1.
Black metal
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Black metal is an extreme subgenre and subculture of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw recording, unconventional song structures. Artists often appear in corpse paint and adopt pseudonyms, during the 1980s, several thrash and death metal bands formed a prototype for black metal. This so-called first wave included bands such as Venom, Bathory, Mercyful Fate, Hellhammer, a second wave arose in the early 1990s, spearheaded by Norwegian bands such as Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Emperor, Satyricon and Gorgoroth. The early Norwegian black metal scene developed the style of their forebears into a distinct genre, norwegian-inspired black metal scenes emerged throughout Europe and North America, although some other scenes developed their own styles independently. Some prominent Swedish bands spawned during this wave, such as Marduk, Nifelheim. Initially a synonym for Satanic metal, black metal is often met with hostility from mainstream culture, due to the actions, many artists express extreme anti-Christian and misanthropic views, advocating various forms of Satanism or ethnic paganism. In the 1990s, members of the scene were responsible for a spate of church burnings, there is also a small neo-Nazi movement within black metal, although it has been shunned by many prominent artists. Generally, black metal strives to remain underground, inaccessible to the mainstream, although contemporary black metal typically refers to the Norwegian style with shrieking vocals and raw production, the term has also been applied to bands with widely differing sounds. Norwegian-inspired black metal guitarists usually favor high-pitched or trebly guitar tones, the guitar is usually played with fast, un-muted tremolo picking. 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 not uncommon for the bass to be muted against the guitar, 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 and these fast tempos require great skill and physical stamina, typified by black metal drummers Frost and Hellhammer. Even still, authenticity is still prioritized over technique and this professionalism has to go, insists well-respected drummer and metal historian Fenriz of Darkthrone. I want to de-learn playing drums, I want to play primitive and simple, I dont want to play like a drum solo all the time, 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 traditional heavy metal and death metal traits than Norwegian black metal. Traditional black metal bands tend to favor raspy, high-pitched vocals which include such as shrieking, screaming, and snarling
2.
Death metal
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Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Building from the structure of thrash metal and early black metal. Bands such as Venom, Celtic Frost, Slayer, and Kreator were important influences on the genres creation, Possessed and Death, along with bands such as Obituary, Autopsy and Morbid Angel, are often considered pioneers of the genre. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, death metal gained more attention as popular genre niche record labels like Combat, Earache. Since then, death metal has diversified, spawning several subgenres, melodic death metal combines death metal elements with those of the new wave of British heavy metal. Technical death metal is a style, with uncommon time signatures, atypical rhythms. Death-doom combines the deep growled vocals and double-kick drumming of death metal with the slow tempos, deathgrind, goregrind and pornogrind mix the complexity of death metal with the intensity, speed, and brevity of grindcore. Deathcore combines death metal with metalcore traits, Death n roll combines death metals growled vocals and highly distorted, detuned guitar riffs with elements of 1970s hard rock and heavy metal. English heavy metal band Venom, from Newcastle, crystallized the elements of what became known as thrash metal, death metal and black metal. Their dark, blistering sound, harsh vocals, and macabre, another highly influential band, Slayer, formed in 1981. Although the band was a metal act, Slayers music was more violent than their thrash contemporaries Metallica, Megadeth. Their breakneck speed and instrumental prowess combined with lyrics about death, violence, war, according to AllMusic, their third album Reign in Blood inspired the entire death metal genre. It had a big impact on the genre such as Death, Obituary. While attributed as having a Slayer influence, current and former members of the band had actually cited Venom and Motörhead, as well as work by Exodus. Possessed arguably did more to further the cause of Death Metal than any of the acts on the scene back in the mid-late 80s. During the same period as the dawn of Possessed, an influential metal band was formed in Florida. Death, originally called Mantas, was formed in 1983 by Chuck Schuldiner, Kam Lee, in 1984 they released their first demo entitled Death by Metal, followed by several more. The tapes circulated through the tape trader world, quickly establishing the bands name, with Death guitarist Schuldiner adopting vocal duties, the band made a major impact on the scene
3.
