The Corroseum forum (new design under construction)

I'd like to ask you guys' opinions on what bands up until, say, 1986, might be called Black Metal without stretching the designation too much, and also taking into consideration that by then these labels were far less defined and rigid than they are now.

A first approach as to a possible list is the following. Which names do you think are missing? Which names wouldn't you agree with? I'm very much looking forward to your input.


1980

Venom (UK)


1981

Death SS (Ita)
Mercyful Fate (Den)


1982

Future Tense (Hol)
Sodom (Ger)


1983

666 / Törr (Cze)
Bulldozer (Ita)
Evil Blood (Cro)
Hellhammer (Swi)
Satan's Pharynx (Ger)
Slayer (USA)


1984

Bathory (Swe)
Celtic Frost (Swi)
Dark Satan (Ger)
Death Angel's (Bra)
Destruction (Ger)
Ghostrider (pre-Necrodeath) (Ita)
Iron Angel (Ger)
Kat (Pol)
Poison (Ger)
Possessed (USA)
Running Wild (Ger)
Semen of Satan (Ger)
Vulcano (Bra)


1985

Black Shepherd (Bel)
Flames (Gre)
Hell (Ger)
Holocausto (Bra)
Mayhem (Ger)
NME (USA)
Occult (USA)
Renegade (Aus)
Sabbat (Jap)
Samhain (Den)
Savage Death (USA)
Schizo (Ita)
Sepultura (Bra)
Voor (Can)
White Hell (Jap)


1986

Angel Reaper (Hun)
Antichrist (Ger)
Black Cross (Por)
Black Mass (Nor)
Cerbero (Arg)
Hadez (Peru)
Hellpreacher (USA)
Infernäl Mäjesty (Can)
Mayhem (Nor)
Mefisto (Swe)
Obscurity (Swe)
Pentagram (Chi)
Requiem (Ita)
Retrosatan (Arg)
Sacrifice (Jap)
Sarcófago (Bra)
Slaughter Lord (Aus)
Zadkiel (Jap)


By 1987 I think the scene was already growing too much and becoming too mixed with more conventional Thrash and Death. Still, a few names were still very oldschool Black Metal that year, like Aamonhammer, Fantom, Flames of Hell, Master's Hammer, Morbid, Mortuary Drape, Necrovore, Nekromantie, Parabellum, Reencarnación, Sadistik Exekution, Samael, Tormentor, and the list goes on...

What, no Running Wild?
And no Future Tense?

Maybe Destruction as well

zadkiel are not black and were hardly satanic

Future Tense is indeed a justified addition I think. I always wondered about adding Running Wild to such a list. Perhaps other opinions clear out how pertinent it is. I'm adding Kat and Flames to the list. What do you think? Destruction in too.

The Knell wrote:zadkiel are not black and were hardly satanic

I always saw them as a total Venom/Motörhead worship.

Can't see the black metal thing in BLACK EVIL except from some lyrics maybe, there's no satanic atmosphere on their demo or on the comp track, dark music definitely, but more like dark epic to my ears. Haven't heard CREEPING DEATH tho'.
RUNNING WILD were twice as evil musically and since BLACK EVIL or RETROSATAN were included you shouldn't have doubted one single second to include the german gods.
Not to mention SATANS HOST...

Ok then. I'm enjoying the feedback.
Truth is I don't really know the earlier material by Running Wild. What year do you guys think I should add them to the list?

And Witchfynde (1979) should be added, they were the first to use the term, before even Venom.

Running Wild should be 1981, they released a demo called Rock From Hell that year. Says it all, really.

Rick wrote:Ok then. I'm enjoying the feedback.
Truth is I don't really know the earlier material by Running Wild. What year do you guys think I should add them to the list?

1984 - Death metal comp, Victim of states power EP & Gates to purgatory

Black Axe wrote: Running Wild should be 1981, they released a demo called Rock From Hell that year. Says it all, really.

I think it was a bit later that they became really 'black', see my post above.

ION BRITTON wrote:

Rick wrote:Ok then. I'm enjoying the feedback.
Truth is I don't really know the earlier material by Running Wild. What year do you guys think I should add them to the list?

1984 - Death metal comp, Victim of states power EP & Gates to purgatory

Yeah, but then you'd need to move up bands like Mercyful Fate too. Their first EP wasn't until 1982. And Death SS would be 1983 instead of 1981 as well.

I hadn't seen the dates for DEATH SS or MF, but I agree.

And according to M-A, the lyrics to Hallow The Hell (1981 demo) are:

"'Cause they all know, that heaven had to go
You can be so low, in our show
They all know, that heaven had to go,
In our show

Hallow the hell, that's all we want to tell
Hallow the hell, that's all we want to tell"

Sounds pretty Black to me.

There were surely hints of blackness in the pre-1984 material, but the '84 materal is exactly what this thread is about, sound-, lyric- and imagewise

I don't see how lyrical subject can create a separate subgenre, I don't think any of those bands are black metal. The '2nd wave' of BM is the only music I count as BM. Musically Venom, Running Wild and Mercyful Fate have nothing in common, neither does the 2nd wave of BM have anything in common with those bands musically.