Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult

by Dayal Patterson

  While the far right certainly has more than its share of infighting, more pressingly there is also undoubtedly something of a paradox at work, in that far-right bands who believe strongly in the importance of their ideologies often (understandably) attempt to promote the far right as something more than merely a destructive force. Thus they often present ideals that are actually too tolerant for many in the black metal scene, since they promote unity and comradeship with the fellow members of your race and society, a far cry from the elitist, misanthropic, and society-destroying aspirations black metal has long carried.

  It’s a point that Mikko Aspa of Clandestine Blaze and Northern Heritage—another respected label working with both political and non-political bands and whose own band has been mistakenly labeled NSBM due to criticisms of Israel—raised in 2001 in an interview with the Chronicles of Chaos website.

  “Nazi = national socialist. First of all: I’m not socialist of any kind, and I don’t think any black metal should be. Nationalists think that their country or people in it are somewhat special, but I tend to think most people are just meat. Useless flesh, often stupid and unimportant… How could I be nationalist in a state which is against many things I stand for? Nazism is about conservative values, family values, endless and unquestionable love for white race and your country brothers… since when was this socialist garbage classified as black metal?! Ten years ago every black metaller from Norway to Poland remembered to tell how LaVey sucked because of his humane and life-loving ideology. Now the same people are making ‘14/88’ slogans—which simply means ‘save the kids, make good future for our kids.’”

  “At some point I felt it was insult to call Clandestine Blaze NSBM, since it was not accurate,” Aspa comments today. “But now, I don’t know if I care. There are no songs that advocate or promote National Socialism. However, I know plenty of NSBM guys, skinheads, etc. and I have always distributed the stuff with my label. I feel, that as long as black metal remains credible, it’s good. Some of NSBM does, some of it doesn’t. A lot of anti-NSBM arguments is based on building straw-man accusations. And I can confess having been there myself too… I have no problem with any ethnic group, unless their actions and their intentions are clearly in conflict of mine. I have nothing against some people living in other side of world, minding their own business.”

  Ultimately, the role of politics in black metal is shifting and complicated, but it’s important to remember that politics aren’t something that play a big part in the lives of the average black metal fan. Even many (but not all) of those who passionately support NSBM are not politically active outside of their support for NSBM itself, in much the same way that the cause of Underground Black Metal sometimes overshadows actual Satanic practice for some, as seen earlier in this book.

  Equally, many bands who are opposed or indifferent to NSBM do not see any need to divorce themselves on a personal level from friends or comrades in those sections of the scene. The sight of non-Caucasian fans and musicians wearing merchandise of outspoken right-wing bands and sharing beers, festival bills, and even the stage with swastika-wearing far-right supporters may seem a contradiction on paper, but then the real world is a complicated place, and the black metal scene no less so.

  37

  GRAVELAND AND INFERNUM

  POLISH BLACK METAL PART I

  “From the first time of hearing this band I was captured. With all the primitive clumsiness of handling their instruments, they stood out from a lot of ‘talented musicians’ who were doing releases at the same time leaving no memories or raising any emotion. Graveland managed to create their own sound, their own spirit and timeless classics of the genre. Still today when I listen to Graveland I feel they are one of the most important black metal bands overall. Their attitudes and approach seemed much more uncompromising.”

  —Mikko Aspa (Clandestine Blaze)

  WHILE THE PROLIFIC multi-instrumentalist Rob “Darken” Fudali was—like the rest of his peers in Poland—inspired into action by the early-nineties black metal scene in Scandinavia, his initial passion for metal was ignited many years earlier while he was still in school. Indeed, it’s interesting to note that the trigger for his musical conversion was the same larger-than-life American group that drew so many of the Scandinavian protagonists into the metal scene.

  “When I was in an elementary school one of my colleagues gave me some materials of Kiss and I remember I was highly impressed by the way they looked,” he laughs. “It was the Communist time in Poland and we did not have an access to metal music, only those who had families abroad in Western Europe countries had access to Western culture and they were able to ‘smuggle’ it to Poland. My colleague who gave me materials of Kiss had such a possibility, and thanks to him I found bands such as Nazareth, Budgie, Uriah Heep, UK Subs… and this is how it started. Later—before I spent two years in the navy, 1988 to 1990—I started to listen to Celtic Frost, Venom, Mercyful Fate, and Bathory. Slowly Communist censorship started to let Western music appear in Polish mass media and you could listen to entire albums in some radio programs! I was waiting all week long to listen to a new album and record it on my reel-to-reel recorder. I heard music of Sodom, Kreator, Celtic Frost, Possessed, Destruction, it was an unforgettable adventure. I remember the clothes, images, entire atmosphere of black metal impressed me and had a huge impact on my imagination. I remember fantastic photo stories from Kerrang! mag, [like the] duel of Cronos and Thor!”

  Graveland as a trio before the departure of Karcharoth and Capricornus. Picture courtesy of Nihil Archives.

  Curiously, Kerrang!’s hammy, humor-filled photo stories were not the only examples of English drama that would provide inspiration for Darken in the early days of his main project Graveland. Officially formed in 1992 in Wrocław, the largest city in western Poland, the outfit would tie together various strands of musical, thematic, and ideological influence, some from very unexpected sources.

