Blackjazz
Today, let’s speak a bit about music. If you did not read the articles about black metal in Norway and about its evolution through years, I would suggest you to read them now. Because it is technically about another evolution of this genre that we will talk about here. But even if you are not into black metal or even metal in general, this band might actually interest you, as long as you are a bit open minded when we speak about music! :)
Shining (the Norwegian one, not the Swedish one) is a band formed in Oslo in 1999 by Jørgen Munkeby and his fellows from the music school. They started as an acoustic instrumental jazz band, but their style evolved through years to become a very weird mix of jazz, rock, metal and electronica.
In 2005, after 2 albums of acoustic jazz, Shining adds elements of rock, metal and experimental jazz. The result is … pretty weird, as it’s name: In the Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be a Monster. This album is well acclaimed by worldwide critics. In 2007, Grindstone, their 4th album, is released. Shining continue to develop their own experimental music, but this time they remove the metal elements. The result is softer but tighter than the previous album.
Still in 2007, Shining goes on tour with the progressive black metal band Enslaved. This is probably the first time (at my knowledge) that a jazz band and a black metal band go touring together. They begin to make their name in the milieu, and release in 2010 their most accomplished and most “metalified” album to date: Blackjazz. The name describes well what you can hear in this album: an explosive mix of black metal and jazz, but always with this weird experimental style.
The album is a great success, and one year later, on 11.11.11, they release a live DVD of one of their performance in Norway: Live Blackjazz.
To be totally honest, I like the Blackjazz album, but I am not really a big fan of it. For me, it’s just one of those pretty interesting albums that lack something to make them great. Though I was not especially enthusiastic to see them live. Anyway, I tried. And I don’t regret it. At all! This was among the most exciting music DVD I have ever seen. Those guys are so much into their music that you feel taken away by it. You feel totally immersed into the whole concert. And this is probably the first time that happens to me while watching music on a screen! Every time Munkeby takes his saxophone, this becomes the icing on the cake. This extra stuff I was missing on their Blackjazz album was probably that: the living side of the music!
Unfortunately, they did not share any of their songs from the DVD with a jazzy feeling (my favourites), though here is one of their songs recorded for Norwegian TV NRK (go to 3:00 for the saxophone solo):
-julien
… And this creature looted, raped and gave birth (Black Metal pt.2)
In the previous article we saw that metalheads are some kind of “nazi pedophile grave robbers” (kidding!). We stopped in 1994, from which I think black metal starts to leave its underground cocoon to move towards new horizons. Then today we’ll leave the world of gossips and focus on the evolution of black metal music.
The beginning
Arcturus
1997 : black metal 3.0?
- Emperor release their second album: Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk. Their debut album was a masterpiece. This one is a pure concentrate of epic black metal that propels them to the rank of greatest black metal band of the moment (one might even say the greatest black metal band, period!).
- Dimmu Borgir, a band that has already started to make its way a couple of years ago, also releases a masterpiece: Enthrone Darkness Triumphant. This band is however very criticized because of the importance of the symphonic elements in their music which make them much easier to listen … and what means easy listening, means wider audience. And then, farewells to the closed underground black metal world!
- Arcturus, which we just discussed, releases La Masquerade Infernale. This album is even more bizarre than the first one. It is not really about black metal here, yet this album is highly acclaimed and is now considered as a classic of what we might call avant-garde metal.
- Borknagar makes its first apparitions. Founded by Øystein Brun with members of Gorgoroth, Ulver and Immortal, this band aims to combine black metal and melodic elements (Is that possible? Well yes, my dear!). Slowly, progressive elements, clean voices and acoustic instruments are added to their music and thus create a unique style and atmosphere.
- From the depths of Norway another great band makes its appearance. Its music is cold. Very cold. It is also very descriptive. When we listen to it we are transported into this beautiful and wild country called Norway. But beware, not the Norway where you can live peacefully on the edge of a fjord enjoying reeinder sausages. No! Norway! The true Norway! Snow, wind, ice and dark days of a winter that never ends … This is of course the famous Windir, maybe one of the fathers of what will later be called the folk black metal.
