The whole point of this blog is new experiences, and admittedly, hockey fights and black licorice are familiar favourites in my world. Let’s try something really out of my comfort zone – not just metal, but black metal.

Black metal is one of the most extreme types of metal, and part of it’s popularity with fans is that it’s meant to be extreme – it’s meant to be anything but mainstream, it’s not meant to be accessible, and because that it engenders a dedicated following – particularly in northern Europe. This mix is all Finnish bands, but the genre has its roots in Norway.

As I was looking up more about black metal, I found this really illuminating article about the subtle differences between death metal and black metal – death metal leans more towards growling, while black metal goes more for shrieking (these are technical terms). However, the difference is also thematic:

Thematically, the difference is as simple as body and soul. Death metal is, ultimately, an anatomical form of music, and black metal is a spiritual one. Both may have indecipherable lyrics and album artwork that makes you hiss between your teeth — but a death metal vocalist will scream about the loss of a limb, while a black metal vocalist will scream about the loss of a god.

FAQ: Death Metal – Kerrang!

This mix isn’t something I’d play with my parents in the car, but I can definitely see the appeal – I love high tempo music and this carries some engaging emotional oomph.