Babylon
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Babylon was a major city of ancient Mesopotamia in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The city was built upon the Euphrates and divided in parts along its left and right banks. Babylon was originally a small Semitic Akkadian city dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c.2300 BC, the town attained independence as part of a small city-state with the rise of the First Amorite Babylonian Dynasty in 1894 BC. Babylon grew and South Mesopotamia came to be known as Babylonia, the empire quickly dissolved after Hammurabis death and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BC, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rule of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman, and Sassanid empires. It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world from c.1770 to 1670 BC and it was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000. Estimates for the extent of its area range from 890 to 900 hectares. The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometres south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings, the English Babylon comes from Greek Babylṓn, a transliteration of the Akkadian Babili. The Babylonian name in the early 2nd millennium BC had been Babilli or Babilla, by the 1st millennium BC, it had changed to Babili under the influence of the folk etymology which traced it to bāb-ili. The Gate of God or Gate of El being from the Aramaic Hebrew Bab for Gate and El for God and this being similar to the Hebrew word for confusion Balal. In the Bible, the name appears as Babel, interpreted in the Hebrew Scriptures Book of Genesis to mean confusion, the modern English verb, to babble, or to speak meaningless words, is popularly thought to derive from this name, but there is no direct connection. The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings and debris. The site at Babylon consists of a number of mounds covering an area of about 2 by 1 kilometer, oriented north to south, along the Euphrates to the west. Originally, the river roughly bisected the city, but the course of the river has since shifted so that most of the remains of the western part of the city are now inundated. Some portions of the city wall to the west of the river also remain, remains of the city include, Kasr—also called Palace or Castle, it is the location of the Neo-Babylonian ziggurat Etemenanki and lies in the center of the site. Amran Ibn Ali—the highest of the mounds at 25 meters, to the south and it is the site of Esagila, a temple of Marduk which also contained shrines to Ea and Nabu. Homera—a reddish colored mound on the west side, most of the Hellenistic remains are here
4.
Satanism
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Satanism is a group of ideological and philosophical beliefs based on the character of Satan. Contemporary religious practice of Satanism began with the founding of the Church of Satan in 1966, prior to the public practice, Satanism existed primarily as an accusation by various Christian groups toward perceived ideological opponents, rather than a self-identity. Satanism, and the concept of Satan, has also used by artists. Accusations that various groups have been practicing Satanism have been throughout much of Christian history. In the subsequent Early Modern period, belief in a widespread Satanic conspiracy of witches resulted in mass trials of alleged witches across Europe and the North American colonies. Accusations that Satanic conspiracies were active and that they were behind such as the French Revolution continued to be made in Christendom during the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Since the 19th century, various religious groups have emerged that self-identify as Satanists or use Satanic iconography. Satanist groups that appeared after the 1960s are widely diverse, theistic Satanists venerate Satan as a supernatural deity, viewing him not as omnipotent but rather as a patriarch. In contrast, atheistic Satanists regard Satan as merely a symbol of human traits. Contemporary religious Satanism is predominantly an American phenomenon, the ideas spreading elsewhere with the effects of globalization, the Internet spreads awareness of other Satanists, and is also the main battleground for Satanist disputes. Satanism started to reach Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s, in time with the fall of the Soviet Union, the concept of Satanism is an invention of Christianity, for it relies upon the figure of Satan, a character deriving from Christian mythology. Elsewhere, Petersen noted that Satanism as something others do is different from Satanism as a self-designation. Eugene Gallagher noted that, as used, Satanism was usually a polemical. The word Satan was not originally a name but rather an ordinary noun meaning the adversary. For instance, in the Book of Samuel, David is presented as the satan of the Philistines, while in the Book of Numbers the term appears as a verb, the word Satanism was adopted into English from the French satanisme. In a Roman Catholic tract of 1565, the author condemns the heresies, blasphemies, in an Anglican work of 1559, Anabaptists and other Protestant sects are condemned as swarmes of Satanistes. Historical and anthropological research suggests that all societies have developed the idea of a sinister. This commonly involves a belief in witches, a group of individuals who invert the norms of their society and seek to harm their community, for instance by engaging in incest, murder, allegations of witchcraft may have different causes and serve different functions within a society
5.
