The Primordial Black Metal Forest… Is My Throne

Since the early days when Black Metal started to take its shape, it has always also reflected the environment of its creators. It is no surprise that especially in North European Black Metal, dark woods would enable different kind of visions than what was created by metal musicians who live in culturally opposite metropolises.

While some of the Black Metal emerged from highly urban environments of big cities, it appears to be an undisputed fact that vast majority of Finnish Black Metal bands originate from small cities and villages. People who created Black Metal still lived on the border of civilization and something beyond. This “beyond” represents itself in the form of dark woods, presenting itself not only as a metaphor or an ideal but as a reality.
Many times the theme of dark northern forest would not be utterly specific by its intention. If one was to interpret, there would be possibilities to find countless ideas echoing in those woods. Antimodernism. Antihumanism. Lethal dangers and endless struggle. Merciless cycle of life and death. Unexplained phenomena far beyond our abilities to understand. Existence where man appears as an anomaly. Complexity of nature as organism, way beyond any mechanical explanation. One could approach nature in many ways. From esoteric worldviews to brute forms of Social Darwinism.

An entirely different culture itself is very easy to see. Youth did not grow surrounded by fetishized catholic nuns they desired to punish. Hollywood aesthetic of rituals that belong to very different religious setting may have been interesting, but also as distant and artificial as horror movies designed to reflect the life of common American youth. And so on and on. Our forefathers, and the stories that are told, are within the dark forests.



Only a few generations ago, many people still lived the world of MAYHEM’s “Pagan Fears”. This atavistic quality is well described in these lines:

Woeful people with pale faces
Staring obsessed at the moon
Some memories will never go away
And they will forever be here

In front of nature’s mysteries, man will always be small. It was the same then, as it is now. Hostility of environment is concrete after merely taking a few steps from the nearest electric light and heat source. It’s unlikely few naked chicks, candles and chanting would evoke a similar feeling as the nocturnal winter forest. Presence of something beyond good and evil may be very concrete without a single culturally learned idea.

Some people have asked what is evil in the forest. This leads us to merely old questions of nature of evil itself. It leads to lazy semantics, where most often descriptions of the evil appear in form of vulgarities. Certainly, there is charm in perversions and vulgarities, but it’s not the end of all. In a forest, there is no vulgarity. Its evilness doesn’t appear in humane decadence. Its evilness doesn’t appear in the form of humane malicious intent. It goes far, far beyond it. It is so far from the drug infested concrete jungles and social media toughness that it may be difficult to grasp where some of the Nordic Black Metal comes from.

Back in 2010, I sent a handful of questions to selected Finnish Black Metal bands, to collect thoughts regarding forest in the context of Black Metal. My hope was to escape all the trappings of academic observation and embarrassing psychological rubbish. I hoped to gather together people from various perspectives, which connect somehow into the same theme. I feel the topic would make even an entire book possible and this is barely a scratch in the surface. It is possible most of the bands would say something different now than they did more than half a decade ago. To me it appears obvious that perception is becoming again somewhat clearer and after the dominance of all sorts of decadence, semitic esoteria, suicidal sobbing and such, we may well see a return to the Primordial Nordic Black Metal Forest!

By Northern Heritage



VORDR – "Forever North"
Blazing winter fires
Unforgiving frost
Snow blinds the eyes
That seek for light

Hopes are suffocated
Under a pillow of ice
Every breath a razorblade
Carving in the lungs

Born to bare the legacy
Born of stronger blood
Stubborn customs of pride
Heritage of honorable men

Both sword and greed
Have drowned the wisest of men
Hiding the rage inside
Never uttering the miseries

Blazing winter fires
Forever north

Role of Nature and Forest as Subject Matter for Black Metal

Phlegein: "Nature and forests are things that belong to Black Metal. Nature has had a part in Black Metal at least from the beginning of 1990's, and for me it is completely part of it. When people think about gloomy forests or desolate mountains, usually they describe those as dark or evil places, and this is simply true. Black Metal is dark and evil, so they fit together perfectly."

