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Chomsky also reviewed Skinner's "Beyond Freedom and Dignity", using the same basic motives as his "Verbal Behavior" review. Among Chomsky's criticisms were that Skinner's laboratory work could not be extended to humans, that when it was extended to humans it represented "scientistic" behavior attempting to emulate science but which was not scientific, that Skinner was not a scientist because he rejected the hypothetico-deductive model of theory testing, and that Skinner had no science of behavior. Psychodynamic psychology. Skinner has been repeatedly criticized for his supposed animosity towards Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysis, and psychodynamic psychology. Some have argued, however, that Skinner shared several of Freud's assumptions, and that he was influenced by Freudian points of view in more than one field, among them the analysis of defense mechanisms, such as repression. To study such phenomena, Skinner even designed his own projective test, the "verbal summator" described above. J. E. R. Staddon. As understood by Skinner, ascribing "dignity" to individuals involves giving them credit for their actions. To say "Skinner is brilliant" means that Skinner is an originating force. If Skinner's determinist theory is right, he is merely the focus of his environment. He is not an originating force and he had no choice in saying the things he said or doing the things he did. Skinner's environment and genetics both allowed and compelled him to write his book. Similarly, the environment and genetic potentials of the advocates of freedom and dignity cause them to resist the reality that their own activities are deterministically grounded. J. E. R. Staddon has argued the compatibilist position; Skinner's determinism is not in any way contradictory to traditional notions of reward and punishment, as he believed. Professional career. Honorary degrees. Skinner received honorary degrees from: Honorary societies. Skinner was inducted to the following honorary societies:
Bill Macy Wolf Martin Garber (May 18, 1922 – October 17, 2019), known professionally as Bill Macy, was an American television, film and stage actor known for his role in the CBS television series "Maude" (1972–1978). Early life. Bill Macy was born Wolf Martin Garber on May 18, 1922, in Revere, Massachusetts, the son of Mollie (née Friedopfer; 1889–1986) and Michael Garber (1884–1974), a manufacturer. He was raised Jewish in the East Flatbush section of New York, New York. After graduating from Samuel J. Tilden High School he served in the United States Army from 1942 to 1946 with the 594th Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment, stationed in the Philippines, New Guinea and Japan. He worked as a cab driver for a decade before being cast as Walter Matthau's understudy in "Once More, with Feeling" on Broadway in 1958. He portrayed a cab driver on the soap opera "The Edge of Night" in 1966. Macy was an original cast member of the 1969–1972 Off-Broadway sensation "Oh! Calcutta!", performing in the show from 1969 to 1971. He later appeared in the 1972 movie version of the musical. Of appearing fully nude with the rest of the cast in the stage show, he said, "The nudity didn't bother me. I'm from Brooklyn."
Macy performed on the P. D. Q. Bach album "The Stoned Guest" (1970). Television. Appreciating Macy's comedic skills off Broadway, Norman Lear brought him to Hollywood, where he first got a small part as a police officer in "All in the Family." He was cast in the role of Walter Findlay, the husband of the title character on the 1970s television sitcom "Maude", starring Bea Arthur. The show ran for six seasons from 1972 to 1978. Strangers on the street often called him "Mr. Maude", consoling him for having such a difficult wife. "I used to tell them that people like that really existed," Macy explained. In 1975, Macy and Samantha Harper Macy appeared on the game show "Tattletales". In 1986, Macy was a guest on the fourth episode of "L.A. Law", playing an older man whose young wife wants a music career. Also that year he guest starred in an episode of Highway to Heaven, called Cindy. Macy appeared in the television movie "Perry Mason: The Case of the Murdered Madam" (1987) as banker Richard Wilson. He appeared on "The Facts of Life" in a 1988 episode. He occasionally appeared on "Seinfeld" as one of the residents of the Florida retirement community where Jerry Seinfeld's parents lived. Macy made a guest appearance as a patient on "Chicago Hope" and as an aging gambler on the series "Las Vegas". Macy's last television role occurred in a 2010 episode of Jada Pinkett Smith's series "Hawthorne".
Film. Macy appeared as the jury foreman in "The Producers" in 1967, with the memorable sole line "We find the defendants incredibly guilty". Other memorable roles include the co-inventor of the "Opti-Grab" in the 1979 Steve Martin comedy "The Jerk" and as the head television writer in "My Favourite Year" (1982). Other film credits included roles in "Death at Love House" (1976), "The Late Show" (1977), "Serial" (1980), "Movers & Shakers" (1985), "Bad Medicine" (1985), "Tales from the Darkside" (1985 - "Lifebomb" episode), "Sibling Rivalry" (1990), "The Doctor" (1991), "Me Myself & I" (1992), "Analyze This" (1999), "Surviving Christmas" (2004), "The Holiday" (2006), and "Mr. Woodcock" (2007). Personal life. Macy met his future wife, Samantha Harper, on the set of "Oh! Calcutta!" in 1969. They married in 1975. Macy died on October 17, 2019, at the age of 97; no cause was given.
Bob Knight Robert Montgomery Knight (October 25, 1940 – November 1, 2023) was an American men's college basketball coach. Nicknamed "the General", he won 902 NCAA Division I men's basketball games, a record at the time of his retirement and sixth all-time record at the time of his death. Knight was the head coach of the Army Black Knights (1965–1971), the Indiana Hoosiers (1971–2000), and the Texas Tech Red Raiders (2001–2008). While at Army, he led the Black Knights to four post-season tournament appearances in six seasons, winning two-thirds of his games along the way. After taking the job at Indiana, his teams won three NCAA championships, one National Invitation Tournament (NIT) championship, and 11 Big Ten Conference championships. His 1975–76 team won the 1976 NCAA tournament, and is the last men's team in Division I college basketball to go undefeated during an entire season (32–0). They remain, as of the end of the 2024–25 season, the last team to be undefeated national champions. In the seven full seasons that he coached at Texas Tech, his teams qualified for a post-season tournament five times. He retired partway through the 2007–08 season and was replaced by his son Pat Knight at Texas Tech. He later worked as a men's college basketball studio analyst at ESPN.
Knight sparked controversy with his outspoken nature and his volatility. He once threw a chair across the court during a game and was once arrested following a physical confrontation with a police officer. He was accused of choking an Indiana player during practice in an incident that was recorded on video, prompting the university to institute a "zero tolerance" policy for him. Following a subsequent run-in with a student, he was fired by Indiana University in the fall of 2000. Knight was one of college basketball's most successful and innovative coaches, having popularized the motion offense. He received national coach of the year honors four times and Big Ten Coach of the Year honors eight times. He was also successful on the international stage, winning gold medals at both the 1979 Pan American Games and the 1984 Summer Olympics with the U.S. men's national team. He is one of only three basketball coaches to win an NCAA title, an NIT title, and an Olympic gold medal. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991.
Early life and college career. Knight was born on October 25, 1940, in the town of Massillon, Ohio, and grew up in Orrville, Ohio. His father Pat worked for the railroad and his mother Hazel was a school teacher. He began playing organized basketball at Orrville High School. Knight continued at Ohio State in 1958 when he played for Basketball Hall of Fame coach Fred Taylor. Despite being a star player in high school, he played a reserve role as a forward on the 1960 Ohio State Buckeyes team that won the NCAA championship and featured future Hall of Fame players John Havlicek and Jerry Lucas. Knight was also a member of the 1961 and 1962 Buckeyes teams that lost in the finals to the Cincinnati Bearcats. Due in part to the star power of those Ohio State teams, Knight usually received scant playing time, but that did not prevent him from making an impact. In the 1961 NCAA championship game, Knight came off the bench with 1:41 on the clock and Cincinnati leading Ohio State, 61–59. In the words of then–Ohio State assistant coach Frank Truitt:
Knight got the ball in the left front court and faked a drive into the middle. Then [he] crossed over like he worked on it all his life and drove right in and laid it up. That tied the game for us, and Knight ran clear across the floor like a 100-yard dash sprinter and ran right at me and said, "See there, coach, I should have been in that game a long time ago!" To which Truitt replied, "Sit down, you hot dog. You're lucky you're even on the floor." In addition to lettering in basketball at Ohio State, it has been claimed that Knight also lettered in football and baseball; however, the official list of Ohio State football letter earners does not include Knight. Knight graduated with a degree in history and government in 1962. After graduating from Ohio State University in 1962, he coached junior varsity basketball at Cuyahoga Falls High School in Ohio for one year. Knight then enlisted in the U.S. Army and served on active duty from June 1963 to June 1965 and in the U.S. Army Reserves from June 1965 to May 1969. He conducted initial training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and was transferred to West Point, New York, in September 1963. He became a private first class.
Coaching career. Army. While in the army, he accepted an assistant coaching position with the Army Black Knights in 1963, where, two years later, he was named head coach at the relatively young age of 24. In six seasons as a head coach at West Point, Knight won 102 games, with his first coming against Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He led Army to four NITs, advancing to the semifinals three times. One of his players was Mike Krzyzewski, who later served as his assistant before becoming a Hall of Fame head coach at Duke. Mike Silliman was another of Knight's players at Army, and Knight was quoted as saying that Silliman was the best player that he had coached. During his tenure at Army, Knight gained a reputation for having an explosive temper. After Army's 66–60 loss to BYU and Hall of Fame coach Stan Watts in the semifinals of the 1966 NIT, Knight completely lost control, kicking lockers and verbally blasting the officials. Embarrassed, he later went to Watts' hotel room and apologized. Watts forgave him, and is quoted as saying, "I want you to know that you're going to be one of the bright young coaches in the country, and it's just a matter of time before you win a national championship."
Knight was one of seven candidates vying to fill the Wisconsin men's basketball head coaching vacancy after John Erickson resigned to become the Milwaukee Bucks' first-ever general manager on April 3, 1968. Knight was offered the position but requested more time to think it over. By the time he had returned to West Point, news that he was to become the Badgers' new coach was prematurely leaked to the local media. After consulting with Bo Schembechler, who had also had a negative experience as a Wisconsin football coaching candidate the previous year, Knight withdrew his candidacy and continued to coach at Army for three more seasons. Erickson's assistant coach John Powless was promoted instead. Indiana. In 1971, Indiana University Bloomington hired Knight as head coach. During his 29 years at the school, the Hoosiers won 662 games, including 22 seasons of 20 or more wins, while losing 239, a .735 winning percentage. In 24 NCAA tournament appearances at Indiana, Hoosier teams under Knight won 42 of 63 games (.667), winning titles in 1976, 1981, and 1987, while losing in the semifinals in 1973 and 1992. 1970s.
In 1972–73, Knight's second year as coach, Indiana won the Big Ten championship and reached the Final Four, losing to UCLA, which was on its way to its seventh consecutive national title. The following season, in 1973–74, Indiana once again captured a Big Ten title. In the two following seasons, 1974–75 and 1975–76, the Hoosiers were undefeated in the regular season and won 37 consecutive Big Ten games, including two more Big Ten championships. In 1974–75, the Hoosiers swept the entire Big Ten by an average of 22.8 points per game. However, in an 83–82 win against Purdue they lost consensus All-American forward Scott May to a broken left arm. With May's injury limiting him to seven minutes of play, the No. 1 Hoosiers lost to Kentucky 92–90 in the Mideast Regional. Despite the loss, the Hoosiers were so dominant that four starters—Scott May, Steve Green, Kent Benson, and Quinn Buckner—would make the five-man All-Big Ten team. The following season, in 1975–76, the Hoosiers went the entire season and 1976 NCAA tournament without a single loss, defeating Michigan 86–68 in the title game. Immediately after the game, Knight lamented that "it should have been two." The 1976 Hoosiers remain the last undefeated NCAA Division I men's basketball team. Through these two seasons, Knight's teams were undefeated in the regular season, including a perfect 37–0 record in Big Ten games on their way to their third and fourth conference titles in a row. Behind the play of Mike Woodson, Indiana won the 1979 NIT championship.
Throughout the 1970s, however, Knight was beginning to be involved in several controversies. 1960 Olympic gold medalist Douglas Blubaugh was head wrestling coach at IU from 1973 to 1984. Early in his tenure while he jogged in the practice facility during basketball practice, Knight yelled at him to leave, using more than one expletive. Blubaugh pinned Knight to a wall, and told him never to repeat the performance, and Knight never did. On December 7, 1974, Indiana defeated Kentucky 98–74. Near the end of the game, Knight went to the Kentucky bench where the official was standing to complain about a call. Before he left, Knight hit Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall in the back of the head. Kentucky assistant coach Lynn Nance, a former FBI agent, had to be restrained by Hall from hitting Knight. Hall later said, "It publicly humiliated me." Knight blamed the furor on Hall, stating, "If it was meant to be malicious, I'd have blasted the fucker into the seats." Years after the incident, it was reported that Knight choked and punched Indiana University's longtime sports information director, Kit Klingelhoffer, over a news release that upset the coach. In 1976, Knight grabbed IU basketball player Jim Wisman and jerked him into his seat. 1980s.
The 1979–80 Hoosiers, led by Mike Woodson and Isiah Thomas, won the Big Ten championship and advanced to the 1980 Sweet Sixteen. The following season, in 1980–81, Thomas and the Hoosiers once again won a conference title and won the 1981 NCAA tournament, Knight's second national title. In 1982–83, with the strong play of Uwe Blab and All-Americans Ted Kitchel and Randy Wittman, the No. 1 ranked Hoosiers were favorites to win another national championship. However, with an injury to Kitchel mid-season, the Hoosiers lost to Kentucky in the 1983 Sweet Sixteen. In the 1985–86 season, the Hoosiers were profiled in a bestselling book "A Season on the Brink". To write it, Knight granted author John Feinstein almost unprecedented access to the Indiana basketball program, as well as insights into Knight's private life. The following season, in 1986–87, the Hoosiers were led by All-American Steve Alford and captured a share of the Big Ten title. The team won Knight's third national championship (the school's fifth) against Syracuse in the 1987 NCAA tournament with a game-winning jump shot by Keith Smart with five seconds remaining in the championship game.
