Murder Music: A History of Black Metal
Encyclopedia
Murder Music: A History of Black Metal is a heavy metal music
documentary aired on British
pay-per-view
channel Rockworld TV
. Murder Music centers around the controversial black metal
subgenre. It was written by renowned metal journalist Malcolm Dome
and hosted by Rockworld TV's and Contraband Candy's René Ackermann, who was also the documentary's associate producer.
The main themes of Murder Music are: the musical origins of black metal, from Birmingham
, UK heavy metal
group Black Sabbath to Newcastle
extreme metal
pioneers Venom
; the anti-Christian sentiment of its practitioners; the controversies surrounding the criminal acts (arson
and murder
) of the early Norwegian scene; and the paradox of a Christian form of black metal
, represented by Scandinavia
n band Frosthardr
.
Musicians from some key contemporary bands in the scene are interviewed, such as Satyricon
, Immortal
, Mayhem
, Dimmu Borgir
and Cradle of Filth
. Some non-musicians are interviewed as well, including Terrorizer magazine editor Jonathan Selzer and Didrik Søderlind, co-author of the Lords of Chaos book.
's Lucifer Rising and the aforementioned Lords of Chaos. In 2006, Ackermann teamed up with director and co-producer David Kenny to start shooting the documentary.
Murder Music debuted on Friday the 13th
, April 2007, on Sky Channel 368
(aka Rockworld TV). A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the documentary, entitled Murder Music: Backstage, was also shown on the same channel, showing unused footage as well as extended and unseen interviews that missed the final cut.
, known for its early horror fiction
-inspired lyrics, it is even said that bassist Geezer Butler
, who wrote many of the band's lyrics is to be considered the "godfather of black metal". It quickly moves to the existence of a similarly-named band, which was also often confused for Sabbath, called Black Widow
.
Black Widow's stage act was highly controversial, as it was based on a black magic act (it is stated that the band received instruction from Alex Sanders
) and featured shocking elements for the time, such as ritual nudity and mock weaponry. In separate interviews, Kip Trevor (vocalist) and Clive Jones (flute), both share their experiences as Black Widow. A contrast between both former members is seen, as Trevor rejects the occult as "teenage curiosity" and moves on to music as business, while Jones embraces it, even having grotesque statues in his lawn, naming a large black fish in his pond after Satan, and giving the interview while wearing pagan-inspired regalia.
Moving on to the 1980's, Jeffrey "Mantas" Dunn, guitarist and founding member of Venom
, considered to be the band who coined the term "black metal" in their 1982 album of the same name
dispels the notion that his former band's lyrics dealt exclusively with Satanism:
Also interviewed is influential thrash metal band Sabbat
, who instead of talking straight about Satanism, prefer to explore pre-Christian pagan European religions. Precursors to black metal Bathory
and Mercyful Fate
are given passing mention.
Host Ackermann notes that music gets progressively more extreme, and then introduces a segment about the Early Norwegian black metal scene, which has given a unique image and reputation to black metal. The spiraling incidents and tensions, such as Mayhem vocalist Dead's suicide, the Church burnings and finally, the murder of Euronymous by Varg Vikernes
are mentioned. However, musical experts from the metal scene all agree that the events were highly sensationalized by the media. Tsjuder
's drummer Anti-Christian even calls Dead's suicide "a PR stunt".
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
documentary aired on British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
pay-per-view
Pay-per-view
Pay-per-view provides a service by which a television audience can purchase events to view via private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the same time to everyone ordering it...
channel Rockworld TV
Rockworld TV
Rockworld TV was a British television channel which featured rock music, and was aimed to highlight "underground" lifestyles and artists.It broadcasted on Sky Digital ch. 378, and also streamed content online...
. Murder Music centers around the controversial black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
subgenre. It was written by renowned metal journalist Malcolm Dome
Malcolm Dome
Malcolm Dome has been an English writer and journalist about metal since 1979. In addition to writing books, he has been a journalist for Record Mirror, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer and Classic Rock among others. He also co-runs and DJs on the online radio station TotalRock.-Selected books:*Dome, Malcolm...
and hosted by Rockworld TV's and Contraband Candy's René Ackermann, who was also the documentary's associate producer.
