American Reacts to Norwegian Black Metal 

it was great to see how accepting and respectful this guy was of the genre instead of reducing it to "just screaming and noise"

Dude I am a black Metalhead and this was the best non-Metalhead reaction to Black Metal I’ve ever seen. You were not ignorant, nor hateful and you were open minded to this stuff. For most people Black Metal is an acquired taste but you just enjoyed it at first listen. You earned a subscriber, brother 🤘🏻🖤

I am a 61 year old woman and I have been listening to this genre for 40 years and not just bands from Norway but from all over Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. Black metal took its name from the title of the second album by Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK, band Venom - the album was called Black Metal. Do not believe ALL that you read about black metal bands as much of it is either exaggerated or just untrue. The media also sees bands in this genre as an easy to target whenever anything 'dark and/sinister' happens. The early black metal you heard was raw out of necessity as the bands just could not afford to use a professional studio in their early years. When they COULD, you can really hear the difference. And yes, there are WOMEN who play and sing this genre too. I suspect one reason you are not familiar with this genre is because radio will not (usually) play it - I think it is because they do not (or WILL not) understand it. Also, the style of singing in much black metal is called vox diaboli and dates back to the mystery plays of the 13th century - when the character of the Devil would vocalise in deep, growlly, grunts. If you think it easy to play and sing in this style, I suggest you give it a try. You might be surprised to learn than many of the performers and singers in black metal are actually classically trained! Also, not every band sings every song in English - many sing in Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish or other languages - including Latin and Welsh. BUT . . . you also find tunes on the subject of the occult in classical music: Sorcerer's Apprentice, Danse Macabre, Damnation Of Faust being 3 of the most well-known pieces. You should take some time to sit and listen at length to this genre - ideally with someone who knows it so they can explain and answer your questions. Once you get into it, there is a LOT of really good music here.

you have Norwegian landscapes and all that awesomeness, then you have the long dark winters , and then combine that with Norwegian seasonal depression .. then you get Norwegian Black metal ...example song ... Mayhem - freezing moon

Fun little jump through early black metal history. Norwegian black metal is still really big, but it influenced people all over the world and helped jump-start multiple scenes that have some similarities to the black metal from Norway. However, the best ones have added something unique from their own cultures and histories. You can find great black metal from France, Ukraine, Greece, Chile, Mexico, Canada, Australia, the US, and even China and the Middle East. Getting into black metal can be a very interesting doorway into learning about geography and the history and mythology of just about any country all over the world.

I go to the black metal festival Karmøygeddon every year. It's the cosiest festival ever. All the people are super nice and the atmosphere is awesome. Even non-metalheads attend because of the cosy atmosphere. Good music there as well. The police has even said that they can relax when the festival is on, because there is never any trouble when it is in town.

you should have checked out Dimmu Borgir (old norse for Foggy castle) they even made the billboardlist in the US with Progenies of the great apocalypse, that's known as Mainstream black metal and more the way Satyricon and dimmu plays today. however for the occult experience that is black metal you hit the jackpot with burzum and darkthrone. Burzum and Gorgoroth are both taken from the lord of the rings, where Buruzu means darkness in the language of Mordor and Gorgoroth is the plains between baradûr(saurons castle) and mount doom. many Black metal artists from the early area were nerds inspired by tolkiens writings so you will find songs based on the bleak atmosphere in the tolkien universe long before the 00 movies came out, count grishnak name of burzum performer is also a nudge to tolkien being one of the orcs in the book. however the Norwegian media misunderstood this and just went with the word Count (Greven) as a nickname for him.

I haven't fancy black metal before, but now, in my late 40s, i have discovered "Dimmu Borgir" and i absolutely love it!!!! ❤ You can actually understand what they are singing, and its very melodical. Very easy on your ears. Especially a song called "Rite of Passage". Very beautiful.

Euonymus didn't just take photos, HE GOT ON A BUS TO TOWN, bought a disposable camera (which have to be sent to a lab for processing), came back, AND took the photos, before calling the police! Edit: And used the photo for an album cover!

THE definitive album to listen to as an intro to Norwegian Black Metal is "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" by Mayhem. There is no other. DO NOT search for Mayhem's "The Dawn of the Black Hearts" DO NOT. Let Per/Dead rest in peace.

"That sounds like a tortured soul singing" accurate

Yay, I suggested you react to Norwegian black metal a couple of weeks ago. Glad you did

wow, this is unexpected. never had i thought that the infamous black metal (at least in metal circuits) would be reacted on this channel. surprised to say da least! thanks!