[caption id="attachment_9003" align="aligncenter" width="410"] Count Grishnackh[/caption]

Musta Kappeli: "Personally for me nature has always been an essential part of the Black Metal imagery and spirit. From the old 90's promo shots of corpsepainted demons in dark forests to hymns of primordial darkness and of wanderings in the mystical pure nature. I've never experienced Black Metal as an urban thing but rather as a howl of the woods. Man has always feared nature and its dark essence. In the older times it was a place not to venture in alone and unprepared. And still, nature is something that, despite the several attempts of man to wield for his use, manages to surprise us and show us its power. By this I mean catastrophes like tsunami, earth quakes, floods etc. that help in depopulation of this earth from the plague of humans. The adversary, the force of destruction that is needed for creation, chaos that disrupts order, Satan. But even if we forget that, for me a walk in the dark forest – or even daytime – is something so mystical. I feel that I'm closer to the essence of Satan and His mysteries, the purity of nature, where the eternal wheel of creation & destruction, life & death, keeps on turning. Black Metal aims for that misanthropic purity and worships the primordial darkness. Satan manifests in different forms and places but for me nature – forest – is where I feel closest to Him."

 Vordr: “Nature itself can hardly be treated as a subject of Black Metal per se. Writing lyrics based on woods, lakes, animal life, and what have you can only be effectively married to black metal when it's used as a way to approach or deal with the core subject of Satanism. Therefore, in my view, the most successful nature-inspired themes and lyrics on Black Metal albums evoke similar feelings and visions as any other type of lyrics of the genre even though they deal with the subject matter in a different fashion.”

Dead Reptile Shrine: "Black metal uses shadowy, ambiguous forms to realize a breathing space in the patterned life of modern man, in effect much like wooded regions where ‘unknown’ and ‘spiritual’ things can happen, as definition does not exist. Anyone who has been held in the frozen grasp of fear in nocturnal woods, when ‘something’ is stalking you but ‘nothing’ seems to be there, knows the feeling. Not ‘definition’ of Satan or evil, but the mere indescribable abstract presence. That is most pure Black Metal, in essence. It is extremely real to the perceiver; it is not ‘only a thought’, like most theories are. Power becomes through contemplation and connection with the abstract spirit world and this was realized by old Black Metal artists in the primitive, ‘non-definite’ visions of darkness, the woods and evil spirits. When occult names, theologies, diagrams and other pseudo-exact knowledge took over, it was easier to see that no one has any idea what they are talking about."

[caption id="attachment_9002" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Satanic Warmaster[/caption]

Satanic Warmaster: “As we live to reflect the dark, cruel and destructive face of nature, the presence of nature and the acknowledgement of its beauty and frightening power is something that cannot be denied when it comes to Black Metal as I see it. I was raised in the middle of forests, and used to wander in the woods for hours in search of my own thoughts and to feel the breath of the ancient times before the arrival of man. There is nothing like the feeling of walking deep into the forest, not having anyone to help you on a moment of danger, the uncertainty of knowing the way back home and the sheer veneration for a kingdom where you could easily get lost and die in. A twilight fog at an opening in a forest or a raging tsunami of destruction, both are manifestations of nature and a vision I would connect with Black Metal.”

PHLEGEIN – “White Top”
Nightly stroll up the mountains
So near and yet so far away
Way up high, near the white tops

As the evening sun descend behind
And mountains fade and darken
In the skies burning stars we find

Start feeling close to everything
At the white top

Spirits soaring through the sky
And wind screaming so loud
Moon is my torch and creates
Fine shades to darkness

Flashing red spots in the sky
Eyes of blood seeking creatures
Yet they vanish into the dark
At the white top

Heads held proud against the sky
That seemed so cloudy and dark
Valleys down below gazed mist
Feel the wind that wouldn't stop

Your face is made of stone
Your heart is rock solid
Standing so firm, unrelenting
I'm only human, flesh and blood
Trying to understand your supreme might

Blatant Reality vs Usage of Nature through Mysticism or Metaphors



 Phlegein: "I've lived all my life in small villages or cities, near nature. My past and living habitat is strongly influencing me as an artist. It takes a 5 minute walk from my front door to be surrounded by trees only. I could never live in a concrete jungle."

Musta Kappeli: "I'd choose mysticism even though using metaphors is an interesting approach, too. I'm not saying that only Black Metal that deals literally with forests or nature is the one and only right interpretation, but I do find a special appeal in it. As I explained in the previous answer, nature is a mystical element that we may never quite understand, just like Satan. It creates a certain atmosphere that for me gives a stronger feeling to approach it than regular BM of some other theme."