  “When I decided to form Graveland, I was under a strong influence of black and doom metal. I wanted to play slow, gloomy, and dark music. At that time, I listened to Winter—very slow and dark doom metal. However, I also listened to Dead Can Dance and you can hear the influence of these bands in my early recordings. Pagan dark beliefs in my early recordings came from [the] BBC TV series Robin Hood, Aryanhood, Crom Cruach [Irish pagan deity], Hern [ghost from English folklore]. Satanist motives present in this series were also a strong inspiration for my imagination. Celtic beliefs fascinated me. Graveland name is Tir-Na-Nog—Celtic land of the dead. I approved Satan in all his personifications because I believed so-called Satan [was] in fact pagan entities that got evil names from Christians who stigmatized them and made them Christian enemies.”

  Graveland would be, from the start, a highly active project, releasing no less than six demos, three in 1992 (Necromanteion, Promo June ’92, and Drunemeton), two in 1993 (Epilogue and In the Glare of Burning Churches), and one in 1994 (The Celtic Winter). A far cry from the band’s later works, the first four of these are heavy on both electronic percussion and synths, blending atmospheric instrumentals with heavily mechanized industrial death/doom-oriented numbers. In fact, despite the screamed vocals, it was really only with the fifth and sixth demos that Graveland began to follow the black metal blueprint of Darken’s Nordic peers, combining influences from early Emperor with older outfits like Bathory.

  “I recorded these demos during Communism in Poland,” explains Darken. “Sound is horrible because we recorded it in basements on very bad equipment, which was very often worn-out. We were very poor at that time, our families did not support us, they did not understand us and criticized us all the time. But despite strong opposition of our families and lack of proper equipment we did not surrender. We will remember those times forever… we were able to produce such amounts of energy which gave meaning to all our deeds. Our music was rather simple and primitive but it had power to shape us. We forged our thoughts and desires into melodies that healed our wounded souls…
I like In the Glare of Burning Churches demo the most…. Celtic Winter was inspired by the Norwegian scene and it was the first step on Graveland’s path toward war and hatred in the name of true unholy black metal.”

  The latter two demos saw Graveland expand from a solo project into a full band, with Darken joined by two new members, both of whom proved even more radical in character. First into the fold was bassist and guitarist Grzegorz “Karcharoth” Jurgielewicz, a firebrand and semi-established musician who had already recorded one demo, The Dawn Will Never Come, with his own outfit Infernum. It was through Karcharoth that Darken would meet drummer Maciej “Capricornus” D browski. A skinhead dedicated to the extreme right, the sticksman would become as famous for his politics as for his strong work ethic during the nineties, playing with several bands in the scene as well as keeping busy with his fanzine and later a solo project.

  “Karcharoth played in Graveland before Capricornus joined us,” recalls Darken. “They had known each other a long time—even when Capricornus had long hair! I [originally] met Karcharoth when I recorded Necromanteion, he wrote me and we met. Together we practiced and shared our ideas. At that time Karcharoth was known as Anextiomarus and had his own project Infernum with his friend [and drummer] Balrog. They both came to my house and we talked about black metal, criticized some poseurs, discussed occultism and Satanism, traded tapes and zines. I was a photographer during [the] first Infernum photo session. For the first time, I saw people painting faces in black metal war colors. I wanted to have such image in Graveland, too. I remember this Infernum photo session took place in an old Jewish cemetery. There was a man walking with his dog. We scared him because he did not expect to meet such painted demonic creatures like ourselves!

  “When Anextiomarus officially joined Graveland, he changed his name for Karcharoth,” Darken continues. “It was a perfect name for him because he was evil and unpredictable in his behavior, radical and psychopathic in his convictions. Evil attracted him. Rarely did I hear him speak well about other people. I saw his psychopathic nature, but I accepted him because I believe that people like him were the true core of unholy black metal. Moreover, I was very glad to have him in Graveland! Karcharoth had a plan to live together with Capricornus, to sleep in coffins and to paint walls in his house in black. In his imagination women existed only as an object of physical violence. Aleister Crowley was his master and mentor until the last days of Karcharoth’s life. He suggested to extend [the] Graveland lineup with a percussionist and proposed Capricornus… At that time, Capricornus was in contact with Euronymous, Grishnackh, Samoth. He published his zine Into the Pentagram, therefore his knowledge about the black metal underground and musical novelties was very wide… [he] was a great support for me. I saw the meaning of all our actions and I knew how to use this knowledge to make Graveland other than thousands of other metal bands.”

  United by their shared political and musical goals, the three musicians set about organizing the Polish black metal underground, transforming The Temple of Infernal Fire—Poland’s answer to the Norwegian Inner Circle—into The Temple of Fullmoon, a collective whose pursuit of “evil” involved explicitly far-right activities and attitudes.

