''The Secrets of the Black Arts'' is the debut studio album by Swedish

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...

band

Dark Funeral Dark Funeral is a Swedish black metal band from Stockholm, founded by guitarists Blackmoon and Lord Ahriman in 1993. They emerged during the second wave of black metal. Their lyrical themes have traditionally pertained to Satanism and anti-Chr ...

, released in January 1996, by

No Fashion Records No Fashion Records was a Swedish record label (a sublabel of MNW Music) which focused on extreme metal. It was located in Stockholm and was active from 1992 to 2004. It was founded by the Swedish zine editor Tomas Nyqvist. Bands *A Canorous Quint ...

. It was re-released on 31 July 2007, with a bonus disc consisting of the album original recording (digitally re-mixed in April 2007). ''The Secrets of the Black Arts'' is the only album to feature guitarist Blackmoon, vocalist/bassist Themgoroth and drummer Equimanthorn. The original recording (15–21 January 1995) was produced by

Dan Swanö Dan-Erland Swanö (born 10 March 1973), also known as Dan "The Man" Swanö, is a Swedish musician and record producer who is currently the vocalist, guitarist, ex-bassist and ex-drummer for the band Nightingale, lately vocalist, keyboardist and ...

Unisound Studios Beijing Unisound Information Technology Co., Ltd., often shortened to Unisound, is a Chinese technology company based in Beijing. It is a unicorn startup specialising in speech recognition and artificial intelligence services applicable to a var ...

. According to Blackmoon, he insisted that they re-record the album due to "severely unprofessional production and manner from Mr. Swanö". He continued, "He was overworked and mentally tired when we came to the studio. Also, our then-drummer was not playing as good as he should have. So it ended up crap." The rest of the band was satisfied with the recording, but Blackmoon refused to release the album with that recording. They decided on The Abyss Studio and recorded the album that was eventually released to the public. A music video was shot for "The Secrets of the Black Arts".

Track listing

Writing by Dark Funeral except where noted.

Personnel

Dark Funeral

*Themgoroth – vocals, bass guitar *

Blackmoon David Parland (26 September 1970 – 19 March 2013) was a Swedish metal guitarist, best known for his work in the bands Dark Funeral, Necrophobic and Infernal, all of which he was one of the founding members. Biography He was a member of Necropho ...

– guitar, vocals on "Satanic Blood" *

Lord Ahriman Mikael Svanberg (born 13 November 1972), better known as Lord Ahriman, is a Swedish musician and composer best known as the primary guitarist, songwriter and sole founding member of black metal band Dark Funeral. He is also the rhythm guitarist ...

– guitar *Equimanthorn – drums

References

External links

Lyrics at official website
1996 debut albums Dark Funeral albums Albums produced by Peter Tägtgren Albums with cover art by Kristian Wåhlin {{1990s-black-metal-album-stub