From the old school of black metal comes Täby, Sweden's TREBLINKA. They are known primarily as being the band that evolved into Tiamat after slaving away in the underground for a few years. Formed in 1987, Treblinka played a pretty straightforward old-school black metal (unlike the atmospheric blackened gothic metal of Tiamat). Their first demo, 1988's Crawling in Vomits, testifies to this fact.
"Earwigs in Your Veins" is from their first demo
Their second demo was 1989's Sign of the Pentagram. It continued the old-school black metal style of the first demo. In the same year, Treblinka put out their first proper studio release as well. Entitled Severe Abominations, this EP would be the last actual release before the band changed names to Tiamat the next year.
"Necrophagious Shadows" is from the Sign of the Pentagram demo
Before (sort of) disbanding and re-forming as Tiamat, Treblinka did manage to record the material for a full-length album. This is what would go on to become Tiamat's first studio release, 1990's Sumerian Cry.
The title track off of the Severe Abominations EP
On Sumerian Cry, Tiamat/Treblinka began to show the influence of the emerging Swedish death metal scene. Tiamat didn't continue in this style very long before starting to expand their sound. They began moving away from black/death metal entirely, and after a few years were a doom/gothic-influenced band that was straddling the line between rock and metal. To be honest, I haven't heard anything of theirs since 1997's A Deeper Kind of Slumber, and that was boring to me. But as a little 'post-script' to this entry, here is a Tiamat song off of Sumerian Cry:
Bathory is crucially important in the history of black metal for two distinct reasons. First, for taking the template laid down by Venom on Black Metal and shifting the early black metal sound away from speed metal and/or NWOBHM; second, for creating the subgenre of Viking metal in the later 1980s.
Bathory in the Viking Metal years
After their old style pretty much peaked on 1987's Under the Sign of the Black Mark, Bathory shifted gears with 1988's Blood Fire Death. This album saw a move away from the darker, more Satanic atmosphere of the early work, with crisper-sounding guitars, clean vocals, and imagery and lyrical themes drawn from elements of Scandinavian mythology.
"A Fine Day to Die" is one of Bathory's most famous songs from this period
On Blood Fire Death, the changes from the earlier period were not as radical as they would later become, but they were present nonetheless. One could hear the guitar sound begin to shift from the vile, raw, down-tuned sound of old-school black metal. The vocals were not always a demonic screech. And the songs were long, epic soundscapes.
My favorite from this period in Bathory's history, "Baptised In Fire and Ice"
With 1990's Hammerheart, the shift was more pronounced. More varied tempos, clearer-sounding vocals, rousing choruses, and a guitar sound that was crisp and almost regal. Just as Bathory had redefined extreme music with their first three albums, they redefined it again with their next three albums.
Off of 1991's Twilight of the Gods
With 1991's Twilight of the Gods, Bathory again peaked. They had created the mold that all later viking metal bands were to follow. Most of Bathory's material throughout the 1990s was thrash metal with elements of the viking sound. It really wasn't until albums such as the Nordland albums that Bathory returned to the pure viking sound.
Select Discography:
Blood Fire Death (1988)
Hammerheart (1990)
Twilight of the Gods (1991) Blood on Ice (recorded 1988-1989, released 1996) Nordland I (2002) Nordland II (2003)
The most famous black metal to come out of Hungary is the atmospheric old-school black metal band TORMENTOR. They formed in 1986, and the two demos they put out in the late 1980s (later released on CD as albums) were very strong entries into the black metal canon. Featuring the vocals of the enigmatic Atila Csihar (later of Mayhem fame, among other bands), Tormentor were not afraid of more adventurous guitar playing than the norm in black metal.
The title track from their 1987 demo, The Seventh Day of Doom
After 1987's The Seventh Day of Doom demo, they put out the classic Anno Domini demo in 1988. This demo--more than Doom--was studio-quality work of the highest caliber. Tormentor's black metal style was a bit more melodic than some of the primitive black/thrash that was mostly the norm in the 1980s. Sweden's Dissection famously covered "Elizabeth Bathory" in the 1990s, and their melodic Swedish style fit Tormentor perfectly.
Tormentor's most famous song, "Elizabeth Bathory"
After these two epic demos, Tormentor didn't put out much else of interest to old-school black metal fans. They did a split album with other bands in 1989, but it wasn't new material. They broke up in 1991 and re-formed in 1999, but their material since then has been an experimental hard rock sound, not black metal at all. Aside from the two demos, there have been a few bootlegs here and there.
This 1988 live performance is off of the 2000 compilation album, The Sick Years
Attila, of course, went on to great international notoriety with his performances with Mayhem, Aborym, and a host of other bands. He has not focused much on Tormentor at all in recent years.
