First wave black metal doesn't have a sound (though Bathory is the closest you get to what most people consider black metal, aka second wave Norweigan black metal).
First wave is basically anything that sings about Satan or the occult. Mercyful Fate qualifies, as does:
Sodom, Destruction, Kreator, early Slayer, Death SS, early Sepultura, Bathory, Sarcofago, and of course, Venom, who coined the term. You'll find that a lot of these sound like (and are) thrash, and aside from that, don't sound alike at all.
Once you get into second wave black metal, which is what most people think of, bands like Mayhem, Darkthrone, Immortal, and Emperor start to have a distinct "black metal" sound that feels like more refined Bathory.
People who are saying Mercyful Fate are traditional heavy metal are also 100% correct - the sonic aspect of first wave black metal isn't nearly as important as the lyrical content and aesthetics.
(Heavy Metal Andy 🤘🎸)
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Skavau (15993)
4 months ago
I think even claiming Mercyful Fate is first-wave black metal is also tenuous. They're almost a precursor to that. FWBM does have a sound even its closer to speed metal or thrash metal (which it is).
Mercyful Fate was very important to the origins of black metal in the sense of aesthetics, lyrics but they have zero of the stylistic trappings of it.
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AndyKing1967 (38067)
4 months ago
“Mercyful Fate was very important to the origins of black metal in the sense of aesthetics, lyrics but they have zero of the stylistic trappings of it.”
Exactly my point. In the same way that some claim that Marc Bolan was the Godfather of Punk (Glam Rock Andy 👨🎤).
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Skavau (15993)
4 months ago
Do you follow modern black metal? Got lots of modern movements now
post black metal/blackgaze: Basically shoegaze, post-rock influenced black metal. Huge part of it now. Bands are likely to shriek about the sunshine and flowers as much as they are satan.
avant-black/dissonant black: chaotic, janky, experimental, progressive. Sometimes jazzy.
viking/pagan black: self-explanatory. folky, nature.
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AndyKing1967 (38067)
4 months ago
Although I’m aware of and have an appreciation of Black Metal, I admit that it’s not my favourite genre and could only handle a couple of songs in one go before it all starts sounding like a cacophony.
As for all the subsequent sub genres - there’s only so many hours in the day and my tastes are far reaching and eclectic.
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Skavau (15993)
4 months ago
Fair enough. Was just curious. It really is interesting how its developed. It's just a sound now, the satanism element to it becomes less and less each year.
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KingBob (2107)
4 months ago
Thank you very much. Yes Mercyful Fate does sing about Satan and the Occult and the only song I can think of that might not is Curse of the Pharaohs. They may cut across several genres but the subject matter is enough to justify calling them Black Metal even if it's only the first wave.
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AndyKing1967 (38067)
4 months ago
Absolutely, whilst their sound isn’t what you’d class as Black Metal, they definitely had a hand in inspiring it. I hope that makes sense (Hammer of the Gods Andy).
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