Dead Reptile Shrine: “Mysticism in the woods must be real and the experience follows oneself everywhere. That means, even in the heart of the city, the sylvan darkness can exist with us and we can listen to the whispers of the leaves and the rustle of the branch. So it is with all the myths of the ancient peoples, who attributed trolls, werewolves and other "non-beings" as living in the darkness of the woods. They probably did actually face some manifestations, but when outside the woodlands, they remembered the teachings. Again, real to the perceiver, and through them, real to others.”

Vordr: “Both have their place when properly employed but the latter plays better for myself. With Vordr, we take advantage of both approaches but usually cold realism and hard facts have less desirable effects, especially if you are after an emotional – or even spiritual, in some cases – response, for myself at least. In fact, I often tend to try and read more into superficial and/or uninteresting lyrics than there probably really is to them, just to avoid dealing with how realist (or more often, generic and meaningless) they are.”

Satanic Warmaster: “There is nothing wrong with nature as it portrays itself to most. On the contrary, nature in all its variations possesses aesthetics that can work for the benefit of certain kinds of musical creations. Yet I have to say that the unseen forces of nature that lie much deeper and the metaphorical approach, for example the issue of mankind's foolish attempt of distancing/elevating itself from nature, hold much more value for me personally.”



SATANIC WARMASTER – “Of the Night”
In an arcade of woods in a sombre forest
I rise my hand in a devoted hail
To the obscure Horns that lead me
To my black destiny to grow humble

As the funeral breeze blows in my face
and runs through my blonde hair
I know who I am: A dweller of a palace encircled in the mist

I see the fullmoon behind the grim branches
Like the unspeakable truth in this soil
They both give a vision of a purified mind
A black heart has knowingly burned
all that is impure from this forest of sorrow
and everything that is not of Satan

To each man his own, and to me this silence
The serenity that awaits for the beastly roar
To awaken the somber kingdom given to me
In the darkness, still so far far away
A gate waits for me to enter the circle
The eternal cycle of death and of the night

Your Own Location or Your Past Influencing Themes

Satanic Warmaster: “As nature has played such a great role in my life from my early childhood, it was natural for me to feel attraction towards such themes. For some it might be only because of the standards of the genre, but for someone like me, who used to run away into the forest without anyone knowing when I couldn't even read yet, it was something that I found in myself in the first place and in Black Metal after that.”

Musta Kappeli: "It's most definitely an important factor. I've always lived in contact with nature and valued that contact. I've lived in a city my whole life but in the suburbs, like in most parts of Finland, the forest is next to your house. I've spent time in forests during my childhood and admired them. I think it would be hard or even false from urban people to sing about forests if they've never been to one. For me the element of nature in Black Metal that I create comes naturally as it has always been a (mystical) part of my life. These roots go deep in my soul."

Dead Reptile Shrine: “I might have never chosen this path or vision at all if it wasn't for an obsession with the sadness, might and bestiality of northern woodlands, and I believe a great majority of the important voices of Black Metal shared this deep call of the wild, much like 19th century Romantics, writers like Jack London and Tolkien, etc. So I would say it is the connection with nature which inspires to seek radical, storming, beautiful, cruel and dark pathways in philosophies of life – all the way.”



Vordr: “I could probably credit my affection for nature to the fact that I grew up in the countryside and that my grandparents and other relatives have passed on a good deal of country wisdom and traditions to me, but the fact remains that no matter how much inspiration it gives me, the relationship the wild and I share is quite superficial. Like most of us, I live in a modern town, in a house with all the mod cons you can think of and the actual, live encounters with nature are rare and far between. However, I believe this somehow ties with how I prefer to maintain a somewhat mystic approach to many of the things I hold closest to my heart in life. Nowadays man is overexposed to pretty much everything; violence, sex, voyeuristic tendencies, an array of religious views, material science etc. When you think of the sphere of thought of a common man, there can't be many wonders left that aren't utterly castrated by demystification. I feel lucky for being blessed with an inclination to think beyond – or below, however you wish to see it – reason and logic and not be faced with an existence that to me would otherwise seem rather pointless. To sum up, even though it probably doesn't hold true with many of the bands out there, I would like to think that whatever fascination for nature arises from this day and age could be accredited to either thinking outside the box or never really even having fit in it.”

