 he birth of Blues and its Voodoo heritage in so much as the creed who created the sound were of African descent gave rise to an even greater bond with the devil. With culture and music running in synch. Songs crawled across smoke filled bars and never was the devil more at home.
With Rock music came the drugs and the sixties became an era of change like no other. With drugs and
hallucigenic substances came the Beatles and the Rolling Stones [ most noted for the 1967 album 'Their Satanic Majesties Pleasure' and the song 'Sympathy for the Devil']. Both dabbling with Satanic themes but none over indulging.
Within the confines of the church, sex was a sin outside marriage and blasphemy an intolerable issue of abhorrence.
Both sex and blasphemy were to become a very integral part of Rock music much to the
annoyance of the Church. The very image of Rock even when expressed through songs of peace was a prime target for religious
groups.
The founding of the Church of Satan in 1966 by Anton Lavey added much fuel to the Occult influences in music in much the same way that Aleister Crowley had during the 1930' and 40's.
Led Zeppelin also manoeuvred across Satanic themes most memorable being a record release party under the mock theatrics of a black mass.
The birth of Heavy Metal has always been a point of debate. I would suggest
Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple planted the seed to which Black Sabbath became the first flower.
There were other British bands who touched the surface of the occult during the late sixties. The psychedelic movement and its LSD culture spawned some British acts who indulged in the dark side.
Saturnalia released their 'Magical Love' album in '69 as did Icarus.
The late sixties also produced the progressive rock movement with bands like
Writing on the Wall, a Scottish progressive/ folk band who penned a track titled 'Lucifer Corpus'. Apart from
Black Sabbath, Atomic Rooster and Black Widow there were other progressive/ hard rock bands who bathed in occult lyrics.
Horse and The Ghost released albums in 1970 soon followed by
Monument in '71, Zior in '72 and Necromandus in '73.
Judas Priest were anything but a Satanic band, but their name for obvious reasons and the music they played made them prime targets for the establishment.
In 1985, two drunken men from Nevada made a suicide pact, with one meeting his death. The survivors family claimed subliminal messages found on a
Judas Priest album were to blame. Sense prevailed and it was thrown out of court.
Ozzy Osbourne was to later face similar charges without prosecution.
here were other bands outside the
UK who used Satanic imagery during the Seventies. Coven, AC/DC,
Kiss and WASP all employed use of dark imagery and occult lyrics.
Nearing the end of the Seventies the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal was born with many of the bands embracing a Satanic theme.
Iron Maiden and Angelwitch were heavily influenced by the occult.
At the start of the eighties the N.W.O.B.H.M. was well and truly firing on all cylinders. Other bands appeared under the banner of the dark lord.
Witchfynde, Pagan Altar, Hell, Incubus, Traitors Gate, Satan, Cloven Hoof and
Witchfinder General fleeted with the Satanic theme but not since
Black Widow had a band completely immersed itself in all things Satanic. We are of course talking about Venom. Here was a band who started a new age of Metal along with American acts
Slayer and Metallica. Thrash was born and a new extreme sound which was more fitting to the chaos that Satan by necessity promotes.
By the mid-eighties there were many European bands chanting sacrilegious blasphemies and paying homage to the horned one.
Merciful Fate, Bathory, Sodom, Bulldozer, Destruction and Celtic
Frost, all toyed with occult imagery and began to form a more cohesive underground core movement.
The UK was not a prolific Thrash metal machine during the thrash era and even less affixed to an occult theme. Bands who gained some success were
Onslaught, Deliverance and Sabbat with lesser demo bands like
Warhammer, Antichrist, Lucifer, Azagthoth, Widow, Satan's Empire, Destroyer
and Deathchamber disappearing without trace.
he age of Thrash made brazen use of Devilry and Witchcraft and this was to transmute into the rise of Death Metal and a stark use of body parts and Zombies in the late eighties. Thrash burned itself out and as Black Metal was in no complete form to compete as a genre, the enigma slithered into hibernation. It was a case of musical extremity expanding into a more violent sound that took with it the Satanic imagery but not the musical style made popular by the previous thrash era.
Satanic themes in this new age of Death were best employed by Morbid Angel,
Deicide and Incantation. The late eighties became a confusing metal scene of post thrash debris, giving birth to the Doom genre as well as the Death genre. Swedish Death was also taking form with
Entombed and Dismember leading the way.
In 1991 a band called Dark Throne from Norway had released a Death album called
'Soulside Journey'. The following year they were part of a Black Metal revolution sparked by mass media attention aimed at the well documented murder of
Mayhem guitarist Euronymous and the subsequent imprisonment of Burzum
creator Varg Vikernes. Church burning and desecration also fuelled the growth of a very real phenomenon. A whole new swarm of Black Metal bands emerged on this great dark tidal wave of publicity.
Emperor, Marduk, Ancient, Samael, Immortal, Satyricon and Ulver to name a few.
Black Metal as a bona fide genre had at last been born.
o survive like it has, Black Metal has fragmented into may sub-cultures. There are the Dark Ambient bands,
Abruptum and Mortiis, or the experimental art of Ulver, Arcturus and
In The Woods.
The pagan bands who musically are more than often inseparable, but lyrically two different entities. Norway's
Enslaved and the UK's Bal Sagoth being prime examples. The very roots to this style reach back to
Bathory.
The Norwegian and Swedish Black Metal styles also vary in tone with a more primitive mood being preferred by the former [Dark Throne,
Satyricon] and a far precise aural virulence by the later [Marduk, Dark
Funeral].
Most popular of all are the symphonic bands who utilise the use of keyboards and classical orchestration to maximum effect.
Emperor, Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir being the worlds finest exponents of this popular style.
 ut what of the British? 1994 saw the release of
Cradle of Filth's 'Principle of Evil Made Flesh' and not much else. There was the pagan inspired
Bal Sagoth and of lesser note Hecate Enthroned and Thus
Defiled.
The demo bands, Meggido, Dead Christ, Imanis, Dark Divide, Sinister Mist, Witchclan, Xaztor, Mesphisto, Salem Orchid and
The Fallen who were all to vanish without trace.
The meteoric rise of the Norwegians over shadowed other British acts who appeared in the mid-later part of the
nineties. Adorior, Ewigkiet, Phantasia, Hoarfrost, Nargothrond, December Moon, Ewigkiet, Ragnarok,
Forefather, and Dark Divide.
he new millennium has given rise to a new breed of British Black Metal. The death inspired
Akercocke and medieval Meads of Asphodel. Riegn of Erebus, Solace Denied, Heathen Deity, Acolytes Ruin and ever changing style of
Ewigkiet, all carry on a tradition that reaches back to the late sixties. British Occult/ Black Metal is far from dead. In fact it is only just beginning.
For an up to date overview of the UK Black Metal scene visit: www.live4metal.com/blackmetal-uk.htm
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