Hellig Usvart

Hellig Usvart
Studio album by
Horde
Released1994
Recorded11–15 July 1994
GenreUnblack metal
Length40:29
LabelNuclear Blast Records
Rowe Productions
Metal Mind Productions
Soundmass
ProducerJayson Sherlock (credited as Anonymous), Markus Staiger
Horde chronology
Hellig Usvart
(1994) 		The Day of Total Armageddon Holocaust – Alive in Oslo
(2007)

Hellig Usvart is the debut studio album by Australian unblack metal band Horde, released on Nuclear Blast Records in 1994. Upon its release, the album created a controversy among many black metal fans; death threats were sent to Nuclear Blast demanding the label to drop the album from its catalogue because the album contains Christian, anti-satanic lyrics, counteracting the usual black metal thematics at the time.[1][2] As a result of the strong lyrical contradiction, the album was thought to be a parody of the Norwegian black metal movement by magazines such as Morgenbladet in 1995.[3]

The sole member of the band, Jayson Sherlock (who used the pseudonym Anonymous), later stated in interviews that the album was intended to bring "some hope, some light to the bleak black metal subculture."[4] Rowe Productions, Metal Mind Productions, and Soundmass have since released reissues of the album. Hellig Usvart has achieved a respected landmark status in the Christian metal movement, and it is regarded as the first and most groundbreaking Christian black metal album.[5]

  1. ^ Waters, Scott. Horde. No Life 'til Metal.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Evilvasp was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Morgenbladet was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Erasmus was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Jonsson, Johannes. The History of Christian metal, 1994. The Metal for Jesus Page!