ABOUT / INFO

1) What is Unblack Archives?
A site that's meant to be like Metal Archives*, but with a specific focus on the "unblack" / "Christian black metal" scene, and take a closer look at the scene than MA's format currently allows. (This includes additional artwork for albums, higher-resolution images since the limit on Blogspot is much higher, 1600x1600, Biblical references and notes, compilation CDs, etc. all of which I hope to add more of as this site continues to grow.) At first, the goal of this site/blog was just to document bands that weren't on MA, but now the goal is to list ALL "unblack" / "Christian black metal" bands, and related projects. THIS IS NOT A FILESHARING PAGE! DO NOT VISIT THIS SITE EXPECTING DOWNLOAD LINKS! THAT IS NOT THE POINT OF IT! STREAMING AND DOWNLOAD LINKS WILL ONLY BE PROVIDED IF: 1) THE BAND PERSONALLY APPROVES OF THEM OR PROVIDES THEM, OR 2) IF A BAND IS EXTREMELY UNDERGROUND AND CANNOT BE REACHED, AND UNOFFICIAL LINKS ARE REQUIRED FROM AN INFORMATIONAL STANDPOINT.

2) Unblack metal? What's that?
"Black metal music, with Christian lyrics" is how I would describe it to an outsider. Of course, for those in the scene, you know there's a lot of debate about whether music with Christian lyrics "can be" black metal or not, but this website/blog does not aim to answer this question. We have different, God-given convictions, and this is okay. Call it "black metal" if you want; call it "unblack" if you want; call it "CBM" if you want; call it "birthday cake" if you want. To put it simply, CONCEPTS are what matter here, NOT SEMANTICS. The term "unblack" is used here because for the most part, it's the most agreed-upon term.

2a) I don't like the word "unblack", will you change the name of your website to fit my whims?
Of course I will! :) Once I reach a yearly $100,000 (USD) salary in site donations, I will change the name of this site.

3) I saw something that needs to be updated on your site.
All corrections -- from full bands, to small stuff like typos and small formatting errors -- are all welcome and encouraged! Comments on pages are open, so if you have anything to add, leave a comment! You can also send an email to IMPERIALKODNAROK (at) GMAIL (dot) COM with any information, images, etc that you have! (Emails are probably more reliable since I don't always get comment notifications........) And thank you for taking the time to send these corrections! Note: I also have a list of bands that may be Christian, but I'm not sure about. If you know, please tell me! If you really want to support UA, you can also send donations on PayPal.

4) How do I use the site?
There's a search bar at the top, and at the right side of each page. Search the band you want to find information about. (Note, sometimes it doesn't show results in order of relevance. For example, if you want to find "BandA", and they're related somehow to "BandB", BandB may show up in the results first. I have minimal control over this but am trying to work on it.) You can also search keywords, like countries, genres, band members, basically any word that appears on a band's page. If you're a newcomer and don't know any bands, you can always just scroll through the site manually - at the bottom of each page is a "Next Page" link, where you can view more bands. They're not listed in any particular order, just whenever I got around to creating a page for them. There's also a "TRANSLATE" feature on the right side of each page for non-English speakers.

Something I want to incorporate into new pages (and eventually add to older pages) is a small key at the bottom of each page. You can search these, too, but these are mostly used for finding stuff that needs updating. Here's the key as it stands:

IncompletePage - There's information the page is missing.
UncertainInfo - Some of the info on the page is from a fairly reliable source, but we're not sure about it. A basic example of this would be release dates for demos and things like that, where a zine might list one date, but the artist/band might remember a different date.
CouldUseBetterImages - Images on the page are low resolution or quality.
NotOnMA - Exclusive to Unblack Archives. The band cannot be found on Metal Archives.
NeedsScriptureReferences - A tag I'm only beginning to utilize. It will appear on more pages soon. Since this is an evangelistic endeavor as well as an encyclopedic one, I find it important to include links to things the artists talk about, usually links to verses or passages on BibleHub / BibleGateway / etc, but can also include theological concepts discussed on sites like GotQuestions, and so on. Right now, a few pages have such references, but most don't yet.
ArtistConfirmed - This tag means the page has been reviewed by at least 1 member of the band, and the information on it is confirmed by them.
SimilarTo - A tag I'm only beginning to utilize. In January 2023 I decided to add a section at the bottom of band pages, listing other bands (both secular and Christian) that play similar music. A core element of discussion of Christian metal seems to be, "Is there a Christian version of X?" or, "Are there other bands that sound like Y?" This tag means I remembered to add a list (however incomplete!) to that band's page.

