The next chapter of black metal begins with a Norwegian group named MAYHEM. Formed in Oslo around 1984, Mayhem took their name from a Venom song, "Mayhem with Mercy." They played metal very much steeped in the old-school black metal style of Venom and early Bathory. In this early time period, they were constantly shifting line-ups. However, Mayhem did manage to put out two very famous demos--1985's Pure Fucking Armageddon and 1986's Voice of a Tortured Soul. In 1987, Mayhem released the EP Deathcrush. This is considered one of the landmark releases of the first wave of modern black metal.

The later 1980s were a time of experimentation and growth for the new black metal scene. There were numerous extreme thrash metal bands in this time that influenced the development of black metal, including Japan's SABBAT, Italy's NECRODEATH and BULLDOZER, Germany's SODOM and DESTRUCTION, England's DELIVERANCE, and USA's NME. Aside from black metal-inspiring extreme thrash bands, a few notable actual black metal bands began forming in this time. From Brazil arose the group SARCOFAGO, with its leather, spikes, and corpsepaint. They advocated a very stripped-down aesthetic in their music, in contrast to much trendy death metal of the day. In the United States, black/doom metal band GOATLORD helped pave the way for the 'dark metal' of future groups like Bethlehem and Aeternus. Hungary produced the famous band TORMENTOR, and Canada's BLASPHEMY produced extreme sounds that no one has equalled to this day.

By the beginning of the 1990s, black metal was on the verge of breaking out of the underground. All around the globe, black metal bands were popping up. Some of the more ground-breaking bands were PROFANATICA, DEMONCY, and VON from America; DARKTHRONE, BURZUM, THORNS, THOU SHALT SUFFER, and IMMORTAL from Norway; ABRUPTUM, DISSECTION, and MARDUK from Sweden; BEHERIT, IMPALED NAZARENE, and BARATHRUM from Finland; MONUMENTUM and OPERA IX from Italy; ABSURD and NARGAROTH from Germany; SAMAEL from Switzerland; ROTTING CHRIST, VARATHRON, and NECROMANCY/NECROMANTIA from Greece; ROOT and MASTER'S HAMMER from the Czech Republic; and INQUISTION from Colombia. This is simply a sampling of some of the more notable bands from modern black metal's first wave.

I would say that the epitome of the first wave of modern black metal is summed up in Mayhem's masterpiece, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas which is recorded in 1993. But more on that to follow...





Some notable releases from this time period include:
(alphabetical order by artist)

Abruptum: 1990 demo Hextem Gaalem Zelog; 1991 7" Evil

Absurd: 1992 demos God's Death and Death from the Forest; 1993 demo Sadness

Barathrum: 1991 demos From Black Flames to Witchcraft and Witchmaster; 1992 demo Battlecry; 1993 demos Sanctissime Colere Satanas and Soaring Up From Hell

Beherit: 1990 demo Seventh Blasphemy; 1991 demo Demonomancy; 1991 EP Dawn of Satan's Millenium; 1991 album Oath of the Black Blood; 1993 album Drawing Down the Moon

Blasphemy: 1989 demo Blood Upon the Altar; 1990 album Fallen Angel of Doom

Bulldozer: 1985 album The Day of Wrath; 1986 album The Final Separation; 1987 album IX

Burzum: 1992 albums Burzum and Aske

Darkthrone: 1989 demos Cromlech and Thulcandra; 1991 album Soulside Journey; 1992 album A Blaze in the Northern Sky; 1993 album Under a Funeral Moon

Deliverance: 1987 album Devil's Meat; 1989 album Evil Friendship

Demoncy: 1991 demos Impure Blessings and Demo '91

Destruction: 1983 demo Speed Kills; 1984 demo Bestial Invasion of Hell; 1984 EP Sentence of Death; 1985 album Infernal Overkill; 1986 album Eternal Devastation

Dissection: 1990 demo The Grief Prophecy; 1991 EP Into Infinite Obscurity

Goatlord: 1988 demo Sodomize the Goat; 1991 album Reflections of the Solstice; 1992 album Goatlord

Immortal: 1991 demo Suffocate; 1991 7" Immortal; 1992 album Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism; 1993 album Pure Holocaust

Impaled Nazarene: 1991 demo Shemhamforash; 1991 demo Taog Eht Fo Htao Eht; 1991 EP Goat Perversion; 1992 EP Sadogoat; 1993 album Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz

Inquistion: 1990 EP Anxious Death; 1993 demo Forever Under

Marduk: 1991 demos Fuck Me Jesus and Here's No Peace; 1992 album Dark Endless; 1993 album Those of the Unlight

Master's Hammer: 1987 demo Ritual Murder; 1988 demo Finished; 1989 demo The Mass; 1989 album Live in Zbraslav; 1990 album The Ritual

Mayhem: 1985 demo Pure Fucking Armageddon; 1986 demo Voice of a Tortured Soul; 1987 EP Deathcrush; 1991 album Live in Leipzig

MonumentuM: 1989 demo Musaeum Hermeticum

Nargaroth: 1991 demo Orke; 1993 demo Herbstleyd

Necrodeath:  1987 album Into the Macabre; 1989 album Fragments of Insanity

Necromancy/Necromantia: 1989 demo Visions of Lunacy; 1990 demo Promo Tape '90; 1992 12" The Black Arts; 1993 album Crossing the Fiery Path

NME: 1985 demo Machine of War; 1986 album Unholy Death

Profanatica: 1990 demos Putresence of... and Broken Throne of Christ; 1991 7" Weeping Heaven; 1992 7" Tormenting Holy Flesh; 1992 demo The Raping of the Virgin Mary

Root: 1988 demo Reap of Hell; 1989 demo Messengers from Darkness; 1990 album Zjeveni; 1991 album Hell Symphony

Rotting Christ: 1987 demo The Other Side of Life; 1988 demo De Vermiis Mysteris; 1989 demo Satanas Tedeum; 1991 album Passage to Arcturo

Sabbat: 1985 EP Sabbat; 1987 EP Born by Evil Blood; 1989 EPs Desecration and The Devil's Sperm is Cold; 1990 EP The Seven Deadly Sins

Samael: 1988 demo Into the Infernal Storm of Evil; 1989 EP Medieval Prophecy; 1991 album Worship HIm; 1992 album Blood Ritual

Sarcofago: 1986 demo Satanic Lust; 1987 demo Christ's Death; 1987 album INRI; 1988 album Rotting

Sodom: 1982 demo Witching Metal; 1984 demo Satan's Conjuration; 1984 EP In the Sign of Evil; 1986 album Obsessed by Cruelty

Thorns: 1991 demo Grymryk; 1992 demo Trondertun

Thou Shalt Suffer: 1991 demos Open the Mysteries of Your Creation and Into the Woods of Belial--after this they evolved into the almighty EMPEROR

Tormentor: 1988 demo Seventh Day of Doom; 1988 album Anno Domini

Varathron: 1989 demo Procreation of Unaltered Evil; 1991 EP One Step Beyond Dreams; 1991 demo Genesis of Apocryphal Desire; 1993 album His Majesty of the Swamp

Von: 1991 demo Satanic Blood; 1991 demo Blood Angel