In the 1988–89 season, the Hoosiers were led by All-American Jay Edwards and won a Big Ten championship. Knight was involved in several controversies in the 1980s as well. In a game between Indiana and Purdue in Bloomington on January 31, 1981, Isiah Thomas allegedly hit Purdue guard Roosevelt Barnes in what some critics described as a "sucker punch". Video replay later shown by Knight showed Barnes had thrown the first punch, and that Thomas was merely reacting to this. When the two schools played their second game of the season at Purdue on February 7, 1981, Knight claimed a number of derisive chants were directed at him, his wife, and Indiana University. In response, Knight invited Purdue athletic director George King on his weekly television show to discuss the matter, but King declined. Therefore, in place of King, Knight brought onto the show a "jackass" (male donkey) wearing a Purdue hat as a representative of Purdue. On February 23, 1985, during a Purdue–Indiana game in Bloomington, five minutes into the game a scramble for a loose ball resulted in a foul call on Indiana's Marty Simmons. Immediately after the resumption of play, a foul was called on Indiana's Daryl Thomas. Knight, irate, insisted the first of the two calls should have been for a jump ball and ultimately received a technical foul. Purdue's Steve Reid stepped to the free throw line to shoot the resulting free throws, but before he could, Knight grabbed a red plastic chair from Indiana's bench and threw it across the floor toward the basket in front of Reid. Knight was charged with a second and third technical foul and was ejected from the game.
He apologized for his actions the next day and was given a one-game suspension and two years' probation from the Big Ten. In later years, Knight would occasionally joke about the chair-throwing incident by saying that he saw an old lady standing on the opposite sideline and threw her the chair so she could sit down. Former Indiana basketball player Todd Jadlow has written a book alleging that from 1985 to 1989, Knight punched him in the face, broke a clipboard over the top of his head, and squeezed his testicles and the testicles of other Hoosiers, among other abuses. In an April 1988 interview with Connie Chung, when discussing an Indiana basketball game in which he felt the referees were making poor calls against the Hoosiers, Knight said, "I think that if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it." In response, women's groups nationwide were outraged by Knight's comments. 1990–2000. From 1990–91 through 1992–93, the Hoosiers posted 87 victories, the most by any Big Ten team in a three-year span, breaking the mark of 86 set by Knight's Indiana teams of 1974–76. They captured two Big Ten crowns in 1990–91 and 1992–93, and during the 1991–92 season reached the Final Four. During the 1992–93 season, the 31–4 Hoosiers finished the season at the top of the AP Poll, but were defeated by Kansas in the Elite Eight. Players from the team in this era included Greg Graham, Pat Knight, All-Americans Damon Bailey and Alan Henderson, Brian Evans, and National Player of the Year Calbert Cheaney.
Throughout the mid and late 1990s Knight continued to experience success with continual NCAA tournament appearances and a minimum of 19 wins each season. However, 1993 would be Knight's last conference championship and 1994 would be his last trip to the Sweet Sixteen. Throughout the 1990s Knight was yet again involved in several controversies: Dismissal from Indiana. On March 14, 2000, (just before Indiana was to begin play in the NCAA tournament), the CNN Sports Illustrated network ran a piece on Robert Abbott's investigation of Knight in which former player Neil Reed claimed he had been choked by Knight during a practice in 1997. Knight denied the claims in the story. However, less than a month later, the network aired a tape of an Indiana practice from 1997 that appeared to show Knight placing his hand on the neck of Reed. In response, Indiana University president Myles Brand announced that he had adopted a "zero tolerance" policy with regard to Knight's behavior. Later in the year, in September 2000, Indiana freshman Kent Harvey (not a basketball player) reportedly said, "Hey, Knight, what's up?" to Knight. According to Harvey, Knight then grabbed him by the arm and lectured him for not showing him respect, insisting that Harvey address him as either "Mr. Knight" or "Coach Knight" instead of simply "Knight." Brand stated that this incident was only one of numerous complaints that occurred after the zero-tolerance policy had been put into place. Brand asked Knight to resign on September 10, and when Knight refused, Brand relieved him of his coaching duties effective immediately. Knight's dismissal was met with outrage from students. That night, thousands of Indiana students marched from Indiana University's Assembly Hall to Brand's home, burning Brand in effigy.
Harvey was supported by some and vilified by many who claim he had intentionally set up Knight. Kent Harvey's stepfather, Mark Shaw, was a former Bloomington-area radio talk show host and Knight critic. On September 13, Knight said goodbye to a crowd of some 6,000 supporters in Dunn Meadow at Indiana University. He asked that they not hold a grudge against Harvey and that they continue to support the basketball team. Knight's firing made national headlines, including the cover of "Sports Illustrated" and around-the-clock coverage on ESPN, as well as mentions on CNN and CBS. Two days after Knight was fired from Indiana University, Jeremy Schaap of ESPN interviewed him and discussed his time at Indiana. Towards the end of the interview, Knight talked about his son, Pat, who had also been dismissed by the university, wanting an opportunity to be a head coach. Schaap, thinking that Knight was finished, attempted to move on to another subject, but Knight insisted on continuing about his son. Schaap repeatedly tried to ask another question when Knight shifted the conversation to Schaap's style of interviewing, notably chastising him about interruptions. Knight then commented (referring to Schaap's father, Dick Schaap), "You've got a long way to go to be as good as your dad."
In a March 2017 interview on "The Dan Patrick Show", Knight stated that he had no interest in ever returning to Indiana. When host Dan Patrick commented that most of the administration that had fired Knight seventeen years earlier were no longer there, Knight said, "I hope they're all dead." Knight ultimately returned to Assembly Hall at halftime of Indiana's game against Purdue on February 8, 2020, and received a rousing standing ovation. It was the first Indiana game attended by Knight since his dismissal by the school 20 years prior. Texas Tech. Following his dismissal from Indiana, Knight took a season off while on the lookout for coaching vacancies. He accepted the head coaching position at Texas Tech University, although his hiring was opposed by a faculty group led by Walter Schaller, associate professor of philosophy. When he was introduced at the press conference, Knight quipped, "This is without question the most comfortable red sweater I've had on in six years." Knight quickly improved the program, which had not been to an NCAA tournament since 1996. He led the Red Raiders to postseason appearances in each of his first four years at the school (three NCAA Championship tournaments and one NIT). After a rough 2006 season, the team improved in 2007, finishing 21–13 and again making it to the NCAA tournament, where it lost to Boston College in the first round. The best performance by the Red Raiders under Knight came in 2005 when they advanced as far as the Sweet Sixteen. In both 2006 and 2007 under Knight, Texas Tech defeated two Top 10-ranked teams in consecutive weeks. During Knight's first six years at Texas Tech, the Red Raiders won 126 games.
During Knight's coaching at Texas Tech, Knight was also involved in several controversies. In March 2006, a student's heckling at Baylor University resulted in Knight having to be restrained by a police officer. The incident was not severe enough to warrant any action from the Big 12 Conference. On November 13, 2006, Knight was shown allegedly hitting player Michael Prince under the chin to get him to make eye contact. Although Knight did not comment on the incident afterwards, Prince, his parents, and Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers insisted that Knight did nothing wrong and that he merely lifted Prince's chin and told him, "Hold your head up and don't worry about mistakes. Just play the game." Prince commented, "He was trying to teach me and I had my head down so he raised my chin up. He was telling me to go out there and don't be afraid to make mistakes. He said I was being too hard on myself." ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla defended Knight by saying "That's coaching!" On October 21, 2007, James Simpson of Lubbock, Texas, accused Knight of firing a shotgun in his direction after he yelled at Knight and another man for hunting too close to his home. Knight denied the allegations; however, an argument between the two men was recorded via camera phone and aired later on television.
Knight won his 900th game in his coaching career on January 16, 2008, in a 68–58 win against Texas A&M, but not before arguing with referees during the match. Retirement. On February 4, 2008, Knight announced his retirement. His son Pat Knight, the head coach designate since 2005, was immediately named as his successor at Texas Tech. The younger Knight had said that after many years of coaching, his father was exhausted and ready to retire. Just after achieving his 900th win, Knight handed the job over to Pat in the mid-season in part to allow him to get acquainted with coaching the team earlier, instead of having him wait until October, the start of the next season. Knight continued to live in Lubbock after he retired. United States national team. 1979 Pan American Games. In 1978, Knight was named the head coach of the United States men's national team for the 1979 Pan American Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The team, which included players such as Isiah Thomas and Ralph Sampson, trained together for more than 50 days and played in a tournament in Italy before arriving in Puerto Rico. During the games, Knight led the United States to a 9–0 record, with an average victory of 21.2 points, and gold medal.
However, his behaviour during the games, where he feuded with referees, officials and made critical comments about Puerto Rico, was heavily criticized, including by the president of the Basketball Federation of Puerto Rico, Arturo C. Gallardo, in a lengthy article in the New York Times. During the first game, with the United States leading by 35 points, he was ejected for arguing with referees and in another incident during a practice session, Knight was accused of assaulting the policeman guarding the gymnasium and was arrested. Both Knight and assistant coach Mike Krzyzewski refuted the policeman's version of the incident, with Krzyzewski stating "It's really unbelievable, the out-and-out lies that are being told. It's like my standing here and saying that my name is not Mike Krzyzewski, that it's Fred Taylor." Knight was later charged with assault and summoned to appear before a judge but left the island before trial was held and refused to return with Indiana officials further rejecting Puerto Rican's extradition requests. He was later tried in absentia, found guilty and sentenced to a six-month prison term and a 500 dollar fine. Following a United States Supreme Court ruling in 1987 that overturned a law which gave state governors the power to reject extradition requests and opened up the possibility of his extradition to Puerto Rico, Knight wrote a letter to the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee, Germán Rieckehoff, apologizing for the incident. Rieckehoff "urged the Commonwealth not to consider any further legal action against Knight". 1984 Summer Olympics.
Despite the controversies, Knight was selected in 1982 to coach the U.S. national team at the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. He held a 72 player tryout camp in April 1984 before settling on the 12 man roster which included Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin and Knight's Indiana player and protégé Steve Alford. Worries that his behavior would again cause embarrassment during the games turned out to be unfounded and, despite rants and raves at officials, Knight was considered to be on his best behavior. He led the United States to victory in all eight games and to a gold medal. Doing so, Knight joined Pete Newell and Dean Smith as the only three coaches to win an NCAA title, NIT title, and Olympic gold. Life after coaching. In 2008, ESPN hired Knight as a studio analyst and occasional color commentator. In November 2012, he called an Indiana men's basketball game for the first time, something he had previously refused to do. Then-men's basketball coach Tom Crean reached out to Knight in an attempt to get him to visit the school again. On April 2, 2015, ESPN announced that it would not renew its contract with Knight.
On February 27, 2019, Don Fischer, an IU radio announcer since 1974, said during an interview that Knight was in ill health. He continued by saying Knight's health "has declined" but did not offer any specifics. On April 4, 2019, Knight made his first public appearance after Fischer made his comments. He appeared with longtime friend and journalist Bob Hammel and spoke about different aspects of his career. During the presentation, Knight seemed to struggle with his memory: he re-introduced his wife to the audience after doing so only 10 minutes earlier, he mistakenly said that former IU basketball player Landon Turner had died, and, after telling a story about Michael Jordan, he later told the same story, replacing Jordan with former IU basketball player Damon Bailey. Knight and his wife resided in Lubbock, Texas, even after his retirement. On July 10, 2019, the "Indiana Daily Student", IU's campus newspaper, reported that Knight and his wife had purchased a home in Bloomington for $572,500, suggesting that Knight had decided to return to Bloomington to live.
Coaching philosophy. Knight was an innovator of the motion offense, which he perfected and popularized. The system emphasizes post players setting screens and perimeter players passing the ball until a teammate becomes open for an uncontested jump shot or lay-up. This required players to be unselfish, disciplined, and effective in setting and using screens to get open. Knight's motion offense did not take shape until he began coaching at Indiana. Prior to that, at Army, he ran a "reverse action" offense that involved reversing the ball from one side of the floor to the other and screening along with it. According to Knight, it was a "West Coast offense" that Pete Newell used exclusively during his coaching career. After being exposed to the Princeton offense, Knight instilled more cutting with the offense he employed, which evolved into the motion offense that he ran for most of his career. Knight continued to develop the offense, instituting different cuts over the years and putting his players in different scenarios.
Knight was well known for the extreme preparation he put into each game and practice. He was often quoted as saying, "Most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win." Often during practice, Knight would instruct his players to a certain spot on the floor and give them options of what to do based on how the defense might react. In contrast to set plays, Knight's offense was designed to react according to the defense. The three-point shot was adopted by the NCAA in 1986, which was midway through Knight's coaching career. Although he opposed the rule change throughout his life, it did complement his offense well by improving the spacing on the floor. He sardonically said at the time that he supported institution of the three-point shot because if a team's offense was functioning efficiently enough to get a layup, the team should be rewarded with three points for that basket. Knight's offense also emphasized a two-count. Players in the post are expected to try to post in the paint for two seconds and if they do not receive the ball they go set a screen. Players with the ball are expected to hold the ball for two seconds to see where they are going to take it. Screens are supposed to be held for two seconds, as well.
On defense Knight was known for emphasizing tenacious "man-to-man" defense where defenders contest every pass and every shot, and help teammates when needed. However, Knight also incorporated a zone defense periodically after eschewing it for the first two decades of his coaching career. Knight's coaching also included a firm emphasis on academics. All but four of his four-year players completed their degrees, or nearly 98 percent. Nearly 80 percent of his players graduated; this figure was much higher than the national average of 42 percent for Division 1 schools. Legacy. Accomplishments. Knight's all time coaching record is 902–371. His 902 wins in NCAA Division I men's college basketball games is fourth all-time to Knight's former player and former Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim, and North Carolina head Coach Roy Williams. Knight achieved his 880th career win on January 1, 2007, and passed retired North Carolina coach Dean Smith for most career victories, a title he held until his win total was surpassed by Krzyzewski on November 15, 2011. It was later surpassed by Boeheim on January 2, 2013, and by Williams on March 11, 2021. Knight is the youngest coach to reach 200, 300, and 400 wins, as well as among the youngest to reach other milestones of 500, 600, 700, and 800 wins.
Texas Tech's participation in the 2007 NCAA tournament gave Knight more NCAA tournament appearances than any other coach. He is the only coach to win the NCAA, the NIT, an Olympic gold medal, and a Pan American Games Gold medal. Knight is also one of only three people, along with Smith and Joe B. Hall, who have both played on and coached an NCAA Tournament championship basketball team. Recognition. Knight received a number of personal honors during and after his coaching career. He was named the National Coach of the Year four times (1975, 1976, 1987, 1989) and Big Ten Coach of the Year eight times (1973, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1989, 1992, 1993). In 1975 he was a unanimous selection as National Coach of the Year, an honor he was accorded again in 1976 by the Associated Press. In 1987 he was the first person to be honored with the Naismith Coach of the Year Award. In 1989 he garnered National Coach of the Year honors by the AP, UPI, and the United States Basketball Writers Association. Knight was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991.
On November 17, 2006, Knight was recognized for his impact on college basketball as a member of the founding class of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. The following year, he was the recipient of the Naismith Award for Men's Outstanding Contribution to Basketball. Knight was also inducted into the Army Sports Hall of Fame (Class of 2008) and the Indiana Hoosiers athletics Hall of Fame (Class of 2009). In August 2003, he was honored as the first inductee in The Vince Lombardi Titletown Legends. Three banners were hung at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall as a result of the three national championship wins led by Knight. Coaching tree. A number of Knight's assistant coaches, players, and managers have gone on to be coaches. In the college ranks, this includes Hall of Fame Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, Steve Alford, Murry Bartow, Dan Dakich, Bob Donewald, Marty Simmons, Jim Crews, Chris Beard, and Dusty May. Among NBA coaches, they include Randy Wittman, Mike Woodson, Keith Smart, Isiah Thomas, and Lawrence Frank.
In the media. Books about Knight. In 1986, author John Feinstein published "A Season on the Brink", which detailed the 1985–86 season of the Indiana Hoosiers. Granted almost unprecedented access to the Indiana basketball program, as well as insights into Knight's private life, the book quickly became a major bestseller and spawned a new genre, as a legion of imitators wrote works covering a single year of a sports franchise. In the book Feinstein depicts a coach who is quick with a violent temper, but also one who never cheats and strictly follows all of the NCAA's rules. Two years later, author Joan Mellen penned the book "Bob Knight: His Own Man" (), in part to rebut Feinstein's "A Season on the Brink". Mellen deals with seemingly all the causes celebres in Knight's career and presents the view that he is more sinned against than sinning. In 1990, Robert P. Sulek wrote "Hoosier Honor: Bob Knight and Academic Success at Indiana University" which discusses the academic side of the basketball program. The book details all of the players that have played for Knight and what degree they earned.
A number of close associates and friends of Knight have also written books about him. Former player and current Nevada Wolf Pack head basketball coach Steve Alford wrote "Playing for Knight: My Six Seasons with Bobby Knight", published in 1990. Former player Kirk Haston wrote "Days of Knight: How the General Changed My Life," published in 2016. Knight's autobiography, written with longtime friend and sports journalist Bob Hammel, was titled "Knight: My Story" and published in 2003. Three years later Steve Delsohn and Mark Heisler wrote "Bob Knight: An Unauthorized Biography". In 2013, Knight and Bob Hammel published "The Power of Negative Thinking: An Unconventional Approach to Achieving Positive Results". Knight discussed his approach to preparing for a game by anticipating all of the things that could go wrong and trying to prevent it or having a plan to deal with it. In the book Knight also shared one of his favorite sayings, "Victory favors the team making the fewest mistakes." In 2017, sports reporter Terry Hutchens published "Following the General: Why Three Coaches Have Been Unable to Return Indiana Basketball to Greatness" which discussed Knight's coaching legacy with Indiana and how none of the coaches following him have been able to reach his level of success.
Film and television. Knight appeared or was featured in numerous films and television productions. In 1994 a feature film titled "Blue Chips" featured a character named Pete Bell, a volatile but honest college basketball coach under pressure to win who decides to blatantly violate NCAA rules to field a competitive team after a sub-par season. It starred Nick Nolte as Bell and NBA star Shaquille O'Neal as Neon Bodeaux, a once-in-a-lifetime player that boosters woo to his school with gifts and other perks. The coach's temper and wardrobe were modeled after Knight's, though at no time had Knight been known to illegally recruit. Knight himself appears in the film and coaches against Nolte in the film's climactic game. ESPN's first feature-length film was "A Season on the Brink", a 2002 TV adaptation from John Feinstein's book. In the film Knight is played by Brian Dennehy. ESPN also featured Knight in a reality show titled "Knight School", which followed a handful of Texas Tech students as they competed for the right to join the basketball team as a non-scholarship player.
Knight made a cameo appearance as himself in the 2003 film "Anger Management". In 2008, Knight appeared in a commercial as part of Volkswagen's Das Auto series where Max, a 1964 black Beetle, interviews famous people. When Knight talked about Volkswagen winning the best resale value award in 2008, Max replied, "At least one of us is winning a title this year." This prompted Knight to throw his chair off the stage and walk out saying, "I may not be retired." Knight also made an appearance in a TV commercial for "" and "Risky Business" with fellow coaches Mike Krzyzewski, Rick Pitino, and Roy Williams. In 2009, Knight produced three instructional coaching DVD libraries—on motion offense, man-to-man defense, and instilling mental toughness—with Championship Productions. Personal life and death. Knight married the former Nancy Falk on April 17, 1963. They had two sons, Tim and Pat. The couple divorced in 1985. Pat played at Indiana from 1991 to 1995 and was head coach at Lamar from the time of his father's retirement until he was dismissed in 2014. Pat Knight coached Texas Tech after his father's retirement before he moved to Lamar. In 1988, Knight married his second wife, Karen Vieth Edgar, a former Oklahoma high school basketball coach.
Knight had a high regard for education and made generous donations to the schools he was a part of, particularly libraries. At Indiana University Knight endowed two chairs, one in history and one in law. He also raised nearly $5 million for the Indiana University library system by championing a library fund to support the library's activities. The fund was ultimately named in his honor. When Knight came to Texas Tech in 2001, he gave $10,000 to the library, while his wife gave $25,000, donations which included the first gifts to the Coach Knight Library Fund which has now collected over $300,000. Later, in 2005, Knight donated an additional $40,000 to the library. On November 29, 2007, the Texas Tech library honored this with "A Legacy of Giving: The Bob Knight Exhibit". On April 18, 2011, video surfaced showing Knight responding to a question concerning John Calipari and Kentucky's men's basketball team by stating that in the previous season, Kentucky made an Elite Eight appearance with "five players who had not attended a single class that semester." These claims were later disproven by the university and the players in question, including Patrick Patterson, who graduated in three years, and John Wall, who finished the semester with a 3.5 GPA. Knight later apologized for his comments stating, "My overall point is that 'one-and-dones' are not healthy for college basketball. I should not have made it personal to Kentucky and its players and I apologize." Knight supported Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and later made an appearance at his rally in Indianapolis for the 2018 midterms. At the rally, Knight called Trump "a great defender of the United States of America". Knight died in Bloomington, Indiana, on November 1, 2023, at age 83.
Black metal Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emphasis on atmosphere. Artists often appear in corpse paint and adopt pseudonyms. Venom initiated the genre's first wave, with their second album "Black Metal" (1982) giving it its name. In the subsequent years, the style was expanded by Bathory, Mercyful Fate, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. By 1987, this wave had largely declined, however influential works continued to be released by Parabellum, Blasphemy, Sarcófago, Tormentor, Samael and Rotting Christ. A second wave arose in the early 1990s, spearheaded by bands in the early Norwegian black metal scene scene, such as Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Emperor, Satyricon and Gorgoroth. This wave developed other scenes at the same time in Finland (Beherit, Archgoat, Impaled Nazarene); Sweden (Dissection, Abruptum, Marduk, Nifelheim); the United States (Profanatica, Demoncy, Grand Belial's Key, Judas Iscariot); France (Mütiilation, Vlad Tepes); as well as leading to the formation of influential bands in other countries including Sigh and Cradle of Filth.
Initially a synonym for "Satanic metal", black metal has often sparked controversy, due to the actions and ideologies associated with the genre. Some artists express misanthropic views, and others advocate various forms of extreme anti-Christian sentiment, Satanism, or ethnic paganism. In the 1990s, members of the scene were responsible for a spate of church burnings and murders. There is also a neo-Nazi movement within black metal, although it has been shunned by many prominent artists. Generally, black metal strives to remain an underground phenomenon. Characteristics. Although "contemporary black metal" typically refers to the Norwegian style with shrieking vocals and raw production, the term has traditionally been applied to bands with widely differing sounds, such as Death SS, Mercyful Fate, Mayhem, Blasphemy, and the Greek and Finnish bands that emerged around the same time as the Norwegian scene. Instrumentation and song structure. Manish Agarwal of "Time Out" describes black metal as "a cult strain of ultra-thrash" characterized by "icy noise." Norwegian-inspired black metal guitarists usually favor high-pitched or trebly guitar tones and heavy distortion. The guitar is usually played with fast, un-muted tremolo picking and power chords. Guitarists often use dissonance—along with specific scales, intervals and chord progressions—to create a sense of dread. The tritone, or flat-fifth, is often used. Guitar solos and low guitar tunings are rare in black metal. The bass guitar is seldom used to play stand-alone melodies. It is common for the bass to be muted against the guitar, or for it to homophonically follow the low-pitched riffs of the guitar. While electronic keyboards are not a standard instrument, some bands, like Dimmu Borgir, use keyboards "in the background" or as "proper instruments" for creating atmosphere. Some newer black metal bands began raising their production quality and introducing additional instruments such as synthesizers and even orchestras.
The drumming is usually fast and relies on double-bass and blast beats to maintain tempos that can sometimes approach 300 beats per minute. These fast tempos require great skill and physical stamina, typified by black metal drummers Frost (Kjetil-Vidar Haraldstad) and Hellhammer (Jan Axel Blomberg). Even still, authenticity is still prioritized over technique. "This professionalism has to go," insists well-respected drummer and metal historian Fenriz (Gylve Fenris Nagell) of Darkthrone. "I want to "de-learn" playing drums, I want to play primitive and simple, I don't want to play like a drum solo all the time and make these complicated riffs". Black metal songs often stray from conventional song structure and often lack clear verse-chorus sections. Instead, many black metal songs contain lengthy and repetitive instrumental sections. The Greek style—established by Rotting Christ, Necromantia and Varathron—has more death metal traits than Norwegian black metal. Vocals and lyrics. Traditional black metal bands tend to favor raspy, high-pitched vocals which include techniques such as shrieking, screaming, and snarling, a vocal style influenced by Quorthon of Bathory. Death growls, common in the death metal genre, are sometimes used, but less frequently than the characteristic black metal shriek.
Manish Agarwal of "Time Out" describes the lyrical content of black metal as "sacrilegious bile." Typically, lyrics within the genre decry Christianity and the other institutional religions, often using apocalyptic language and evoking anti-authoritarianism and anti-establishment messages against religious governments and societies. Satanic lyrics are common, and many see them as essential to black metal. For Satanist black metal artists, "Black metal songs are meant to be like Calvinist sermons; deadly serious attempts to unite the true believers". Misanthropy, global catastrophe, war, death and rebirth are also common themes. Another topic often found in black metal lyrics is that of the wild and extreme aspects and phenomena of the natural world, particularly the wilderness, forests, mountains, winter, storms, and blizzards. Black metal also has a fascination with the distant past. Many bands write about the mythology and folklore of their homelands and promote a revival of pre-Christian, pagan traditions. A significant number of bands write lyrics only in their native language and a few (e.g. Arckanum and early Ulver) have lyrics in archaic languages. Some doom metal-influenced artists' lyrics focus on depression, nihilism, introspection, self-harm and suicide.
Imagery and performances. Many bands choose not to play live. Many of those who do play live maintain that their performances "are not for entertainment or spectacle. Sincerity, authenticity and extremity are valued above all else". Some bands consider their concerts to be rituals and often make use of stage props and theatrics. Bands such as Mayhem, Gorgoroth, and Watain are noted for their controversial shows, which have featured impaled animal heads, mock crucifixions, medieval weaponry and band members doused in animal blood. A few vocalists, such as Dead, Maniac and Kvarforth, are known for cutting themselves while singing onstage. Black metal artists often appear dressed in black with combat boots, bullet belts, spiked wristbands and inverted crosses and inverted pentagrams to reinforce their anti-Christian or anti-religious stance. However, the most widely-known trait is their use of corpse paint—black and white face paint sometimes mixed with real or fake blood, which is used to create a corpse-like or demonic appearance.