5) What are the ideologies of Unblack Archives?
Christianity. Also, I always seek to be upfront and honest about this. This is NOT a case of "no, it's not a Christian site! I just happen to talk about Jesus and God and stuff!" That's silly. This is dedicated wholeheartedly to the triune God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) who saved me from myself and the demonic influences I once allowed into my life. I, the person who "started" the site, deserve little, if any credit for doing this. All glory belongs to God, who motivated me to start this, and continues to motivate me now. Granted, this is still an encyclopedic resource, so nearly all information here will ultimately be objective (or kept objective to the best of my ability), despite the obvious ideological bent. I myself am Protestant, but as the focus of this site changes a bit, I'm trying to be more open to bands with stranger ideologies while still retaining a Biblical focus point. (This usually becomes a problem with bands that are heavy into apocryphal works, or unconventionally "mystical" views of Catholicism, things like that). Also worth noting, some bands will simply not be added here, even if they're "part of the scene", per se. Sometimes a band isn't Christian, but is mistaken as such for various reasons. Sometimes a particularly obscure band is labeled "black metal" only to later be revealed as "death metal", etc. There may be other reasons as well. There's a [blacklist] page in progress to help clarify all this! NOTE: Christianity is more than a cultural icon. It is a relationship with the holy, righteous, divine Creator of everything, including various racial groups; a Creator who chose a nation of Jews to birth our Messiah. Whether you agree with it or not, this is what God has chosen to do, and God is ever-righteous and sovereign. If your project CURRENTLY IDENTIFIES as "NSBM", has a Nazi swastika in its logo, and so on, your project is not welcome here! If you previously identified as a Nazi, and have now abandoned Nazi ideology and become a Christian, your new Christian music will be accepted. However, Christianity CLEARLY contradicts much of Nazist ideology, and I will not allow the leaven of Nazism to taint this website just because some far-right political groups are willing to back us up on certain political issues.................. Do not be misled, though: this does not mean Unblack Archives follows "leftist" ideology, either. This site stands on the Bible, no matter which right-wingers or left-wingers, or anyone else, get "triggered" by the righteous word of Scripture... and it's a simple fact, Nazism contradicts the Bible.

Update 2022: The Covid pandemic has become a divisive issue in society. It shouldn't be one, but it is. I severely look down upon people who refuse to get vaccines in the name of "personal freedom". God doesn't preach personal freedom, He preaches total righteousness no matter the cost. If righteousness requires you to get a vaccine, GET IT AND STOP COMPLAINING! BEAR YOUR CROSS! I've decided that I will host bands that are anti-vax as this is a Christian site and not a political one, but if they spread anti-vax propaganda in their lyrics, I will withhold that. Don't like it? Feel free to make your own 790+ page database by hand. Don't ask me to reverse/overturn this decision unless you want me to block you on sight.

6) What's with the gray dots in some of your articles?
Sometimes Blogspot randomly decides not to let me use linebreaks, so information gets cluttered together. I use these dark-gray dots to "create" linebreaks so everything is still evenly spaced out. Also, I sometimes use gray dots to indicate when a certain photo belongs to a certain version of an album. (Some versions will have alternate artwork, etc.) Hopefully they don't interfere much with your experience reading things here.




* Metal Archives (aka Encyclopaedia Metallum) will be mentioned here from time to time, but this site has no affiliation with it, nor do I claim to have an affiliation with it. It will only be mentioned as a reference point. We are two separate entities. ............................... If you're not a member of Metal Archives, you don't need to read the rest of this paragraph. For those who are members of that site, this site was discussed with a couple moderators on that site in the past, and the decision was: you may provide links to this site, as long as 1) they are listed in the "Unofficial" section, and 2) there's a reasonable amount of information I have that MA will not host. So for example, MA's page for Kenneth Holsen contains a few links to this site, because I host a few of his projects that MA doesn't allow (usually because they're "not metal enough"). Also, MA's page for Ascendant contains a link to our page on Amorém (the band's previous name) since Amorém doesn't meet MA's site qualifications. Our page supplements MA's page, so a link can be added. However, links should not be added if our page is basically a 1:1 copy of theirs, such as Smrt, or Palvonta. If you're unsure, it's better to just not add the link -- abuse of their "links" section could lead to us no longer being permitted on their webpages - which would be bad not only for us, but for those on MA looking for more information on Christian bands, because that information will become more difficult for them to find. THE EXCEPTION TO THE "UNOFFICIAL" RULE, IS MY OWN PROJECTS. IF ANY PROJECTS WITH "Nocturnal Iridescence" IN THE LINEUP ARE ADDED TO MA, THEN YOU CAN ADD PAGES AS "OFFICIAL" SINCE I RUN UNBLACK ARCHIVES. By the way, I noticed that one or two artists have added this site as an "official" link to their own Metal Archives pages. Thank you very much! I'm very glad you trust me and this site enough to represent your work in an official capacity. But it's not my choice whether MA's site admins allow those links to stay. I assume they would allow those links, but I'm just putting that out there.


This used to be the "to-do list" page. I've reworked it into an "about" page.

 

The background picture in the new header is from Jarmoluk on Pixabay. The church picture in the background is from Ddzphoto on Pixabay. The nature picture was taken by me (Nocturnal Iridescence).

UA didn't have a background before 2022, but here's the old site header (2017-2022) for reference: