Corpse paint
From Free net encyclopedia
Corpse paint (sometimes a single word, corpsepaint) is a style of black-and-white makeup used extensively by black metal bands during live concerts and photo shoots. The decoration is used to intensify the bands' imagery of forbidding evil, inhumanity, and corpse-like decay (thus the term corpse paint). It is also suggested that the facepaint conjurs evil clown imagery.
Most commonly the musicians' faces are painted white with black around the eyes and lips. Many variations on the basic two-tone color scheme, though rare, have been seen. Bands such as Gorgoroth and Ragnarok use blood-colored paint, while the Norwegian band Dødheimsgard has experimented using other colours. Still, the clean two-tone style is preferred by most bands.
The style is said by some to have its roots in British glam rock, however the origin of corpse paint is probably more accureately traced back to Germanic folklore. Particularly striking are the similarities between black metal corpsepaint and the ghoulish apparence of the members of the Oskorei, a legion of dead souls in Norse mythology. One can note similarities between metal corpse paint and the makeup worn in expressionist films, such as worn by Conrad Veidt in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
The earliest rock groups to decorate themselves with corpse paint included Arthur Brown in the 1960s, and KISS and Alice Cooper in the 1970s. Hellhammer and King Diamond of Mercyful Fate (Who used Corpsepaint as early as 1978 in his band Black Rose) were perhaps the first death or black metal groups to use corpse paint in the early 1980s. Other groups soon followed suit, including Celtic Frost, The Misfits(Predates Metal Usage), and early Slayer.
Early Norwegian black metal bands such as Mayhem, Immortal, Darkthrone, and Satyricon are arguably responsible for maintaining the popularity of the fashion among today's black metal acts. However, corpse paint is dismissed by many as immature or theatrically kitschy. Varg Vikernes of the notorious one man (nowadays ambient) black metal act Burzum rarely used corpse paint, even in its heyday - probably because he never performed live. But Vikernes is perhaps a clandestine user of corpse paint, as one photograph in the book Lords of Chaos (Moynihan, Soderlind) does show him in corpse paint. Recently, some "purists" have argued that corpse paint has become fashionable and over-trendy and therefore has lost its original value. Some bands such as Emperor, Enslaved and Borknagar avoid it altogether.de:Corpsepaint fr:Corpse paint ne:Corpse-paint