Violently distorted guitars are rapidly played with a concerted emphasis on high-end notes, as treble is favored over bass in the overall sound-picture. This characteristic gives the music a piercing, scathing sound rather than the thundering heaviness of most other forms of metal. Guitar riffs are commonly icy streams of obscure dissonance, drenched in distortion, resulting in beautifully dark melodies and baneful moods. Melodies evolve through the guitars as a primary element for manifestation of compositional source. Bass guitar is often de-emphasized and sometimes abandoned completely. Drums are frequently played at blast-beat speeds, with double-bass drums utilized mostly in mid-paced or slower sections. Vocals are a high-pitched shriek or trollish croak. Some bands use a ghostly screech which is distant in the mix to further accentuate enigmatic gloominess. It is not uncommon to use heroic clean vocals in the more triumphant or epic strands of Black Metal. Keyboards are sometimes featured to enhance atmosphere, either in a symphonic or Romantic sense or for ambient support in melodramatic passages. The entire presentation is traditionally offered through a raw production, which is an important aesthetic attribute contributing to the atmosphere of the music. This production value is often referred to by black metallers as "necro", meaning a sound that conjures images and feelings of dank caverns, the process of decay, forsaken tombs, and the terrible certainty and dread of looming death. The music seeks to merge the ugly and the beautiful, to find one within the other and to express the significance in each within the full experience of existence. This can also be identified in the instrumental execution of the musicians, who are often unconcerned with technicality and precision, recognizing the expression of feral passion and the importance of atmosphere as far more significant in the overall aesthetic. This music is traditionally arranged and performed with an emphasis on effectiveness through a monochrome simplicity, with any complexity serving only to introduce the elements of chaos as a storm from which the beauty of natural harmony emerges. The essential aim is the expression of an idea, and not so much how technically proficient that idea is executed. In fact, technical proficiency in the expression of an idea is actually a kind of threat to the feral nature of the emotional impact of this music. It is raw, primal, ugly, and lawless, but within the exploration of these characteristics there is a discovery of profound beauty that validates the torment of a harsh world. Beauty through chaotic darkness, even in the grimmest of Black Metal, is the ultimate achievement. The best Black Metal is created by those bands who are gifted with the highest and most potent degree of imagination, and possess the collective (or individual, in the case of isolationist Black Metallers) musical vision and fiery passion in the form of the blackest spiritual energy with which to bring this imagination to life in musical art. Such a band will produce music that will sound to the listener as if it were being produced, not by human beings, but by actual darkness itself, which surrounds and envelops the listener, possessing his/her soul as to become one. It is not enough for a band to possess the mechanical skills of making this kind of music. Without the necessary degree of imagination, passion, and artistic vision, no amount of musical skill will be enough to produce this kind of possessing darkness.

The compositional nature of Black Metal mostly shuns normal patterns of popular music structure, in favor of the epic or minimalist repetition which functions like ambient music, though a few bands prefer a more rock-based foundation. Lengthy instrumental passages are common in the intention of producing trance-inducing atmospheres, and to signify existence as a journey towards some unknown oblivion. It is the wandering spirit in a midnight winter forest, the weary warrior returning from an epic battle, the struggle of life in the face of death, the raging passion breaking free from the chains of restraint, and the determinacy of the strong-willed individual in a world ruled by mass appeal...this is what the composition of Black Metal aims to represent. The compositional structure of Black Metal resembles the dynamics and flow of Classical music more than any other style of Metal, and because of this, it is the highest evolutionary state of Heavy Metal, in its compositional intelligence, atmospheric grandeur, ideological foundation, passionate spirit, and emotional arousement. Indeed, for the outsider of untrained ear, Black Metal is the least sonically accessible of Heavy Metal’s offshoots, and it demands from its listeners a similar manner of patience, attention span, musical intelligence, and philosophical understanding, as that of Classical music.

Every element of Black Metal is an essential aspect of the overall aesthetic. This includes imagery of band members, pseudonyms, band names, and imagery/artwork of the CD booklet/packaging. ‘Corpsepaint’, painting of the face with black and white make-up to produce an image of the horror of death and decay in the context of a de-humanization and elimination of unique personality of the human individual, is the most common distinction. Band members typically dress in all black clothing, with bullet-belts, leather jackets, and spiked armbands. Some artists, typically ‘Viking’ metal bands, brandish ancient weaponry such as swords, spiked clubs, and axes, while wearing chainmail or armor. Inverted crosses, pentagrams, Mjolnirs, and other pagan, mythological, or anti-Christian symbols are frequently displayed on necklaces and rings, as well as on album covers. Images of vast midnight forests, mountain ranges, snow-covered fields, foreboding landscapes, seashores, and full moons, grace album covers and sleeves to express a Romanticist veneration for the beauty and power of nature. Other imagery includes ancient ruins, blood-stained flesh, wolves, cemeteries, and war machines. All of this is to contribute to the atmosphere and feeling of the music.