Scientific research shows that fans of the genre are affected positively to an uplifted mood. Some people claims it's catharsis (cleansing) for them, living out negative feelings through the music. For me personally, I think actually it may be caused by the fast rythms combined with the bursts of creative impulses, also mentioned in the video, stimulating high frequency brain waves.

Hi, Italian here: in the early 90s I was about 14/15 and I was already into metal when I first had the chance to have the first taste of black metal. It was exactly the first album you showed: "A blaze in the northern sky" by Darkthrone. I had read about black metal in some metal magazines but back then it was very hard to have access to that stuff (production and distribution was very limited and no internet of course) but very specialized/niche market shops existed who could provide you a copy of some bands (you had not that much of a choice: you basically got what they could provide at that moment). I travelled to Rome where one of those shops was and I found and bought Darkhtrone. Love at first hearing. Became a fan of the genre and I went on in the next years buying as many cds as I could of a miriad of bands. Then the crimes associated with some bands hit the news and many articles appeared on magazines and even mainstream newspapers. I was already aware of them because in the meantime I had entered the fanbase circle and it kinda shocked me that all that extremely retricted circle had gone mainstream all of a sudden: for about a decade (the 90s basically) I can assure that very few people knew about it, so much so that the original, primigenial core of fanbase of the genre started to call themselves as the "inner circle" as opposed to later, occasional fans that congregated after the movement had gone popular. So yes, in the very beginning it was really felt like a cult very few had access to. Of course, I'm only referring to the musical aspect of the thing not to the crimes themselves or the religious aspects which we, as fans far away from Norway, had clearly nothing to do with. It was a journey. A kinda dark one, but still a journey.

19:33 those are real goat heads. Also those are real people on the crosses.

The 90’s was a wierd era. 17:35 The frontman Sigurd Wongraven when he’s not on a stage is married with kids, producing wine and champagne in southern Europe, having exhibition at Munch museum and racing cars. You wouldn’t connect him with black metal if you met him.

Black metal is such an underrated metal genre.

Hi Tyler. I know you are not so active in engaging with the comment section, but I’ll have to say that is actually the first time I am commenting on one of your videos, I am now a boring family man and have mellowed quite a bit, but I used to be an hard core black metal musician (had my own black metal band at some point when younger) but everyone knows that black metal is just as «exotic» as brunost and is the typhichal Norwegian deal. Anyways.. I thought that Tyler would rip this genere apart because of the backstory and just the sound of the music, but I am actually very impressed of your analysis of the genere and music in its entirety. As someone (as you admitted) that didnt listen to any metal and didnt know much about it, I must admit you actually got the spirit and the reasons why it blew up. I’t seems like you just get it. Hats of to you Tyler. You are amazing and your enthusiasm really made me admire you. Although this is not your music, you still can catch the spirit and understanding of what it is all about. I had to admit I was nervous of your review, but you were spot on. And as a first time listener, that is very rare. Just to see your enthusiasm and analysis is to be admired. Hats off to you. All love from Norway ❤️

Me and my friend became aware of Black metal in the UK in spring 1994. In a pre-internet age, it was very hard to hear about these bands and even harder to source any CD's or demos without buying the magazine -' Terrorizer' and sending off for them through post to a dodgy company, maybe abroad. Darkthrone were the first we discovered and was like nothing heard before! The Uk band 'Cradle of filth' had just released their debut album which had a profound effect on us. By 1996 there were plenty of new bands and releases emerging and a good mail order company in UK and a venue in Bradford where I saw many of them live - Mayhem, Cradle of filth (twice) Marduk, Dark Funeral , Gehenna, Mysticum, Immortal (twice) met Abbath) Dissection - high 5'd the late Jon Nodveidt and own a drumstick used by Mayhem drummer, Hellhammer playing for Immortal (1995). Me and my friend lived this scene for a good few years, wore band T-shirts constantly, and was the perfect antidote to all the 90's Britpop bands and mainstream culture I hated at the time. Never got to see Emperor and Satyricon. Still have a lot of CD's , some vinyl, play some from time to time! The film' Lords of Chaos' is worth a watch but is an Americanised and over the top version not liked or supported by the bands featured in it!

