Unblack metal
| Unblack metal | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Early 1990s, Scandinavia, Australia |
| Typical instruments |
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| Other topics | |
Unblack metal (or Christian black metal) is a genre of heavy metal music that is stylistically close to the sound of black metal, but whose artists are either directly against the Satanism prevalent in black metal, or promote Christianity in their lyrics and imagery. Unblack metal artists are controversial within the black metal subculture, because black metal's pioneers, especially those of the Second Wave, were anti-Christian. It is also suggested that Christianity contradicts black metal's dark nature and the individualistic and misanthropic ideals of many bands.
The exact beginning of the unblack metal movement is disputed. The Australian band Horde's 1994 album Hellig Usvart brought the concept and the term holy unblack metal (a word play on Darkthrone's slogan "unholy black metal" used on the albums A Blaze in the Northern Sky and Under a Funeral Moon) to media attention, while the Norwegian band Antestor was already formed in 1990 as a death/doom act and released its demo The Defeat of Satan in 1991, before they began shifting towards black metal on their 1994 album Martyrium.
Unblack metal is viewed as an ideological genre derived from black metal that focuses on Christian lyrical themes. Unblack metal incorporates black metal's fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars, tremolo picking, double-kick drumming, repetition and often unconventional song structure. Garry Sharpe-Young's 2001 encyclopedia A-Z of Black Metal states that "[t]opping the lot are Christian 'Unblack' acts who for all intents and purposes look like, sound like and employ the imagery of Black Metal whilst hidden in the unpenetrable vocal growls and distortions are the proclamations of Jesus Christ".
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