A genre of the Heavy Metal category derived from Thrash Metal through such bands as Venom, the main early defining differences between it and its father-genre being tremelo picking and 'blast-beats'; drum beats played about twice the speed as the traditional trash metal base beats (32nds as opposed to 16ths).
Taking major influence from Bathory and Venom, the ganre became largely associated with Norway through the work of Mayhem, Burzum and Dark Throne, many of the later bands categorised into the black metal genre being influenced by these three bands, and many of these bands being from Norway themselves.
Spawning from thrash metal as black and death metal did, they ran parallel. Eventually the two genres became commonly associated since they both implemented tremelo picking, blast beats, and invariably screamed vocals much of the time. This was taken into influence by some bands and the genres eventually interweaved with some projects such as Dark Throne, Profanatica, and late Emperor.
Other movements of the genre since its rising in the Norwegian metal scene have been melodic/symphonic projects such as Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, and more underground movements such as the Black Legions, which as a collective are as yet universally nameless.