The band Dimmu Borgir would probably be a good step-stone into Norwegian black metal. Their music is a bit more symphonic than most of the other bands, and is probably easier to get used to for people who aren't used to this type of music. Also, the notoriousity (is that a word in English?) of Norwegian black metal is mainly down to one person, namely Varg Vikernes aka Count Grishnackh aka Kristian Vikernes (birth name). He also took the legal name Louis Cachet after he moved to France, after his release from prison. I noticed in the article you were reading that he was mentioned several times by different names, which might give the impression that it's not the same person. Of course, most people involved in this type of music aren't maniacs, they are just musicians, some (most?) very good at what they're doing. You should also definitely check out the interview with Gaahl, linked in the article. It's actually more like a short documentary than an interview. But be warned that Gaahl is also kind of a crazy person who has done time in prison for violent crimes.

It's not just Norwegian Black Metal, the genre Black Metal itself was first developed in Norway and Norwegian Black Metal is still considered the best of it's kind in the world. While the genre takes it's name from Venom's album, Venom's music by itself were very different to what we consider to be Black Metal today.

This made my day 🤣 I've been really waiting for this reaction.

Great reaction. Don’t be fooled by the „dark“ image tho. I got to meet Gaahl (singer of Gorgoroth) in 2021 and he was truly one of the nicest people i’ve ever met. Of course there’s some weird people in the bands and fandoms of black metal but besides those people, i have found it to be the nicest fandom ever. As a 16 year old petite girl, i feel very comfortable at black metal concerts

I can’t lie, I know it’s corny and wrong but I get the giggles when normie types first hear about Dead/Mayham/Varg.

As a metal American, I'm a little surprised by the average American sometimes.

Hah, awesome! Regarding this type of metal, also check out Baron Blo/ Baron Blood. Portrayed by our famous satirical comedian, Otto Jespersen 😁 Hes portraying køl svart dødsmetal/ coal black death metal🤘💀 You do find several of his characters on RU-vid!

Not my kind of music, but I remember some of those stories as a kid.

I'm not a huge fan of this brand of Metal, but some of this is quite technically difficult, yeah. Several Black Metalers have paralel careers as advanced professional musicians in more normal genres.

I learned about Norwegian black metal from foreigners lol I never knew it was such a big part of Norway culture, but to me it feels more like it is mostly contained within a big buble.

He started with a good song

There are definitely some real talent in the black metal scene. If you need more evidence for that, check out (the very much non-black metal but with shared roots) Wardruna - the project started by ex-Gorgoroth drummer Einar 'kvitrafn' Selvik and frontman Gaahl, to explore early medieval Norwegian music. Gaahl has later quit the project (and music alltogether). My absolute favorite tunes from Wardruna being Lyfafjell and Helvegen - the live version of the latter feat. Aurora is absolutely magical: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FnkTuHP9q3o.html&ab_channel=wardruna

Those are real people on crosses in the background in the Gorgoroth video. Volunteers actually. You should have taken a look at Carving a Giant. Well, maybe in your own time and not on a video. Last time I saw Mayhem live was while on a family trip to Portland, OR. Was slightly disappointed by the fake pig heads, but I'm sure American safety people wouldn't allow them to use real ones from the butcher shops lol. Going to Cærimoniae Nidarosiae in January. Will be awesome

"i'm gonna skip ahead" that's about the worst thing you can do with a burzum song (generally any song, but especially bm), they often build up very slowly, especially dunkelheit is one of these tracks.

Black Metal is certainly a very interesting genre, an acquired taste to be sure, but very rewarding once you "get it". Some sub-genres and bands I would recommend: Black Metal: Immortal, Dissection Post Black Metal: Agalloch, Harakiri for the Sky Epic Black Metal: Caladan Brood, Summoning

Yes, there is also Heavy Metal and Symphonic Metal. The latter is very beautiful, you might want to listen to Nightwish....

A good Hollywood movie has also been made about the birth of Mayhem and the Norwegian black metal scene, it's called Lords of Chaos

You had a very good take on this for a short video.

"That sounds like a tortured soul singing." Man, you've got no idea. Look up Dead (Pelle Ohlin). Tortured soul indeed.

👑BURZUM

On that live Gorgoroth show those weren't fake dead people, they were very alive and mocking the crucifixion

Nice video, i am from Sweden and I like Norweigan Black Metal very much, Immortal and Isengard is good bands too 🤟🏼😁

And that is how you beginning exploring NSBM

Black Metal is my absolute favourite genre. Most of the most famous and legendary bands, musicians and songs from Norwegian Black Metal was made in the early 90's and is poorly produced / recorded on purpose. Majority of modern Black Metal is produced well and is way better IMO !!