MUSTA KAPPELI – ”Kaarnaisen Vihan Arvet”
Kalmaisina hiutaleina
varisee kuolemaa ylle maan
Hautaa sen mustaan tuskaan
Elon sieluja hitaasti kalvaen

...sillä minä olen kalma
kosto metsiltä havuisilta
Ruoskien heikkoa ihmishenkeä
suuren käärmeen kuoloisella kielellä
Arven minä olen polttava
merkin kaarnaisen vihan

Kaikkoaa ihmissydämmestä ilo
Lähestyy syleillen ahdinko
Ikuisesti "jumalan" kiroan ja hän
josta elämä hiljaa hiipii
Kauhunkangistamat kasvot
tyhjyyteen tuijottavat

..sillä minä olen kosto havuisten metsien

Connections of Nature to Spirituality and Nationalism

Musta Kappeli: "As a Finn, I love the nature of Finland as it is beautiful, so yes, it is a matter of nationalism, too, and somehow it does reach to me spiritually as it has reached to the Finns of ancient times. They understood to admire and fear nature, for it can be a generous but also a dangerous element. "

[caption id="attachment_9012" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Dead Reptile Shrine ‎– A Journey Through The Darkest Of Forests[/caption]

Dead Reptile Shrine: “The further one goes to the labyrinths of social intentions, there's probably less and less real connection with man's inmost self (and the beast-side) but then arise reactions through which man wishes to take back his heart from the traitors. Spirituality is a reaction to the oppression by objects (the human meaning given to objects); nationalism is often a reaction to false promises, to talk with no meaning. Nature is hard to politicize because all ideologies have meaning mostly on a social level, whereas nature cares less about ‘progress’ and more about ‘evolution’. Two separate concepts.”

Vordr: “There is an atavistic quality to the atmosphere of the woods, for example, that's far more distinguishable than what you'd come across in urban surroundings. This obviously makes nature and natural phenomena a perfect tool for various types of political and spiritual agendas. Of course around 99% of this is nothing but empty propaganda but to answer your question – yes, it does connect for example to the two things you mention. A fitting and popular example of both might be the occult leanings that the leadership of the Third Reich at least partially subscribed to but of course nature plays a pivotal role in all great religions and movements.”



Satanic Warmaster: “For our region, where men have lived for centuries at the mercy of nature, it is clear that our identity has been forged by the winters and the forests to a high degree. My family was given the land we still live on hundreds of years ago for virtues in war, so naturally me and others of my blood still hold our soil in the highest esteem. For me this surpasses any modern concept of nationalism and goes back to even more pure concept of tribalism.”

SATANIC WARMASTER – “Raging Winter”
Frozen woods holding within the wisdom
Forbidden spirit of war and our blood
Ancient battles that were fought then
Are now revived to glorify our reign

Agonizing freezing winds
Whip your christian flesh
Our heathen steel will break your bones
And leave you lying dead in the snow

Warlike songs to celebrate the horns
Are sung around our campfire before the dawn
Grant us the strength to fight
To spill the holy blood on the pagan soil

Raise the hammer, ancient gods of war
The lightnings shall strike once more
Break the cross and abolish the lies
Striking them down with steel and your raging winter

People Who Say This Is Not Dark and Evil Enough for Black Metal

Dead Reptile Shrine:  “The social sphere feeds on true crime, abomination, lifeless antipathy etc. These are topics of newspapers, but hardly the essence of Black Metal. Also, they are not a consequence of ‘evil’ but mutations of a degenerate society. In recent news someone had phoned in from the forest, followed by a strange creature, then the person disappeared. But one cannot manipulate any ‘social standing’ with such stories so who cares? The mythical wanderlust, virility, adventures in nature and other such themes are pro-life and pro-death because they are realistic ideas; one of the paradoxes in metal is that a song about street fight might be totally escapistic (not related to experience at all) while a song about opening the gates of Hell might be deeply connected to real, personal knowledge and experience. There are cases when music might not be evil enough – when it is an idealized, false image of something the creator, a mirrored persona of a deluded human, wants to believe. It is easily recognized impotent music.”