The main themes of Murder Music are: the musical origins of black metal, from Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, UK heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
group Black Sabbath to Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
extreme metal
Extreme metal
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound nearly always associated with genres like black metal,...
pioneers Venom
Venom (band)
Venom are an English heavy metal band that formed in 1979 in Newcastle upon Tyne. Coming to prominence towards the end of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Venom's first two albums—Welcome to Hell and Black Metal —are considered a major influence on thrash metal and extreme metal in general...
; the anti-Christian sentiment of its practitioners; the controversies surrounding the criminal acts (arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
and murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
) of the early Norwegian scene; and the paradox of a Christian form of black metal
Unblack metal
Unblack metal is a term used to describe musically black metal sounding artists whose lyrics and imagery promote Christianity. Such artists are controversial, mainly because black metal's pioneers, especially those of the Second Wave, intended to encourage hostility towards Christianity...
, represented by Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n band Frosthardr
Frosthardr
Frosthardr is a Norwegian Christian unblack metal band, formed in 1997. The band plays a rawer type of black metal music with occasional punk influences and lyrics from Christian point of view...
.
Musicians from some key contemporary bands in the scene are interviewed, such as Satyricon
Satyricon (band)
Satyricon is a Norwegian black metal band, and the first one in the genre to join a multi-national record label .-Biography:Satyricon was formed in 1990 by Czral and Wargod. Ulver and Satyr soon joined them...
, Immortal
Immortal (band)
Immortal is a black metal band from Bergen, Norway, founded in 1990 by current frontman/guitarist Abbath Doom Occulta and former guitarist Demonaz Doom Occulta...
, Mayhem
Mayhem (band)
Mayhem is a Norwegian black metal band formed in 1984 in Oslo, Norway and regarded as one of the pioneers of the influential Norwegian black metal scene...
, Dimmu Borgir
Dimmu Borgir
Dimmu Borgir is a Norwegian black metal band from Oslo, Norway, formed in 1993. Dimmu borgir means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic, Faroese and Old Norse. The name is derived from a volcanic formation in Iceland, Dimmuborgir...
and Cradle of Filth
Cradle of Filth
Cradle of Filth are an English extreme metal band, formed in Suffolk in 1991. The band's musical style evolved from black metal to a cleaner and more "produced" amalgam of gothic metal, symphonic black metal, and other extreme metal styles, while their lyrical themes and imagery are heavily...
. Some non-musicians are interviewed as well, including Terrorizer magazine editor Jonathan Selzer and Didrik Søderlind, co-author of the Lords of Chaos book.
Background
Murder Music host René Ackermann became acquainted with the black metal music scene in the late 1990s. She deepened her knowledge of the subject by reading Gavin BaddeleyGavin Baddeley
Gavin Baddeley is an ordained Reverend in the Church of Satan, and an experienced journalist who has worked for The Observer and Metal Hammer. He is the occult authority for the BBC and Channel 4, has addressed Cambridge University, and has been profiled in The Independent and The London Evening...
's Lucifer Rising and the aforementioned Lords of Chaos. In 2006, Ackermann teamed up with director and co-producer David Kenny to start shooting the documentary.
Murder Music debuted on Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th occurs when the thirteenth day of a month falls on a Friday, which superstition holds to be a day of bad luck. In the Gregorian calendar, this day occurs at least once, but at most three times a year...
, April 2007, on Sky Channel 368
Sky One
Sky1 is the flagship BSkyB entertainment channel available in the United Kingdom and Ireland.The channel first launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, and is the fourth-oldest TV channel in the United Kingdom, behind BBC One , ITV and BBC Two...
(aka Rockworld TV). A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the documentary, entitled Murder Music: Backstage, was also shown on the same channel, showing unused footage as well as extended and unseen interviews that missed the final cut.
Plot summary
The documrntary links the origins of black metal to the birth of heavy metal itself with the formation of Black SabbathBlack Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
, known for its early horror fiction
Horror
Horror may refer to:*Horror fiction*Horror film*Horror and terror, two techniques in Gothic literature and film*Survival horror, a video game genre*Horror , 2003*Horror , 2008...