Things are getting quicker and quicker. Black metal scene is growing fast. Norwegian bands do not hesitate to break the rules of the newly born black metal. Bands are becoming more and more diverse. Bands such as Immortal, Emperor, Gorgoroth, Satyricon, Enslaved, are headliners of numerous gigs. Metal fans get excited!
“The Emperor is dead … Long live the Emperor!”
R.I.P Valfar
R.I.P. Valfar
Enough of the past!
In 2010 Ihsahn, guitarist, composer and singer of Emperor, offers the services of the now famous Jørgen Munkeby (saxophonist and singer of the black-jazz-weird-metal stuff, Shining) and releases his third solo album: After. A subtle blend of black metal, rock and jazz. A new masterpiece is created!
Ihsahn
Enslaved
An infinite universe of passion
I think I showed you a good overview of this Norwegian black metal scene. Unfortunately, I failed to mention many interesting bands because of the lack of space. I think about bands like Ulver, former black metal band that evolved into electronic music, and which now has its truly unique style.
I also think about Solefald, which probably released one of the best metal album of 2011 with their unique weird style between rock, jazz and metal…
-julien
PS: To finish, here is a nice bonus video. In 2011, Dimmu Borgir played a unique gig in Oslo’s Spektrum with Oslo symphonic orchestra. It has been filmed and broadcasted on Norwegian TV. Here is one of my favorite songs of this concert:
PS2: It’s Christmaaas! Another bonus video! Last music video of Dimmu Borgir with the crazy Agnete Kjølsrud as a guest. Metal videoclips of this quality are pretty rare, then have fun!
… And from the guts of Norway was born a creature (Black Metal pt.1)
As with any musical style, it is very difficult to determine exactly when and where it was born. I will try to present the best I can a brief overview of this style (re-)born in Norway between the 80′s and the 90′s. We will today focus on the (re-)birth of black metal in Norway. That means we will speak about the most important black metal bands and albums and about all the gossips around it. Then, in another article, we will focus on music only, and how it has grown until now.
Whut iz Black Metal?
Good question Billy! I’ll try to write a quick answer, because the best way to know what it is about is to read my article and to listen some black metal of course! :)
Black metal is a sub genre of heavy metal (according to wikipedia) … Well, I am not sure to really agree with that. Ok, the basis is the same: voice, guitar(s), bass, drums (and even keyboard for non-purists). Sound has to be really raw. Guitars and drums form the musical basis. The bass is a bit useless in this style in my humble opinion (^^). Rhythm is usually fast (but not always). Guitars are played very quickly, mainly on minor chords, and are of course very distorted. The drums are either very slow or mainly focused on blast beats and double kick background “patterns”. Vocals, on the other hand, are high-pitched and raspy to give an evil and hateful mood to the music. Texts usually focus on satanism, paganism and dark norwegian forests.
The roots of evil
1981: Venom, an English heavy metal band releases an album called Welcome toHell. This album draws attention not for its musical quality, but by its cover showing an inverted pentagram containing a goat’s head (FYI, the inverted pentagram and the goat’s head are symbols associated with Satan). You can imagine that at the time, it was probably very shocking! A year later, the name of the album is changed to Black Metal.
1984: The Swedish band Bathory releases his first eponym album. This is probably the first black metal album ever. The new born style continues to grow in Switzerland with bands like Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. But no sooner born, black metal is dying already, the above-named bands evolving to other musical directions.
1984-1990: Soon after, in Norway, a guy named Øystein Aarseth (aka Euronymous) gives birth to a band called Mayhem. The aim of this band is to deny all existing music genres and to be shocking … Bizarre dressings (capes, swords and macabre make-up named corpse paints), scenes of mutilation of the singer, Dead, sheep or pig heads impaled during concerts, … I guess we can say that this is shocking, can’t we? After a couple of demos, Mayhem go touring around northern Europe. We are in 1990. The second wave of black metal is born.