Musta Kappeli: "Maybe these are people who have never been in a dark forest or otherwise experienced the ‘evil and dark’ of nature. Black Metal today is such a wide genre of expression that I won't expect all people to see it the way I do. I recall it was Thyrane in an old SFP magazine interview that stated ‘Black Metal shouldn't be about cold winds and mountains but about Satan’ or something like that. To a certain degree I agree with that statement, but why do these two have to be separate things? Black Metal, of course, isn't a forecast of cold weather or a nature lesson for hippies – there has to be the Satanic approach – but for me nature and Satan are quite the same thing in the Black Metal expression. Maybe these same people you describe in the question also make statements how only child-raping, murder and drugs are EVILLLL. This only gives me a reason not to engage in a rational conversation with them."

Phlegein:  "It's no surprise that I can't understand people who think the dark side of nature isn’t suitable. This must be a thing that has come along with later Black Metal subgenres or something. Personally these kind of critics don't bother us at all and don't affect us as artists. I think everyone who is at a deeper level with Black Metal understands perfectly the use of nature themes, even if their personal choice is different. It's so easy to criticize and whine about things but if you don't have any basis for doing it, it's just simply stupid and you're making a fool of yourself."

Satanic Warmaster: “Any words concerning things like this from people who have gotten their values from the shock aesthetics of Black Metal no longer surprise me. To these people whose ideology is dictated by Quorthon's three first albums I have nothing to say.”

DEAD REPTILE SHRINE – “A Journey through the Darkest of Forests”
Set up the Traps
And await for the Prey
The Twilight is always ever so Near
Slice the Throat
Let its Life-Blood spill forth
And feel the Surge of Power
After a Thousand Rotting bodies
Look behind and see
What once were the
Inseverable Parts of Life and
Psychodynamics
But still, the Battle-field lies Ahead
And the ceaseless Hunt
Must go on Forever

Memorable and Influential Experiences in Nature

Dead Reptile Shrine:  “One influential memory is of woodlands near my home, where always on Samhain night some dwelling spirit flashed white lights and I followed it across dark pools, stumbling and dirty, always losing track and eventually getting into weird places which seemed to shift every time even though the woods are small. I have also travelled to other countries to smell the scent of their forests, slept there and lit candles while beckoning the ancient voices to teach me the truths that existed before the dawn of mankind; and I can say with total honesty that each and every time something relevant has happened and stayed with me. A journey into the woodlands, no matter how small, is never futile and useless. It might not be a purposeful project, and it can turn deadly. Woods are still unpredictable, even in this day and age.”



Musta Kappeli: "There are countless of them but to name a few, mainly the experiences of being in the darkness of the woods. The wanderings in solitude and uneasy feelings of what might be lurking in the shadows. In my teenager years we used to paint our faces and go wander in the forests in the middle of the night with cameras to capture the feeling of that deep darkness and nature. Those are quite memorable times. In my adult days I remember this one time we were walking home at night from a cabin that had no driveway to it. There was a walk of maybe 1-2 kilometers to where your car could be parked. It was in wintertime and the coldness made the snow crackle under our feet. Suddenly I stopped. We were in the middle of untouched winter forest with nothing but darkness, trees and snow as far as the eye could see around us. Total silence and calmness. I stood there for a while just gazing into the darkness, inhaling the magic of the moment. It made me feel like I would've wanted to stay there, not to return to civilization. To be buried in snow and ice and stay there forever. I tried to capture that feeling to a lyric I wrote but it failed and was never published. Sometimes these experiences are hard to put on paper and sometimes the words just flow from your soul. Mystical as the very nature itself."

Phlegein:  "Can't specify anything, because nature is so strongly part of my daily life. It doesn't differ really if I'm making firewood at my own forest or walking at the mountains; they're both surely rich experiences in their own way and influencing me directly or subconsciously."

VORDR – "White Night"
When the sun no longer sets
When the air is warm through the night
When the midnight fires burn

When the tribes will gather
When the knives will shine again
When the words of hate will spring

When the night is white
When the morning never comes
When the dreams are all disturbed

White night

Featured in The Sinister Flame Issue V: Aristocracy of Wolves (2016 e.v.)

[caption id="attachment_9010" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Stanislav Brusilov[/caption]