Introduction: Black Metal and the Media - The Cult Is a Lie?

To start off with, I should probably let you all know a tiny little bit about my chosen topic.

Heavy metal has always been a genre of music spurned for its supposed affiliation with Satan, an unfairly preceived lack of technicality and above all, the association with the uneducated and the ignorant. However, this is NOT the case. Heavy metal requires a great amount of skill and a keen ear for complex and arresting, brutal music. Heavy metal, like other genres, is split into hundreds of smaller subgenres, but a few of the most prominent are Thrash Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Grindcore and Black Metal. My topic will focus on the latter; in particular, the Black Metal scene that was centred in Norway in the early 90s.

Bands like Bathory, Hellhammer, Mercyful Fate and Celtic Frost sought to create a harsher, more abrasive and faster style of thrash metal, whilst Venom were accused of being terrible musicians. However, this fact went largely ignored due to the Satanic imagery and lyrics used by the band. Where Venom were just basically a joke band (a sticker on their 1982 album Black Metal declared, "Home taping is killing music... So is Venom."), a small group of Norwegian teenagers sought to take their Satanic imagery and cold sound to bold new heights. Bands like Mayhem, Burzum, Emperor and Darkthrone were the forerunners in what has come to be known as the "second wave" of black metal. However, their views and actions were a far cry from the mild-mannered backstage antics of the first wave bands. The aspirations and beliefs of these young new musicians came to a head with churches being burned in an attempt to uproot Christianity from Norway, and a handful of murders connected to the music scene.

The media panic that surrounded these "Satanic terrorists" was immense; news outlets sprung all over the stories and stories of Satanic conspiracies and a so called "Black Metal Inner Circle" were rife throughout the popular media. However, I have noticed that a great many of the acts and stances that this so called inner circle seemed to be aimed at creating media furore and a greater interest in the genre. Rather than the media having an impact on the black metal scene, it could be argued that the minds behind these black metal bands were very gifted when it came to PR and creating hype. Therefore, my essay will show that whereas the media can have an impact on a music subculture and scene, the reverse is also true.