  “At that time each of us had some political convictions but the new wave of underground black metal allowed us to use our right-wing convictions in music,” he continues. “True unholy black metal was to be uncompromising and rebellious… to cross the lines and get closer and closer to the core of the evil, to approve all its manifestations to release young wolves free. You just could not be an evil black metal supporter hailing dark powers and condemn Nazism at the same time. Most people condemn Nazism as evil so [we] approved Nazism. It was natural and perfectly understandable. When I met Capricornus, he was already part of that world. Burzum marked him to be a warrior. And together we were on the warpath against everybody and everything.”

  As well as their interests in Nazism, together the three would start working on various musical manifestations of this “true unholy black metal” ideology. Darken was the most prolific of the trio, contributing session keyboards to many bands in the early nineties, including Infernum, Oppressor, Behemoth, Mysteries, Wolfkhan, and Veles. Together with Capricornus he would also unite with Leinad of the band Mysteries for a short-lived project called Legion, and the pair would also join Infernum. Karcharoth’s main band had already gained some momentum with a sound akin to a more atmospheric Graveland, complete with heavy use of keys, simple, epic passages, and a distinctive vocal performance from Karcharoth himself.

  “We helped one another in our musical projects: Graveland, Infernum, and Capricornus’ Thor’s Hammer,” Darken explains. “Our strong cooperation was a result of our beliefs and convictions. Together we supported black metal ideology and it motivated us and made us soldiers of one army. Our art was our fight. We were at war against Christianity. Each new album was like another battle we had to win. This war made us feel special under gods’ protection. Playing in other black metal bands was a sign of your commitment to the underground and black metal ideology. Supporting Karcharoth in Infernum was our duty, especially when his percussionist Balrog left for the death metal band Oppressor. Karcharoth hated death metal. He had always had sharp, accurate arguments against it. Karcharoth found a musical label [Polish label Astral Wings] to release the debut, which paid for the recording session. Everything was fine until the album […Taur-Nu-Fuin…] was released. Karcharoth and Capricornus worked on the ideological part of the album and prepared radical text which was printed on the booklet. It was the cause of our first confrontation with UOP—Urzad Ochrony Panstwa (Polish special police forces). The times of repressions and responsibility for one’s words and actions had started.”

  Indeed, the Polish secret service were now taking a particular interest in members of the country’s homegrown black metal scene, both due to the extremist politics brewing within it and the crimes (such as church burning) perpetrated by its members.

  “After the release of … Taur-Nu-Fuin … Karcharoth started to have problems,” Darken recounts. “As he was the youngest of the three of us, the police decided to [make] him [a target] of their repressions. For some reason the UOP found the ideology of the album highly dangerous and harmful for democracy and the state. To some degree we were prepared for this attack. We had information about what happened in Norway—how the police broke up the Black Circle—therefore, we knew what we should not do. We tried to avoid their mistakes. We were ready for the battle. However, Karcharoth had one weak spot—he was a schizophrenic. His illness was waiting for a stimulus to [activate] it. This way Karcharoth was the weakest of us and police agents decided to intimidate him and cause his mental breakdown. These times were hard for us.”

  A few months after the Infernum debut came the first Graveland full-length, Carpathian Wolves, which featured the same lineup as… Taur-Nu-Fuin…, but saw Karcharoth handling bass (rather than guitars and vocals), Rob handling guitars, keys, and vocals, and Capricornus providing drums. Drenched in Satanic and folklore references, it continued in a similar vein to the later demos, lending even more emphasis to the slow and doomy passages and eerie organ accompaniment.

  “This album was inspired by Dracula, werewolves, and all these stories connected with vampirism,” Darken explains. “Part of the Carpathian Mountains is located in the southeast of Poland. Even before World War II inhabitants were afraid of vampires, ghosts, etc. When someone committed suicide, before he was buried, his head was cut off and heart punctured with a stake. It was very popular, especially in the countryside. Vampirism perfectly fit [the] black metal image … Dracula’s famous war cruelty or the bloody reign of Elisabeth Bathory. I created specific vampiric melodies under the influence of one song of Blue Öyster Cult.”

  Wasting no time, the band soon began to work on a follow-up in the shape of 1995’s Thousand Swords. Released on the Austrian label Lethal Records, this breakthrough album saw something of a stylistic shift, with Darken introducin
g a pronounced folk influence, resulting in a more rousing sound that hinted at the heroics of Bathory’s Viking metal period. The iconic cover captured Darken wearing both corpsepaint and medieval clothing, the latter later becoming a familiar sight as the founding member embraced the medieval reenactment scene.

  “I was under a strong influence of folk medieval music,” Darken recalls. “I was inspired by one of my favorite soundtracks—Conan the Barbarian movie. I found out that [composer] Basil Poledouris took inspirations from medieval folk and songs from Carmina Burana [a medieval manuscript] performed by [Austrian composer] René Clemencic. I bought these recordings and it was a great discovery for me, a huge source of inspiration. Also Karcharoth started to listen to these recordings—I am sure you can hear these inspirations in Infernum’s music. Karcharoth also liked modern Celtic folk and music of Enya and Loreena McKennitt. Bathory was a great source of inspiration through music, epic image, paganism. I really liked the style of swords and ancient garments. The first time [I saw] these things [was] in Venom and Manowar. I have always thought [of the] cult of [the] warrior as a true essence of metal music.”