Persecution of Christians in the modern era
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Anti-Christian sentiment is the hatred, prejudice, and bigotry against Christians. In many countries around the world, Christians are subject to restrictions on speech, arson attacks on churches have been seen in Norway and the United States. Some arson attacks are considered hate crimes perpetrated for racial reasons by people inspired by racial hate groups, headliners of the black metal genre have claimed responsibility for inspiring over fifty Norwegian church burnings from 1992 to 1996 alone. Among the most notable was Fantoft Stave Church, which the police believed was destroyed by the one-man band Burzum, Varg Vikernes, the burnt-out shell of the building is featured on the cover of his 1993 EP Aske. The vandalism or defacement of Christian property is one form of the expression of anti-Christian sentiment, the destruction of property held by churches and Christian individuals can be in violation of various criminal laws, and can violate hate speech laws if it is racially or religiously motivated. Former Lebanese president Amine Gemayel stated in 2011 that Christians had become the target of genocide after dozens of Christians were killed in attacks in Egypt. According to Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, in the years leading up to 2010 the Middle Easts Christian population dwindled from 20% to less than 5%. In Egypt, the government does not recognize religious conversions from Islam to Christianity, since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in 2011, Egypts Coptic Christians have been the target of increasing opposition and discrimination. In 2011, anti-Christian activity in Egypt included church burnings, protests against the appointment of a Coptic Christian governor in Qena, on television Islamists referred to Christians as heretics and said they should be made to pay the jizya tax. In October 2011 a draft resolution passed by the European Parliament accused Egypt of persecuting the countrys Christian population, by mid-201210,000 Christians had fled the country. The consolidation of power in the hands of Shiite Islamists in Iraq since the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime has been to the detriment of Iraqs Assyrian and Armenian Christian communities, friction between rival sects in Iraq has frequently resulted in violence being directed against Christians in the country. Consequently, there has been a flight of Christians from some areas to Europe, between 2003 and 2012 more than 70 churches were bombed. In 2007 Al Qaeda militants killed a young priest in Mosul, during the Syrian Civil War and the spillover into Iraq, Persecution of Christians by ISIL and other militant groups has been ongoing. The Fall of Mosul and the Asyrian town of Qaraqosh in the 2014 ISIL advance in Iraq lead to an estimated 100,000 Assyrian Christian civilians being displaced. After the fall of Mosul, ISIL demanded Assyrian Christians in the city to convert to Islam, pay tribute, ISIL begun marking homes of Christian residents with the letter nūn for Nassarah. Thousands of Christians, Yazidis and other, mostly Shia Muslims have abandoned their homes, the destruction of cultural heritage by ISIL has included the Mosque of the Prophet Jonah, revered in all Abrahamic faiths. In Jerusalem, there have been instances of Christian churches being vandalized with spray-painted offensive remarks against Christianity and these are believed to be price tag attacks by extremist settlers. In Tel Aviv in 2008, three teenagers burned hundreds of Christian Bibles, a number of Ultra-Orthodox/Haredi youth have reportedly spat at Christian clergymen
6.
Death
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Death is the cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Bodies of living organisms begin to decompose shortly after death, other concerns include fear of death, necrophobia, anxiety, sorrow, grief, emotional pain, depression, sympathy, compassion, solitude, or saudade. The potential for an afterlife is of concern for some humans, the word death comes from Old English deað, which in turn comes from Proto-Germanic *dauthuz. This comes from the Proto-Indo-European stem *dheu- meaning the Process, act, when a person has died, it is also said they have passed away, passed on, expired, or are gone, among numerous other socially accepted, religiously specific, slang, and irreverent terms. Bereft of life, the person is then a corpse, cadaver, a body, a set of remains, and when all flesh has rotted away. The terms carrion and carcass can also be used, though more often connote the remains of non-human animals. As a polite reference to a person, it has become common practice to use the participle form of decease, as in the deceased. The ashes left after a cremation are sometimes referred to by the neologism cremains, senescence refers to a scenario when a living being is able to survive all calamities, but eventually dies due to causes relating to old age. Almost all animals who survive external hazards to their biological functioning eventually die from biological aging, some organisms experience negligible senescence, even exhibiting biological immortality. These include the jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii, the hydra, and the planarian, unnatural causes of death include suicide and homicide. From all causes, roughly 150,000 people die around the world each day, physiological death is now seen as a process, more than an event, conditions once considered indicative of death are now reversible. Where in the process a dividing line is drawn between life and death depends on factors beyond the presence or absence of vital signs, in general, clinical death is neither necessary nor sufficient for a determination of legal death. A patient with working heart and lungs determined to be dead can be pronounced legally dead without clinical death occurring. As scientific knowledge and medicine advance, formulating a precise definition of death becomes more difficult. The concept of death is a key to understanding of the phenomenon. There are many approaches to the concept. For example, brain death, as practiced in medical science, One of the challenges in defining death is in distinguishing it from life. As a point in time, death would seem to refer to the moment at which life ends, determining when death has occurred requires drawing precise conceptual boundaries between life and death
7.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
8.
