@ firewind: I might make your day but I've read that Nergals bone marrows transplant has been succesful and his situation is stable. Now he needs a long time of recuperation and prob next year they will think of continueing the band. No hope's lost yet.
@ Miniradman: okay you seemed to missed quite some things concerning the message of BM.
First of all: the church burnings happened in the early 90'ties in Norway were not a 'test' to show satanic the musicians are. It was an
ACT of revenge. Varg Vikernes stated that the stave church was moved to a holy
Pagan Burial Place and the
Arson was a
Reaction to the arrogance of the Church ( I agree with him here, though I don't support
Arson).
Secondly:
Gorgoroth it self doesn't promote church
Arson in its lyrics but Gaahl himself cited that he supports the burnings. Let him think that, he's prob not the only one, why should this be poser to support/ deny a certain event. Gaahl said that the arsons had the goal to wipe christianity out. I won't say if I support this or not but I
Hate christianity.
Third: the fact that
Mayhem uses
Pig heads on stage is to strenghten their act. Their
ACT is to bring a cruel, horrific show. It always has been like that, even when Dead still lived: he starved himself, buried his clothes,... just to bring a creepy as possible stage presence.
Last but certainly not least: the usage of corpse paint, fake/ real
Blood, fire, satanic symbols, ... in BM are all used to shock and for the image. Corpse paint is invented by Dead of
Mayhem and is self-explaining: it makes the performers appear like a corpse, near dead and decayed. Btw: most BM artist aren't satanic (or confirmed at least) at all cfr Fenriz, Vikernes, Satyr, even Gaahl isn't a satanist. They uses to things to strenghten their message and on stage performance. Some messages in BM are filosofic and hard to understand for some. Making good music is one thing but adding content to it is a much harder task. But these are the things that make BM such a great genre.
Want to know what I call poser? Guys of 20 years old who scream in a mic how bad their teen years where and how much they miss some girl. They call it ...-core. Those guys are plain talentless and focussed on money and mainstream succes. There lyrics are often hollow. After a few years nobody will mind them anymore.
Black Metal wrote some serious pieces of musical history and will be remembered and followed for a long time.
Srry if I offened somebody with this post: but I had to say that last papragraph
. I have seen them live , and they are far from Posers . Not to mention they gave me one of my best gigs ever . 