I have just recently started listening to some of this myself. What's interesting is that there are genre's within black metal, and some of it does not even have satanic lyrics anymore. There is ambient black metal which is my favorite and is more about nature and the music is melancholic and relaxing. Also, there are a lot of black metal bands from the US now. It's more about the style of the music now instead of the lyrical content per say. Tremelo picking and screeching vocals are part of it, but some bands have taken it and made it their own. There is a band called Wayfarer who are from the US and their music is all about the wild west, but it uses the black metal style of music to convey that lawless backdrop. Agoloch are a really interesting band that do not have satanic lyrics and sing about nature primarily. A lot of bands have veered away from the satanic imagery, but that does still exist and has it's own naming convention now within the black metal community. There is even Christian black metal that is called unblack metal or "white" metal. Do another video exploring the different genre's within black metal, that would be eye opening considering this one only covers the dark aspects of it.

There is a hollywood b-producted movie about this whole uprising of black metal named : Lords of Chaos. Pretty good actually

Mayhem has a crazy story tho 😂 even got a movie on netflix about them and things they did

gaahl, the vocalist of Gorgoroth, have a new band named Gaahl's Wyrd which sounds great

I never expected him to look at Black Metal

At the start i tought he said: Today we will react to black men😭

I've listened to hard rock and metal since the 70's, but never listened to black metal until 2004. I heard all the horror stories in the 90's and just figured I wouldn't like it. Then I happened to hear some black metal like Emperor, Borknagar, Dimmu Borgir, and Enslaved, and my reaction was, holy shit, this sounds amazing!

Well, I'm not so sure about origins in Oslo, Bergen maybe. Emperor comes from Notodden, about 2 h from Oslo.

Coolest black metal thing i got to ever was to go and see the world's first black metal musical Svartediket on the Norwegian national stage. sources; news clip - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HKj-Pkqe114.html trailer - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5kfGyOgRBf0.html

Black Metal is my favourite genre of music. Maybe my favourite thing in the world. Why? Cause it is so varied and always progressing. I get why you found the songs you listened but the phrase "it barely scratched the surface" couldnt be more true. From the acoustic guitars,who sound like sad ballads sung by hobbits and dwarves,of "Ulver - Kveldssanger" to the shrieking guitars (of the same band actually!!!) of "Nattens Madrigal" From the brutal nature of Marduk,to the soft nature of Alcest! From the traditional songs of Darkthrone to the avant-garde songs of Dodheimsgard! From being a dark knight fighting ancient monsters in a forest of "In the nightside Eclipse" from Emperor,to the urban,cold (metaphorically) feeling of "White Ward" From the classical arrengements of Carach Angren, to the Jazzy Black Metal of "Shining (NOR)" I can keep writing forever tbh... Black metal is a huge beast of a music genre,for me,kind of separate from the rest of the metal genres cause the point in BM is to evolve and never sound the same again (even though ofc there are "traditional black metal" bands out there)

Ah I was wondering if this would ever come up as a video. And here we are! I do love black metal, I very much hate that the far right have been trying to co-opt the genre over the past few decades.

It's weirdly funny when he says “that'll wake u upl” at 14:35 because I sleep and study to this song 😅

These days there are so many styles of black metal and also mixed genres, like black/death metal, blackened death metal, black/doom metal, folk/black metal etc etc.....

Immortal - Blasyrgh mighty ravendark

TRVE NORWEGIAN BLACK METAL ! \m/

I prefer Norwegian jazz myself. Norwegian folk music is also really interesting. My old home city Trondheim has a pretty good jazz line on the university. The region also have it's own genre of rock. And while I'm not usually into rock it's also interesting in some ways.

Tyler is forever scarred. ;)

You should react to a video of someone telling the full story of the band. The whole story of meyham is very interesting. It is also a movie about this called Lords of chaos. You should watch it.

that was the best reaction from a non metal head i´ve ever seen, unbias, chill and respectful. Nice one brother

Time to learn. And it's pretty big thing in Europe in general, not just in Norway.

One of the best reaction takes on this genre, hands down.

Funny,most of these bands are pretty down to earth. I hung out with Dark Funeral in a tour bus 23 years ago and they were very normal and respectful dudes. Like Cannibal Corpse or Incantation or Megadeth that I also hung out with. A lot of it is just the image.