The imagery of black metal reflects its lyrics and ideology. In the early 1990s, most pioneering black metal artists had minimalist album covers featuring xeroxed black-and-white pictures and/or writing. This was partly a reaction against death metal bands, who at that time had begun to use brightly colored album artwork. Many purist black metal artists have continued this style. Black metal album covers are typically dark and tend to be atmospheric or provocative; some feature natural or fantasy landscapes (for example Burzum's "Filosofem" and Emperor's "In the Nightside Eclipse") while others are violent, sexually transgressive, sacrilegious, or iconoclastic (for example Marduk's "Fuck Me Jesus" and Dimmu Borgir's "In Sorte Diaboli"). Production. The earliest black metal artists had very limited resources, which meant that recordings were often made in homes or basements, giving their recordings a distinctive "lo-fi" quality. However, even when success allowed access to professional studios, many artists instead chose to continue making lo-fi recordings. Artists believed that by doing so, they would both stay true to the genre's underground roots as well as make the music sound more "raw" or "cold". A well-known example of this approach is on the album "Transilvanian Hunger" by Darkthrone, a band who Johnathan Selzer of "Terrorizer" magazine says "represent the DIY aspect of black metal." In addition, lo-fi production was used to keep black metal inaccessible or unappealing to mainstream music fans and those who are not committed. Many have claimed that black metal was originally intended only for those who were part of the scene and not for a wider audience. Former Gorgoroth vocalist Gaahl stated his belief that during the genre's infancy, black metal "was never meant to reach [a wide] audience," and that creating it was "purely for [the members of the scene's] own satisfaction."
History. Roots. Occult and Satanic lyrical themes were present in the music of heavy metal and rock bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s such as Black Sabbath and Coven. In the late 1970s, the form of rough and aggressive heavy metal played by the British band Motörhead gained popularity. Many first-wave black metal bands cited Motörhead as an influence. Also popular in the late 1970s, punk rock came to influence the birth of black metal. Tom G. Warrior of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost credited English punk group Discharge as "a revolution, much like Venom", saying, "When I heard the first two Discharge records, I was blown away. I was just starting to play an instrument and I had no idea you could go so far." The use of corpse paint in the black metal imagery was mainly influenced by the American 1970s rock band Kiss. First wave (1982–1990). The term "black metal" was coined by the English band Venom with their second album "Black Metal" (1982). Playing a style bordering speed metal or thrash metal, the album initiated the first wave of black metal, forming an early prototype for the genre. The band introduced many tropes that became ubiquitous in the genre, such as blasphemous lyrics and imagery, as well as stage names, costumes and face paint meant to strike fear. During this first wave of bands, distinct borders of the genre had not been set, instead, black metal bands existed in a broader extreme metal umbrella alongside the earliest groups in death metal, grindcore and thrash metal.
Hellhammer, from Switzerland, "made truly raw and brutal music" with Satanic lyrics, and became an important influence on later black metal; "Their simple yet effective riffs and fast guitar sound were groundbreaking, anticipating the later trademark sound of early Swedish death metal". In 1984, members of Hellhammer formed Celtic Frost, whose music "explored more orchestral and experimental territories. The lyrics also became more personal, with topics about inner feelings and majestic stories. But for a couple of years, Celtic Frost was one of the world's most extreme and original metal bands, with a huge impact on the mid-1990s black metal scene". Another influential early band was Bathory from Sweden. The band, led by Thomas Forsberg (a.k.a. Quorthon), created "the blueprint for Scandinavian black metal". Not only was Bathory's music dark, fast, heavily distorted, lo-fi and with anti-Christian themes, Quorthon was also the first to use the shrieked vocals that later became a common trait. Their third album "Under the Sign of the Black Mark" (1987) was the first record in the genre to subvert most traditional rock tropes, in a way that led journalist Dayal Patterson that "undoubtedly... create[d] the black metal sound as we know it".
The Danish band Mercyful Fate influenced the Norwegian scene with their imagery and lyrics. Frontman King Diamond, who wore ghoulish black-and-white facepaint on stage, may be one of the inspirators of what became known as 'corpse paint'. Other artists that were a part of this wave included Germany's Kreator, Sodom and Destruction (from Germany), Italy's Bulldozer and Death SS, Japan's Sabbat and Colombia's Parabellum. In 1987, in the fifth issue of his "Slayer" fanzine, Jon 'Metalion' Kristiansen wrote that "the latest fad of black/Satanic bands seems to be over", citing United States bands Incubus and Morbid Angel, as well as Sabbat from Great Britain as some of the few continuing the genre. However, black metal continued in the underground, with scenes developing in Brazil with Sepultura, Vulcano, Holocausto and Sarcófago, Czechoslovakia with Root, Törr and Master's Hammer, and Sweden with Grotesque, Merciless, Mefisto, Tiamat and Morbid. Sarcófago's debut album "I.N.R.I." (1987), was widely influential on subsequent acts in the genre, especially the second wave Norwegian scene and groups in the war metal style. "BrooklynVegan" writer Kim Kelly calling it "a gigantic influence on black metal's sound, aesthetics, and attitude." Furthermore, during this time other influential records in the genre were released by Von (from the United States), Rotting Christ (from Greece), Tormentor (from Hungary), Mortuary Drape (from Italy), Kat (from Poland), Samael (from Switzerland) and Blasphemy (from Canada). Blasphemy's debut album "Fallen Angel of Doom" (1990) is considered one of the most influential records for the war metal style. Fenriz of the Norwegian band Darkthrone called Master's Hammer's debut album "Ritual" "the first Norwegian black metal album, even though they are from Czechoslovakia". It was only during this post–1987 era of bands that the various extreme metal styles began to develop definitions distinct from one another, and the borders of what now consistues black metal were drawn.
Second wave (1991–1997). The second wave of black metal began in 1991, with "Rock Hard" magazine crediting Samael's "Worship Him" (1 April 1991) as its beginnings, while, "Metal Hammer" writer Enrico Ahlig cited it as beginning with the 8 April 1991 suicide of Mayhem vocalist Dead. Norwegian scene. During , a number of Norwegian artists began performing and releasing a new kind of black metal music; this included Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Emperor, Satyricon, Enslaved, Thorns, and Gorgoroth. They developed the style of their 1980s forebears into a distinct genre. This was partly thanks to a new kind of guitar playing developed by Snorre 'Blackthorn' Ruch and Øystein 'Euronymous' Aarseth. Fenriz of Darkthrone described it as being "derived from Bathory" and noted that "those kinds of riffs became the new order for a lot of bands in the '90s". The wearing of corpse paint became standard, and was a way for many black metal artists to distinguish themselves from other metal bands of the era. The scene also had an ideology and ethos. Artists were bitterly opposed to Christianity and presented themselves as misanthropic Devil worshippers who wanted to spread terror, hatred and evil. They professed to be serious in their views and vowed to act on them. Ihsahn of Emperor said that they sought to "create fear among people" and "be in opposition to society". The scene was exclusive and created boundaries around itself, incorporating only those who were "true" and attempting to expel all "poseurs". Some members of the scene were responsible for a spate of church burnings and murder, which eventually drew attention to it and led to a number of artists being imprisoned.
Dead's suicide. On 8 April 1991, Mayhem vocalist Per "Dead" Ohlin committed suicide while left alone in a house shared by the band. Fellow musicians described Dead as odd, introverted and depressed. Mayhem's drummer, Hellhammer, said that Dead was the first to wear the distinctive corpse paint that became widespread in the scene. He was found with slit wrists and a shotgun wound to the head. Dead's suicide note began with "Excuse all the blood", and apologized for firing the weapon indoors. Before calling the police, Euronymous got a disposable camera and photographed the body, after re-arranging some items. One of these photographs was later used as the cover of a bootleg live album, "Dawn of the Black Hearts". Euronymous made necklaces with bits of Dead's skull and gave some to musicians he deemed worthy. Rumors also spread that he had made a stew with bits of his brain. Euronymous used Dead's suicide to foster Mayhem's evil image and claimed Dead had killed himself because extreme metal had become trendy and commercialized. Mayhem bassist Jørn 'Necrobutcher' Stubberud noted that "people became more aware of the black metal scene after Dead had shot himself ... I think it was Dead's suicide that really changed the scene".
Two other members of the early Norwegian scene later committed suicide: Erik 'Grim' Brødreskift (of Immortal, Borknagar, Gorgoroth) in 1999 and Espen 'Storm' Andersen (of Strid) in 2001. Helvete and Deathlike Silence. During May–June 1991, Euronymous of Mayhem opened an independent record shop named "Helvete" (Norwegian for "Hell") at Schweigaards gate 56 in Oslo. It quickly became the focal point of Norway's emerging black metal scene and a meeting place for many of its musicians; especially the members of Mayhem, Burzum, Emperor and Thorns. Jon 'Metalion' Kristiansen, writer of the fanzine "Slayer", said that the opening of Helvete was "the creation of the whole Norwegian black metal scene". In its basement, Euronymous founded an independent record label named Deathlike Silence Productions. With the rising popularity of his band and others like it, the underground success of Euronymous's label is often credited for encouraging other record labels, who had previously shunned black metal acts, to then reconsider and release their material.
Church burnings. In 1992, members of the Norwegian black metal scene began a wave of arson attacks on Christian churches. By 1996, there had been at least 50 such attacks in Norway. Some of the buildings were hundreds of years old and seen as important historical landmarks. The first to be burnt down was Norway's Fantoft Stave Church. Police believe Varg Vikernes of Burzum was responsible. The cover of Burzum's EP "Aske" ("ashes") is a photograph of the destroyed church. In May 1994, Vikernes was found guilty for burning down the Holmenkollen Chapel, Skjold Church, and Åsane Church. In addition, he was found guilty for an attempted arson of a fourth church, and for the theft and storage of 150 kg of explosives. To coincide with the release of Mayhem's "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas", Vikernes and Euronymous had also allegedly plotted to bomb the Nidaros Cathedral, which appears on the album cover. The musicians Faust, Samoth, (both of Emperor), and Jørn Inge Tunsberg (of Hades Almighty) were also convicted for church arsons. Members of the Swedish black metal scene started to burn churches as well in 1993.
Those convicted for church burnings showed no remorse and described their actions as a symbolic "retaliation" against Christianity in Norway. Mayhem drummer Hellhammer said he had called for attacks on mosques and Hindu temples, on the basis that they were more foreign. Today, opinions on the church burnings differ within the black metal community. Many musicians, singers, and songwriters in the early Norwegian black metal scene, such as Infernus and Gaahl of Gorgoroth, continue to praise the church burnings, with the latter saying "there should have been more of them, and there will be more of them". Others, such as Necrobutcher and Kjetil Manheim of Mayhem and Abbath of Immortal, see the church burnings as having been futile. Manheim claimed that many arsons were "just people trying to gain acceptance" within the black metal scene. Watain vocalist Erik Danielsson respected the attacks, but said of those responsible: "the only Christianity they defeated was the last piece of Christianity within themselves. Which is a very good beginning, of course".
Murder of Euronymous. In early 1993, animosity arose between Euronymous and Vikernes. On the night of 10 August 1993, Varg Vikernes (of Burzum) and Snorre 'Blackthorn' Ruch (of Thorns) drove from Bergen to Euronymous's apartment in Oslo. When they arrived a confrontation began and Vikernes stabbed Euronymous to death. His body was found outside the apartment with 23 cut wounds—two to the head, five to the neck, and sixteen to the back. It has been speculated that the murder was the result of either a power struggle, a financial dispute over Burzum records or an attempt at outdoing a stabbing in Lillehammer the year before by Faust. Vikernes denies all of these, claiming that he attacked Euronymous in self-defense. He says that Euronymous had plotted to stun him with an electroshock weapon, tie him up and torture him to death while videotaping the event. He said Euronymous planned to use a meeting about an unsigned contract to ambush him. Vikernes claims he intended to hand Euronymous the signed contract that night and "tell him to fuck off", but that Euronymous panicked and attacked him first. He also claims that most of the cuts were from broken glass Euronymous had fallen on during the struggle. The self-defense story is doubted by Faust, while Necrobutcher confirmed that Vikernes killed Euronymous in self-defense due to the death threats he received from him.
Vikernes was arrested on 19 August 1993, in Bergen. Many other members of the scene were taken in for questioning around the same time. Some of them confessed to their crimes and implicated others. In May 1994, Vikernes was sentenced to 21 years in prison (Norway's maximum penalty) for the murder of Euronymous, the arson of four churches, and for possession of 150 kg of explosives. However, he only confessed to the latter. Two churches were burnt the day he was sentenced, "presumably as a statement of symbolic support". Vikernes smiled when his verdict was read and the picture was widely reprinted in the news media. Blackthorn was sentenced to eight years in prison for being an accomplice to the murder. That month saw the release of Mayhem's album "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas", which featured Euronymous on guitar and Vikernes on bass guitar. Euronymous's family had asked Mayhem's drummer, Hellhammer, to remove the bass tracks recorded by Vikernes, but Hellhammer said: "I thought it was appropriate that the murderer and victim were on the same record. I put word out that I was re-recording the bass parts. But I never did". In 2003, Vikernes failed to return to Tønsberg prison after being given a short leave. He was re-arrested shortly after while driving a stolen car with various weapons. Vikernes was released on parole in 2009.
Outside of Norway. Japanese band Sigh formed in 1990 and was in regular contact with key members of the Norwegian scene. Their debut album, "Scorn Defeat", became "a cult classic in the black metal world". In 1990 and 1991, Northern European metal acts began to release music influenced by these bands or the older ones from the first wave. In Sweden, this included Dissection, Abruptum, Marduk, and Nifelheim. In Finland, there emerged a scene that mixed the first-wave black metal style with elements of death metal and grindcore; this included Beherit, Archgoat and Impaled Nazarene, whose debut album "Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz" Rock Hard journalist Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann considers a part of war metal's roots. Bands such as Demoncy and Profanatica emerged during this time in the United States, when death metal was more popular among extreme metal fans. The Norwegian band Mayhem's concert in Leipzig with Eminenz and Manos in 1990, later released as "Live in Leipzig", was said to have had a strong influence on the East German scene and is even called the unofficial beginning of German black metal.