Reinhard Heydrich
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Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich was a high-ranking German Nazi official during World War II, and a main architect of the Holocaust. He was an SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei as well as chief of the Reich Main Security Office and he was also Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic. Many historians regard him as the darkest figure within the Nazi elite and he was the founding head of the Sicherheitsdienst, an intelligence organisation charged with seeking out and neutralising resistance to the Nazi Party via arrests, deportations, and murders. He helped organise Kristallnacht, a series of co-ordinated attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany, the attacks, carried out by SA stormtroopers and civilians, presaged the Holocaust. Upon his arrival in Prague, Heydrich sought to eliminate opposition to the Nazi occupation by suppressing Czech culture and he died from his injuries a week later. Nazi intelligence falsely linked the assassins to the villages of Lidice, both villages were razed, all men and boys over the age of 16 were shot, and all but a handful of its women and children were deported and killed in Nazi concentration camps. Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich was born in 1904 in Halle an der Saale to composer and opera singer Richard Bruno Heydrich and his wife and his father was Protestant and his mother was Roman Catholic. His two forenames were patriotic musical tributes, Reinhard referred to the hero from his fathers opera Amen. Heydrichs third name, Eugen, was his maternal grandfathers forename. Heydrichs family held social standing and substantial financial means, Music was a part of Heydrichs everyday life, his father founded the Halle Conservatory of Music, Theatre and Teaching and his mother taught piano there. Heydrich developed a passion for the violin and carried that interest into adulthood and his father was a German nationalist who instilled patriotic ideas in his three children, but was not affiliated with any political party until after World War I. As a youth, he engaged his younger brother, Heinz and he excelled in his schoolwork—especially in science—at the Reformgymnasium. A talented athlete, he became a swimmer and fencer. He was shy, insecure, and was bullied for his high-pitched voice. The latter claim earned him the nickname Moses Handel, in 1918, World War I ended with Germanys defeat. In late February 1919, civil unrest—including strikes and clashes between communist and anti-communist groups—took place in Heydrichs home town of Halle, under Defense Minister Gustav Noskes directives, a right-wing paramilitary unit was formed and ordered to recapture Halle. Heydrich, then 15 years old, joined Maerckers Volunteer Rifles, when the skirmishes ended, Heydrich was part of the force assigned to protect private property. Little is known about his role, but the left a strong impression
9.
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
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Hácha was appointed president of the protectorate the same day. The Protectorate was an autonomous Nazi-administered territory which the German government considered part of the Greater German Reich, the states existence came to an end with the surrender of Germany to the Allies in 1945. To appease outraged international opinion, Hitler appointed former foreign minister Konstantin von Neurath to the post, German officials manned departments analogous to cabinet ministries, while small German control offices were established locally. The new authorities dismissed Jews from the service and placed them outside of the legal system. Political parties and trade unions were banned, and the press, many local Communist Party leaders fled to the Soviet Union. The population of the protectorate was mobilized for labor that would aid the German war effort, the Germans drafted Czechs to work in coal mines, in the iron and steel industry, and in armaments production. Consumer-goods production, much diminished, was directed toward supplying the German armed forces. The protectorates population was subjected to rationing, German rule was moderate—at least by Nazi standards—during the first months of the occupation. The Czech government and political system, reorganized by Hácha, continued in formal existence, the Gestapo directed its activities mainly against Czech politicians and the intelligentsia. Generalplan Ost assumed that around 50% of Czechs would be fit for Germanization, the Czech intellectual élites were to be removed not only from Czech territories but from Europe completely. The authors of Generalplan Ost believed it would be best if they emigrated overseas, as even in Siberia they were considered a threat to German rule, just like Jews, Poles, Serbs, and several other nations, Czechs were considered to be untermenschen by the Nazi state. The Czechs demonstrated against the occupation on 28 October 1939, the 21st anniversary of Czechoslovak independence, the death on 15 November 1939 of a medical student, Jan Opletal, who had been wounded in the October violence, precipitated widespread student demonstrations, and the Reich retaliated. Politicians were arrested en masse, as were an estimated 1,800 students, during World War II, Hitler decided that Neurath wasnt treating the Czechs harshly enough and adopted a more radical policy in the protectorate. On 29 September 1941, Hitler appointed SS hardliner Reinhard Heydrich as Deputy Reichsprotektor, at the same time Neurath was relieved of his day-to-day duties, so for all intents and purposes Heydrich replaced Neurath as Reichsprotektor. Under Heydrichs authority Prime Minister Alois Eliáš was arrested, the Czech government was reorganized, the Gestapo arrested and killed people. The deportation of Jews to concentration camps was organized, and the town of Terezín was made into a ghetto way-station for Jewish families. On 4 June 1942, Heydrich died after being wounded by an assassin in Operation Anthropoid, directives issued by Heydrichs successor, SS-Oberstgruppenführer Kurt Daluege, ordered mass arrests, executions and the obliteration of the villages of Lidice and Ležáky. In 1943 the German war-effort was accelerated, under the authority of Karl Hermann Frank, German minister of state for Bohemia and Moravia, Within the protectorate, all non-war-related industry was prohibited
10.
