corpse paint
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 forboding evil, inhumanity, and corpse-like decay.
Most commonly, the musicians' faces are painted white, with areas such as lips and eyes painted black. Only rarely do musicians use other colors: Gorgoroth and Ragnarok use blood-colored paint, Attila Csihar of Mayhem and formerly of Tormentor uses neon colours, while the Norwegian band Dødheimsgard has experimented using other colours. Still, the clean two-tone style is the more common one.
Origins
Though corpse paint achieved widespread popularity with some rock and roll performers in the 1970s, there are some earlier precedents worth noting.
Corpse paint might be traced back to Germanic folklore. Particularly striking are the similarities between modern black metal
corpse paint and the ghoulish appearance of the members of the Oskorei, a legion of dead souls in Norse mythology. One can also note
similarities between metal corpse paint and the makeup worn in expressionist films, such as worn by Conrad Veidt in
History and usage
The earliest rock groups to decorate themselves with makeup similar to corpse paint included Arthur Brown in the 1960s, KISS and Alice Cooper in the 1970s, and, later that decade, punk rockers like The Misfits and singer Dave Vanian of The Damned.
Hellhammer and King Diamond of
Mercyful Fate (who used corpse paint 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 Hellhammer's later incarnation Celtic Frost, and early Slayer. Brazilian
band Sarcófago also pioneered the look, being dubbed by Metal
Storm magazine as the first band with a "true" corpsepaint[1]. Early corpse paint designs were
intended simply to accent an individual's features and make them look "dead" (examples include early
Norwegian black metal bands from the late 1980s and early '90s (such as Mayhem, Gorgoroth, Emperor, Immortal, Darkthrone, and Satyricon) are arguably responsible for maintaining the popularity of the corpse paint among today's black metal acts.
Cradle of Filth also have been known to wear face paint (as opposed to corpse paint) during their early career in albums The Principle of Evil Made Flesh and V Empire (or Dark Fairytales in Phallustein).
In the fall of 1996, professional wrestler Sting began wearing corpse paint in a persona inspired by the Brandon Lee film The Crow.
References
External links
- Rate My Corpse Paint Examples of different styles of corpse paint.
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