Black metal scenes also emerged on the European mainland during the early 1990s, inspired by the Norwegian scene or the older bands, or both. In Poland, a scene was spearheaded by Graveland and Behemoth. In France, a close-knit group of musicians known as Les Légions Noires emerged; this included artists such as Mütiilation, Vlad Tepes, Belketre and Torgeist. In Belgium, there were acts such as Ancient Rites and Enthroned. Bands such as Black Funeral, Grand Belial's Key and Judas Iscariot emerged during this time in the United States. Black Funeral, from Houston, formed in 1993, was associated with black magic and Satanism. A notable black metal group in England was Cradle of Filth, who released three demos in a black/death metal style with symphonic flourishes, followed by the album "The Principle of Evil Made Flesh", which featured a then-unusual hybrid style of black and gothic metal. The band then abandoned black metal for gothic metal, becoming one of the most successful extreme metal bands to date. John Serba of AllMusic commented that their first album "made waves in the early black metal scene, putting Cradle of Filth on the tips of metalheads' tongues, whether in praise of the band's brazen attempts to break the black metal mold or in derision for its 'commercialization' of an underground phenomenon that was proud of its grimy heritage". Some black metal fans did not consider Cradle of Filth to be black metal. When asked if he considers Cradle of Filth a black metal band, vocalist Dani Filth said he considers them black metal in terms of philosophy and atmosphere, but not in other ways. Another English band called Necropolis never released any music, but "began a desecratory assault against churches and cemeteries in their area" and "almost caused Black Metal to be banned in Britain as a result". Dayal Patterson says successful acts like Cradle of Filth "provoked an even greater extremity [of negative opinion] from the underground" scene due to concerns about "selling out".
The controversy surrounding the Thuringian band Absurd drew attention to the German black metal scene. In 1993, the members murdered a boy from their school, Sandro Beyer. A photo of Beyer's gravestone is on the cover of one of their demos, "Thuringian Pagan Madness", along with pro-Nazi statements. It was recorded in prison and released in Poland by Graveland drummer Capricornus. The band's early music was more influenced by Oi! and Rock Against Communism (RAC) than by black metal, and described as being "more akin to '60s garage punk than some of the […] Black Metal of their contemporaries". Alexander von Meilenwald from German band Nagelfar considers Ungod's 1993 debut "Circle of the Seven Infernal Pacts", Desaster's 1994 demo "Lost in the Ages", Tha-Norr's 1995 album "Wolfenzeitalter", Lunar Aurora's 1996 debut "Weltengänger" and Katharsis's 2000 debut "666" to be the most important recordings for the German scene. He said they were "not necessarily the best German releases, but they all kicked off something".
After the second wave (1998–present). In the beginning of the second wave, the different scenes developed their own styles; as Alan 'Nemtheanga' Averill says, "you had the Greek sound and the Finnish sound, and the Norwegian sound, and there was German bands and Swiss bands and that kind of thing." By the mid-1990s, the style of the Norwegian scene was being adopted by bands worldwide, and in 1998, "Kerrang!" journalist Malcolm Dome said that "black metal as we know it in 1998 owes more to Norway and to Scandinavia than any other particular country". Newer black metal bands also began raising their production quality and introducing additional instruments such as synthesizers and even full-symphony orchestras. By the late 1990s, the underground concluded that several of the Norwegian pioneers—like Emperor, Immortal, Dimmu Borgir, Ancient, Covenant/The Kovenant, and Satyricon—had commercialized or sold out to the mainstream and "big bastard labels." Dayal Patterson states that successful acts like Dimmu Borgir "provoked and even greater extremity [of negative opinion] from the underground" regarding the view that these bands had "sold out."
After Euronymous's death, "some bands went more towards the Viking metal and epic style, while some bands went deeper into the abyss." Since 1993, the Swedish scene had carried out church burnings, grave desecration, and other violent acts. In 1995, Jon Nödtveidt of Dissection joined the Misanthropic Luciferian Order (MLO). In 1997, he and another MLO member were arrested and charged with shooting dead a 37-year-old man. It was said he was killed "out of anger" because he had "harassed" the two men. Nödtveidt received a 10-year sentence. As the victim was a homosexual immigrant, Dissection was accused of being a Nazi band, but Nödtveidt denied this and dismissed racism and nationalism. The Swedish band Shining, founded in 1996, began writing music almost exclusively about depression and suicide, musically inspired by Strid and by Burzum's albums "Hvis lyset tar oss" and "Filosofem". Vocalist Niklas Kvarforth wanted to "force-feed" his listeners "with self-destructive and suicidal imagery and lyrics." In the beginning, he used the term "suicidal black metal" for his music. However, he stopped using the term in 2001 because it had begun to be used by a slew of other bands, whom he felt had misinterpreted his vision and were using the music as a kind of therapy rather than a weapon against the listener as Kvarforth intended. He said that he "wouldn't call Shining a black metal band" and called the "suicidal black metal" term a "foolish idea."
According to Erik Danielsson, when his band Watain formed in 1998, there were very few bands who took black metal as seriously as the early Norwegian scene had. A newer generation of Swedish Satanic bands like Watain and Ondskapt, inspired by Ofermod, the new band of Nefandus member Belfagor, put this scene "into a new light." Kvarforth said, "It seems like people actually [got] afraid again." "The current Swedish black metal scene has a particularly ambitious and articulate understanding of mysticism and its validity to black metal. Many Swedish black metal bands, most notably Watain and Dissection, are [or were] affiliated with the Temple of the Black Light, or Misanthropic Luciferian Order […] a Theistic, Gnostic, Satanic organization based in Sweden". Upon his release in 2004, Jon Nödtveidt restarted Dissection with new members whom he felt were able to "stand behind and live up to the demands of Dissection's Satanic concept." He started calling Dissection "the sonic propaganda unit of the MLO" and released a third full-length album, "Reinkaos". The lyrics contain magical formulae from the "Liber Azerate" and are based on the organization's teachings. After the album's release and a few concerts, Nödtveidt said that he had "reached the limitations of music as a tool for expressing what I want to express, for myself and the handful of others that I care about" and disbanded Dissection before dying by suicide.
A part of the underground scene adopted a Jungian interpretation of the church burnings and other acts of the early scene as the re-emergence of ancient archetypes, which Kadmon of Allerseelen and the authors of "Lords of Chaos" had implied in their writings. They mixed this interpretation with Paganism and Nationalism. Varg Vikernes was seen as "an ideological messiah" by some, although Vikernes had disassociated himself from black metal and his neo-Nazism had nothing to do with that subculture. This led to the rise of National Socialist black metal (NSBM), which Hendrik Möbus of Absurd calls "the logical conclusion" of the Norwegian black metal "movement". Other parts of the scene oppose NSBM as it is "indelibly linked with Asá Trŭ and opposed to Satanism", or look upon Nazism "with vague skepticism and indifference". Members of the NSBM scene, among others, see the Norwegian bands as poseurs whose "ideology is cheap", although they still respect Vikernes and Burzum, whom Grand Belial's Key vocalist Richard Mills called "the only Norwegian band that remains unapologetic and literally convicted of his beliefs."
In France, besides Les Légions Noires (The Black Legions), an NSBM scene arose. Members of French band Funeral desecrated a grave in Toulon in June 1996, and a 19-year-old black metal fan stabbed a priest to death in Mulhouse on Christmas Eve 1996. According to MkM of Antaeus and Aosoth, the early French scene "was quite easy to divide: either you were NSBM, and you had the support from zine and the audience, or you were part of the black legions, and you had that 'cult' aura", whereas his band Antaeus, not belonging to either of these sub-scenes, "did not fit anywhere." Many French bands, like Deathspell Omega and Aosoth, have an avantgarde approach and a disharmonic sound that is representative of that scene.
In Australia, a scene led by bands like Deströyer 666, Vomitor, Hobbs' Angel of Death, Nocturnal Graves and Gospel of the Horns arose. This scene's typical style is a mixture of old school black metal and raw thrash metal influenced by old Celtic Frost, Bathory, Venom, and Sodom but also with its own elements. Melechesh was formed in Jerusalem in 1993, "the first overtly anti-Christian band to exist in one of the holiest cities in the world". Melechesh began as a straightforward black metal act with their first foray into folk metal occurring on their 1996 EP "The Siege of Lachish". Their subsequent albums straddled black, death, and thrash metal. Another band, Arallu, was formed in the late 1990s and has relationships with Melechesh and Salem. Melechesh and Arallu perform a style they call "Mesopotamian Black Metal", a blend of black metal and Mesopotamian folk music. Since the 2000s, a number of anti-Islamic and anti-religious black metal bands—whose members come from Muslim backgrounds—have emerged in the Middle East. Janaza, believed to be Iraq's first female black metal artist, released the demo "Burning Quran Ceremony" in 2010. Its frontwoman, Anahita, claimed her parents and brother were killed by a suicide bomb during the Iraq War. Another Iraqi band, Seeds of Iblis, also fronted by Anahita, released their debut EP "Jihad Against Islam" in 2011 through French label Legion of Death. Metal news website Metalluminati suggests that their claims of being based in Iraq are a hoax. These bands, along with Tadnees (from Saudi Arabia), Halla (from Iran), False Allah (from Bahrain), and Mosque of Satan (from Lebanon), style themselves as the "Arabic Anti-Islamic Legion". Another Lebanese band, Ayat, drew much attention with their debut album "Six Years of Dormant Hatred", released through North American label Moribund Records in 2008. Some European bands have also begun expressing anti-Islamic views, most notably the Norwegian band Taake.
Stylistic divisions. Regarding the sound of black metal, there are two conflicting groups within the genre: "those that stay true to the genre's roots, and those that introduce progressive elements". The former believe that the music should always be minimalist—performed only with the standard guitar-bass-drums setup and recorded in a low fidelity style. One supporter of this train of thought is Blake Judd of Nachtmystium, who has rejected labeling his band black metal for its departure from the genre's typical sound. Snorre Ruch of Thorns, on the other hand, has said that modern black metal is "too narrow" and believes that this was "not the idea at the beginning". Since the 1990s, different styles of black metal have emerged and some have melded Norwegian-style black metal with other genres: Ambient black metal. Ambient black metal is a style of black metal that relies on heavy incorporation of atmospheric, sometimes dreamy textures, and is therefore less aggressive. It often features synthesizers or classical instrumentation, typically for melody or ethereal "shimmering" over the wall of sound provided by the guitars. The music is usually slow to mid paced with rare blast beat usage, without any abrupt changes and generally features slowly developing, sometimes repetitive melodies and riffs, which separate it from other black metal styles. Subject matter usually concerns nature, folklore, mythology, and personal introspection. Artists include Summoning, Agalloch and Wolves in the Throne Room.
Black-doom. Black-doom, also known as blackened doom, is a style that combines the slowness and thicker, bassier sound of doom metal with the shrieking vocals and heavily distorted guitar sound of black metal. Black-doom bands maintain the Satanic ideology associated with black metal, while melding it with moodier themes more related to doom metal, like depression, nihilism and nature. They also use the slower pace of doom metal in order to emphasize the harsh atmosphere present in black metal. Examples of black-doom bands include Barathrum, Forgotten Tomb, Woods of Ypres, Deinonychus, Shining, Nortt, Bethlehem, early Katatonia, Tiamat, Dolorian, and October Tide. Depressive suicidal black metal. Pioneered by black-doom bands like Ophthalamia, Katatonia, Bethlehem, Forgotten Tomb and Shining, depressive suicidal black metal, also known as suicidal black metal, depressive black metal or DSBM, is a style that melds the second wave-style of black metal with doom metal, with lyrics revolving around themes such as depression, self-harm, misanthropy, suicide and death. DSBM bands draw on the lo-fi recording and highly distorted guitars of black metal, while employing the usage of acoustic instruments and non-distorted electric guitar timbres present in doom metal, interchanging the slower, doom-like, sections with faster tremolo picking. Vocals are usually high-pitched like in black metal, but lacking energy, simulating feelings like hopelessness, desperation, and entreaty. The presence of one-man bands is more prominent in this genre compared to others. Examples of bands include Xasthur, Leviathan, Strid, Silencer, Make a Change… Kill Yourself, Lifelover and I Shalt Become.
Black 'n' roll. Black 'n' roll is a style of black metal that incorporates elements from 1970s hard rock and rock and roll music. Examples of black 'n' roll bands include Carpathian Forest, Kvelertak, Vreid, and Khold. Bands such as Satyricon, Nachtmystium, Nidingr, Craft, and Sarke also experimented with the genre. Blackened crust. Crust punk groups, such as Antisect, Sacrilege and Anti System took some influence from early black metal bands like Venom, Hellhammer, and Celtic Frost, while Amebix's lead vocalist and guitarist sent his band's early demo tape to Cronos of Venom, who replied by saying "We'll rip you off." Similarly, Bathory was initially inspired by crust punk as well as heavy metal. Crust punk was affected by a second wave of black metal in the 1990s, with some bands emphasizing these black metal elements. Iskra are probably the most obvious example of second-wave black metal-influenced crust punk; Iskra coined their own phrase "blackened crust" to describe their new style. The Japanese group Gallhammer also fused crust punk with black metal while the English band Fukpig has been said to have elements of crust punk, black metal, and grindcore. North Carolina's Young and in the Way have been playing blackened crust since their formation in 2009. In addition, Norwegian band Darkthrone have incorporated crust punk traits in their more recent material. As Daniel Ekeroth wrote in 2008,
Many "red and anarchist black metal" (RABM) artists are influenced by crust punk or have a background in that scene. Blackened death-doom. Blackened death-doom is a genre that combines the slow tempos and monolithic drumming of doom metal, the complex and loud riffage of death metal and the shrieking vocals of black metal. Examples of blackened death-doom bands include Morast, Faustcoven, The Ruins of Beverast, Bölzer, Necros Christos, Harvest Gulgaltha, Dragged into Sunlight, Hands of Thieves, and Soulburn. Kim Kelly, journalist from Vice, has called Faustcoven as "one of the finest bands to ever successfully meld black, death, and doom metal into a cohesive, legible whole." Blackened death metal. Blackened death metal is commonly death metal that incorporates musical, lyrical or ideological elements of black metal, such as an increased use of tremolo picking, anti-Christian or Satanic lyrical themes and chord progressions similar to those used in black metal. Blackened death metal bands are also more likely to wear corpse paint and suits of armour, than bands from other styles of death metal. Lower range guitar tunings, death growls and abrupt tempo changes are common in the genre. Examples of blackened death metal bands are Belphegor, Behemoth, Akercocke, and Sacramentum.