Select Discography:
Live in Budapest (live demo) (1986) The Seventh Day of Doom (demo) (1987) Anno Domini (demo) (1988) Black and Speed Metal (split with Atomic, Trepan, Diktator) (1989) The Sick Years (compilation) (1998)
Back in the day, the Italian scene was truly thriving. Necrodeath and Bulldozer practically invented old-school black/thrash, Death SS represented horror-themed occult metal, MonumentuM put out blackened doom/death, and Alessandria's MORTUARY DRAPE made a name for themselves with very strong black metal in the old-school vein. They formed in 1986, and with demos like 1987's Necromancy and 1989's Doom Returns began to make a name for themselves.
"Obsessed by Necromancy" is an old demo track
Their style was very atmospheric, and had a very occultic feel to it. Lyrically, Mortuary Drape admitted to being more or less obsessed with witchcraft and black magic and the occult in general. They even went so far as to label their sound 'black occult metal'. In the nineties, they began putting out actual studio albums, such as 1991's Into the Drape EP and then the infamous 1994 full-length All the Witches Dance.
"Vengeance From Beyond", from 1991's Into the Drape
Unlike a good number of old-school black metal bands that are still around, Mortuary Drape is still continuing to put out material that stays true to the first-wave black metal ethos. While they may not have been able to top the 1994 masterpiece All the Witches Dance, they have kept flying the flag for quality Italian black metal when most people aren't even aware that Italy has any black metal to offer.
An example of the (oc)cult sounds of 1994's All the Witches Dance
Select Discography:
Demo '86 (demo) (1986) Live Tape '87 (live demo) (1987) Necromancy (demo) (1987) Doom Return (demo) (1989) Into the Drape EP (1991) All the Witches Dance (1994) Mourn Path EP (1996) Secret Sudaria (1997) Tolling 13 Knell (2000) Buried in Time (2004)
Most people don't associate rock'n'roll of any kind--let alone extreme metal--with Israel or the Middle East. There are most certainly exceptions to this, like Israeli bands like Melechesh, Bishop of Hexen, and Orphaned Land. But ahead of all of these bands is Tel Aviv's SALEM. They formed in 1985, and released several demos in the later 1980s before releasing full-length studio albums in the early 1990s.
Title track from their 1987 demo Destruction Till Death
After such demos as 1986's Salem, 1987's Destruction Till Death, and 1990's Millions Slaughtered, Salem managed to catch the attention of the fast-growing Norwegian scene. Black metallers such as Mayhem's Dead and Euronymous tried to woo Salem away from the Middle East and to northern Europe in order to join the rapidly expanding Scandinavian scene.
From 1992's Creating Our Sins EP
In 1992, Salem put out the Creating Our Sins EP, and began a long and storied career of influential studio albums. 1994's Kaddish went on to be hugely important--but also controversial--in the global extreme metal world. Controversial because of the overtly pro-Israel, Zionist lyrical content. Many elements in the black metal underground were not comfortable with such sentiments (Burzum's Varg Vikernes allegedly sent a mailbomb to the members of Salem).
"The Fading" is off of 1994's Kaddish
Since 1994's Kaddish, Salem has produced a fairly steady stream of albums and singles. Their style has changed somewhat, however, shifting from an old school brutal black/death sound to a more doom/death-oriented sound to a more straightforward death metal sound. For the purposes of this black metal retrospective, their more recent work (basically since Kaddish) is not relevant--that doesn't mean it's not good, just not very black metal.
Select Discography:
Salem (demo) (1986)
Destruction Til Death (demo) (1987)
Millions Slaughtered (demo) (1989) Promo 1989 (demo) (1989) Creating Our Sins 12" (1992) Kaddish (full-length) (1994)
GOATLORD is, to my knowledge, the only major black metal band of consequence to come from Las Vegas. Continuing black metal's obsession with goats, these evil bastards played a unique style of old-school black metal that managed to have a slow, doom-y atmosphere to it while retaining the visceral edge of black metal.
Las Vegas' Goatlord
They formed in 1985, and released several quality demos in the later 1980s that went on to make a huge impact in the underground (Fenriz from Darkthrone is one of their most famous admirers). It was 1987's untitled demo and 1988's Sodomize the Goat that helped build their cult reputation.
From the 1987 demo, this is "Unholy Black Slut"
Off of the 1988 demo Sodomize the Goat, here is "Possessed Soldiers of War"
After another demo in 1991, Goatlord put out a full-length studio album, 1991's Reflections of the Solstice. Highlighting their unique take on black metal, Reflections of the Solstice is one of the great(est?) albums of late first-wave black metal. Solstice was a European release, and the following year Goatlord put out a self-titled album which was essentially the American version of Solstice: re-mixed tracks, different vocals (I think Mitch Harris from Napalm Death was the different vocalist?), and an added bonus track, "Voodoo Mass."
