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What is Black Metal? This question can be answered in many ways, but first of all in order to understand Black Metal, another question must be answered: What is Metal?
The roots of this musical movement can be traced back to the late sixties and beginning of the seventies, where the ‘’Dark side’’ of the music had its origins. When the occult magician Aleister Crowley hit society with his works of Occult mysticism and demonic invocations, many musicians and artists began incorporating Crowley’s religion, Thelema, into their works.

The most influential Thelemic musical works from the seventies was from an influential musician from England, Graham Bond, an R&B and rocker who along with his wife and singer released an album under the title of Holy Magick. The album was a sonic work that mixed jazz-fusion with ritualistic incantations. Black Widow was another English band that rose from the shadows, they were the first band that could be considered Metal, with a mixture of Progressive, Progressive-metal, this band’s onstage appearances included a mock sacrifice of a naked woman, and many of their song themes were about Satan and Invocations to the devil.
Coven was another pagan/occult band; their first album was called Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls. It was a mixture of pop psychedelia and contained lyrical themes that made a heavy emphasis on diabolical subject matters. Some of the tracks were just raw recordings from the ‘Satanic Mass’. Finally Black Sabbath was born and was the first band considered a Heavy Metal act, transforming the definition of Metal whose predecessors carried and turning it into something heavier, darker and scarier: Heavy Metal.

The rise of Metal

Heavy metal was the beginning of the long road that leads to Black Metal, bands like, Deep Purple, Jimmy Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Stooges and Black Sabbath were the initiators of this metal movement.
Black Sabbath was...