Norwegian Black Metal

Ramón Llera, Jaime de la Torre

The Norwegian Black Metal scene, also known as the 2nd wave of black metal, was a subculture movement that began in the 1990s. The music played by these bands was inspired by thrash metal groups from the 1980s such as Bathory and Venom, using their satanic themed lyrics but adding a dark ambient, shrieked vocals and low quailty sound. The whole movement started in a record store in oslo by the name of helvette where members of the inner circle cult met and practiced in the basement of the store.

The cult was formed by a group of young men who seeked to bring end to the christian community in norway and to bring back their ancient pagan culture thus using the name of satan to symbolise the enemy of god. The members of this cult started commiting satanic related crimes such as church arson and murder, in a few years time more than 50 churches were burnt throughout Norway. The church arsons started to cease when the pincipal leaders of this movement either commited suicide, were murdered, or were arrested: The lead singer of the group Burzum, Varg Vikernes, was arrested for murdering his rival musician Euronymus from the band Mayhem, Bard Faust of Emperor was arrested for murdering a homosexual and Per Yngve Ohlin from Mayhem commited suicide by a gunshot to his head. These actions led to the decay of the black metal movement by the late 1990s but this genre of music is still played nowadays in many northern countries within the underground scene leading to more than 90 church arsons worlwide. the number of deaths due to this movement is still unknown.