Dead & Euronymous - Mayhem
The second wave of Black Metal
1991: Gossip section: the above-named singer (Dead) commit suicide using a shotgun. In a letter he left we can read “Excuse all the blood, cheers!”. What a funny guy! When Euronymous find his corpse, instead of going to the police as all of us would probably do (no? … O_o), he has the wonderful idea to go buy a camera … to take pictures of the corpse of course! Legend is that Euronymous then ate pieces of his brain and made necklaces with fragments of his skull, but this is probably only legend … probably …
With all these events, rather glaucous, Euronymous attracts a more and more consistent fan base (I mean, we still speak about underground here!). He opens Helvete (Hell, in Norwegian), the only one store dedicated to black metal fans. Among his fans we can find bands as Thou Shalt Suffer (which will become Emperor) and Darkthrone, which in 1991 releases its first album and masterpiece of the second wave of black metal: A Blaze In The Northern Sky.
Darkthrone : A Blaze in the Northern Sky
That same year, Emperor releases their first legendary demo: Wrath of the Tyrant. In addition to that, another band from Bergen begins to be known in this black metal scene: Immortal.
Immortal - Aren't they cute with their WWF panda make-up?
A very rich year for black metal actually!
1992-93: Definitely an other very big period for the small circle of black metal. KristianVirkenes, aka Varg Virkenes releases not one, nor two, but three albums of his solo project called Burzum. Immortal releases his first album called Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism and, the following year Pure Holocaust .
Varg Virkenes - Burzum
Worshipping Euronymous ideas, the “evil satanist metalheads” start to act. Inner Circle or Black Circle are often mentioned, although nothing is official about this group. However, in 1992, the wooden church of Fantoft burns (Virkenes will make the album art for his band Burzum’s Aske album with a picture of the recently burnt church). Many other attempted church fires occur throughout Norway (about 50 between 1992 and 1996). It makes the headline of Norwegian press and therefore a very big advertisement for black metal in general. Did they do this because they were really convinced in their satanic/anti-christian beliefs, in research of recognition or just because they were adolescents in lack of excitement? We will probably never know, but I opt for the latter two cases, this satanist thing was more, in my humble opinion, some kind of trend than a real belief .
Cover of Burzum : Aske / Burnt down Fantoft church
1994: After all the turbulence of 1993, 1994 seems to be pretty calm. However, two of the most important black metal albums ever were released that year:
In the Nightside Eclipse: Emperor finally releases his first album. They take the risk to mix black metal with keyboards. And it is critically acclaimed (it’s absolutely not the case for every black metal band with keyboards!). Over time Emperor refined his style and became for me and many others, the greatest black metal band ever.
Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
De Mysteriis dom Sathanas: Mayhem finally releases their first album (recorded before the death of Euronymous in 93) with a new singer. The release of this album is delayed by Euronymous‘ parents because they do not want the bass lines to be the one recorded by their son’s murderer (well yes, it’s Varg Virkenes, Euronymous‘s murderer, who had recorded the bass lines on this album). This album has been worshiped in the black metal milieu. Personally I never understood why …
Mayhem - De Mysteriis dom Sathanas
To be continued …
-ju
PS: As you were pretty kind, I offer you the funniest black metal video of Immortal: Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark). I have never been sure how serious they are on this video!
PS2: As this subject is vast and subject to controversial and as my English is approximative, some terms may not have been well translated.. If you notice mistakes feel free to mention. It will be a pleasure to discuss it with you and add corrections if necessary.
Sources:
- http://metal.nightfall.fr/index.php?idgrp=306&idchoix=918&rubchoix=7 (FR)
- http://www.norsksvartmetall.com/history.htm (EN)
- http://www.metalstorm.net/pub/article.php?article_id=64 (EN)
- Wikipedia
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