Romania
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Romania is a sovereign state located in Southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia and it has an area of 238,391 square kilometres and a temperate-continental climate. With over 19 million inhabitants, the country is the member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city, Bucharest, is the sixth-largest city in the EU, the River Danube, Europes second-longest river, rises in Germany and flows in a general southeast direction for 2,857 km, coursing through ten countries before emptying into Romanias Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Romania from the north to the southwest are marked by one of their tallest peaks, Moldoveanu, modern Romania was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877, at the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the sovereign Kingdom of Romania. Romania lost several territories, of which Northern Transylvania was regained after the war, following the war, Romania became a socialist republic and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the 1989 Revolution, Romania began a transition back towards democracy and it has been a member of NATO since 2004, and part of the European Union since 2007. A strong majority of the population identify themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christians and are speakers of Romanian. The cultural history of Romania is often referred to when dealing with artists, musicians, inventors. For similar reasons, Romania has been the subject of notable tourist attractions, Romania derives from the Latin romanus, meaning citizen of Rome. The first known use of the appellation was attested in the 16th century by Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia, after the abolition of serfdom in 1746, the word rumân gradually fell out of use and the spelling stabilised to the form român. Tudor Vladimirescu, a leader of the early 19th century. The use of the name Romania to refer to the homeland of all Romanians—its modern-day meaning—was first documented in the early 19th century. The name has been officially in use since 11 December 1861, in English, the name of the country was formerly spelt Rumania or Roumania. Romania became the predominant spelling around 1975, Romania is also the official English-language spelling used by the Romanian government. The Neolithic-Age Cucuteni area in northeastern Romania was the region of the earliest European civilization. Evidence from this and other sites indicates that the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture extracted salt from salt-laden spring water through the process of briquetage
11.
Rotting Christ
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Rotting Christ is a Greek extreme metal band formed in 1987. They are noted for being one of the first black metal bands within this region and they are also responsible for creating the signature Greek black metal sound prevalent in the early 1990s. The permanent line-up consists of brothers Sakis Tolis and Themis Tolis, andreas Lagios was the bassist since 1997, taking the stead of Jim Patsouris until the end of 2011. Nightfalls Giorgos Bokos joined as a guitarist in 2005, replacing Costas Vasilakopoulos, in February 2012, Bokos announced his departure from the band for personal reasons. In December 2012, the new members of the band were announced, guitarist George Emmanuel, three keyboardists had previously been a part of the band, George Tolias, George Zaharopoulos and a session known only as Panayiotis. The band members from the beginning, up to Triarchy of the Lost Lovers album, were using the pseudonyms Necromayhem for Sakis, Necrosauron for Themis and Mutilator for Jim. During their rehearsal era in the late 1980s, the band began as grindcore and released various demos, the group would later alter their sound with influence from proto-black metal bands like Celtic Frost and Venom, and in the process became one of the genres instigators. Their 5-song demo, Satanas Tedeum, would show a grindcore/black metal crossover, followed by their album, Passage to Arcturo. One of bands first major appearances was on the 1993 Fuck Christ Tour consisting of Immortal, during this concert, some audience members had engaged in cutting and self-mutilation that resulted in hospitalization. The band would sign to Century Media in 1996 and remain on their roster for 10 years before joining Season of Mist. Rotting Christ has played in countries outside their native Greece. Several heavy metal festivals around the world have hosted the band, including the 2003 Wacken Open Air in Schleswig-Holstein, barge to Hell set sail from Port of Miami on December 3,2012. As of 2012, Rotting Christ has been around 25 years and is one of the longest running bands within the metal genre. In celebration of the longevity, the 2-DVD + 2-CD compilation Non Serviam, A20 Year Apocryphal Story. Aealo, the tenth studio album, was released on February 15,2010, for Europe and February 23,2010. Their eleventh album, Kata ton Daimona Eaytoy, was released in March 2013 and they made their first appearance in south Asia on September 13,2014 in India and September 14,2014 in Sri Lanka. Rotting Christ is currently recording a new album, which is due for release in early 2016, Rotting Christ is also scheduled to tour with Mayhem and Watain in the US in November,2015 as part of the Black Metal Warfare Part II tour. Rituals was released February 12,2016, in response to Bauers criticism, Sakis Tolis wrote, Living in democratic societies, I think everyone should have the right to call religions as he/she wants
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