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Norwegian Black Metal: Corpse Paint, Cold Forests, and a Very Dark Chapter
How a tiny scene in early-1990s Norway produced some of the most atmospheric extreme music ever made, and some genuine crimes that must be told honestly
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22 articles
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The Gothenburg Sound: How a Swedish City Rewired Metal's Melody
Three bands from one rainy port on Sweden's west coast quietly redrew the map of heavy music, and half the world's metal still runs on their idea
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Why Scandinavian Winters Bred the Loudest Music
Darkness, isolation, and the welfare-state music schools that armed a generation of teenagers
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Little Country, Loud Export: How Denmark Became a Metal Heavyweight
Six million people, one corpse-painted king, and a state-funded conveyor belt for loud bands
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The Rider: What Bands Actually Ask for Backstage
The most misunderstood document in live music, and the brown M&Ms story everyone gets wrong
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Festival Toilets: Civilisation Measured in Portaloos
The grimmest logistics problem at any festival, and the one that tells you the most about it
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Why Every Festival Now Feels the Same
The vertically-integrated machine, the headliner carousel, and the wristband that watches you
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Growled Vocals: How to Scream for Twenty Years
The real mechanics of extreme metal singing, and why it is a craft, not a tantrum
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Why the Crowd Sings the Guitar Solo
On the strange, joyful moment when ten thousand people become the lead guitarist
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Sludge, Doom, Drone: A Field Guide to Slow and Heavy
From Sabbath's tritone to Sunn O)))'s wall of amps — mapping the family of bands that decided fast was for cowards
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The Wall of Death: A Short History of Pop's Daftest, Best Ritual
How a fairground sideshow name ended up describing 20,000 strangers charging each other on cue
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Illegible on Purpose: The Metal Logo as Gatekeeping
Why death and black metal bands wear names you cannot read — a design history of the spiky thicket
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Roadies and the Load-In: Live Music's Invisible Labour
The crew, the trucks, the riggers and the techs — the unseen day of work behind every hour on stage
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The No-Phones Gig: Locked Pouches and the Return of Attention
Yondr pouches, bands that ban the camera, and what an audience gets back when the screens go dark
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What the Mosh Pit Is Actually For
The physics, the etiquette and the strange trust of a room full of people colliding on purpose
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The Setlist as Strategy: Building a 90-Minute Arc
Openers, the mid-set dip, the false ending and the encore — how bands engineer the shape of a night
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Festival Wristbands and the Cashless Economy
The little chip on your wrist is watching you spend
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The Loudness War: Quiet Records, Deafening Shows
How the CD got squashed flat while the gig got louder
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The Classic Album, In Full: The Anniversary-Tour Racket
When the setlist is fixed thirty years in advance
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Corpse Paint: A Short History of the Painted Face
From vaudeville shock to the black-metal uniform