Barely registering with the mainstream except when lumped together as a mass phenomenon dressed in black, the differences between metal subgenres were huge nonetheless. Even as death metal decimated artistic and commercial frontiers the world over, a cadre of talented, violent, and ultraserious black metal bands pulled the locus of metal power away from swampy Florida to the dark, cold countries of Scandinavia. There, all of the speed and experimentalism of the metal fringe regrouped with primal passion in what practitioners called pure Norwegian black metal.

Black metal in the 1990s was much faster and more orchestral than death metal, with fewer curving riffs to complicate its unrelenting assault. In the 1990s, this wave of bands imported the crude beginnings of 1980s black metal forefathers -- Venom, Hellhammer, and Bathory -- to capture their own evocative wash of night skies, natural wonder, and Nordic myths. A pronounced influence in this regard was the Swedish group Bathory, whose early-1980s albums were the ultimate sonic blend of speed and atmosphere. Even while looking to the American bands, Bathory founder Quorthon Seth found developing in cultural isolation in Scandinavia to be a creative asset. "Had we been from New York, we would have gotten gigs and contracts and gotten caught up in trends," he says. "We didnšt have those kind of pressures -- so we were able to add acoustic guitars and backing harmony vocals and the sound of a seagull flying by. Slayer would never get away with doing that, but we could."...