Melodic black-death. Melodic black-death (also known as blackened melodic death metal or melodic blackened death metal) is a genre of extreme metal that describes the style created when melodic death metal bands began being inspired by black metal and European romanticism. However, unlike most other black metal, this take on the genre incorporated an increased sense of melody and narrative. Some bands who have played this style include Dissection, Sacramentum, Naglfar, God Dethroned, Dawn, Unanimated, Thulcandra, Skeletonwitch and Cardinal Sin. War metal. War metal (also known as war black metal or bestial black metal) is an aggressive, cacophonous, and chaotic subgenre of blackened death metal, described by Rock Hard journalist Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann as "rabid" and "hammering". Important influences include early black and death metal bands, such as Sodom, Possessed, Autopsy, Sarcófago, and the first two Sepultura releases, as well as seminal grindcore acts like Repulsion. War metal bands include Blasphemy, Archgoat, Impiety, and Bestial Warlust.
Blackened grindcore. Blackened grindcore is a fusion genre that combines elements of black metal and grindcore. Notable bands include Anaal Nathrakh and early Rotting Christ. Blackened thrash metal. Blackened thrash metal, also known as black-thrash, is a fusion genre that combines elements of black metal and thrash metal. Being considered one of the first fusions of extreme metal, it was inspired by bands such as Venom, Sodom, and Sarcófago. Notable bands include Aura Noir, Witchery, Black Fast, Sathanas, and Deströyer 666. Folk black metal, pagan metal, and Viking metal. Folk black metal, pagan metal and Viking metal are styles that incorporates elements of folk music, with pagan metal bands focusing on pagan lyrics and imagery, and Viking metal bands giving thematic focus on Norse mythology, Norse paganism, and the Viking Age, more influenced by Nordic folk music. While not focused on Satanism, the bands' use of ancient folklore and mythologies still express anti-Christian views, with folk black metal doing it as part of a "rebellion to the status quo", that developed concurrently along with the rise of folk metal in Europe in the 1990s, Notable artist include Negură Bunget, Windir, Primordial, In the Woods..., Cruachan, and Bathory, to whose albums "Blood Fire Death" (1988) and "Hammerheart" (1990) the origin of Viking metal can be traced.
Industrial black metal. Industrial black metal is a style of black metal that incorporates elements of industrial music. Mysticum, formed in 1991, was the first of these groups. DHG (Dødheimsgard), Thorns from Norway and Blut Aus Nord, N.K.V.D. and Blacklodge from France, have been acclaimed for their incorporation of industrial elements. Other industrial black metal musicians include Samael, The Axis of Perdition, Aborym, and ...And Oceans. In addition, The Kovenant, Mortiis and Ulver emerged from the Norwegian black metal scene, but later chose to experiment with industrial music. Post-black metal. Post-black metal is an umbrella term for genres that experiment beyond black metal's conventions and broaden their sounds, evolving past the genre's limits. Notable bands include Myrkur, Alcest, Bosse-de-Nage, and Wildernessking. Blackgaze. Blackgaze incorporates common black metal and post-black metal elements such as blast beat drumming and high-pitched screamed vocals with the melodic and heavily distorted guitar styles typically associated with shoegazing. It is associated with bands such as Deafheaven, Alcest, Vaura, Amesoeurs, Bosse-de-Nage, Oathbreaker, and Fen.
Psychedelic black metal. Psychedelic black metal is a subgenre of black metal which employs the usage of psychedelic elements. Notable acts include Oranssi Pazuzu, Nachtmystium, Deafheaven, Woe, Amesoeurs, and In the Woods... Raw black metal. Raw black metal is a subgenre that seeks to amplify the primitive qualities of the second wave of black metal, by giving priority to its lo-fi production values. To achieve this, bands under this style usually emphasize the usage of higher-pitches in their guitar sound and vocals, while employing techniques such as tremolo picking and blast beats more often. Its imagery is often associated with dystopic and minimalistic tendencies. The style was pioneered by Ildjarn, with other notable bands including Gorgoroth and Darkthrone. Symphonic black metal. Symphonic black metal is a style of black metal that incorporates symphonic and orchestral elements. This may include the usage of instruments found in symphony orchestras (piano, violin, cello, flute and keyboards), "clean" or operatic vocals and guitars with less distortion.
Notable bands include Emperor, Troll, Dimmu Borgir and Bal Sagoth. Ideology. Unlike other metal genres, black metal is associated with an ideology and ethos. It is fiercely opposed to Christianity and the other main institutional religions, Islam and Judaism. Many black metal bands are Satanists and see Satanism as a key part of black metal. Others advocate ethnic Paganism, "often coupled with nationalism", although the early Pagan bands did not call themselves 'black metal'. Black metal tends to be misanthropic and hostile to modern society. It is "a reaction against the mundanity, insincerity and emotional emptiness that participants feel is intrinsic to modern secular culture". The black metal scene tends to oppose political correctness, humanitarianism, consumerism, globalization and homogeneity. Aaron Weaver from Wolves in the Throne Room said: "I think that black metal is an artistic movement that is critiquing modernity on a fundamental level, saying that the modern world view is missing something". As part of this, some parts of the scene glorify nature and have a fascination with the distant past. Black metal has been likened to Romanticism and there is an undercurrent of romantic nationalism in the genre. Sam Dunn noted that "unlike any other heavy metal scene, the culture and the place is incorporated into the music and imagery". Individualism is also an important part of black metal, with Fenriz of Darkthrone describing black metal as "individualism above all". Unlike other kinds of metal, black metal has numerous one-man bands. However, it is argued that followers of Euronymous were anti-individualistic, and that "Black Metal is characterized by a conflict between radical individualism and group identity and by an attempt to accept both polarities simultaneously".
In his master's thesis, Benjamin Hedge Olson wrote that some artists can be seen as transcendentalists. Dissatisfied with a "world that they feel is devoid of spiritual and cultural significance", they try to leave or "transcend" their "mundane physical forms" and become one with the divine. This is done through their concerts, which he describes as "musical rituals" that involve self-mortification and taking on an alternative, "spiritual persona" (for example, by the wearing of costume and face paint). Generally, black metal strives to remain an underground phenomenon. Satanism. Black metal was originally a term for extreme metal bands with Satanic lyrics and imagery. However, most of the 'first wave' bands (including Venom, who coined the term 'black metal') were not Satanists; rather, they used Satanic themes to provoke controversy or gain attention. One of the few exceptions was Mercyful Fate singer and Church of Satan member King Diamond, whom Michael Moynihan calls "one of the only performers of the '80s Satanic metal who was more than just a poseur using a devilish image for shock value".
In the early 1990s, many Norwegian black-metallers presented themselves as genuine Devil worshippers. Mayhem's Euronymous was the key figure behind this. They attacked the Church of Satan for its "freedom and life-loving" views; the theistic Satanism they espoused was an inversion of Christianity. Benjamin Hedge Olson wrote that they "transform[ed] Venom's quasi-Satanic stage theatrics into a form of cultural expression unique from other forms of metal or Satanism" and "abandoned the mundane identities and ambitions of other forms of metal in favor of religious and ideological fanaticism". Some prominent scene members—such as Euronymous and Faust—stated that only bands who are Satanists can be called 'black metal'. Bands with a Norwegian style, but without Satanic lyrics, tended to use other names for their music. This view is still held by many artists—such as Infernus, Arioch, Nornagest and Erik Danielsson. Some bands, like the reformed Dissection and Watain, insist that all members must be of the same Satanic belief, whereas Michael Ford of Black Funeral and MkM of Antaeus believe black metal must be Satanic but not all band members need to be Satanists. Others—such as Jan Axel Blomberg, Sigurd Wongraven and Eric Horner—believe that black metal does not need to be Satanic. An article in Metalion's "Slayer" fanzine attacked musicians that "care more about their guitars than the actual essence onto which the whole concept was and is based upon", and insisted that "the music itself doesn't come as the first priority". Bands with a similar style but with Pagan lyrics tend to be referred to as 'Pagan Metal' by many 'purist' black-metallers.
Others shun Satanism, seeing it as Christian or "Judeo-Christian" in origin, and regard Satanists as perpetuating the "Judeo-Christian" worldview. Quorthon of Bathory said he used 'Satan' to provoke and attack Christianity. However, with his third and fourth albums, "Under the Sign of the Black Mark" and "Blood Fire Death", he began "attacking Christianity from a different angle", realizing that Satanism is a "Christian product". Nevertheless, some artists use Satan as a symbol or metaphor for their beliefs, such as LaVeyan Satanists (who are atheist). Vocalist Gaahl, who considers himself a Norse Shaman, said: "We use the word 'Satanist' because it is Christian world and we have to speak their language ... When I use the word 'Satan', it means the natural order, the will of a man, the will to grow, the will to become the superman". Varg Vikernes called himself a Satanist in early interviews but "now downplays his former interest in Satanism", saying he was using Satan as a symbol for Odin as the 'adversary' of the Christian God. He saw Satanism as "an introduction to more indigenous heathen beliefs". Some bands such as Carach Angren and Enslaved do not have Satanic lyrics.
Christianity. 'Unblack metal' (or 'Christian black metal') promotes Christianity through its lyrics and imagery. The first unblack metal record, "Hellig Usvart" (1994) by Australian artist Horde, was a provocative parody of Norwegian black metal. It sparked controversy, and death threats were issued against Horde. Norwegian Christian metal band Crush Evil adopted a black metal style in the late 1990s and were renamed Antestor. Many black-metallers see "Christian black metal" as an oxymoron and believe black metal cannot be Christian. In fact, the early unblack metal groups Horde and Antestor refused to call their music "black metal" because they did not share its ethos. Horde called its music "holy unblack metal" and Antestor called theirs "sorrow metal". Horde's Jayson Sherlock later said "I will never understand why Christians think they can play Black Metal. I really don't think they understand what true Black Metal is". However, current unblack metal bands such as Crimson Moonlight feel that black metal has changed from an ideological movement to a purely musical genre, and thus call their music 'black metal'.
Environmentalism. Black metal has a long tradition of environmentalism. Groups such as Botanist and Wolves in the Throne Room have been described as exemplifying radical environmentalism. Politics. A wide range of political views are found in the black metal scene. Black metal is generally not political music and the vast majority of bands do not express their political views. The genre is seen more as "fantastical escapism". Artists usually see themselves as merely depicting the "macabre nature of the world" as opposed to what they see as the "preachiness" of genres like hardcore punk. Ihsahn of Emperor explained: "I see it much more as an atmospheric and emotional thing rather than a political one. Hardcore bands can deal with political things; black metal is something else". However, some black metal artists promote political ideologies. National Socialist black metal (NSBM) promotes neo-Nazi or far-right politics through its lyrics and imagery. It is "distinguished only by ideology, not musical character". Artists typically meld neo-Nazism with ethnic European paganism; however, a few meld these beliefs with Satanism or occultism. Some commentators see it as a natural development of the "black metal worldview". Members of the early Norwegian scene flirted with Nazi themes, but this was largely for shock value and to provoke. Varg Vikernes—who now refers to his ideology as 'Odalism'—is credited with popularizing such views within the scene. Some bands blend Nazism and Satanism by voicing support for fascist satanist groups like the Order of Nine Angles. Bands that have featured ONA ideology and symbolism in their albums include Hvile I Kaos, Altar of Perversion, Aosoth and Spear of Longinus.
NSBM artists are a small minority within the genre. While some black metal fans boycott Neo-Nazi artists, others are indifferent or appreciate the music without supporting the musicians. NSBM has been criticized by some prominent and influential black metal artists—including Jon Nödtveidt, Gorgoroth, Dark Funeral, Richard Lederer, Michael Ford, and Arkhon Infaustus. Some liken Nazism to Christianity by arguing that both are authoritarian, collectivist, and a "herd mentality". Olson writes that the shunning of Nazism by some black-metallers "has nothing to do with notions of a 'universal humanity' or a rejection of hate" but that Nazism is shunned "because its hatred is too specific and exclusive". Partly in reaction to NSBM, a small number of artists began promoting left-wing politics such as anarchism or Marxism, creating a movement known as "Red and anarchist black metal" (RABM). Many artists have a background in anarchist crust punk. Artists labelled RABM include Iskra, Panopticon, Skagos, Storm of Sedition, Not A Cost, and Black Kronstadt. Some others with similar outlook, such as Wolves in the Throne Room, are not overtly political and do not endorse the label.
Bin Laden (disambiguation) Osama bin Laden (1957–2011) was a Saudi-born terrorist and the co-founder of al-Qaeda. bin Laden or Bin Laden may also refer to:
Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California, and a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Originally founded in 1991, the company is best known for producing the highly influential massively multiplayer online role-playing game "World of Warcraft" (2004) as well as the multi million-selling video game franchises "Diablo," "StarCraft", and "Overwatch". The company also operates Battle.net, an online gaming service. Founded as Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three graduates of the University of California, Los Angeles: Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham, and Frank Peace the company began development of their own software in 1993, with games like "Rock n' Roll Racing" and "The Lost Vikings", and changed its name to Chaos Studios, Inc. the same year, then to Blizzard Entertainment after being acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates in 1994; that year, the company released "", which would receive numerous sequels and led to the highly popular "World of Warcraft". By the end of the decade, Blizzard also found success with the action role-playing game "Diablo" (1997) and strategy game "StarCraft" (1998). The company became part of Vivendi Games in 1998, which would then merge with Activision in 2008, culminating in the inclusion of the Blizzard brand name in the title of the resulting holding company; Activision Blizzard became completely independent from Vivendi in 2013. Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard in 2023, maintaining that the company will continue to operate as a separate business, while part of the larger Microsoft Gaming division; Blizzard Entertainment retains its function as the publisher of games developed by their studios.
