Black metal crash course for future Norwegian diplomats

OSLO: Black metal music, often associated with satanism and church-burning, is set to burst onto the highbrow stage of global diplomacy following a move by Norway to teach the genre to its future envoys.

Some 20 diplomats in training received a black metal crash course this year, the Norwegian diplomatic academy said Friday.

"The objective is to show Norwegian culture in all its diversity. In the musical field, it goes from (Romantic music composer) Edvard Grieg to black metal," its deputy head Steinar Lindberg said, adding he hoped to repeat the experience.

"In Italy, Japan or France, young people are learning Norwegian to decrypt the lyrics. Black metal is an export product and it's important that future diplomats are interested in it," he added.

Norway has produced a wave of black metal bands that have gained notoriety abroad, such as Mayhem, Darkthrone, Satyricon, Emperor, Enslaved, Burzum, Dimmu Borgir and Gorgoroth.

The scene, inspired by paganism and Norse mythology, has however also been associated with crime and a series of church burnings in the 1990's.

"The genre has gained in respectability since," Lindberg said.