The 10 Scariest Metal Frontmen

With Halloween and the Fall season well upon us, October is the perfect month to celebrate some creepy, mysterious and downright scary musical frontmen. Punk rock and heavy metal have never been about conforming to mainstream society or being politically correct. Whether it's scary in the sense of real life evil, murder, and Satanism, suicide, or someone who would injure himself, assault fans, urinate onstage and throw his own feces at the crowd, the frontmen in this list are downright frightening. We now present our list of the 10 most frightening frontmen in metal/punk.

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10. Papa Emeritus(Ghost)
Whether you love or hate this band's brand of Satanic hard rock and proggy-tinged metal, the personality of Ghost's demonic priest frontman character comes to life with the band's live show. Papa's robe is ostensibly worn for the Black Mass, and his make up is very eerrie and zombified. Plus, he is the only guy in the band who has a name and title the rest of the musicians are known literally as 'nameless ghouls.' His identity, and those of his band members has been kept secret for the existence of the band's careeer which is about to hit a decade in 2016. With recent pictures posted to social media sites, allegedly showing Papa's identity without makeup backstage at a Danzig/Ghost concert in New Orleans, we'll see how long the identity of this Satanic Pope is kept from the public.

9.GG Allin
This guy might not be considered a traditional metal frontman, but we'd sure as Hell be scared of someone who threw their own shit at us while on stage performing as a singer in a punk band, then later ate his own shit! GG Allin was destined to bring back the danger, and shock to rock n roll, becoming one of the most underground, violent and intense cult artists, from the '80s punk scene. His lyrics were often about things like pedophilia, rape, drug abuse, racism, mutilation, abortions and other topics that would piss people off. But it was his live performances that etched his place in rock-n-roll history, and made him infamous, a “rock-n-roll terrorist” as he once self described himself. He would bite himself, defecate onstage, use drugs, have sex, mutilate himself and even use objects to sodomize himself, all while performing with his many punk bands over the years. His violent, confrontational live show antics even turned to the crowd as he would urinate, vomit and shit on fans, pour alcohol into their mouths, and start fires, after destroying instruments and other parts of the stage. After years of a rumor he started, saying he would commit suicide onstage on Halloween at a concert, Allin overdosed on heroin and alcohol in NYC in 1993, leaving behind a renowned underground punk legacy of rock, sleaze, sex, violence, bodily fluids, drugs and pure smut.

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8.Attila Csihar (Mayhem)
As a Hungarian black metal musician, Csihar is best known for performing as the vocalist for one of the original purveyors Norwegian black metal, Mayhem, on the debut full length studio album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (Latin for About the Mystery of the Lord Satan). The album was released in 1993, and is widely considered to be one of the most influential black metal albums of all time. Csihar filled in for Mayhem's late first singer, Dead, who committed suicide using a shotgun to the head just before the album was finalized, but not before leaving lyrics to some songs for Cishar. The album's haunting, ritualistic, erie songs are spooky, raw and tormented. It is Cishar's vocals which carry out the anguish and torment that makes listeners feel the essence of what black metal is all about. But, Cishar also works a lot within the extreme metal community and had a history with bands before Mayhem, including Tormentor, Aborym, Emperor, Annal Nathrakh, Limbrionic Art, and even Sunn O))))) among many others. He is almost always seen singing with a human skull gripped in one hand, or as an emblem on his microphone.

7.Quorthon (Bathory)
As the main songwriter, vocalist, lyricist and musician for the Swedish cult band Bathory, this late mysterious frontman began his journey into extreme metal, in 1983 when the band was founded. Known as the pioneers of the early black metal movement, Bathory's name comes from the Hungarian Countess who sadistically killed dozens of young people in the 1600s, by torturing them, raping them and bathing/drinking their blood. The music was at first very abrasive, caustic and raw, the formative sound that all black metal was built upon, thrashy guitar riff, speed metal blast beat drumming and loud, fast aggressive singing. Over the years, Quorthon became more reclusive, except with his music. With over 13 studio albums and many more compilations, the band's music was very dark in nature, but later focused on Norse Mythology, creating the sub-genre of Viking Metal. From death metal, to thrash, and black metal, many bands respect and pay homage to Bathory to this day, even though Quorthon died way before his time in 2004, at age 38 of heart failure, leaving behind a dark legacy of extreme music that inspired so many metal and punk bands.

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6.Juan Brujo (Brujeria)
His name translates to “John the Witch,” this leader of Brujeria, the Mexican American brutal death metal group formed just over 26 years ago. The group was a band of masked madmen who remained anonymous until the age of the Internet. But, as a revolving group of characters, the group has featured members of Cradle of Filth, Ministry, Dead Kennedys, Faith No More and many others. Dino Cazares (Fear Factory, Asesino), Shane Embry (Napalm Death), Nick Barker, (Cradle of Filth, Testament), Jeff Walker(Carcass) and others have all at one time or currently play in Brujeria. But at the center stage, is always vocalist Juan Brujo one of the band's founding members, who spits out songs in Spanish fast as Hell in an evil voice. Songs detail drug cartels, Satanic murderers, kidnappings, and other forms of crime and depravity including human smuggling, prostitution, prison violence, and police brutality. The culture of the drug war, and anti-Mexican sentiment are fought back against with such classics such as “Matando Gueros'(Killing White Boys),” “Narcos Satanicos”(Satanicos Drug Dealers), and “Molestando Ninos Muertos” (Molesting Dead Children).

5. Gaahl (Gorgoroth, God Seed)
This Norwegian black metal singer might best be known as former vocalist for Gorgoroth for a decade, beginning in 1998, but he has been in the scene since the early 1990s with the raw black metal bands Trelldom, Sigfader and Gaahlskagg. His most recent group is God Seed. An open homosexual, he is a very dark natured and violent man, with a criminal history, having been convicted of violent crimes. According to news reports, he has spent time in prison for assault on various occasions, and at least in one instance threatening to drink a victim's blood. His creepy demeanor and very dark aura on stage are part of the vibe of his presence with Gorogorth and his other bands. His obsession, and diatribe on black metal and Satan was a huge part of the documentary film, Metal: A Headbanger's Journey. He is indeed a man filled with darkness and contempt for Christianity.

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4. Glen Benton (Deicide)
Glen Benton, for a period of time in the '80s was one of the most scary dudes on the planet. A walking, living breathing emblem of Satan with a literal voice that was inhuman sounding and demonic. He was HATED by Evangelical Christians and scared the Hell out of parents and Right Wing Conservatives everywhere. As the throat and mind behind the music of Florida's extreme death metal band Deicide, Benton has been bursting eardrums and bashing bibles for more a quarter of a century. Growling, evil riffs are backed by thunderous bass and machine gun blast beat drums. Plus, all songs are angry, and most of the anger is pointed at God. The entire catalog is an anti-Christian tirade that endures to this day. But, just because Benton still wears a literal scar from his wild youth, with the inverted cross branded into his forehead, today he is only a musician, not a Satanist. He actually considers himself a family man. That doesn't take away from just how damn blasphemous Deicide's music is, and how Benton was well ahead of his time with stage antics such as self mutilation, and bringing on dead animals on stage for shock value, like many other death and ]black metal bands have emulated. Even approaching middle age, Benton shows no sign of slowing down with Deicide at all. Today, the band marches on into Hell with its music faster than ever.

3.Erik Danielson (Watain)
As the lead singer of Swedish black metal band Watain, Danielson has led the live show ritual of blood and using animals heads on stakes at their concerts. This has garnered the band national attention on TMZ, and of course the controversy of a Black Mass being performed. Danielson would probably agree with this assessment, as he and the band are Hell bent on using black metal music as a spiritual ritual to connect with the darkness of the Universe. Watain's music has been closely related to Dissection and other overtly Satanic bands, and this makes sense, as it takes over where Dissection left off. Danielson is very blunt and abstract in his interviews and is open about his Satanic and misanthropic ideology, and how it pertains to the spirit of Watain's music.

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2.Jon Nodtveldt (Dissection)
As a Swedish black metal musician, Nodtveldt formed Dissection, and created one of the most underrated, and overtly Satanic black metal bands from the early '90s. Lumped in with the Norwegian church burners, Dissection's themes of vampires, dark entities and evil spirits and Satanism were beautifully orchestrated, symphonic blackened death metal with lots of menacing sounds, eerie melodies and harmonies. In 1997, he was convicted of being an accessory to murder of an Algerian gay man who made passes at him. He served prison time in Sweden till 2004, and resurrected Dissection for a short period in the next year and a half. However, in 2006, he was found dead of an apparent self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He was found lying in his apartment with an apparent Satanic note and candles, where he was performing black magic. This is a man, who went out of this world on his own terms, as a devout Satanist. Chilling.

1. Varg Vikernes (Mayhem)
Known as the man behind the sound of Burzum, Vikernes was a crucial part of the infamous Satanic hysteria in Norway in the early '90s, which included several church burnings. Vikernes played bass early on with the band Mayhem, but then he killed Mayhem founder Euronymous and did a stint in prison for the murder, and several church arsons. Vikernes served only 15 years of his 21 year sentence and has managed to keep Buzrum alive. Although his music has woven in dark ambient experimental and even electronic avant garde elements, Burzum's entire catalog seems to leave fans bewildered. There's been plenty of controversy, as Vikernes has adopted a strange Pagan, Norse Nationalist, White Supremacist and UFO oriented philosophy that many disagree with. Plus, many still resent and even hate the fact that he killed Euronymous, of Mayhem.

See also
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10 Goriest Album Covers
10 Most Satanic Metal Bands

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