Since 2005, Blizzard Entertainment has hosted annual gaming conventions for fans to meet and to promote their games, called BlizzCon, as well as a number of global events outside the United States. In the 2010s and 2020s, Blizzard has continued development of expansion packs for "World of Warcraft" (the most recent being 2024's '), while also releasing ' (2017), "Diablo III" (2012) and "Diablo IV" (2023), as well as new material most notably the online multiplayer games "Hearthstone", a collectible card game; "Heroes of the Storm", a battle arena game; and "Overwatch" and "Overwatch 2", which are first-person shooters. Since 2018, the company's reputation has suffered from a series of poorly received games, controversies involving players and staff, and allegations of sexual harassment and other misconduct against leading Blizzard employees. History. Founding (1991–1994). Blizzard Entertainment was founded by Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham, and Frank Pearce as Silicon & Synapse in February 1991, after all three had earned their bachelor's degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles the year prior. The name "Silicon & Synapse" was a high concept from the three founders, with "silicon" representing the building block of a computer, while "synapse" the building block of the brain. The initial logo was created by Stu Rose. To fund the company, each of them contributed about $10,000, Morhaime borrowing the sum interest-free from his grandmother. Their offices were established in a business park near the University of California, Irvine in Irvine, California.
During the first two years, the company focused on creating game ports for other studios. Interplay Productions' Brian Fargo was friends with Adham and had a 10% stake in Silicon & Synapse. Fargo provided the company with conversion contacts for the games Interplay was publishing, starting with "Battle Chess". Other titles included Ports include titles such as "J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I" and "Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess". Fargo then enlisted Silicon & Synapse around 1991 to help develop "RPM Racing" that Interplay was preparing for the launch of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Fargo remained impressed with Silicon & Synapse's work, and provided them the ability to write their own games to be published by Interplay. The first two titles developed solely by the company were "Rock n' Roll Racing", a sequel to "RPM Racing", and "The Lost Vikings" inspired by "Lemmings". Around 1993, co-founder Adham told the other executives that he did not like the name "Silicon & Synapse" anymore, as outsiders were confusing the element silicon used in microchips with silicone polymer of breast implants. By the end of 1993, Adham changed the name to "Chaos Studios," reflecting on the haphazardness of their development processes.
Near this same time, the company started to explore options in publishing their own games, as their conversion contracts were not as lucrative for the company. Inspired by the multiplayer aspects of Westwood Studios' "Dune II" and the high fantasy setting of "The Lord of the Rings", the company began work on what would become "". Adham saw this as a start of a series of interconnected titles, similar to the "Gold Box" series by "Strategic Simulations". To support its development and keep the company afloat, the studio took several more conversion contracts, though the founders were going into debt to keep their twelve developers employed. Davidson & Associates, a company that published educational software and which had previously employed Silicon & Synapse for conversion contracts, made an offer to buy the company for $4 million. Interplay was negotiating to be the publisher for "Warcraft", and Fargo cautioned Adham and Morhaime against selling the company. Adham and Morhiame rejected Davidson & Associates' initial offer, but the company came back with another offer of $6.75 million (equivalent to $ million in ), assuring to the founders that they would have creative control over the games they developed. Adham and Morhaime accepted the offer in early 1994.
Shortly after the sale, they were contacted by a Florida company, Chaos Technologies, who claims their trademark rights on the name "Chaos" and wanted the company to pay () to keep the name. Not wanting to pay that sum, the executives decided to change the studio's name to "Ogre Studios" by April 1994. However, Davidson & Associates did not like this name, and forced the company to change it. According to Morhaime, Adham began running through a dictionary from the start, writing down any word that seemed interesting and passing it to the legal department to see if it had any complications. One of the first words they found to be interesting and cleared the legal check was "blizzard", leading them to change their name to "Blizzard Entertainment" by May 1994. "Warcraft" was released in November 1994, and within a year, helped to establish Blizzard among other development studios like Westwood. Acquisition by Vivendi and "World of Warcraft" (1995–2007). Blizzard Entertainment has changed hands several times since then. Davidson was acquired along with Sierra On-Line by a company called CUC International in 1996. CUC then merged with a hotel, real-estate, and car-rental franchiser called HFS Corporation to form Cendant in 1997. In 1998 it became apparent that CUC had engaged in accounting fraud for years before the merger. Cendant's stock lost 80% of its value over the next six months in the ensuing widely discussed accounting scandal. The company sold its consumer software operations, Sierra On-line (which included Blizzard) to French publisher Havas in 1998, the same year Havas was purchased by Vivendi. Blizzard, at this point numbering about 200 employees, became part of the Vivendi Games group of Vivendi.
In 1996, Blizzard Entertainment acquired Condor Games of San Mateo, California, which had been working on the action role-playing game (ARPG) "Diablo" for Blizzard at the time, and was led by David Brevik and brothers Max and Erick Schaefer. Condor was renamed Blizzard North, with Blizzard's existing Irvine studios colloquially referred as Blizzard South. "Diablo" was released at the very start of 1997 alongside Battle.net, a matchmaking service for the game. Blizzard North developed the sequel "Diablo II" (2000), and its expansion pack "" (2001). Following the success of ', Blizzard began development on a science fiction-themed RTS, "StarCraft", and released the title in March 1998. The title was the top-selling PC game for the year, and led to further growth of the Battle.net service and the use of the game for esports. Around 2000, Blizzard engaged with Nihilistic Software to work on a version of "StarCraft" for home consoles for Blizzard. Nihilisitic was co-founded by Robert Huebner, who had worked on "StarCraft" and other games while a Blizzard employee before leaving to found the studio. The game, ', was a stealth-oriented game compared to the RTS features of "StarCraft", and was a major feature of the 2002 Tokyo Game Show. However, over the next few years, the game entered development hell with conflicts between Nihilisitic and Blizzard on its direction. Blizzard ordered Nihilistic to stop work on "StarCraft: Ghost" in July 2004, and instead brought on Swingin' Ape Studios, a third-party studio that had just successfully released "" in 2003, to reboot the development of "Ghost". Blizzard fully acquired Swingin' Ape Studios in May 2005 to continue on "Ghost". However, while the game was scheduled to be released in 2005, it was targeted at the consoles of the sixth generation, such as the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox, while the industry was transitioning to the seventh generation. Blizzard decided to cancel "Ghost" rather than extend its development period to work on the newer consoles.
Blizzard started to work on a sequel to the "Warcraft II" in early 1998, which was announced as a "role-playing strategy" game. "", the third title set in the "Warcraft" fictional universe, was released in July 2002. "Warcraft III" has inspired many future games, having the influence on real-time strategy and multiplayer online battle arena genre. Many of the characters, locations and concepts introduced in "Warcraft III" and went on to play major roles in numerous future Blizzard's titles. In 2002, Blizzard was able to reacquire rights for three of its earlier Silicon & Synapse titles, "The Lost Vikings", "Rock n' Roll Racing" and "Blackthorne", from Interplay Entertainment and re-release them for the Game Boy Advance handheld console. Around 2003, Blizzard North was working on "Diablo III" as well as planned science-fiction-based version dubbed "Starblo". Amid rumors that Vivendi was looking to sell its gaming division around 2003, Blizzard North's leadership, consisting of Brevik, the Schaefers, and Bill Roper, asked Blizzard to provide their studio protections from the potential sale, or else they would resign. After several rounds of tense communications, the four gave their resignations to Blizzard's management on June 30, 2003. As part of this, a significant portion of Blizzard North's staff were laid off, additional work on "Starblo" was terminated and the remaining team focused "Diablo III". Blizzard's management made the decision August 2005 to consolidate Blizzard North into Blizzard Entertainment, relocating staff to the main Blizzard offices in Irvine.
In 2004, Blizzard opened European offices in the Paris suburb of Vélizy, Yvelines, France. Blizzard began work on "World of Warcraft" near the end of 1999, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) based on the "Warcraft" franchise, with gameplay inspired by "EverQuest". The game was publicly announced in September 2001. The excitement by the media for "World of Warcraft" led to significant growth with Team 2 from forty to the hundreds, as well as a large amount of crunch development to complete the game. In January 2004, Adham announced he was leaving the company from being burnt out over his work on "World of Warcraft", transferring management to Morhaime. "World of Warcraft" was released on November 23, 2004, in North America, and on February 11, 2005, in Europe. By December 2004, the game was the fastest-selling PC game in the United States, and by March 2005, had reached 1.5 million subscribers worldwide. Blizzard partnered with Chinese publisher The9 to publish and distribute "World of Warcraft" in China, as foreign companies could not directly publish into the country themselves. "World of Warcraft" launched in China in June 2005. By the end of 2007, "World of Warcraft" was considered a global phenomenon, having reached over 9 million subscribers and exceeded in revenue since its release. In April 2008, "World of Warcraft" was estimated to hold 62 percent of the MMORPG subscription market.
With the success of "World of Warcraft", Blizzard Entertainment organized the first BlizzCon fan convention in October 2005 held at the Anaheim Convention Center. The inaugural event drew about 6,000 people and became an annual event which Blizzard uses to announce new games, expansions, and content for its properties. Blizzard's staff quadrupled from around 400 employees in 2004 to 1600 by 2006 to provide more resources to "World of Warcraft" and its various expansions. To deal with its growing staff, Blizzard moved their headquarters from the UCI Research Park campus to a newly constructed 240,000-square foot campus in Irvine that was formerly occupied by Broadcom and before that by AST Research; the former Research Park site was taken over by Linksys. Blizzard's new base was completed by March 2008; the city named the primary street on this campus as 1 Blizzard Way to honor the company. The campus includes a twelve-foot tall bronze statue of a "Warcraft" orc riding a wolf, with plaques surrounding it representing the eight company values by that point, "Gameplay First", "Commit to Quality", "Play Nice; Play Fair", "Embrace Your Inner Geek", "Learn & Grow", "Every Voice Matters", "Think Globally", and "Lead Responsibly".
Vivendi merger with Activision and continued growth (2008–2017). Up through 2006, Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision, had been working to rebound the company from near-bankruptcy, and had established a number of new studios. However, Activision lacked anything in the MMO market. Kotick saw that "World of Warcraft" was bringing in over a year in subscription fees, and began approaching Vivendi's CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy about potential acquisition of their struggling Vivendi Games division, which included Blizzard Entertainment. Lévy was open to a merger, but would only allow it if he controlled the majority of the combined company, knowing the value of "World of Warcraft" to Kotick. Among those Kotick spoke to for advice included Blizzard's Morhaime, who told Kotick that they had begun establishing lucrative in-roads into the Chinese market. Kotick accepted Lévy's deal, with the deal approved by shareholders in December 2007. By July 2008, the merger was complete, with Vivendi Games effectively dissolved except for Blizzard Entertainment, and the new company was named Activision Blizzard.
Blizzard established a distribution agreement with the Chinese company NetEase in August 2008 to publish Blizzard's games in China. The deal focused on ' which was gaining popularity as an esport within southeast Asia, as well as for other Blizzard games with the exception of "World of Warcraft", still being handled by The9. The two companies established the Shanghai EaseNet Network Technology for managing the games within China. Blizzard and The9 prepared to launch the "World of Warcraft" expansion ', but the expansion came under scrutiny by China's content regulation board, the General Administration of Press and Publication, which rejected publication of it within China in March 2009, even with preliminary modifications made by The9 to clear it. Rumors of Blizzard's dissatisfaction with The9 from this and other previous complications with "World of Warcraft" came to a head when, in April 2009, Blizzard announced it was terminating its contract with The9, and transferred operation of "World of Warcraft" in China to NetEase.
They released an improved version of Battle.net (Battle.net 2.0) in March 2009 which included improved matchmaking, storefront features, and better support for all of Blizzard's existing titles particularly "World of Warcraft". Having peaked at 12 million monthly subscriptions in 2010, "World of Warcraft" subscriptions sunk to 6.8 million in 2014, the lowest number since the end of 2006, prior to "" expansion. However, "World of Warcraft" is still the world's most-subscribed MMORPG, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers. In 2008, Blizzard was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for the creation of "World of Warcraft". Mike Morhaime accepted the award. Following the merger, Blizzard found it was relying on its well-established properties, but at the same time, the industry was experiencing a shift towards indie games. Blizzard established a few small teams within the company to work on developing new concepts based on the indie development approach that it could potentially use. One of these teams quickly came onto the idea of a collectible card game based on the "Warcraft" narrative universe, which ultimately became "Hearthstone", released as a free-to-play title in March 2014. "Hearthstone" reached over 25 million players by the end of 2014, and exceeded 100 million players by 2018.
Another small internal team began work around 2008 on a new intellectual property known as "Titan", a more contemporary or near-future MMORPG that would have co-existed alongside "World of Warcraft". The project gained more visibility in 2010 as a result of some information leaks. Blizzard continued to speak on "Titan"s development over the next few years, with over 100 people within Blizzard working on the project. However, "Titan"s development was troubled, and, internally, in May 2013, Blizzard cancelled the project (publicly reporting this in 2014), and reassigned most of the staff but left about 40 people, led by Jeff Kaplan, to either come up with a fresh idea within a few weeks or have their team reassigned to Blizzard's other departments. The small team came upon the idea of a team-based multiplayer shooter game, reusing many of the assets from "Titan" but set in a new near-future narrative. The new project was greenlit by Blizzard and became known as "Overwatch", which was released in May 2016. "Overwatch" became the fourth main intellectual property of Blizzard, following "Warcraft", "StarCraft", and "Diablo".
