HURTIGRUTEN: THE NORWEGIAN SURF-ROCK PROGENITORS OF BLACK METAL

I can’t quite pin it down, but I’d like to posit that surf guitar has some bearing and influence on modern metal. Perhaps it’s the fast tremolo picking, in which case every frost-bitten Norwegian church-burner owes something to Hurtigruten, “the very first surf band in all of Norway.”

There’s a whole lotta tremolo-picking here and this shit was recorded back in 1964, way before Varg Vikernes was even a twinkle in his mama’s eye. Some of the scales they’re using even remind me of black metal a little bit, picking style aside. Dark.

-VN

Thanks: Tero Rinne