page_title: Watain
section_title: Musical style and ideology
hierarchical_section_title: Watain / Musical style and ideology
caption_attribution_description: Watain live at Under The Black Sun Festival 2007.
context_page_description: Watain is a Swedish black metal band from Uppsala, formed in 1998. The band's name is taken from an early recording by the American black metal group Von. The band have become infamous for their Theistic Satanist views and for their live shows which involve pyrotechnics, candles, Satanic rituals, animal carcasses, and blood. At a now-notorious live performance in Brooklyn in 2014 they doused audience members in animal blood, allegedly causing some members of the audience to vomit. This was picked up and publicised by TMZ, generating controversy around the incident. To date they have released six full-length albums, as well as three live albums and a number of demos and EPs. Their most recent album Trident Wolf Eclipse was released on 5 January 2018 through Century Media Records. The band's core lineup has remained stable since their formation, consisting of Erik Danielsson, Pelle Forsberg, and Håkan Jonsson, though as of 2015 Jonsson no longer performs live, his live duties are now covered by Emil Svensson aka E. Forcas of fellow Uppsala Death metal band Degial.
context_section_description: Since the beginning of their career, Watain have often been compared to Dissection or considered to be influenced by Ofermod. Erik Danielsson confirmed that "Watain and Dissection do indeed have a lot in common as bands, both musically and spiritually", but also replied that questions like these "are completely irrelevant in relation to the great abomination from which both Dissection and Watain were born out of". Bands named as influences include Bathory, Mayhem, Mercyful Fate, Death SS, Samael and Necrovore.
  Allmusic journalist Eduardo Rivadavia wrote that their debut album Rabid Death's Curse "suggested that Watain were, at best, content to produce intentionally crude facsimiles of inspirational forefathers ranging from Bathory to Mayhem and, at worst, unable to do anything else" but "fulfills an important function in Watain's career arc, one that the casual listener need never pay heed to, but which loyal fans will likely want to explore at some point in order to better comprehend all that followed". Ronald Ziegler of the German Horrible Eyes fanzine described the album's sound as "very Swedish, very Death Metalish". According to Rivadavia, the second album Casus Luciferi sounds less Norwegian and more Swedish than earlier efforts. Sworn to the Dark "adds a lot of really catchy and melodic riffs and some cool guitar counter-melodies" to "droning guitars and frantic blast beats"; the vocals "fall somewhere in between black and death metal. They are raw and aggressive, but still understandable." Rivadavia called "Storm of the Antichrist" "a perfect balance between Venom or Darkthrone's outright savagery and straightforward execution, and Emperor's spiraling arrangements and progressive orientation" and pointed out their "greater appreciation for different forms of heavy metal, far beyond black metal's often tiresomely stubborn 'f*ck everyone else' mindset" as shown in the "thrash-like speed-picking" of "Underneath the Cenotaph", the "magnificently dense, almost Opeth-like riffs" introducing "The Serpent's Chalice" and "the Iron Maiden-quoting bassline" at the end of "The Light That Burns the Sun". Thomas Gabriel Fischer of Triptykon, whose former band Celtic Frost toured with Watain in 2007, compared them to his old band Hellhammer "in a totally positive manner. Watain approach their music with a certain level of respect, and a certain level of mystique. What they are doing is not just a performance; it goes much deeper than that. That reminds me so much of the good sides of Hellhammer."
  According to Danielsson, Lawless Darkness is based more upon Watain themselves than other bands and was compared to Bathory, Master's Hammer, Fields of the Nephilim and Deep Purple. Despite their progression, they were still "retaining some cardboard-sounding drumbeats in honor of lo-fi pioneers like Venom and Bathory" as well as using "Emperor-worthy melodies". Rock Hard journalist Götz Kühnemund compared the album to old Rainbow and Dio-era Black Sabbath due to the atmosphere, as well as to Bathory's more epic releases.
  Watain identify themselves as theistic Satanists. All lyrics, unless contributed by members of other bands, are written by vocalist Erik Danielsson, who summed up their topics as "the religion they are based upon, Satanism, or - to avoid confusion - Devilworship". Danielsson believes that a belief system shared by all members "is a must in order to do something as intimate and personal as music". Watain supports the Misanthropic Luciferian Order, Jon Nödtveidt's cult which is associated with animal abuse and murder.
  However, the band have publicly distanced themselves from, and openly criticised, Antisemitism and far-right ideologies, describing these as "one of the greatest evils that people today know". Danielsson said that "That is the one thing you cannot glorify. The Anti-Semitic and right-wing conservative connections that people have long accused black metal to be a platform for have very little to do with what we stand for. To me, it should be quite obvious that we would have been some of the first people to b
caption: Erik Danielsson in torn clothes, covered with blood
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