February is Black [Metal] History Month
Well, according to Metal Injection it is. They’re even offering up a nice t-shirt. They also have this article that takes a deeper look into the relationship between Black Metal and religion.
The one sub-genre of music most closely associated with hatred, chaos, misanthropy, individualism, and a lack of rules has come to be known as black metal. Borne of a reactionary impulse against society and commercialism, the spiritual movement some say is long dead has actually existed for more than twenty-five years. Despite its anti-everything tenets, black metal is notorious for its comparably suffocating sets of rules. And though these rules are hardly agreed upon, it is somewhat ironic that the one musical style most concerned with the individual has adopted and embraced religion like no other. Religion??? I hear you asking. Yes, religion.
To understand how something like this could arise, one must examine black metal’s history among the greater backdrop of heavy metal as a whole. One must first understand the mind of the metalheadHow many casual Anaal Nathrakh fans do you know? It’s a safe bet that there is no musical genre more sacred to its adherents than heavy metal. For most of us it is nothing less than a way of life. True fans don’t just listen to the music; they buy the albums, read the lyrics, and absorb all that the musician has given them into the very depths of their being.
