usic is foremost a medium of pleasure. A spiritual conductor between the mind and the heavens. It can stir the heart for war, calm the unruly and serve as a stimulant or sedative for every complex human emotion. Originally tribal and evolving into numerous sounds made possible by an equal number of instruments. To the modern perception the roots of Occult/ Dark music can be found as mere background music for ancient magical rites or elaborate incantations practised well beyond the sight of outsiders. These roots would inevitably lead to pagan origins.
The very origins of music rest with Rhythm. The first exhalations of pleasure, tribal dances or war chants formed the first echoes of human musical evolution.
The natural sequence of this was to emphasise the beat. By beating with sticks on a hollow tree trunk man had his first taste of music. 'Beat' music is therefore the most primitive of all. No doubt some half naked Neanderthal 70,000 years ago gazed at the thunderous night beating on a hollow trunk seeking favour with the murderous night.

he plucking of a string to produce a note soon followed and by the time of the Ancient Egyptians and Greeks there was a vast array of instruments like the Lute, Flute, Pipes, Harp, Oboe and Lyre. 
The life long emphasis to which the Egyptians placed in death would certainly have created a sombre musical shroud for the sacred rites performed by the temple priests. 
Music was very much apart of every day life as it is today. Feasts, Festivals and Funerals would be every different without some form of musical background.
Leaping across time we owe much to the Church during the advances made during the middle ages and modern music owes a vast dept to Bach and the other great composers. With the 20th century music has reached the masses via the invention of radio and television. But during the brief history explained here, what of the Occult in music?

ysterious Sabbats and Voodoo hysteria designed to channel mans spiritual growth with the gods has long been a part of mans passion to touch the dark side of his existence. With the advent of Christianity the appearance of the Devil incarnate has given those seekers of dark mystery a more tangible platform in which to vent their lusts for depravity and unquenchable thirst for supposedly forbidden knowledge.
The Satanic element in music has always been a sanctuary for non-conformists and their like to step out of the conventional boundaries of society and indulge in much of the taboo activities shunned by the religious restraints of day to day existence.
During the middle ages the primitive urges of the people were severely suppressed by the fanatical dominance of the Church and if one were to choose between the sombre hymns of the pews to the drunken frivolity of the folk based tales of superstition and Magic, one can at once understand the vehemence the later received from ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
The promulgation of religious persecution during the 15th and 17th centuries created a stark picture of witch-hunts, Devil worshipping and torture, all of which has given boundless inspiration for the modern occult/ Black metal band.
The irony of the Christian Church inflicting such wanton brutality in its own fervour to purge the sexual improprieties and so called heretical views of men has also added to the delusion of its own credibility. To think of the suffering Christians have received from other establishments, the anti-Semitic policies deployed by certain factions and countless episodes of in house cruelty [most notably by the inquisition] and the subsequent fragmentation of the Roman Church into self governed Christian denominations, all of which has given the cause of God a very bad smell of hypocrisy and self righteousness.

  am trying to convey the importance of Christian/ Jewish dogma without which there would be no Occult/ Black Metal. Add to this the mass of written material penned over the last two thousand years and the seeds of Occult music are well and truly sown. Biblical works, Apocalyptic literature, the great works of Milton and Blake. The documents of mystics and self styled Satanists like Lavey and Crowley. The very source of which is derived from the birth of God in man.
It is our mistrust and cynicism of Christianity that stokes the fires of the music now termed Black Metal. The anti-Semitic undercurrents being a more recent addition to the genre as a whole.

o look back at the History of Occult/ Black metal in the UK we must look to the origins of modern music outside that of classical or cultural themes. Jazz was considered an unwholesome form of music in its early stages and the point to be raised here is that Occult/ Black Metal is no less a form of underground music alienated from the masses than any other.
Early Rock music again, like all juvenile activities is a hotbed of teenage angst, adolescent high jinks and anti-social behaviour. The fact that all this youthful exuberance is vented through music doesn't mean it wouldn't permeate elsewhere. If it wasn't music, the unpredictable clashing hormones would compel the youth of any given generation to act out their fantasies through self motivated violence, criminal misdemeanours and other unsavoury means.
There will always be a few unbalanced kids among the outcasts of society who will commit the crimes that condemn a generation.The suicides associated to music are no different to the suicides occurring elsewhere, yet there will always be some one to blame the music.
The rise of the Norwegian Black Metal scene in the early nineties was driven by violence and juvenile boredom. 
The point is underground music is the place where individuals who are maybe not what society would deem normal congregate. It is a place where they can feel accepted and as such are the music's soul. Without the audience there would be no music.