In addition to "Hearthstone" and "Overwatch", Blizzard Entertainment continued to produce sequels and expansions to its established properties during this period, including ' (2010) and "Diablo III" (2012). Their major crossover title, "Heroes of the Storm", was released as a MOBA game in 2015. The game featured various characters from Blizzard's franchises as playable heroes, as well as different battlegrounds based on "Warcraft", "Diablo", "StarCraft", and "Overwatch" universes. In the late 2010s, Blizzard released ' (2017) and "" (2020)"," remastered versions of the original "StarCraft" and "Warcraft III," respectively"." The May 2016 release of "Overwatch" was highly successful, and was the highest-selling game on PC for 2016. Several traditional esport events had been established within the year of "Overwatch" release, such as the Overwatch World Cup, but Blizzard continued to expand this and announced the first esports professional league, the Overwatch League at the 2016 BlizzCon event. The company purchased a studio at The Burbank Studios in Burbank, California, that it converted into a dedicated esports venue, Blizzard Arena, to be used for the Overwatch League and other events. The inaugural season of the Overwatch League launched on January 10, 2018, with 12 global teams playing. By the second season in 2019 it had expanded the League to 20 teams, and with its third season in 2020, it will have these teams traveling across the globe in a transitional home/away-style format.
In 2012, Blizzard Entertainment had 4,700 employees, with offices across 11 cities including Austin, Texas, and countries around the globe. , the company's headquarters in Irvine, California had 2,622 employees. Change of leadership (2018–2022). By 2018, a rift had developed between Kotick and Morhaime on how Blizzard should continue developing its games, with Morhaime wanting to allow the developers the freedom to experiment while Kotick was focused on generating profit. Morhaime had considered resigning in 2017 but Kotick convinced him to stay on. Morhaime announced his plans to step down as the company president and CEO On October 3, 2018, while remaining an advisor to the company. Morhaime stated publicly that he felt it was time for someone else to lead Blizzard, but those close to him said he had become tired of the conflicts with Kotick. Morhaime formally left on April 7, 2019, and was replaced by J. Allen Brack, the executive producer on "World of Warcraft". In February 2019, Kotick announced a company-wide layoff of 8% of Activision Blizzard staff, around 800 total positions, due to lower revenues in 2018; this included a significant portion of Blizzard Entertainment, which had been since as having bloated head count over the years. Blizzard was planning for the announcement of "Diablo IV" and "Overwatch 2" at the 2019 Blizzcon, and to keep the company focused, two other projects, codenamed "Ares" and "Orion", were cancelled.
Frank Pearce announced he would be stepping down as Blizzard's Chief Development Officer on July 19, 2019, though will remain in an advisory role similar to Morhaime. Michael Chu, lead writer on many of Blizzard's franchises including "Diablo", "Warcraft", and "Overwatch", announced he was leaving the company after 20 years in March 2020. On January 22, 2021, Activision transferred Vicarious Visions over to Blizzard Entertainment, stating that the Vicarious Visions team had better opportunity for long-term support for Blizzard. Vicarious had been working with Blizzard for about two years prior to this announcement on the planned remaster of "Diablo II", "", and according to Brack, it made sense to incorporate Vicarious into Blizzard for ongoing support of the game and for other "Diablo" games including "Diablo IV". Vicarious was completely merged into Blizzard by April 12, 2022, thereby being renamed Blizzard Albany. In celebration of the company's 30th anniversary, Blizzard Entertainment released a compilation called "Blizzard Arcade Collection" in February 2021, for various video game platforms. The collection includes their three classic video games: "The Lost Vikings", "Rock n' Roll Racing," and "Blackthorne," each of which containing additional upgrades and numerous modern features.
Activision Blizzard was the subject of a lawsuit from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing in July 2021, asserting that for several years the management within Blizzard as well as Activision promoted a "frat boy" atmosphere that allowed and encouraged sexual misconduct towards female employees and discrimination in hiring practices. The lawsuit drew a large response from employees and groups outside of Activision Blizzard. In the wake of these events, Brack, one of the few individuals directly named in the suit, announced he was leaving Blizzard to "pursue new opportunities", and will be replaced by co-leads Jen Oneal, the lead of Vicarious Visions and the first woman in a leadership role for the company, and Mike Ybarra, a Blizzard executive vice president. Oneal announced in November 2021 that she would be leaving the company by the end of 2021, leaving Ybarra as the sole leader of Blizzard. As a result of the California lawsuit and of delays and release issues with their more recent games, Activision Blizzard's stock faced severe pressure. Subsequently, Microsoft seized the opportunity to become one of the largest video game companies in the world and announced its intent to acquire Activision Blizzard and its subsidiaries, including Blizzard, for in January 2022. This exchange marks the largest acquisition in tech history, surpassing the $67 billion Dell-EMC merger from 2016. The deal closed on October 13, 2023, and Activision Blizzard moved into the Microsoft Gaming division.
Blizzard acquired Proletariat, the developers of "Spellbreak", in June 2022 as to help support "World of Warcraft". The 100-employee studio remained in Boston but will shutter "Spellbreak" as they move onto "Warcraft". Challenges with NetEase and Microsoft acquisition (2022–present). Ahead of their license renewal in January 2023, Blizzard (via Activision Blizzard) and NetEase stated in November 2022 that they had been unable to come to an agreement on the renewal terms for their license, and thus most Blizzard games will cease operations in China in January 2023 until the situation can be resolved. According to a report by "The New York Times", several factors influenced Activision Blizzard's decision to terminate the agreement, which included stronger demands made by the Chinese government to know of Activision Blizzard's internal business matters, NetEase's desire to license the games directly rather than run the license through a joint venture, and Activision Blizzard's concerns that NetEase was trying to start their own ventures, including the payment towards Bungie in 2018. NetEase was further concerned about the impact of the pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. Activision Blizzard stated they were looking to other Chinese firms as replacements for NetEase as to restore their games in China. By April 2024, Blizzard, with Microsoft's help, and NetEase had agreed to new publishing terms, with plans to bring back Blizzard's games to China by mid-2024, maintaining all prior game ownership from the original publishing deal. Under this new deal, NetEase also will be able to bring games to the Xbox platform.
Following completion of the acquisition, Microsoft announced it was laying off 1,900 staff from Microsoft Gaming on January 25, 2024. Alongside this, Blizzard President Mike Ybarra and Chief Design Officer Allen Adham announced they would be leaving the company. Further, the planned survival game from Blizzard was canceled. On January 29, 2024, Johanna Faries, the former general manager of the "Call of Duty" series, was named Blizzard Entertainment's new president, taking office on February 5. Following the unionization success of Raven Software's Game Workers Alliance (GWA) union for quality assurance (QA) testers, the 20-member QA team of Blizzard Albany announced a unionization drive in July 2022 as GWA Albany. The vote passed (14–0). On July 24, 2024, 500 artists, designers, engineers, producers, and quality assurance testers who work on "World of Warcraft" voted to unionize under the Communications Workers of America. The same day, 60 QA testers at Blizzard's Austin office, who work on various games including "Diablo IV" and "Hearthstone", also voted to unionize and formed the union "Texas Blizzard QA United-CWA".
Games. Blizzard Entertainment has developed 19 games since the inception of the company in 1991. Main franchises. The majority of the games Blizzard published are in the "Warcraft", "Diablo", and "StarCraft" series. Since the release of ' (1994), "Diablo" (1997), and "StarCraft" (1998), the focus has been almost exclusively on those three franchises. "Overwatch" (2016) became an exception years later, bringing the number of main franchises to four. Each franchise is supported by other media based around its intellectual property such as novels, collectible card games, comics and video shorts. Blizzard announced in 2006 that they would be producing a "Warcraft" live-action film. The movie was directed by Duncan Jones, financed and produced by Legendary Pictures, Atlas Entertainment, and others, and distributed by Universal Pictures. It was released in June 2016. On October 4, 2022, "Overwatch" servers were officially shut off at the same time "Overwatch 2s went up. Spin-offs. Blizzard has released two spin-offs to the main franchises: "Hearthstone" (2014), which is set in the existing "Warcraft" lore, and "Heroes of the Storm" (2015), which features playable characters from all four of Blizzard's franchises.
Remasters. In 2015, Blizzard Entertainment formed "Classic Games division", a team focused on updating and remastering some of their older titles, with an initially announced focus on ' (2017), ' (2020)"," and "" (2021)"." Re-released games. In February 2021, Blizzard Entertainment released a compilation called "Blizzard Arcade Collection" for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. The collection includes five Blizzard's classic video games: "The Lost Vikings", "Rock n' Roll Racing", "Blackthorne", "The Lost Vikings 2" and "RPM Racing", with the last two games added in April 2021. Some of the modern features include 16:9 resolution, 4-player split-screen, rewinding and saving of game progress, watching replays, and adding graphic filters to change the look of player's game. Additionally, it contains upgrades for each game such as enhanced local multiplayer for "The Lost Vikings", new songs and artist performances for "Rock n' Roll Racing", as well as a new level map for "Blackthorne." A digital museum, which is included in the collection, features game art, unused content, and interviews.
Unreleased and future games. Notable unreleased titles include ', an adventure game which was canceled on May 22, 1998; "Shattered Nations", a turn-based strategy game cancelled around 1996; and ', an action game aimed for release on consoles, co-developed with Nihilistic Software, which was "postponed indefinitely" on March 24, 2006, after being in development hell for much of its lifespan. Work on a project called "Nomad" started around 1998 after the release of "Starcraft", with development led by Duane Stinnett. "Nomad" was inspired by the tabletop role playing game "Necromunda" that was played in a post-apocalyptic setting. The project had vague goals, and around that time, many of the staff of Blizzard began playing MMORPGs "EverQuest" and "Ultima Online". "Nomad" was cancelled in 1999 as Blizzard shifted to making their own MMORPG, "World of Warcraft". In the wake of the 2018 layoffs, two projects were cancelled: One was codenamed "Orion", an asynchronous card game for mobile devices designed by "Hearthstone" developers. While the game was considered fun to play when players were engaged in real time, the asynchronous aspect diluted the enjoyment of the. The second, codenamed "Ares", was a first-person shooter within the "Starcraft" universe inspired by Electronic Arts' "Battlefield" series that had been in development for three years.
After seven years of development, Blizzard revealed the cancellation of an unannounced MMO codenamed "Titan" on September 23, 2014, though "Overwatch" was created from its assets. The company also has a history of declining to set release dates, choosing to instead take as much time as needed, generally saying a given product is "done when it's done." "Pax Imperia II" was originally announced as a title to be published by Blizzard. Blizzard eventually dropped "Pax Imperia II", though, when it decided it might be in conflict with their other space strategy project, which became known as "StarCraft". THQ eventually contracted with Heliotrope and released the game in 1997 as "". The company announced in January 2022 that it was near release of another new intellectual property, named "Odyssey" according to "Bloomberg News", a survival game that had been at work at the studio for nearly six years before its cancellation in 2024. "Bloomberg" stated that the game's origins came from "World of Warcraft" developer Craig Amai, and was originally prototyped using the Unreal Engine, which Blizzard licensed from Epic Games. When the game was revealed in 2022, about 100 employees were working on it, but around the same time, there was effort to switch from Unreal to Synapse, Blizzard's engine used for mobile games, though artists continued to develop assets in Unreal. Near when Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, there was an internal belief that they would be able to bring on more developers to complete the transition to Synapse and have the game ready for a 2026 release, but with the culling of 1,900 staff from Microsoft Gaming in January 2024, the game's development was cancelled.
Ports. The company, known at the time as the Silicon & Synapse, initially concentrated on porting other studios' games to computer platforms, developing 8 ports between 1992 and 1993. Company structure. As with most studios with multiple franchises, Blizzard Entertainment has organized different departments to oversee these franchises. Formally, since around the time of "World of Warcraft" in 2004, these have been denoted through simply numerical designations. The original three teams were: Since 2004, two new teams were created: Blizzard has used an informal motto, "it'll be ready when it's ready" to describe the release schedule for its games. The concept of accepting delays in software releases originally came about when the company opted to push back the release of "Diablo" to assure a quality product at release. By the time of "World of Warcraft", employees began using the phrase in response to eager fans looking for a release date. Technology. Battle.net 2.0. Blizzard Entertainment released its revamped Battle.net service in 2009. The platform provides online gaming, digital distribution, digital rights management, and social networking service. Battle.net allows people who have purchased Blizzard products to download digital copies of games they have purchased, without needing any physical media.
On November 11, 2009, Blizzard required all "World of Warcraft" accounts to switch over to Battle.net accounts. This transition means that all current Blizzard titles can be accessed, downloaded, and played with a singular Battle.net login. Battle.net 2.0 is the platform for matchmaking service for Blizzard games, which offers players a host of additional features. Players are able to track their friend's achievements, view match history, avatars, etc. Players are able to unlock a wide range of achievements for Blizzard games. The service provides the user with community features such as friends lists and groups, and allows players to chat simultaneously with players from other Blizzard games using VoIP and instant messaging. For example, players no longer need to create multiple user names or accounts for most Blizzard products. To enable cross-game communication, players need to become either Battletag or Real ID friends. Warden client. Blizzard Entertainment has made use of a special form of software known as the 'Warden Client'. The Warden client is known to be used with Blizzard's online games such as "Diablo" and "World of Warcraft", and the Terms of Service contain a clause consenting to the Warden software's RAM scans while a Blizzard game is running.
The Warden client scans a small portion of the code segment of running processes in order to determine whether any third-party programs are running. The goal of this is to detect and address players who may be attempting to run unsigned code or third party programs in the game. This determination of third party programs is made by hashing the scanned strings and comparing the hashed value to a list of hashes assumed to correspond to banned third party programs. The Warden's reliability in correctly discerning legitimate versus illegitimate actions was called into question when a large-scale incident happened. This incident banned many Linux users after an update to Warden caused it to incorrectly detect Cedega as a cheat program. Blizzard issued a statement claiming they had correctly identified and restored all accounts and credited them with 20 days' play. Warden scans all processes running on a computer, not just the game, and could possibly run across what would be considered private information and other personally identifiable information. It is because of these peripheral scans that Warden has been accused of being spyware and has run afoul of controversy among privacy advocates.