAN
Bob
Dylan was born in Minnesota in 1941. his lyrics topic are varied depending on the moment or situation he was living or seeing at the moment of writing, he said that there is a song for every occasion, some of his lyric topics are poverty,politics,racism and social issues.
At the moment of composing the music for his songs,he is been acclaimed for the simplicity of them, as he though that the songs were more about the lyrics , it would also make it a lot easier for him to sing when playing his songs,something that many artist now days still use, as the main target of many artist i to deliver a message onto an audience rather than them to focus on the musical side of the art.As his lyric topics are based in the topics here named and many more, it increased his popularity , using elements of narrative quiet often he is been catalogued within the "folk" genre.A very good example of his narrative is this song called "the hurricane" which mainly about a story, he is telling a story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. which is a boxer that got sent to prison charged for murder.
In his songs structures you can hear that it is not like the way these structures are used in music, there is not an specific lyric topic and,with the absence of repetition, and there is hardly ever there presence of a chorus.
Instrumentation varies from song to song but mainly he uses an acoustic guitar, harmonica,piano, etc..although he is commonly catalogued as a folk artist,he is highly influenced by blues,jazz,gospel,country, and rock n' roll.. he is highly recognized for the use of the harmonica and acoustic guitar at the same time when playing live, and then again it comes back to the simplicity of his music, so he can use this two instruments at the same time while also singing in different parts of the song.His musical composition style comes very often to the heavily used chord progression 1-4-5 found in Blues.
sources:+ Black metal evolution of the cult
+ Wikipedia
In his songs structures you can hear that it is not like the way these structures are used in music, there is not an specific lyric topic and,with the absence of repetition, and there is hardly ever there presence of a chorus.
Instrumentation varies from song to song but mainly he uses an acoustic guitar, harmonica,piano, etc..although he is commonly catalogued as a folk artist,he is highly influenced by blues,jazz,gospel,country, and rock n' roll.. he is highly recognized for the use of the harmonica and acoustic guitar at the same time when playing live, and then again it comes back to the simplicity of his music, so he can use this two instruments at the same time while also singing in different parts of the song.His musical composition style comes very often to the heavily used chord progression 1-4-5 found in Blues.
sources:+ Black metal evolution of the cult
+ Wikipedia
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