"Sacrifice," from 1991's Reflections of the Solstice
The bonus track from the self-titled album. Notice the different vocals.
Goatlord broke up in 1997, but by this point, they had left their indelible stamp on the underground. They had recorded several songs that were intended to be the next studio album, but it was never released before the band broke up. Nuclear War Now Records put out a compilation album in 2007 entitled The Last Sodomy of Mary which contained these never-released songs.
From The Last Sodomy of Mary....much more death metal in sound than black metal
Select Discography:
Demo '87 (demo) (1987) Rehearsal '88 (demo) (1988) Sodomize the Goat (demo) (1988) Promo '91 (demo) (1991) Reflections of the Solstice (1991) Goatlord (1991) Distorted Birth (demo compilation) (2003) The Last Sodomy of Mary (compilation) (2007)
Bathory is arguably the first or second-most important black metal band in the history of the genre (depending on your opinion of Venom), without a doubt. But their home country (Sweden) has always played second fiddle to their neighbors to the west, Norway. Yet, despite this, Sweden had a pretty thriving extreme metal scene in the 1980s. In fact, I would say that until the Norwegian explosion in the years 1990-1993, the Swedish scene was much stronger.
Obscurity
A slew of important old-school black/death/thrash bands came out of Sweden in the mid- to late-1980s, led by such groups as OBSCURITY. Hailing from the city of Mälmo, Obscurity played a style that crossed genre lines, mixing old-school death metal with black metal. They released several important demos, including 1986's Ovations to Death and 1987's Damnation's Pride.
Stockholm's MEFISTO played a more blackened speed metal style than did Obscurity. Originally forming as Torment in 1984, they only released two crucial demos (1986's Megalomania and 1987's The Puzzle) before more or less folding. Like many extreme metal bands of the era, it seems the world was just not ready for what they had to unleash upon the listening public. I think their sound can be best described as an old Sodom meets Venom kind of style.
"Betrayed Truth" is off of the 1986 demo Megalomania
Rarely has a band gained notoriety for what a band member did with another band, but Stockholm's MORBID is one such band. Vocalist Dead (real name Per Yngve Olin) became famous for his contributions to Norwegian legends Mayhem, but he got his start with this underground Swedish black/death/thrash group. Releasing very few demos (1987's December Moon and 1988's Last Supper being most prominent), Morbid nonetheless made a huge impact. Their style is another example of the blurring of genres back in the 1980s, but they do seem to veer more toward the occultic, black metal side of metal. While the guitarwork is especially raw, the vocals (no surprise) have that atmospheric aura to it associated with black metal.
"Disgusting Semla" is from the infamous demo December Moon
Of all the old-school black/death bands from the 1980s Swedish scene, the one that actually achieved a degree of success was MERCILESS. From the small town of Strängnäs, they managed to become famous for being the first band to release a studio album on Euronymous' Deathlike Silence label (1990's The Awakening). That being said, they made a rather large impact with the demos they released prior to that album (1987's Behind the Back Door, 1989's Realm of the Dark). While they broke up in 1994 after releasing three studio albums, they reunited a few years ago and have continued to put out albums.
"Bestial Death" is off of the 1987 demo Behind the Black Door
Official video for "Pure Hate", off of 1990's The Awakening album. The
sound is much more death metal than black metal on this album.
Hailing from the city of Linköping, SATANIC SLAUGHTER (the band famous for giving the world members of Witchery and Seance) formed in 1987, but only put out one demo in 1988, One Night in Hell, before going on hiatus for over half a decade. It is an incredibly hard to find demo. In fact, I couldn't find any YouTube clips of the songs from that demo. So here is a later, re-recorded version of one of their demo songs ("One Night in Hell") from their 2002 album, Banished to the Underworld.
There are some other lesser-known death/black/thrash bands (such as Morbidity, Orchriste, and others) from the 1980s Swedish scene, but I'm just not sure if they're influential enough to merit inclusion. That being said, it's important to note how influential some of these Swedish bands became in the underground before the Norwegian scene fully bloomed in the early 1990s.
Select Discography of 1980s Swedish Black Metal Scene:
(in alphabetical order by artist)
Mefisto, Megalomania (demo) (1986)
Mefisto, The Puzzle (demo) (1986)
Merciless, Behind the Black Door (demo) (1987)
Merciless, Realm of the Dark (demo) (1988)
Merciless, The Awakening (full-length album) (1990)
Morbid, Rehearsal (demo) (1987)
Morbid, December Moon (demo) (1987)
Morbid, Last Supper (demo) (1988)
Morbidity, The Curse (demo) (1989)
Obscurity, Ovations to Death (demo) (1986)
Obscurity, Damnation's Pride (demo) (1987)
Orchriste, Necronomicon (demo) (1989)
Satanic Slaughter, One Night in Hell (demo) (1988)
