National Socialist black metal (also known as NSBM, NS black metal or Radical black metal ) is a political movement and subgenre within the black metal music scene that promotes neo-Nazism, neo-fascism, and white supremacist ideologies. NSBM artists typically combine neo-Nazi imagery and ideology with ethnic European paganism, Satanism, or Nazi occultism, or a combination thereof, and vehemently oppose Christianity, Islam and Judaism from a racialist viewpoint. NSBM is not seen as a distinct genre, but as a völkisch movement within black metal. According to Mattias Gardell, NSBM musicians see this ideology as "a logical extension of the political and spiritual dissidence inherent in black metal".
NSBM artists are not always explicit with their political beliefs in the music, instead expressing their beliefs offstage. Artists who hold far-right or white nationalist beliefs but do not express these in their music are not often deemed NSBM by the greater black metal scene, but may be labelled as such by outside analysts. Some black metal bands have also made references to Nazi Germany purely for shock value, much like some punk rock and heavy metal bands. While some black-metallers boycott NSBM artists, many are indifferent or claim to appreciate the music without supporting the musicians.
The emergence of NSBM coincided with the rise of the early Norwegian black metal scene in the early 1990s, particularly through the band Burzum, whose sole member, Varg Vikernes, developed his anti-Christian beliefs into an increasingly white nationalist and neo-Nazi form of Heathenry. The German band Absurd further developed the burgeoning scene with explicitly neo-Nazi lyrics and artistic themes. The United States bands Judas Iscariot and Grand Belial's Key also became involved in the by-now international NSBM movement (the former has since distanced themselves from the movement). As the movement grew internationally, it started to overlap with existing white power musical forms such as Rock Against Communism, hatecore, and the far-right faction of Oi!. The neo-Nazi record label Resistance Records started releasing NSBM recordings and even purchased Vikernes' label Cymophane Records. The associated United States political organization National Alliance white supremacist William Luther Pierce also became interested in the movement, and assisted Absurd frontman Hendrik Möbus when he fled to the United States to avoid arrest in Germany. In the early 2000s, Ukrainian bands such as Kroda and the Russian band continued the scene's popularity in Eastern Europe. In 2012, the NSBM Asgardsrei festival was established in Moscow, Russia, and then in 2014 relocated to Kyiv, Ukraine, where it is closely linked to the activities of the Ukrainian nationalist network Azov Battalion and functions as an international hub for neo-Nazism and other far-right politics.
Black metal
Black metal originated in the 1980s from the work of thrash metal bands such as Venom — whose 1982 album Black Metal coined the term, Mercyful Fate, Bathory, Slayer, Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, and Sodom. These bands did not form a scene of their own, nor did they have a common musical style. A lyrical focus that is anti-Christian, Satanist, neopagan, or a combination thereof, is often considered a prerequisite for the genre, and originally the term "black metal" was synonymous with "Satanic metal". A stricter definition still requires Satanism for a band to be classified as black metal. Non-Satanic bands from the same surroundings originally used other terms for their own music, such as pagan metal or Viking metal. In the late-1980s and early-1990s, the early Norwegian black metal scene, developed by bands such as Mayhem, Thorns, Immortal, Darkthrone, Burzum, Emperor, Satyricon, and Ulver, established a more specific sonic template that came to define Norwegian black metal and subsequently a great part of black metal in general, although other styles of black metal, like war metal, still exist. Common traits of Norwegian black metal include a fast tempo, blast beats and double-bass drumming, a thin, shrieking vocal style heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking and power chords, either lo-fi or well-produced recordings, an emphasis on atmosphere, and an "unholy" aesthetic. Keyboards are sometimes used, as are elements of neoclassical, folk, and ambient music. Artists often appear in corpse paint and adopt pseudonyms. Many black metal artists prefer to be underground, inaccessible to the mainstream, and even intentionally push away audiences and demonstrate anti-social behavior.