Corpsepaint

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King Diamond of Mercyful Fate with an early form of corpsepaint
Typical stage outfit for many Black Metal groups (here King ov Hell , Ex- Gorgoroth ): black clothing, corpse paint, cartridge belts and rivets
Corpsepaint of the Polish band Behemoth

Corpsepaint (English for 'corpse painting') is a face painting that is common in the black metal subculture. Today, through the use of make-up , musicians give themselves more inhuman or aggressive facial features, some of which are reminiscent of corpses or demons . The Norwegian bands Dødheimsgard and Satyricon , for example, have experimented with colors other than black and white (blue-yellow or blue-white), or Varg (red-black), but deviations are rare. Some bands also use art or real blood in addition to corpse paint .

Historical background

In the Middle Ages, white chalk or limestone powder was often sprinkled on the dead for the purpose of disinfection, the corpsepaint is primarily intended to remind of the days of the plague. It is also known that the face becomes discolored after death, as the blood collects in the tissue of the lips and around the eyes and turns black after a while, while the blood in the rest of the face gives way and so-called corpse pallor appears (see also dead spots ), so corpsepaint is supposed to remind of dead people. Another historical derivation comes from some early Scandinavian groups that v. a. Process Nordic-pagan ideas. During the Viking Age , dead people of a certain rank, including ships, cattle, women and weapons, are said to have been driven out to sea and set on fire. It is said to have been a custom to paint the faces of the dead in black and white. To what extent this custom was actually practiced is difficult to answer today. B. has now been refuted.

The corpsepaint is also traced back to the oscorei . The warriors of the Oscari would have worn war paint to look more terrifying.

Although the use of this form of make-up in the Black Metal subculture goes back to Celtic Frost and King Diamond ( Mercyful Fate ) (with the website “Metal Storm” describing Sarcófago as the first band with “real” corpsepaint), there are also earlier bands and musicians such as Arthur Brown , Alice Cooper , KISS or The Misfits , which however did not use the term "Corpsepaint" and had different backgrounds. The well-known Thrash Metal band Slayer also tried their hand at corpsepaint in their early years. For Martin “Ain” Stricker from Celtic Frost, corpsepaint combined with leather clothing and cartridge belts was an expression of a self-discovery process as a way out of his strict Catholic upbringing.

There is evidence of the concept of corpsepaint in connection with Dead, who was the singer of the bands Morbid and Mayhem . Mayhem drummer Jan Axel Blomberg claims that Dead was the first black metal musician to use Corpsepaint, bassist Necrobutcher commented:

“It wasn't anything to do with the way Kiss and Alice Cooper used make-up [.] Dead actually wanted to look like a corpse. He didn't do it to look cool. He would draw snot dripping out of his nose. That doesn't look cool. He called it corpse-paint. "

“It had nothing to do with the way KISS or Alice Cooper used make-up. Dead actually wanted to look like a corpse. He didn't do it to look cool. He painted from his nose running snot on his face. That doesn't look cool. He called it Corpsepaint. "

- Necrobutcher :

Varg Vikernes, on the other hand, stated that he had used the painting ritually, as war paint, and mentioned a connection to the Oscari .

Scene backgrounds

In Black Metal of the late 1980s and early 1990s, this style element developed into an essential part of the appearance of the different groups.

Originally the thought behind the corpsepaint was

  • To distinguish itself visually from the big death metal trend at the beginning of the 1990s. The corpsepaint was counted as the most important visual element for demarcation in addition to rivets and cartridge jewelry, Petrus crosses and drudene feet as well as basically black clothing,
  • to visualize the often satanic, fundamentally negative and death-related philosophies of the groups through a symbolic fading out of bright colors and
  • to bring the omnipresent subject of death in Black Metal to the outside with the help of the corpse paint.

Today some think that the corpsepaint has degenerated into immature kitsch; recently some “purists” in the scene have been complaining that Corpsepaint is losing its former importance because it is becoming more and more fashionable; Azter of the Danish band Denial of God notes that too many musicians use it without knowing why and that they shouldn't call it a corpsepaint if it doesn't make them look like corpses.

In addition, Corpsepaint is no longer limited to the black metal scene. The band Behemoth continues to use corpsepaint at concerts and videos after they moved from an originally pure black metal band to death metal.

Web links

Commons : Corpsepaint  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dødheimsgard: 666 International , Moonfog Productions 1999.
  2. Satyricon: Nemesis Divina , Moonfog Productions 1996.
  3. Tolis Yiovanitis: BURZUM INTERVIEW (METAL HAMMER, HELLAS, AUTUMN 1997) ( Memento of the original from January 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.burzum.com
  4. scskowron: On the Role of Clothing Styles In The Development of Metal - Part I .
  5. ^ J. Bennett: Procreation of the Wicked: The Making of Celtic Frost's Morbid Tales . In: Albert Mudrian (Ed.): Precious Metal. Decibel presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces . Da Capo Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-306-81806-6 , pp. 41 .
  6. Dmitry Basik: Interview with Hellhammer conducted by Dmitry Basik June 1998 ( Memento from August 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
  7. Chris Campion: In the Face of Death . In: The Observer , February 20, 2005.
  8. Interview with Burzum from Genocide Zine .
  9. Mirgilus: Denial Of God ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mirgilus.com