Acoustic Black Metal Shouldn’t Work… But It Kind Of Does

If you’ve never heard of Impaled Northern Moonforest – and you’d be excused if you haven’t – they were the spoof side project dreamt up by Seth Putnam and Josh Martin. While Seth and Josh are both now sadly deceased, they’re definitely remembered best for their work in grindcore band Anal Cunt.

The pair did however make another unintentionally significant contribution to music when they invented acoustic black metal… for a joke.

Impaled Northern Moonforest were the world’s first (and possibly only) acoustic black metal band, a style that by its very nature should never have worked, but actually kinda does. Strip away the low-fi distortion of traditional black metal and replace it with the equally terrifying strums of an acoustic guitar. Pound out the drums on whatever you have to hand. Growl like a madman with no distortion to hide behind. It’s raw, it’s basic, it’s horrific, it’s… everything black metal should be.

The band released a self-titled album featuring fantastic MS Paint artwork and catchy song titles such as Masterbating On The Unholy Inverted Tracks Of The Grim & Frostbitten Necrobobsledders and Lustfully Worshiping The Inverted Moongoat While Skiing Down The Inverted Necromountain Of Necrodeathmortem, which strangely went unnoticed by the wider music press. Weird eh?

Anyway check out acoustic black metal (complete with band-made video, we believe) below, it’s a trip:

@johnlongbottom