Now I need you to listen to a genre called depressive suicidal black metal

The metal with screaming and the like that you're probably thinking of is generally black metal and death metal and ones similar to it. There are genres of metal that are a lot more mellow, such as symphonic and neo-classical.

16:38 Per Yngve (Dead) was a pretty much tortured soul.

Noise first is similar to Nordic Pagan chants

I LOVE black metal..... Thank you for being so open minded to the music more than the history.....

Down the street from our local high school, there's a big murial of the Mayhem logo, honoring them as the community's local (although noisy) musical "heroes" 😄 A bit ironic is that a lot of black metal bands (both Norwegian and from around the world) LOVE to use names created by JRR Tolkien, a very strict Catholic 😅 For example Gorgoroth (the band) is a dusty plain in the dark lands of Mordor, and musicians like Shagrath (Dimmu Borgir) and Grishnack (Mayhem) are names of high ranking orcs from Mordor. 🤘

Surprisingly good reaction. Well done

The gorgoroth stage was naked, crucified nuns and the heads were impaled lambs heads, not goats… The lambs represent servants of Christ.

The lead singer of Gorgoroth was the 1st person who came out as gay in the black metal community. He was heavily criticized by some people because for them it's an insult.

I simply love this reaction. This dude is really open-minded, truly a gem

Tyler, you need to celebrate Black Easter in Oslo next year ar the Inferno Festival. If you want to get to know metalheads, volunteer at the festival, and I can garantee you new friends for life.

Hi Rumple! I appreciate your business model. How much does it make?

It gave me the chills

Cheers from Norway🤘🏼🍺

there's a video with Fenriz from Darkthrone called Black Metal 101 or something like that. It's just him talking for about an hour explaining the history of the genre. He's a human encyclopedia of the genre.

ru-vid.comSWzodw36fy4?si=KHJZjVLo3jy1kPV5 New music incoming from Norway! 🤟

Hell yeah ! Best metal Check out: Behemoth (not Norwegian black metal, but one of my favorites) Gorgoroth Mayhem. Btw, the first album Deathcrush had a hand hanging with pink colors around the cover. It was supposed to be red, but ended up pink and it's iconic in so many ways. Witch Club Satan Dark Throne

I grew up on Black Metal specially junior high years

Varg Vikernes is a familiar name. But I never heard about the guy from Mayhem who commited suic*de and was taken photos of etc. Disturbing. I can’t stand music like this, where theres growling, but to each their own 🫣. I think many people are more into this as an anti establishment thing, but not as a full on *evil worshipper. Just my impression, off course theres some of those as well. It’s seem like maybe parts of this or certain songs are more like metal and less heavy which is alright. 😅

Satyricon. Sa-tear-uh-con. "tear", as in "a tear you cry" "Satyricon."

You must listen to this one. Dimmu borgir, progenies of the great apocalypse live at wacken

The Bald Guy with Corpsepaint is Rune "Galder" Andersen, founder of Old Mans Child and Member of Dimmu Borgir, Black Metal Legend.

Check out "Mother North" by Satyricon. The original video, not the symphonic one.

Barzam!! 😅 Euro and Dead, we miss you ! 😢

You should also try to listen to Kaizers Orchestra. Not metal, but a well known norwegian gypsy rock band that's performed internationally.

Maybe for the future you can look into a different type of black metal called dsbm who are using most of the time complete different vocal styles compared to the traditional type of singing within black metal. Ps. Black metal has probably almost as much sub genres as metal in it's whole and in my personal opinion the most experimental of all metal genres because they will try to use different aspects in it like instruments, sounds of nature and even using certain effects that can be created by playing/recording it somewhere else than a studio for exaple outside or an empty building.

You comments about Darkthrone...The beginning is a into...

sometimes is hard to understand them bc they sing in norwegian

Check out Curse upon a prayer - ortopraxia for an example. There's a reason so many crosses are turned. Don't cross.

Black Metal is the best Thing after my wife and my Kids.❤

A lot of metalbands are on smaller labels, they're just happy to be played so more people can discover them. They're not like the big pop labels like universal and sony. So I don't think you'll have any copyright problems.

Ah, TRVE KVLT indeed. Good to see someone enjoying the humble offerings. Nothing like the story of Mayhem to really put a pep in your undead steps!

Come to Inferno Metal Festival in Norway where you can experience Norwegian Black Metal at home ground.

There are very melodic Black Metal songs out there as well if one can get used to the vocals.