Rotting ways to misery, the history of Finnish death metal. That's another book I recently bought and read. Yes, this is about death metal and not primarily black metal. But in the beginning the scene had no distinction between the two, everything was just extreme. The terms black and death would come later. So books about death metal and its beginning always also talk about black metal bands, because they were in the beginning the same small tight underground group.
So although I read this books mainly for amorphis and sentenced and the jyväskylä (and vaasa) scene where I was part of, of course there were many mentions of black metal bands, too. I enjoyed this book immensely, it was just such a joy to read about the beginnings and how these bands got started. I'm too young to have been part of that, but I was part of the second wave of death metal in finland, when I was an active member of the scene from 2002 to 2008 and went to countless concerts in Lutakko and elsewhere.
So that was really awesome to read and remember those times back then. Another book I read right now is the Finnish book called pohjoisen laulut, Suomalaisen hevimetallin matka maailmalle. This translates roughly as the songs of the north, Finnish heavy metal and its road to global success. This is also not fixed on black metal, but many black metal bands get a mention, too and are part of the whole metal scene that has gained fame outside of finland. this book is also great, it was written by a guy from Jyväskylä, and i just love that he is from my hometown in finland! how awesome!
It is a somewhat academic book, because it was written after his research work for another project, so it is a bit drier to read than other books, but it's absolutely massive in interviews, research done in magazines and own experiences. So it's very entertaining, too.
So yea, that's it so far, in the absence of concerts and all that.. there seem to be some concerts starting november-december and I hope i can go to one of them. let's see and hope for the worst and fear for the best, haha!