-inspired lyrics, it is even said that bassist Geezer Butler
Geezer Butler
Geezer Butler is an English musician and songwriter. Butler is best known as the bassist and lyricist of heavy metal band Black Sabbath. He was also involved in Heaven & Hell from 2006 to 2010.-Career:Butler formed his first band, Rare Breed, with old friend John "Ozzy" Osbourne in the autumn of...
, who wrote many of the band's lyrics is to be considered the "godfather of black metal". It quickly moves to the existence of a similarly-named band, which was also often confused for Sabbath, called Black Widow
Black Widow (band)
Black Widow were a rock band that formed in Leicester, England in September 1969. The band were mostly known for its early use of satanic and occult imagery in their music and stage act...
.
Black Widow's stage act was highly controversial, as it was based on a black magic act (it is stated that the band received instruction from Alex Sanders
Alex Sanders
Alex Sanders is an American politician from the state of South Carolina. He is the former chief judge of the South Carolina Court of Appeals and was the 19th President of the College of Charleston . In 2002, he was the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat left vacant after the...
) and featured shocking elements for the time, such as ritual nudity and mock weaponry. In separate interviews, Kip Trevor (vocalist) and Clive Jones (flute), both share their experiences as Black Widow. A contrast between both former members is seen, as Trevor rejects the occult as "teenage curiosity" and moves on to music as business, while Jones embraces it, even having grotesque statues in his lawn, naming a large black fish in his pond after Satan, and giving the interview while wearing pagan-inspired regalia.
Moving on to the 1980's, Jeffrey "Mantas" Dunn, guitarist and founding member of Venom
Venom (band)
Venom are an English heavy metal band that formed in 1979 in Newcastle upon Tyne. Coming to prominence towards the end of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Venom's first two albums—Welcome to Hell and Black Metal —are considered a major influence on thrash metal and extreme metal in general...
, considered to be the band who coined the term "black metal" in their 1982 album of the same name
Black Metal (album)
Black Metal is the second album by the English band Venom. It was released in November 1982 and is considered a major influence on the thrash metal, death metal and black metal scenes that emerged in the 1980s and early 1990s. Although lending its name to the latter genre, today the album is often...
dispels the notion that his former band's lyrics dealt exclusively with Satanism:
Also interviewed is influential thrash metal band Sabbat
Sabbat (band)
Sabbat are a thrash metal band from Nottingham, England, currently consisting of Martin Walkyier , Andy Sneap , Simon Jones , Gizz Butt and Simon Negus . Over the years Sabbat have released three studio albums, four demos, two split singles/compilation albums, two singles and a live VHS...
, who instead of talking straight about Satanism, prefer to explore pre-Christian pagan European religions. Precursors to black metal Bathory
Bathory (band)
Bathory was a Swedish heavy metal band, formed by Quorthon in 1983. They are regarded as pioneers of both black metal and viking metal. Quorthon remained the main songwriter and member of Bathory for more than two decades. Bathory was permanently ended after Quorthon's death in 2004...
and Mercyful Fate
Mercyful Fate
Mercyful Fate was a Danish heavy metal band from Copenhagen. Initially active from 1981 to 1985, they reunited in 1992. The band went on hiatus again in 2000, when frontman King Diamond decided to continue his solo career...
are given passing mention.
Host Ackermann notes that music gets progressively more extreme, and then introduces a segment about the Early Norwegian black metal scene, which has given a unique image and reputation to black metal. The spiraling incidents and tensions, such as Mayhem vocalist Dead's suicide, the Church burnings and finally, the murder of Euronymous by Varg Vikernes
Varg Vikernes
Varg Vikernes is a Norwegian black metal musician, writer, philosopher, religious and political activist, arsonist and convicted murderer.Vikernes was born near Bergen, Norway. In 1991, he founded the one-man music project Burzum, which quickly became popular within the early Norwegian black metal...
are mentioned. However, musical experts from the metal scene all agree that the events were highly sensationalized by the media. Tsjuder
Tsjuder
Tsjuder is a Norwegian black metal band founded in 1993.- Name :The name Tsjuder was picked from the Norwegian movie Pathfinder...
's drummer Anti-Christian even calls Dead's suicide "a PR stunt".