On a whim yesterday I googled "black surf rock," hoping that someone, somewhere, had also thought that a fusion of Norwegian black metal and surf rock would be a music to end all musics. Though I hoped, I expected little. I didn't think anyone would have actually bothered.
I'm sorry I doubted you, internet.
Some geniuses (perhaps the same one) have put up a handful of surf rock covers of black metal essentials, by the likes of Burzum, Emperor, and Darkthrone. I present to you, then, The Burzums! The Emperors! And The Darkthrones!
(Just a heads up on the first vid - it starts with a few seconds of footage featuring a bird getting swatted from the air by a desert wind turbine, in grim California style)
These are all done by MrMeddled, and there's more cool stuff on his youtube channel. Do check out his write ups for each video, since they're wildly entertaining reads. Here's a sample:
The Burzums was the musical project by Varg "Charlie" Vikernes. It began during 1961 in Bergen, California and quickly became prominent within the early Californian surf scene. During 1962 and 1963, The Burzums recorded four albums; however, in 1964 Vikernes was convicted and imprisoned for stealing a box of matches, stealing a box of matches on a Sunday, siphoning fuel from a parked Studbaker, posessing a guitar amp rated above 10 Watts (the upper threshold of human hearing in 1964) and protesting loudly about how much of his hard earned money was creamed off and wasted on that joke of an airplane known as the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. While imprisoned, Vikernes recorded two offensively bad albums in the dark ambient surf style.
Hilarious, given that Varg "Count Grishnack" Vikernes was in fact the guy that unwittingly put black metal on the map by burning churches and getting convicted of murder back in the early 90s.
And on a side note, a little band called Hurtigruten. Their track 'The Black Surfers' is another cover of Emperor's 'I Am The Black Wizards,' a title I never get tired of saying aloud.
Black metal riffs lend themselves surprisingly well to surf guitar, given both genres insistance on tremolo picking. In some cases it sounds like you could pretty much just slow down a black metal riff and take out the distortion for instant and eerie surf rock.
How I wish these were real bands, and their tracks available in album form. I would pay good gold for these items. What a grim black metal beach party I would dance in.
If you don't see the vids, they'll be on my original blog post here.
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