Black Metal, as Heavy Metal’s most sophisticated level of articulation, is also its most philosophically motivated style. If there is one common position from which all Black Metal attacks from, this stance would be an anti-Christian one. The Christian celebration and praise of the weak through pity and its rejection of elemental primal instincts serve as targets for the vehement hatred of Black Metal universally. The authoritarian manner in which Christianity wiped out ancient religions and cultural legacies during its European crusade has fueled the hatred of many Black Metal bands, who seek to honor the ancient customs and traditions of their ancestors through this music, while at the same time expressing violent hate for Christian values. The burning down of numerous Christian churches by Black Metallers in Norway during the early 1990s was evidence that this hatred reached far beyond the music. A nonfigurative Satanism, which views Satan in a metaphorical context as opposed to an actual entity, is espoused by many Black Metal bands, though some bands take this into more literal realms. The adjoining factor here is primarily a fierce independence from conventional practices, firmly emphasizing individualist values and nihilistic lawlessness. The strength of the individual is triumphed over the common mass, who are weak and ignorant, incapable of self-determination and slaves of social dependence. The individual is seen as heroic in its willful departure from the crowd, valuing self-assertion in anti-social defiance and withdrawal. Paganism, as a celebration of the primordial energies of nature, is also a common feature of the Black Metal worldview, as well as a deep honor and pride in one’s own ethnic heritage and homeland. This last mentioned aspect has served as a fundamental feature of National Socialist Black Metal, which is a term uniting Black Metal bands who share and express the belief that racial separation is a necessary action in order to preserve the purity and distinctness of one’s ethnic heritage and culture. Black Metal, at its core, wants a return to nobility and pride, a return to a time when men had to fear and respect the forces of nature, and an elimination of materialist consumerism and its democratic playing field. Through its misanthropic hatred and Romanticist melancholy, Black Metal recognizes what life can be, indeed, what it should be.

Many of Black Metal’s ideals are in line with the views of the 19^th Century German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, and, indeed, more than a few Black Metal bands have cited Nietzsche as a philosophical influence. Nietzsche’s strong hatred of Christianity as a religion based on fear and pity, which has cunningly inverted values which once were held in high esteem into values that have come to be deplored as part of a slave-revolt against the inherently strong and noble has endeared him to the Black Metal world. His anti-egalitarian position and championing of the individual has been equally inspiring. Nietzsche was a hater of the herd-mentality of the crowd, and stressed the importance of the individual and life’s sufferings in attaining highest achievements. Through the large number of the domesticated, a herd-morality is born which operates in opposition of natural reality as it exalts the weak and unconfident, and condemns everything strong, beautiful, and honorable. Nietzsche calls for an aristocracy of self-sufficiency, a departure from democratic domestication and a return to independence.

Here are offered a few quotes from F.W. Nietzsche to which the ideology of Black Metal can be paralleled:

Aside from traditional Black Metal, a few distinct styles of Black Metal have emerged. Here is a brief description of some of the more established forms:

Viking - Viking Black Metal celebrates the ancient traditions particularly of Northern Scandinavia. Paganism and mythology are common lyrical themes in songs that are epic in structure and length, and dramatic in atmosphere. Deep pride and honor for ancestors and their cultural practices is expressed in triumphant and heroically melancholic metal. Late 1980s - most of 1990s Bathory, Enslaved, Borknagar, Later Graveland, and Einherjer are a few examples.

Folk - Folk Black Metal incorporates traditional folk music elements into standard Black Metal formats. The folk elements are usually taken from a particular band’s home territory as a way of honoring and celebrating cultural traditions. Isengard, Hate Forest, Drudkh, Primordial, and early Ulver are examples.

War - War Metal finds meaning and beauty in the bloody struggle of war. To represent this, the music is typically of a more brutal, aggressive, and pulverizing nature than traditional Black Metal, in emphasizing rhythmic weight at the expense of melody. Examples are Blasphemy, Bestial Warlust, Destroyer 666.

Symphonic - Symphonic Black Metal bands feature a heavy usage of orchestral keyboards to create a grand and sweeping, melodic Black Metal symphony. Classical music is a primary influence and operatic singing, sometimes featuring a female vocal, is often contrasted with harsh screaming vocals. A strong Romanticist mood is usually conjured, especially in early Dimmu Borgir and Emperor. Other examples would be Limbonic Art, Diabolical Masquerade, and Lunar Aurora.

Avant-garde - Avant-garde Black Metal incorporates non-traditional instruments and themes into Black Metal music which is structured in an unconventional fashion. Most of these bands were once traditional Black Metal bands who evolved away from conventional approaches to the style. The music is quite experimental and adventurous in the attempt to broaden the horizons of Black Metal, or push the boundaries of what has normally been accepted as standard within the style by bringing in stylistically foreign elements. Examples are Arcturus, DHG (aka Dodheimsgard), Ved Buens Ende..., Fleurety, Sigh and Solefald.

Depressive - Depressive Black Metal explores suicidal or self-injurious themes within typically minimalist Black Metal. Mournful melodies and desperate, agonizing screams guide bleak songs of alienation, despair, misanthropy, and self-hatred. Examples are Shining, Forgotten Tomb, Abyssic Hate, Xasthur, and Hypothermia.

NSBM - National Socialist Black Metal describes an ideology more than a distinct sound. The term is used to distinguish bands who share and express the belief in racial/cultural pride and the view that racial separation is needed to maintain purity of cultures and ethnicities. Examples include Nokturnal Mortum, Infernum, Grand Belial’s Key, and Absurd.