Corpse paint

Corpse paint is a style of black and white makeup used mainly by black metal bands for concerts and band photos. The makeup is used to make the musicians appear inhuman, corpse-like, or demonic, and is perhaps "the most identifiable aspect of the black metal aesthetic." Corpse paint typically involves making the face and neck white and making the area around the eyes and lips black. Musicians will often have a trademark style. Other colors are seldom used, yet there are notable exceptions, such as Attila Csihar's use of neon colors and the bands Satyricon and Dødheimsgard experimenting with color as well. Outside of black metal, face-painting and black and white makeup has been used by a variety of other public figures such as shock rock artists (notably Arthur Brown, Alice Cooper, members of Kiss, and members of the Misfits) and professional wrestlers (e.g. Sting and Vampiro). The earliest rock groups to wear makeup similar to corpse paint included Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Arthur Brown in the 1960s; Secos & Molhados, Alice Cooper, Kiss and guitarist Zal Cleminson of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band in the 1970s whose makeup, colorful clothes and menacing demeanor evoked the evil clown trope. Later that decade, shock rock and heavy metal influenced punk rock bands like the Misfits and singer David Vanian of The Damned also used black and white face paint. On seeing shock rock pioneer Arthur Brown performing his US number two hit "Fire" in 1968, Alice Cooper states, "Can you imagine the young Alice Cooper watching that with all his make-up and hellish performance? It was like all my Halloweens came at once!." In the 1980s, Hellhammer and King Diamond of Mercyful Fate (who used face paint similar to corpse paint as early as 1978 in his band Black Rose) were among the early metal groups to use corpse paint. Per "Dead" Ohlin was the first to explicitly associate stylized face paint with an attempt to look like a corpse according to Mayhem drummer Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg.